ABSTRACT
The state-empire system dissolved away in a relatively few years, roughly, from the late 1940s through to the mid-1960s, and thereafter only fragments of empire were left: a few islands, a few military bases and other anomalous holdings. The process of creating new nation-states involved a broad political deal between the incoming new elite and the local population roughly; the deal was that the elite, in exchange for support during the process of state-empire dissolution and state formation, would turn its attention to the task of creating the conditions for better lives for the newly created citizens. The upshot of the process of state-empire dissolution was the creation of a number of new states plus in a couple of cases the remaking of extant states. The dissolution of state-empires entailed sweeping changes: the British sphere dissolved, the French sphere dissolved, the Dutch sphere dissolved, the American sphere dissolved, the Japanese sphere dissolved, Thailand and China were reordered.
