Empire's Violent End: Comparing Dutch, British, and French Wars of Decolonization, 1945–1962

Open Access Published by Cornell University Press 2022

Empire's Violent End

Comparing Dutch, British, and French Wars of Decolonization, 1945–1962

Edited by: Thijs Brocades Zaalberg and Bart Luttikhuis
Funded by: Leiden University

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501764158

Overview
Contents

About this book

In Empire's Violent End, Thijs Brocades Zaalberg and Bart Luttikhuis, along with expert contributors, present comparative research focused specifically on excessive violence in Indonesia, Algeria, Vietnam, Malaysia, Kenya, and other areas during the wars of decolonization. In the last two decades, there have been heated public and scholarly debates in France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands on the violent end of empire. Nevertheless, the broader comparative investigations into colonial counterinsurgency tend to leave atrocities such as torture, execution, and rape in the margins. The editors describe how such comparisons mostly focus on the differences by engaging in "guilt ranking." Moreover, the dramas that have unfolded in Algeria and Kenya tend to overshadow similar violent events in Indonesia, the very first nation to declare independence directly after World War II.

Empire's Violent End is the first book to place the Dutch-Indonesian case at the heart of a comparison with focused, thematic analysis on a diverse range of topics to demonstrate that despite variation in scale, combat intensity, and international dynamics, there were more similarities than differences in the ways colonial powers used extreme forms of violence. By delving into the causes and nature of the abuse, Brocades Zaalberg and Luttikhuis conclude that all cases involved some form of institutionalized impunity, which enabled the type of situation in which the forces in the service of the colonial rulers were able to use extreme violence.

Author / Editor information

Thijs Brocades Zaalberg is Associate Professor at the Netherlands Defence Academy and Lecturer in Contemporary Military History at Leiden University. He is the author of Soldiers and Civil Power.

Bart Luttikhuis teaches at Alberdingk Thijm School and was previously a fellow at Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) and Lecturer at Leiden University. He is a coeditor of Colonial Counterinsurgency and Mass Violence.

Reviews

The existing scholarship's limitations make Empire's Violent End an especially welcome addition to the study of its eponymous subject

Marc Frey, University of the Federal German Armed Forces, Munich, coeditor of Elites and Decolonization in the Twentieth Century :

A book of major importance. By taking a comparative perspective on a large set of wars of decolonization, Empire's Violent End expertly weaves together political, military, social, and gender history.

Brian Drohan, United States Military Academy, West Point, author of Brutality in an Age of Human Rights :

Empire's Violent End teases out important continuities across multiple empires to offer vital insights into colonial violence and counterinsurgency. Its collaborative approach is a model for future scholarship.

Philip Dwyer:

A marvelous contribution to the scholarship on decolonization, Empire's Violent End touches on the atrocities committed by various national liberation forces, while focusing on the widespread, horrific violence of colonizing powers.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
1 Introduction: Beyond the League Table of Barbarity: Comparing Extreme Violence during the Wars of Decolonization Thijs Brocades Zaalberg and Bart Luttikhuis Open Access Download PDF	1
2 Not an Afterthought: Accountability for Colonial Violence in the Dutch and British Metropoles Huw Bennett and Peter Romijn Open Access Download PDF	25
3 Windows onto the Microdynamics of Insurgent and Counterinsurgent Violence: Evidence from Late Colonial Southeast Asia and Africa Compared Roel Frakking Open Access Download PDF	49
4 Cracking Down on Revolutionary Zeal and Violence: Local Dynamics and Early Colonial Responses to the Independence Struggle in Indochina and the Indonesian Archipelago, 1945–1 Pierre Asselin and Henk Schulte Nordholt Open Access Download PDF	71
5 The Places, Traces, and Politics of Rape in the Indonesian and the Algerian Wars of Independence Stef Scagliola, Natalya Vince, Khedidja Adel and Galuh Ambar Open Access Download PDF	96
6 “The Normal Order of Things”: Contextualizing “Technical Violence” in the Netherlands-Indonesia War Azarja Harmanny and Brian McAllister Linn Open Access Download PDF	120
7 “Bloodshed on a Rather Large Scale”: Tactical Conduct and Noncombatant Casualties in Dutch, French, and British Colonial Counterinsurgency Christiaan Harinck Open Access Download PDF	141
8 Comparing the Afterlives, Political Uses, and Memories of Extreme Violence during the Wars of Decolonization in France, the Netherlands, and Britain Raphaëlle Branche Open Access Download PDF	162
Contributors Open Access Download PDF	181
Notes Open Access Download PDF	183
Index Open Access Download PDF	225

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 246
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 20
- Images: 20
- Other: 20 b&w halftones
Keywords: indonesian war of independence; colonial warfare and counterinsurgency; comparing the wars of decolonization; colonial violence; how colonial powers used extreme forms of violence

eBook

Published: July 15, 2022
ISBN: 9781501764158