Abstract The decolonization of the European overseas empires in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean came late, and was rapidly concluded. Each moment of independence was exemplary, and contributed cumulatively to the accelerating process of change, especially after 1957. Anti‐colonialists contributed greatly to this development, which was given institutional and legal meaning by way of independence as sovereign membership of the United Nations. But “flag independence” was not the end of decolonization as either a practical or intellectual problem: the legacies and consequences of decolonization remain very important. Formal independence was, though, indicative of a profound reshaping of the international system and its normative architecture after 1945. This may constitute the most significant aspect of decolonization as a process of historical change.