What - and who - Is 'European' in the postcolonial EU? Inclusions and exclusions in the European Parliament's House of European History

Abstract

Along with noting Dutch and British media responses to the European Parliament's House of European History (HEH) both before and after it opened in 2017 that reflect Eurosceptic and outright hostile attitudes about the European Union, this article focuses on the presence and absence of colonial and global histories and peoples in the HEH's permanent collection. It contrasts the critical interrogation of modern European imperialism up until the First World War with the lack of attention paid to late imperialism, decolonisation, and postcolonial legacies together with the Ottoman Empire and Turkey. As a result, the HEH has thus far missed the chance to probe how European overseas empires and their collapse intersected with the EU's origins and neglected the EU's ongoing reach outside the continent on account of overseas territories still held by its member states. It also has not effectively engaged with the presence and impact of peoples of migrant backgrounds from outside the EU's current borders, who have not been given the European history they deserve. This results in an incomplete global history of today's multicultural Europe.