The ongoing processes of and issues emanating from the colonization and subsequent decolonization of regions formerly dominated by European powers are numerous, complex, far-reaching and controversial, and touch upon research across all disciplines, requiring diverse theoretical models and approaches in order to identify, recognize and understand them.
From the entry, Colonialism:
"Colonialism as a broad concept that refers to the project of European political domination from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries that ended with the national liberation movements of the 1960s. Post-colonialism will be used to describe the political and theoretical struggles of societies that experienced the transition from political dependence to sovereignty.
In the humanities, postcolonial theory tends to reflect the influence of poststructuralist thought, while theorists of decolonization focus on social history, economics, and political institutions. Whereas postcolonial theory is associated with the issues of hybridity, diaspora, representation, narrative, and knowledge/power, theories of decolonization are concerned with revolution, economic inequality, violence, and political identity."