Insularidades e enclaves em situações coloniais e pós-coloniais

Historically, archipelagos were considered as rehearsal spaces for new social constructions. Since colonization and, afterwards, colonialism and imperialism, many of them evolved in association with the strengthening of international networks, while others did not escape isolation and forced unequal integration in different spaces. On the other hand, enclaves were the outcome of historical circumstances, often externally decided, which prompted some degree of insularity regarding the immediate geographical surroundings. When those territories did not become independent, there were demands for autonomy or, at least, some underlying emancipatory and anti-colonialist feelings. Even when these feelings did not mobilize relevant segments of the population, they disclose the alterity – above all cultural – in regard to sovereignty.