Colonial Coups and the War on Popular Sovereignty
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5732441 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Abdel Razzaq Takriti (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 124 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 878-909 |
| Publication date | 2019-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The American Historical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-8762 • E-ISSN: 1937-5239 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/ahr/rhz459 |
| OpenAlex | W2948533789 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
Compared to related phenomena such as revolutions, coups d’état have been undertheorized, approached in imperial and national histories as individual case studies, and analyzed by social scientists through the prism of democratization theory. This article argues that coups merit greater historical reflection, highlighting their significance in shaping sovereignty arrangements in the post–Second World War era. Alongside the pursuit of counterinsurgency, imperial powers depended on leadership change to either tackle or preempt existing and potential transnational anticolonial challenges. Through a close examination of two major British coups—entailing the removal of the sheikh of Sharjah in 1965 and the sheikh of Abu Dhabi in 1966—the article proposes the “colonial coup” as a useful concept for understanding depositions carried out by empires against dependent rulers. Far from being the mere outcome of local palace struggles, colonial coups were powerful political instruments utilized in a preemptive global war that was waged against popular sovereignty on the eve of decolonization. Concerned with perpetuating imperial interests beyond formal military withdrawal, they played a decisive role in shaping the historical trajectory of the modern state in the Arab world and beyond.
Colonialism · Decolonization · Democracy · Democratization · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Popular sovereignty · Sociology · Sovereignty · State (computer science) · African history and culture studies · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · History · Law · Military History and Strategy
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Highly cited | No |