Partition

Abstract: "Partition" gained its keyword status through the acts of territorial division that took place in the twentieth century in the context of the decline of formal empire. The term, when applied to such acts, has contradictory connotations of disruption and solution, with partition viewed either as severing a natural geographic unit, or as a panacea for communal tensions and competing territorial claims. The establishment of a border on the island of Ireland in 1921 laid the foundations for Britain's recurring resort to partition as imperial exit strategy. The ongoing ramifications of that strategy have ensured that partition remains an essential keyword.