Short answers, pulled from the story.
Decolonization is the ending of colonialism, the process by which imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories. Some scholars focus on independence movements and the collapse of colonial empires, while others extend the term to economic, cultural, and psychological aspects of colonial rule. The meaning of the term is disputed.
Decolonization as a movement for colonial independence began in 1775 with the American Revolution in North America against the British Empire. The Thirteen North American colonies formed the United States in 1776 and defeated Britain in the Revolutionary War.
In the two hundred years following the American Revolutionary War in 1783, 165 colonies gained independence from Western imperial powers. Decolonization came in successive waves tied to the Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, the Second World War, and the end of the Cold War.
The Wretched of the Earth, published in 1961 by the Martiniquan author Frantz Fanon, established many aspects of decolonization considered in later works. Ngugi wa Thiongo explored the cultural and linguistic legacies of colonialism in Decolonising the Mind, published in 1986.
Independence in Africa began with Sudan in 1956 and the Gold Coast, renamed Ghana, in 1957. In 1945 Africa had four independent countries, Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, and South Africa, and by 1977 European colonial rule on mainland Africa had ended.
As of 2020, seventeen territories remain on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories. They are administered by the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, France, and Spain, and include Bermuda, Gibraltar, Guam, Tokelau, New Caledonia, and Western Sahara.