European Integration and European Colonialism: Reconstructing a Historical Relation, Deconstructing a Current Historiography

Abstract

The project’s purpose is to study the relation between colonialism/decolonization and European integration. EU research has yet to investigate how concerns about colonial dominance influenced the positions of the six states that signed the Rome Treaty in 1957, four of which were colonial powers at the time. To varying degrees, they emphasized integration either as an instrument for maintaining colonial control or as a compensation for their demise as colonial powers. Our project will analyze how the colonial system and the process of decolonization influenced this early phase of EU integration.To put our analysis of the relation of European integration and colonialism in its proper historical context, we will also discuss the various ideas on European integration and colonial expansion which emerged already in the interwar period and which acquired renewed interest in the 1940s and 1950s. To this historical approach we add a contemporary perspective, in which we explore how this influence is perceived in the current historiography of the EU.

Empirically, the material being investigated draws from academic accounts, media reporting and from accounts provided by the EU itself, including archival materials. The project thus rests on two research methodologies, the first one dealing with secondary sources in the scholarly and popular context, the second with EU documents and other primary sources in the political context.

The project is of a pioneering character: the first account to date that maps the neglected historical relationship between the EU and colonialism/decolonization. Conversely, it will also be the first account to inquire into how this nexus continues to impact on the EU of today, especially in its efforts to foster a European identity by disseminating a particular history of EU integration.

Keywords

Colonial/postcolonial, European integration, Racialisation/Racism/"race",

Publications

Hansen, Peo & Jonsson, Stefan. Eurafrica: The Untold History of European Integration and Colonialism. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Forthcoming 2012/13.

Hansen, Peo & Jonsson, Stefan (2011). Bringing Africa as a “Dowry to Europe”: European Integration and the Eurafrican Project, 1920?1960. Interventions: International Journal Postcolonial Studies, Vol. 13 (issue pending). Forthcoming.

Hansen, Peo & Jonsson, Stefan (2011). Demographic Colonialism: EU-African Migration Management and the Legacy of Eurafrica. Globalizations, Vol. 8, No. 3, 2011. Forthcoming.

Hansen, Peo & Jonsson, Stefan (2011). Demographic Colonialism: EU-African Migration Management and the Legacy of Eurafrica, in Delgado-Wise, R., Munck, R. and Schierup, C-U. (eds.), Migration, Work and Citizenship in a Global Age. London: Routledge. Forthcoming.

Hansen, Peo (2010). More Barbwire or More Immigration, or Both? EU Migration Policy in the Nexus of Border Security Management and Neoliberal Economic Growth. The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, Vol. 11, No. 1.

Hansen, Peo & Jonsson, Stefan (2010). Eurafrika. Invandrare & Minoriteter, No. 3, June.

Jonsson, Stefan (2009). Europe through Africa, Africa through Europe: Reconstructing the Relation of European Integration and Colonialism, in Mai Palmberg (ed.) What?s Culture Got to Do with it? Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.

Hansen, Peo (2004). In the name of Europe. Race & Class: A Journal on Racism, Empire and Globalization, Vol. 45, No. 3.

Hansen, Peo (2003). Ett ‘EUropa’ i avkoloniseringens väntrum. Sociologisk Forskning, No. 4, 2003.

Hansen, Peo (2002). European Integration, European Identity and the Colonial Connection. European Journal of Social Theory, Vol. 5, No. 4.