English
This paper challenges the seemingly straightforward equation between decolonization, independence, and nation-state. It will analyze the example of the alternatives to the colonial regime considered in New Caledonia between the granting of French citizenship to the Kanaks in 1946 and the emergence of the claim for independence in 1975. The case of New Caledonia is an opportunity to reevaluate the meaning of “decolonization”—or, more precisely, “the termination of colonization”—in a given historical context.