The palimpsest of empire. Anxieties and ambitions of empire in European utopias before and after 1960

This assessment first briefly reminds how the ambition of colonialism inspired blueprints for European unity up to the first European institutions established after WW II which created a European Community as a colonial empire ‒ and then wonders how the European institutions managed to very quickly detach themselves from this imperial past. Two main venues are explored: on the one hand the development of new narratives that associated the European institutions with human rights, peace and ‘development’, and on the other hand, inspired by Todd Sheppard’s recent assessment of French decolonization (AHR 2015/3), how the ‘European rescue of the nation state’ contributed to burying this colonial dimension into the national histories, allowing the European Communities/EU to cut itself loose from this colonial past. Finally the paper will point at some of the continuities in the international policies and practices of the EC/EU that can be recognized in the very narratives that aimed at formulating an alternative postcolonial European identity. The 1973 Tindemans report may illustrate the argument.status: accepte