ABSTRACT
This article offers a broad reconsideration of the decolonisation of the Western empires. The argument suggests that existing studies are unable to capture the full significance of the process because they remain confined within the established borders of formal empires and concentrate principally on Asia and Africa. A much larger view is needed to relate decolonisation to a historic change in the character of globalisation. The first example, which is drawn from the crisis of the mercantilist empires at the close of the eighteenth century, outlines a case for including states within continental Europe in studies of imperialism, colonial rule and decolonisation. The second example outlines a programme for enlarging the boundaries of the subject after 1945. The material conditions that underpinned territorial empires, and the ideology that justified them, dissolved. With few exceptions, economic integration no longer called for, or allowed, territorial integration. Simultaneously, the moral order that sanctioned imperial dominance gave way to a new era of human rights. These profound shifts knew no frontiers; they applied globally. This interpretation is illustrated by tracing the effective decolonisation of the white dominions, by inserting an equally overlooked account of decolonisation in the informal empire, namely China, and by incorporating an example of internal decolonisation from outside the European empires: the United States. The conclusion suggests that the current historiography needs to be redrawn and that, in doing so, future studies of decolonisation will also compel other standard themes in post-war international history, such as the Cold War, to be rethought.
