British Imperialism and Decolonization: a Chinese Perspective

Abstract

Historians of different opinions have showed great interest in P.J. Cain and A.G. Hopkins’s two volumes, British Imperialism: Innovation and Expansion 1688–1914, and British Imperialism: Crisis and Deconstruction 1914–1990, since their publication in 1993. Many reviews with comments for and against Cain and Hopkins’s concept of gentlemanly capitalism and interpretation of British imperialism have appeared. The most comprehensive response so far has been the collective work entitled Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Imperialism, which includes eight essays and a general introduction by the editor commenting on Cain and Hopkins’s arguments. This study work also includes an afterword by Cain and Hopkins themselves.1 It seems that ‘gentlemanly capitalism’ is becoming a viable concept in the historical debate on British imperialism, despite the ambiguity surrounding its connotation. Cain and Hopkins’s books, however, have not yet attracted much attention from historians in China: as far as I know, no review has appeared in a Chinese-language publication. In this chapter, I shall comment on Cain and Hopkins’s British Imperialism and elaborate some of my own ideas on British imperialism and decolonization.