"Was the Empire a Good Thing?"
This is a question which continues to raise emotions high—some of us may have seen the journalistic squabbles over this very question on the Internet. That is truly an unanswerable question, since it depends on where you are and what is important. Do the ex-colonies remember the violence or the schools and medicines? Colonies inherited many institutions and structures—although some of these no longer have the same resonance as they do in Britain—and the English language that is of very great importance today.
There is no doubt of the supreme value of the Empire to Great Britain: to develop from a backwater island menaced by many greater powers to the supreme international power herself—to the possessor of the largest empire the world has ever known—was no mean feat. The habits instilled by it, which include professional armed forces and a diplomatic corps of high quality, an ability to walk easily abroad and an openness to foreign influences, which is probably unique in the modern world, contribute to Britain’s continuing international position, one which is not based on its geography nor necessarily on its wealth. But it can also encourage a nostalgia about past glories which might interfere with the reality of today’s world.
One could definitely argue that the British imperialism of the past was a bit of both. Not demonic, not godly—but just 'was', a phenomenon of its time and circumstance. Let us, then, just give both good and bad things their due and see this from the point of view it is seen best—the point of view of an enquiring scholar, neither nostalgic nor hateful, but attentive and not forgetful of the lessons the Empire gave us in its growth and inevitable decline.