Decolonization is the process of making a former colony politically independent: the old ruling country stops governing, and the place becomes its own country, with its own government. It names a long change, not a single afternoon. It can be mostly peaceful, or it can come with fighting, talks, and years of sorting out laws, land, and money. After the Second World War, many places in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean went through this. Though actually, people also stretch the word. In universities, museums, and the news, decolonization can mean taking colonial habits of thinking out of a school subject, a collection, or even everyday language — even when the political flag has already changed. That newer use is real and often argued over. The older, tighter meaning is still the political one: a colony becoming an independent country.