Books

Just when exactly did the sun finally set on the British Empire? Was it in 1947, with the independence of India, or in 1941 with the fall of Singapore, whose fortifications Whitehall had thought would make it impregnable to Japanese attack? Or was it the Suez debacle of 1956 which demonstrated that London could not longer act without US support, even if acting in concert with another fading European power, France? Or in 1997 when Hong Kong and its six million inhabitants were handed back to the Chinese, leaving an empire 'on which the sun never set' and which had covered over 25% of the globe, with just 200,000 citizens.

As Brendon's title suggests, the end of empire was actually foreshadowed by the loss of the 13 American colonies in 1781, although its significance was not initially apparent. Brendon writes: 'Britain's recovery was dramatic and its sustained triumph in the east evidently compensated for its debacle in the west.'

As he points out, despite mismanagement and outbreaks of cruelty – the latter often in response to challenges to its supremacy, as in the Indian Mutiny of 1857 – Britain's empire was like no other. Acquired in an unplanned way (India was acquired by the Crown from the East Indian Company while other colonies were acquired via treaty rather than conquest), as Lloyd-George argued, 'liberty [was] the binding principle'. In essence, this liberal empire always carried the seeds of its destruction: 'In the 20th century, facing adverse circumstances almost everywhere, the British grudgingly put their principles into practice… The British Empire ended as haphazardly as it had begun...'

This is an excellent history, from the loss of the US colonies right through to empire's end in the inter-war years and after 1945, with independence for India and Africa. What is missing is an attempt to achieve some sort of historical context, to judge whether on balance the British Empire was a 'good thing' or a 'bad thing'. However one suspects that with so much ground to cover (the book is 800 pages) Brendon thought this too ambitious or – echoing Fernand Braudel, who argued that the rise and fall of great powers can only be measured on an immense timescale – much too early. But is it? Britain's divide and rule tactics wrought havoc – and eventual partition – in many countries (Ireland, India and Cyprus to name just three) but its legacy was generally benign. Anyone doubting it should ask the long-suffering Zimbabweans or Burmese whether their countries were better off now or under London's rule. JK