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Decolonisation and the Collapse of the British Empire, 1919-1968

Module description

The British Empire had reached the height of its power by the early 1920s. Within the space of four decades, however, Britain’s imperial system had collapsed. What factors explain the rapid disintegration of the British Empire? Geo-politics and relative metropolitan decline played a part but of greater significance were events in the colonies, where the rise of anti-colonial nationalism and violent insurgency hastened the process of imperial collapse. Focusing on Africa, the Caribbean and South East Asia, the aim of this module is to investigate the causes and consequences of British imperial withdrawal between the end of the First World War and the late 1960s.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to:

• Consider why the British Empire collapsed so rapidly in the decades after 1919, focusing on issues such as anti-colonial nationalism, the failure of imperial reform initiatives, and violent insurgency
• Consider the meaning and consequences of decolonisation for both metropolitan Britain and the former colonial dependencies
• Understand decolonisation as a national, imperial and global phenomenon that had consequences that lasted beyond the formal withdrawal of colonial control
• Develop effective communication and analytical skills, oral and written, to complete many of your modules and in a job after you graduate
• Develop your skills in researching, interpreting, and analysing both primary and secondary material, and in reporting on your work
• Provide you with an opportunity to explore an area of history in more depth, and helps you to develop the depth of understanding you will require to study more specialised areas of history
• Give you an opportunity to work in a team on group tasks.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate an understanding of the key developments in the history of decolonisation, the ends of the British Empire, and its postcolonial aftermaths
• 2. Summarise and evaluate different historical perspectives relating to decolonisation, the ends of the British Empire, and its postcolonial histories
• 3. Critically evaluate the key social, cultural, political, and economic trends relating to decolonisation and the ends of the British Empire.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Analyse the key developments in a complex historical environment
• 5. Demonstrate an ability to handle profoundly different approaches to history in a deeply contested area
• 6. Demonstrate an ability to understand and deploy complex historical terminology in a comprehensible manner

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Select, organise and analyse material for written work and oral presentations of different prescribed lengths and formats.
• 8. Present complex arguments orally.
• 9. Present an argument in a written form in a clear and organised manner, with appropriate use of correct English
• 10. Through essay development process, demonstrate ability to reflect critically on your own work, to respond constructively to feedback, and to implement suggestions and improve work on this basis

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• The historiography of decolonisation
• The British Empire in the inter-war years
• Party politics and the end of empire
• Colonial conflicts
• The Global Cold War
• The late colonial state and (post-)colonial development
• Anti-colonial nationalism and popular protest
• Afro-Asian solidarity and Third Worldism
• Nation Building and popular culture, including music, sport and news media
• Gender, youth, and nationalist movements
• Independence and national sovereignty
• Britain after Empire

A number of the lectures will also be used as skills workshops and will deal with critical reading, academic writing, and preparing group presentations.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

The re-assessment consists of a 3000-word written assignment, as in the original assessment, but replaces participation in the group presentation with an individual presentation equivalent to an individual’s contribution, to be recorded and submitted with all supporting materials as for the original assessment; failing this, students should submit a written script that could be delivered in such a presentation (750 words) along with all supporting materials as for the original assessment.

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Ronald Hyam, Britain's Declining Empire: The Road To Decolonisation, 1918-1968 (Cambridge, 2006).
• Adom Getachew, Worldmaking After Empire : the Rise and Fall of Self-Determination (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2019). 
• Samantha Christiansen and Zachary A. Scarlett (eds) The Third World in the Global 1960s (New York: Berghen Books, 2013).
• Luis Eslava, Michael Fakhri and Vasuki Nesiah (eds) Bandung, global history, and international law : critical pasts and pending futures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)
• John Darwin, The Empire Project: The Rise and Fall of the British World-System, 1830-1970 (Cambridge, 2009).
• Martin Thomas, Fight or Flight: Britain, France, and their Roads From Empire (Oxford, 2014).
• L. J. Butler, Britain and Empire: Adjusting to a Post-Imperial World (London, 2001).
• Prasenjit Duara, Decolonization. Perspectives from Now and Then (London, 2004).
• Robert Holland, European Decolonization, 1918-1981 (London, 1981).
• Martin Thomas, Bob Moore and L.J. Butler, Crises Of Empire: Decolonization And Europe's Imperial States, 1918-1975 (London, 2008).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11600 

Key words search

Empire, Decolonisation, Anti-Colonial Nationalism, Violence, Insurgency, Third Worldism, Gender, Youth, Afro-Asianism, Development, Post-Colonial State Formation,