Project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through the State Research Agency via the Knowledge Generation Projects grant program.

Reference: PID2024-160808NB-I00.

Duration: January 2025–December 2027.

Principal Investigator 1: Juan Ignacio Castien Maestro (UCM).

Principal Investigator 2: Enrique Bengochea Tirado.

This project's fundamental objective is to conduct a comprehensive comparison between colonialism and postcolonialism in the case of the African empires of Spain and Portugal during the Francoist and Salazarist-Caesarist dictatorships. Its geographical scope therefore encompasses the two former metropolises and all their African ex-colonies. More specifically, regarding the colonial period, it intends to study the colonial policies of the two dictatorships, the development of colonial economies, the role of the colonies in relation to the metropolitan economies, and the collective imaginaries of colonizers and colonized. As for the decolonization process and the postcolonial period, it will address its diplomatic and institutional dimensions, nationalist struggles, and the repercussions of the entire process on the economies of the former metropolises and ex-colonies. Furthermore, it will also study the return of former settlers and current historical narratives about colonization and decolonization.

Project website URL: https://imespo.blogs.uv.es/