Disengagement

Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire.
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre.

Looking into the future of an over-extended empire is not a new thing. Looking into history to see what normally happens is also not new. But I think it's fascinating how well the British managed it. Although the Brits always seem to be flailing around like an amputee with a phantom limb which used to be an empire, at least they can say that English is not a dead language, and that their literature is still fairly widely respected.

It takes skill, nerve, and no small amount of self-esteem to survive the loss of empire. Some just don't have it; some fake it. But in the end, a few markers serve to test the quality of the once-imperial. How broad and deep does the linguistic influence remain? What happened to the institutions and establishments? Are the fallen imperials remembered fondly? Many years down the road, would you still want to take them out for lunch? Heh, I am fascinated at the implications of these questions, and many related to them.

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Update: You can find a more detailed response to the questions I have been idly pondering here. There have been many works discussing the various world empires of the past; the legacy of the first real world-spanning empire, the Pax Britannica, is the most interesting one. This is possibly because it was the first to show significant signs of what we now call 'globalisation'. Literally, the sun never set on this empire; administrative offices of the Empire, that were doing the same business in largely the same way, were open at any time somewhere in the world.