joanna wrote:
>
>
> So, I don't quite follow: if the colonies were a source of wealth for
> the Brit Empire -- the gold of India, the whatever of Palestine, how
> would letting them go benefit the Brits?
Imperialism does NOT benefit the imperialist nation _as a whole_ -- it costs. It benefits certain interests within the imperialist power. And the benefit can be other than economic. I'm speculating here, and perhpa someone can confirm or negate. The benefit of India to the British Ruling Class was that it produced a class of civil-servants who were the backbone of English civil society. The costs of that body of civil servants were _mostly_ but not wholly born by India; some of the costs were passed on to the British working class. I.e., the empire served in part as a way to pump surplus value out of british workers.
Carrol