["Nations and Nationalism, Volume 28, Issue 3, Page 972-989, July 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nSince colonial times, many have argued that British and French colonial rule differed in fundamental ways, and recent works exploring colonial legacies build on these claims to suggest that different forms of rule promoted contrasting postcolonial outcomes. Yet many historians and sociologists argue that claims of interimperial differences are inaccurate, overlook important similarities among British and French colonies, and overstate the influence of colonialism. In this article, we test these opposing positions through a multimethod analysis that focuses on the colonial models of political community. Through a statistical analysis of different colonial policies, we provide evidence that the general British model of political community was relatively pluralist whereas the French colonial model was usually highly integrative. And through a comparative‐historical analysis, we offer insight into the different origins of both: The French colonial model was influenced by the dominant model in France and metropolitan political concerns, whereas anticolonialism in India contributed to the rise and proliferation of the more pluralist British model.\n"]