In 1926, the literary and political icon Saunders Lewis argued that Wales needed to focus on developing its own distinct civilisation rather than on independence. As a part of that, he called for the complete deindustrialisation of South Wales. That must have sounded preposterous at the time, and Lewis’ contemporaries focused instead on the political struggle.

And yet, just short of a century later, Lewis has been vindicated. Wales is still not independent, but it has indeed experienced deindustrialisation. In the meantime, Welsh thinkers adopted a model developed by Michael Hechter and popularised by Gwynfor Evans: Wales as a colony of England. It remains a useful framework as we experience intense global change, because it helps us to understand that we’ve faced collapse before – and we can learn important lessons from that.