Hi, and welcome to the blog? As you may have guessed this is another absolutely incredible weekly review, but I’ve just gotten a more fun title. Now this post has a bit of a backstory to how I got here but I’ll try to give you it in one sentence. Our projects been about World War II, I was curious about the aftermath of World War II, I did research on England after World War II, and while doing that research I discovered a little about this topic, The fall of Great Britain’s empire. But before I tell you about that, first, a little background, and possibly the most iconic quote of said empire.

Historians still dispute the date of the start of the British Empire some say the 1490’s, some say  the 1600’s, but for the sake of this post I’m going to say the 1600’s. The reason that people say this is the start of the empire was because in 1600 England established its first trading post in India, which would later go on to be the most valuable country in British possession, and also possibly the country that broke the empire. Shortly after this in 1607 King James the first established the first permanent British colony in the US, call Jamestown. The empire expands greatly over the next 150 years, moving into Africa and expanding in the US, but the big change comes in 1763. That year the treaty of Paris was signed to end the seven years war, But this ended up with the British having a lot American land that the French and Spanish had handed over. And just over a decade later The American revolution breaks out. As we all know the American revolution was a failure for the British Empire, and was one of the first ones they’d had since the start of their expansion.

Britain continued to gain influence in the now Commonwealth countries and Africa and stayed steady as an empire until about 1900. This new century brought the fall of the empire, and the change of the world. From 1815-1914 were Britain’s best years, but everything changed with the First World War. It was a victory for Britain, but put a lot of strain on the empire. It had been a costly war and left Britain in a bad position. However in an interesting turn of events The first world war also ended with many different German territories being signed over to Britain and in 1921 it reached its peak in size.

 

Great Britain’s colonies in 1921

The next couple years before the second world war were incredibly tough for Britain and the world. The Great Depression was a devastating event for the entire globe and had Britain in a hard financial situation. They were also being pressured by many of their more powerful territories. In 1926 the governments of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland,  and Newfoundland, gained legislative control from Britain, and could now control their own laws. This was a step of independence for those countries away from Britain, and was huge at the time. After all this, you know what disaster strikes next, The Second World War. 

A picture of Britain’s original American colonies.

The Second World War proved to be even more devastating to Britain than the First World War. It was still struggling from the aftermath Great Depression and drained the empires resources even further (check out my other post here, it’s about the aftermath of the Second World War). The first major country to leave the British Empire was India in 1947, and this marked the start of decolonization in the British Empire. In 1956 Britain and France hatch the plot to reclaim the Suez Canal in Egypt after it had been returned to the country several years before. In short it was disastrous for them. They lost the war (of sorts) and it proved just how heavily Britain had been weakened by the First and Second World Wars. In the 30 years that followed Almost every single British colony regained control of itself, all of Africa, North America, and most of Asia. And in 1997 Britain returned Hong Kong to the Chinese government, and Prince Charles Himself declared that as the end of the empire.

“You know, when I was a girl, the idea that the British Empire could ever end was absolutely inconceivable. And it just disappeared, like all the other empires.” ~ Doris Lessing

I think it’s truly an incredible story. The great British Empire at it’s height was the most powerful in the world. It encompassed over 400 million people and essentially controlled the world. It was home to some of the greatest technological and scientific advances ever, and many other things which the empire spread such as the English language, sports, and architecture are still seen all over the world today. And it’s crazy to me how the whole empire fell. It shows the fluidity of the world, and how nothing can stay the same forever. We’ve seen it happen many times through history but it never ceases to amaze me how even the greatest of empires, people, and countries, can fall. This post is just scratching the surface of this story, and people have written hundreds of books on this situation, but I hope you learned a little more today. 

Holly