Between 1830 and 1945, the United States and various European nations exported their languages, laws, culture, religions, and economic systems to Africa. The colonial powers imposed administrations designed to bring stability and peace to a continent that appeared to lack both. The justification for occupation was emancipation from slavery—and the common assumption that late 19th-century Europe was the summit of civilization. Telling an epic and often turbulent tale, Lawrence James also explains Africa's swift and successful mid-20th-century decolonization.