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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   31872 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 10, 2023

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The British Caribbean possessions, Jamaica, Barbados, etc, achieved independence directly with the British government without American involvement.

I realize it's a complicated history, but how would you describe Grenada, which was invaded by the Reagan administration within a decade of formal independence?

Also worth noting would be American possessions: the Philippines were granted independence from the US in a decade-long process that started before WWII. Cuba was won from Spain in 1898 and granted independence (mostly) by the US in 1902.

There are also quite a few quasi-colonial possessions still floating around under various flags and governance: Puerto Rico, Tahiti, the Falklands, Aruba, Guyane, American Samoa, and so forth.

I realize it's a complicated history, but how would you describe Grenada, which was invaded by the Reagan administration within a decade of formal independence?

I guess it's an instance of America behaving in a colonial empire like way, the same way we do with a lot of Latin America. But I wouldn't say we really influenced their independence process or colonized them either - they had a Marxist military coup which we overthrew then withdrew pretty swiftly.

As for the countries we colonized and later gave independence too, it feels weird to me to give us credit for decolonizing places like the Phillipines that we kept under our yoke for half a century, repressing their independence movements all the while. It's like if a mugger grabs your wallet, you fight back for a while, and eventually he gives it back to you - you wouldn't normally give the mugger credit for your fiscal health.

I guess it's an instance of America behaving in a colonial empire like way,

I think a more accurate way of putting this is that America actually is a colonial empire.

Sure, no disagreement with the definition, I just meant that Grenada was only a few days so I wouldn't put it on the same tier as Nicaragua or Haiti.

That analogy fits right at home in America.

The falklands isn’t really the sine qua non of what I think of when I think of de colonization (ditto with South Africa).

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