Witnesses to Decolonization

Abstract

As decolonization began in earnest following the Second World War, Scots were still flocking to all parts of the British Empire in order to earn a living that would have been difficult for most to find at home. They went out as missionaries, bankers, District Officers, electricians, doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers, traders, foresters, and business moguls. This chapter focuses on the Scots who were first-hand witnesses to the process of decolonization, and asks whether they remained emotionally tied to the British Empire following its collapse. Essentially, how did these Scots view the end of the British Empire? This chapter contends that during the years between the end of the Second World War and the height of decolonization in the 1960s, these Scots maintained a vested interest in the maintenance of an empire that made separatist nationalism unthinkable. ¹ These Scottish empire-builders, whose livelihoods depended on the continuation of the British Empire, would prove to be the staunchest supporters of this multinational effort.