But in all those cases, empire struck back. You see what I did there? I mean, Britain lost its 13 colonies, but later controlled half of Africa and all of India. What makes recent decolonization so special is that at least so far, no empires have emerged to replace the ones that fell. And this was largely due to World War II, because on some level, the Allies were fighting to stop Nazi imperialism. Hitler wanted to take over Central Europe and Africa and probably the Middle East, and the Allied defeat of the Nazis discredited the whole idea of empire. So the English, French, and Americans couldn't very well say to the colonial troops who'd fought alongside them, thank you so much for helping us to thwart Germany's imperialistic ambitions, as a reward, please hand in your rifle and return to your state of subjugation.