Britain, West Africa and ‘The new nuclear imperialism’: decolonisation and development during French tests

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article explores how the Macmillan government managed opposition to French nuclear tests at the end of empire in West Africa and prior to its first application to join the European Economic Community in 1961. It focuses in particular on the use of scientific aid and development as a means by which West African states could be re-assured and won over to British diplomacy. This was calculated to appeal to ideas of modernity on the eve of Nigerian and Sierra Leonean independence, yet also reflected forms of imperial knowledge and power that can be traced back to the nineteenth century.