Britain's Imperial Legacy

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AT a time when world politics are dogged by the issue of "colonialism," it is well to remember that empires--in other words, colonial systems--must be counted among the most potent forces of civilization in world history. There have been, it is true, purely destructive empires. The Assyrians, the Mongol imperium, the brief and horrible Nazi experiment were deadly to others and finally to themselves. But the expansion of Chinese imperial power coincided with the civilizing of the primitive tribes. India flourished in peace and art and letters under its imperial dynasties. The Western world still draws many of its laws, ideals and master institutions from the memory of Rome. And today, when the British Empire is all but transformed from a formal imperial system into a loose association of independent states, it is possible to look back upon its three hundred years of colonial history and pronounce it one of the creative imperialisms experienced by mankind.

Or is it too soon to pass such a judgment? Naturally no historical assessments are final, but there are special reasons for attempting one in this case. Most empires in history have ended in a welter of war and collapse. Many others are obscured in myth and legend. The British Empire not only stands in the open light of modern mass information and massive documentation. It is ending peacefully in a unique direct transfer of power to successor states which have suffered no external interruption between colonial and independent status. It is thus possible to see with unusual clarity what British colonial policy intended to achieve and what it did and did not in fact accomplish. The passing of few imperial systems have been so well publicized and so little interfered with from outside...