In commenting upon the decline of the British Empire, historian Brian Harrison noted:

Although between 1970 and 1990 the winding up of the British empire was almost complete, the story did not end there. The empire, having grown by evolving from informal influence to formal control reverted in its decline from formal to informal – retaining many of its original cultural, economic, and demographic features. . . . The empire’s relatively peaceful demise ensured that its slowly fading cultural palimpsest persisted long after formal imperial structures had vanished.