ABSTRACT
Postcolonial Theory and the Enlightenment Let me begin by noting that colonialism is not a modern European invention. Its unfortunate expression is to be found in the political history of almost every group. It is, however, in the unique form given it by Europe, with the rise of global capitalism from the fifteenth century on as Fernand Braudel points out, that we see it extended so far and so deep that its reversal, decolonization, seems impossible even when states that had once been colonized have fought for and won their independence. It is this historical and geographical context that gives the term "colonialism" its continuing significance in postcolonial theory. It is this context that locates postcolonial theory as a critical term within the syntax of liberalism.
