SOAS HISTORY RESOURCES
  • Home
  • About
  • The British Empire
    • Key Topics >
      • The governance and administration of the Empire
      • Opposition to British Rule
      • The impact of imperial power on the periphery and Britain
      • The British Empire and its impact on International Relations
    • Depth Studies >
      • British India: The War of 1857 and its consequences to 1876
      • Palestine 1914-1948
      • Nationalism in Kenya 1945 - 1965
  • Cold War in Asia
    • Western Policies in Post War Asia
    • The Korean War
    • Indochina
    • Vietnam and Cambodia
  • Contact
Next Session: Reasons, nature and impact >>>  

Opposition to British Rule

Key issue(s)
Opposition movements, peaceful and violent
Note that the British Empire was never a static entity – phrase ‘decolonisation’ is more useful than considering just ‘the end’ of empire. Need to convey its rather complex and messy processes and how it was a mix of long, medium and short term factors.

Debates also focus on the intersection between metropolitan factors, the growth of anti-colonial nationalist movements in the places colonised and the relationship of both of these to international factors. The intersections of all three underpin the messy process of decolonisation in many places. It can also produce quite distinct histories of decolonisation in different locales – sometimes as a result of great violence but others more peaceful.

Picture
五雷鎮宅 : 表2. CWP 60b (accession number (preliminary list of chinese woodblock prints in the soas library)), SOAS Library. © SOAS University of London.
Internet Resources
​
​A useful secondary source outlining key intersections is John Darwin’s The End of the British Empire: The Historical Debate (Oxford, 1991).
 
If looking for British government primary source materials, the most extensive online source would be British Documents on the End of Empire (BDEEP).
 
The end of the British Empire (National Archives, Education) provides some useful sources, including film sources.

For this period, the range of visual material, including film material, also increases dramatically for obvious reasons and there are many YouTube sources that could add variety to class discussions.

Next Session: Reasons, nature and impact >>>  

Use this portal

About & FAQ
Contact

The British Empire (Y320)

​Key Topics

Governance and administration
Opposition
Periphery and Britain
Impact on international relation
​​Depth studies
​British India
Palestine
Kenya

Cold War in Asia

Key Topics
Western Policies
The Korean War
Indochina
​Wars in Vietnam and Cambodia
Picture
  • Home
  • About
  • The British Empire
    • Key Topics >
      • The governance and administration of the Empire
      • Opposition to British Rule
      • The impact of imperial power on the periphery and Britain
      • The British Empire and its impact on International Relations
    • Depth Studies >
      • British India: The War of 1857 and its consequences to 1876
      • Palestine 1914-1948
      • Nationalism in Kenya 1945 - 1965
  • Cold War in Asia
    • Western Policies in Post War Asia
    • The Korean War
    • Indochina
    • Vietnam and Cambodia
  • Contact