Legacies of Empire: tales of global culture and decolonisation

The British Empire was one of the largest that has ever existed, spanning the globe.  Popularly portrayed in British historical education and textbooks as a relatively benign institution, between the 17th and early 20th centuries, the British Empire profited from its military and economic domination of many other countries, undermined national economies to exploit commercial markets, displaced and erased cultures, and engaged in rampant cultural imperialism, plundering artefacts for its museums, homogenising customs, traditions, religion, language, social and moral norms until every corner of the Empire felt like home and leaving the world culturally impoverished until successive world wars made the Empire impossible to control and former dominions were granted their independence. 

The days of the British Empire feel long gone to most, but the last link dissolved as recently as 1997 when Hong Kong was returned to Chinese control after the expiry of the hundred-year lease to Britain on the island expired.  Even after the Empire dissolved, the colonial legacy of British imperialism meant its former dominions had more in common with one another than their geographical neighbours, leading to these countries continuing to come together in a global Commonwealth that persisted until Britain joined the European Union.  The countries that were colonised, and the people who were displaced and brought up British far from home, have since begun rediscovering and reasserting their traditions, cultures, moral norms and identities in a complex and nuanced process of decolonisation - coming to terms with the legacy of empire, understanding how cultures became intertwined, distilling and evolving towards a new sense of independent identity and healing from the impact of being subject to a foreign power.

These pages chronicle some of the influential people, impact, and events of the British Empire and efforts at subsequent decolonisation.