Conquest and Subjugation

Abstract

The chapter focuses on citizenship in colonial empires. It shows that the history of citizenship in Europe was not defined by the continent’s geographical boundaries and can be understood only if one bears in mind the long tradition of colonial hierarchization of citizenship. Examined are the genesis, justification, and impact of the structural confrontation between privilege (of the colonizers) and discrimination (of colonized people) in citizenship status. The chapter has a connective function, drawing a chronological arc from the end of the nineteenth century to the end of the Second World War, from the first half of the century to the second. Looking at the overseas colonial empires of Great Britain, France, and Germany, as well as the continental empires of National Socialist Germany and the Soviet Union, the chapter pursues the question of the continuity of colonial hierarchies of affiliation and inequality from the peak period of imperialism to the end of the epoch of European colonization.