BASIC CONCEPTS
This concept justified colonial domination by framing it as a moral duty to ‘improve’ colonized societies
civilizing mission
This figure ruled the Congo privately rather than as a formal state colony
King Leopold II
These empires expanded mainly through contiguous territory
inland or territorial empires
This approach challenges universalist claims of Western theory and emphasizes knowledge from the Global South.
decolonial theory
This concept refers to a territorially distinct political unit ruled by an external power
Colony
This thinker asked whether marginalized subjects can truly represent themselves within dominant discourse
Gayatri Spivak
The Ottoman, Mughal, and Qing empires are examples of this type
“inland” or “territorial” empires
According to Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper, empires are best understood as political units, which are large, expansionist and
hierarchical
This term refers to groups excluded from hegemonic power structures and representation
subaltern
This scholar argued that Western knowledge about the ‘East’ was shaped by power relations rather than neutral scholarship.
Edward Said
Spanish, British, and French expansion in the Americas are examples of this form of imperial rule.
overseas empires
An alternative for ‘Westphalian’ sovereignty model
Chinggisid sovereignty model
According to standard theory, this political form is organized around shared identity (language, culture, tradition) and claims horizontal equality among its members
nation-state
This Latin American thinker famously described coloniality as the ‘darker side of Western modernity.
Walter Mignolo
Bhambra uses this term for empires organized around the systematic exploitation of land, labor, and resources at a distance
empires of extraction
According to Jürgen Osterhammel, colonialism is characterized by four key features: cultural dissimilarity, the civilizing mission, external manipulation, and
domination