What's wrong with colonialism

Lea Ypi (London School of Economics)

What's wrong with colonialism? The answer is surprisingly difficult to provide for those who want to resist some version of nationalism, be it of an ethnic or of a civic kind, be it declared or disguised. Here I try to offer an alternative account of the wrong of colonialism, one that does not claim to refute nationalism conclusively but that suggests a way forward for those who remain sceptic of its core claims. The way forward, I propose, is to disentangle the critique of colonialism from the defence of territorial rights. In the first part of the paper I explain why this argument is needed, and what form it should take. In the second part I introduce a new understanding of colonialism, one that sees colonialism not as a violation of territorial claims but as the embodiment of an objectionable form of political relation. The wrong of colonialism, I suggest, is revealed in the unilateral forcing of others to endorse a common political authority which fails to offer reciprocally equal terms of interaction to colonizers and colonized. To show the nature of this wrong, no justification of territorial rights is needed.