Legacies of British Rule

Colonialism, Statehood, and Nationalist Civil War

Matthew Lange

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9780691274508
  9780691274492
• eBook ISBN:
  9780691274515
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Colonialism & Post-Colonialism
• Index: Social Sciences

The relationship between colonial pluralism and nationalist civil war in former British colonies

Why do some communities fight civil wars over national self-rule while others do not? In Legacies of British Rule, Matthew Lange offers insight into this question through a rigorous multimethod and comparative analysis that pinpoints the combined impact of precolonial statehood and British colonialism. During transitions from empire to nation-state, postcolonial officials in places with large and long-standing precolonial states commonly try to build a unified nation around the dominant community in ways that discriminate against and exclude smaller communities. While such national chauvinism can fuel reactions leading to nationalist civil war, a history of British colonialism intensifies these reactions by increasing sensitivity to national chauvinism and empowering communities to act. Consequently, nationalist civil wars are three times more common in former British colonies than in other former overseas colonies.

And yet, Lange finds that British colonialism exerts a very different effect on places with a limited history of precolonial statehood; in an environment with little national chauvinism, British colonialism deters nationalist civil war by promoting more inclusive postcolonial states that strengthen plurinationalism and limit fear and anger over reduced communal autonomy. Lange’s account provides valuable new insights into the roots of nationalist civil war, broad patterns of conflict, and the mixed effects of colonialism and pluralism.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction: Lineages of War and Peace
• 1. Theoretical Framework: Precolonial States, Colonial Pluralism, and Nationalist Civil Warfare
• 2. The British Pluralist Model in Comparative Perspective
• 3. A Statistical Analysis of Colonial Pluralism, Precolonial Statehood, and Nationalist Civil War
• 4. Myanmar: Colonial Pluralism and Nationalist Civil War
• 5. Colonial Pluralism and Nationalist Civil War in India
• 6. Additional Cases of British Colonial Pluralism
• 7. Colonial Pluralism, Historical Statehood, and Nationalist Civil Warfare
• 8. Historical Statehood without Colonial Pluralism: Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Ethiopia, Botswana, and Egypt
• 9. Conclusions, Contributions, and Comparisons
• Bibliography
• Index