Kind of crazy just how late it was decolonized: 1975. You don't really think of 20th century Portugal as having remnants of empire.
Actually it was fully decolonized in 2002.
Independence didn't lead to real independence. Europeans, americans, russians, etc fought over "independent" angola for 37 years after 1975.
The last foreign troops "officially" left in 1989.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angolan_Civil_War
> You don't really think of 20th century Portugal as having remnants of empire.
Portugal officially returned macau to china in 1999. Now that is shocking. A small nation of 10 million keeping territory from a nation of 1.4 billion until 1999.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Macaus-Return-to-China-3537...
Also portugal kept gao from india into the 60s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation_of_Goa
It's pretty amazing how such a small colonial power stayed under the radar for so long.
Most european empires still have overseas colonies. The french still have colonies all over the world. The british just renamed their the "commonwealth".
And former european colonial powers still exercise power over much of africa, middle east, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Mali_conflict#Battle_...
It's now under the banner of "democracy and freedom and etc" rather than to bring "civilization". European colonization just got rebranded. That's all.
They're not colonies if their inhabitants are full French citizens (which they are AFAIK). Are the Hawaii a US colony?
They do use a different currency, but it is pegged to the Euro.
Not that I think independence is necessarily a good thing.
If you're still including French oversea departments in that statement, then you are out of your depth here, I must say. Do you know people from the French Caribbeans or Reunion? I do. If you had said they feel under-represented, not supported enough by their government (relative to other regions), or victim of racism, you would have been correct. But talks about being 'colonized'? I have basically never heard that. This is not even part of the discussion for them.
This is supported by their local political landscape: independentist-leaning parties are either anecdotical in size, or have changed their position on this topic. Hell, there are more overt secessionist parties on the French mainland itself (Britany, Corsica), which should tell you something.
This is also a weird remark to make, since France is known to still be very much a neo-colonial power that often interfere in their former colonies' politics, and seldom for the better. So if you're looking for nefarious colonialist behaviour, it's there, just not in their oversea departments.
I actually think unification is preferable to independence. Independence mainly seems to benefit the people in control.
The Commonwealth includes countries like Australia, Canada and India. Britian doesn't dominate them.
- U.K. nuclear testing
- the removal of Gough Whitlam
Yes it is crazy we still aren't a republic, but I think the dismissal was our own disfunction.
I'm biased because being Brazilian the history of the Portuguese empire wasn't exactly under the radar for us, especially during history lessons.
IMO Portugal never stayed under the radar, it just faded into its own disarray, they had all the tools and resources(its colonies and geographical position) to rule over the world but didn't due to widespread corruption and bureaucracy.
Also, Macau was only returned to China in 1999.
Except for Canada and many islands which are still colonies today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau#Transfer_of_sovereignty_...