Dependency and Tanzania

Abstract

Since the 16th century the concept of sovereignty has taken on many different meanings. Whereas once, control was between domestic institutions, it has evolved, with the help of 19th and 20th century slavery and colonialism (in certain parts of the world) into a global system, where the interests of each individual nation is affected by others, be they friend or foe. Global theorists and even international law has tried over the ages to pacify those most deeply affected by providing provisions and seeming contradictions which boldly assert that "a state can retain its sovereignty while under paramount power". This statement, was intended to assuage the colonialized nations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. According to some, (despite the independence movements in the 1960s in the case of Africa) it applies equally well today. It is this notion of unending sovereignty while under the control of others, implied or actual, that a new breed of political thinker has come to rival against.