Africa and the Expansion of International Society

It can be argued that the nature of the contemporary international relations is largely the product of the expansion of a core group of European states’ political institutions from the late 19th century. This book offers a critique and reappraisal, presenting a series of case studies which trace how the expansion process evolved over the course of modern West-Central African and Western European history.

Framed around the issue of Euro-centrism, the author brings together contemporary world history, historical sociology, and English school scholarship to take the study further back in history and place African international relations at the centre of inquiry. Pella shifts the analysis towards how the expansion was a process mutually constituted by extensive interaction between Africans and Europeans between with case studies from 1300-1900 including an African international system; the trans-Atlantic slave trade; European abolitionist and missionary activity; and the colonization of Africa.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of the international relations, international relations theory, history, African politics, the English school and constructivism.