This special edition of the International Journal of Social Economics emerged from two conferences on colonization at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS). The first conference focused upon the 'The Prelude to Colonization', whilst the second took as its theme 'After the Prelude: Decolonization, Revolution and Evolution'. The degree to which the legacies of colonialism have populated the contemporary landscape in all aspects of life have been seismic, and the extent to which the trajectories of world history have been shaped by empires throughout human history have been underplayed in the mainstream discipline of international relations. It is a familiar refrain that decolonization was in fact a fantasy, and that it was neo-colonialism that simply perpetuated colonial structures of power and western interests, mediated through complicit native elites. This refrain has developed in recent years into a broader recognition of the deep rooted psychological damage that that is colonialism's legacy.