The Colonial Past of Postcolonial Europe

This talk builds upon selected themes addressed in Professor Elizabeth Buettner’s (University of Amsterdam) book Europe after Empire: Decolonization, Society, and Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2016), in which she considered the history of British as well as French, Belgian, Dutch, and Portuguese experiences of coming to terms with the end of empire ‘at home’. Her work pays special attention to migration, multicultural societies, and memories of empire in postcolonial Western Europe. This lecture connects topics that have received most attention among scholars who focus on Western European national cases with a newer but growing body of work that positions colonialism and empire as decisive aspects of European history across the continent, extending to Nordic countries as well as Central and Eastern Europe. Professor Buettner argues that the ‘imperial turn’ should not only be applied to the history of individual nations, but rather a shared European history that entails taking a ‘continental turn’, allowing for fresh approaches to the history of Europe’s overseas and continental empires past, illuminating the still understudied colonial history and heritage of today’s European Union.

With thanks to UCL’s Global Engagement Office, UCL History, and the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies for their generous support.

Image by TheAndrasBarta from Pixabay