Empire and Globalisation: from ‘High Imperialism’ to Decolonisation

Abstract

Reviewing the expansion and ultimate demise of the British and French empires, this article takes a long view of globalisation as an integral part of Europe's recent imperial past.The authors' argument is that these empires were not simply a global phenomenon.Rather, the processes that built and destroyed them were more actively 'globalising'.In this context, they argue that the rise and fall of the two pre-eminent overseas empires had several globalising effects.These globalising effects include distinct patterns of migration and communication, critical shifts in the movement of goods and capital, new forms of transnational connection, changing conceptualisations of community and individual rights, and discrete forms of violence and conflict that outlasted the 'formal' end of empires.