Decolonization
Etymology
“De-” (“undoing, reversal”) plus colonization, from Latin “colonia” (“settlement, farm”), from “colere” (“to cultivate”). The word frames independence as the deliberate undoing of colonial rule. Its meaning has since broadened to “decolonizing” curricula, museums, and minds — removing inherited colonial assumptions.
noun · /dee-kol-uh-nih-ZAY-shun/
The process by which colonized nations gained independence from imperial powers, especially the wave across Asia and Africa after 1945.
What it names
Both the political unwinding of empire and, increasingly, the effort to strip colonial assumptions out of institutions and thought.
Example
The map of Africa was redrawn within a single generation of decolonization.
Related idea
Distinguish it from colonialism and imperialism, the systems it dismantled — decolonization is the reversal, not merely the absence, of colonial control.