University of Evansville associate professor of history Daniel Byrne will be the speaker for the Andiron Lecture on Wednesday, March 6, in Eykamp Hall, Room 252, Ridgway University Center on UE’s campus. The lecture starts at 4:00 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.
Byrne’s topic will be “Cautiously Confronting Colonialism: The United States and Decolonizing Africa, 1962-1990.”
Byrne focuses his teaching on United States history since the American Civil War, with a focus on the United States in the world. Additionally, he teaches a seminar on African decolonization, which combines his research in United States foreign policy with the nationalist perspectives on the end of European empires in Africa. His original research focused on the United States response to the Algerian war of independence and has expanded to cover the decolonization of French West Africa.
With the conclusion of the Algerian war of independence and the decolonization of much of British and French Africa, the United States sought to reshape its response to the remainder of decolonizing Africa and to confront the white-ruled states of Rhodesia, Namibia, and South Africa. As the American Civil Rights movement scored significant victories at home, it began to place increased pressures on US policy abroad. However, Cold War considerations limited America’s willingness to directly confront colonialism or to support nationalist independence movements. Consequently, the United States became slowly drawn into conflicts that placed its foreign policy at odds with its publicly declared support for democracy, self-determination
