"Traditional accounts of ‘decolonization’ tend to give the credit (or the blame) to the nationalist movements within the colonies, from Sinn Fein in Ireland to Congress in India. The end of Empire is portrayed as a victory for ‘freedom fighters’, who took up arms from Dublin to Delhi to rid their peoples of the yoke of colonial rule. This is misleading. Throughout the twentieth century, the principal threats – and the most plausible alternatives – to British rule were not national independence movements, but other empires. These alternative empires were significantly harsher in their treatment of subject peoples than Britain."
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University of Oxford facultyHistorians from ScotlandUniversity of Oxford alumniHarvard University facultyPeople from Glasgow
Original Language: English
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Chapter 6, “Empire For Sale” (pp. 293-294)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Niall_Ferguson
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Niall Ferguson
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