In the title of this article we offer two concepts by means
of which it is possible to rethink modernity and its darker side — coloniality
- on a global scale, not only historically but also synchronously. These
concepts also allow us to formulate the epistemic, political and ethical basis
of global decolonial options to the existing world order, which we all witness
or take part in today. The concept of global coloniality will enable us to go
beyond the British/US imperial formations and the forgotten Spanish empire and
consider the enormous importance of the surfacing of the Atlantic economy (the
west coast of Africa, the west coast of Europe and the east coast of all the
Americas), which displaced the weight that the Mediterranean had had for the Western
confines of the world until 1500. We wish also to take into account the Russian
revolution and the split of the Enlightenment project into two modernities (the
liberal and the socialist). Finally, we will turn to consider the collapse of
the Soviet Union, and the subsequent rogue of today’s neo-liberalism, which has
enabled the emergence of what we describe here as polycentric world order.
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