Europe and the Third World. From colonisation to decolonisation c.1500-1998

Abstract:

Bernard Waites' account of Europe's role in world history focuses on Western economic expansion into the regions loosely known as the 'Third World'. He begins with the origins of the concept of Europe, and the term 'Third World', first coined by the French demographer Alfred Sauvy in 1952, and the attempts to theorise global inequality in modern history on the part of the 'dependency' writers and those writing from a 'world systems' perspective. Subsequent chapters analyse the intercontinental connections forged by Europe with Latin America, Asia and Africa, providing introductions to the 'dependent' developments of these regions. Later sections of the book analyse the impact of modern colonialism on indigenous societies in South Asia and Africa, and assess the costs and benefits of colonial dependencies to the European powers. The study concludes with a dissection of the political economy of European decolonisation and of the emergence of new, multilateral relations between the European Union and some of the world's poorest countries.
This book makes a vast body of research accessible to non-specialist readers. It challenges many common assumptions about the Third World's history and the impact on indigenous societies of colonial economies and provides a context to contemporary debates on 'post-colonialism'. It helps meet a demand for historical knowledge of that large part of society which has lain outside Europe but within the orbit of European political and economic power.
Bernard Waites is a lecturer in European Humanities at the Open University.