Discussion of Whether the World War II Caused the British Empire to Collapse

The British Empire was one of the most important Empires in history, as it brought about great changes in many parts of the world. For millions of people the world today is how it is because of the British Empire. The British Empire over the centuries has brought many changes to many people and to many countries. Some of these changes included new health care systems, trains and education. World War II was taking place in almost every part of the world during the years 1939-45, and there were numerous causes for this. Some of the main causes include the worldwide economic depression, failure of appeasement, the rise of militarism in Germany and Japan and the failure of the League of Nations. However, without a doubt the main action that made the war inevitable was Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September 1939, which spurred Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany, with many more countries joining the fight. This then resulted in many consequences such as millions of people unfortunately losing their lives, international divisions and economic disasters. During the 1930s in a time of economic disaster and depression, many people were looking for a strong political leader to resolve the problems and in 1933 Adolf Hitler assured the people that he would restore German wealth and power, by becoming leader of Germany. But immediately, Hitler secretly began building up Germany’s army and weapons, foreshadowing that the war was unfortunately inevitable. In this regard, however, I will be discussing and finally concluding the question, ‘Did World War II cause the collapse of the British Empire?’ When I first started my research process, I initially thought that this was a very small argument as a lot of the evidence I had found supported World War II having a huge impact on the Empire’s decline. However this was because a lot of my early research was completed on websites and links, therefore when I varied my research resources to historical books and evidence that I had at my home, I discovered that this is a topic that had a much wider debate than I had thought which really intrigued me and pushed me to find out more about the topic as a whole.

History has always been a topic of interest to me, especially Britain at the beginning of the 20th century. However, I did not take the GCSE so I believe this is a good opportunity to expand my knowledge and understanding using reliable and historical knowledge to learn about some of the problems the British Empire faced as a result of World War II and what its consequences were. In order to fully educate myself about this issue, I have used many trusted resources such as Google Scholar, Online Textbooks and History books from the library as this is a very broad topic and there are many different arguments for this question. I am going to make sure I support these arguments with historical evidence, while referring to my various sources. I also researched the evolution of the British Empire and that has helped to support my argumentative question, which I will state in my conclusion. My overall aim for this project is to produce a fully reliable and informative essay to convey the amount of research I have completed, and to also expand my knowledge on a topic that I didn't previously know much about, as this is something that I am prepared to spend a lot of time and effort on.

The Significant Features of the British Empire

Firstly, I wanted to start at the beginning and research the origins of the Empire, and came to discover that there was actually a pretty big debate as to how the Empire actually came to power. So how did the British Empire first start? The first confirmation that England was in fact an empire was actually made by Elizabeth I’s father, King Henry VIII, as part of the ‘Ecclesiastical Appeals Act 1532’. This act was part of Henry’ separation from Rome and he had got rid of some appeals to the Pope on religious and non-religious factors by deciding that England was an empire. To make sure this was true, Henry’s followers followed this back to Brutus of Troy, confirming that his reign existed before Rome did. However, in one of the books I had at home called, ‘The Collapse of British Power’ - Correlli Barnett, stated that the 1600s were one of the most important time periods in the establishment of the British Empire as new colonies appeared constantly throughout the entire century. This included Salem, Jamaica, Barbados, New Jersey, Guiana, and even more. He also went on to explain how the 18th Century would see further expansion with military victories against the French at the ‘Battle of Plassey’ in India and the ‘Seven Years War’ heavily increasing Britain’s territories in India and Canada. By 1783, the UK also had naval bases in Gibraltar and Minorca. Even though Britain would lose the American colonies in the War of Independence, its influence would continue to spread throughout the world.

In politics, some of the countries around the world have an objective to obtain certain connections between places. Thus, for the British Empire, the task of exploring the lands overseas, enhanced the capability of Britain to send its representatives in different parts of the world to find different opportunities that could help the country to persuade their further growth of power. Therefore, the availability of human resources that could help Britain to control ships sailing to distant places favored the development of the British Empire. Firstly, I thought it was important to briefly research how the Empire rose to power, to see if it may be linked to any reasons, besides World War II, as to how it slowly declined. There is a lot of disagreement about when the empire began. Some historians say it was as early as the 12th century, when the Normans moved into Ireland. Others say the start date could have been in the 1490s, while other historians date the empire from the early 1600s. The end of the empire came in the years after World War 2, with most of Britain's colonies ruling themselves independently by the late 1960s. It used its wealth, its armies and its navy to defeat rival European countries and to conquer local civilisations to establish its empire. However, the empire did not just rely on force. In most of the empire Britain relied heavily on local people to make it work. This could foreshadow that if many people refused to support and help work to build the Empire, it would simply fall and decline over time.

It really amazed me as to how the Empire, which covered about 25 percent of the earth's surface, including North America, Australia, Africa, and Asia, fell very sharply and quickly over time. Many people, such as Piers Brendon, strongly argue that while other factors may have a small impact, World War II was a powerful factor in the collapse of the British Empire and that one of the main consequences was the important demolition of the colony. In 1956 Colonel Nasser became President of Egypt. He decided that the Egyptians should rule and control the 'Suez Canal'. This means that the Egyptian Government won British shares. The British Prime Minister, Anthony Eden, was determined to oppose Nasser so the British planned a secret operation with the French and Israel to invade Egypt. However this contrasts former prime minister Winston Churchill’s approach as he believed the amount of power Britain would obtain heavily relied on the continued existence of the empire so he had initially withdrawn British troops from the Suez Canal zone. Although, because of Anthony Eden, at the end of October 1956 the English, French and Israeli invaders invaded Egypt and occupied the Suez Canal. However, the US government was angry that they had taken such action without the consent of the United States. U.S. President Eisenhower was shocked by the attack, and in early November received a United Nations vote calling for an end to operations. The British and the French had to withdraw their troops because of this American opposition. This is known as the ‘Suez Crisis’ and it clearly exposed Britain’s slow and very obvious decline and would not be able to maintain power without support from the United States so it is clear that this event marked a major decline in British power and independence. This incident was one of the more interesting things to research as it clearly emphasises the arrogance of the British and the French and makes me feel as if it was karma for the fall of the British Empire.

Piers Brendon also continued to argue that World War II had caused great economic disaster for the British Empire, stating that in the second half of the century there was little doubt that Britain had lost that prestige in the United States. World War II had devastated Britain and its empire, and by 1945 the country was exhausted and devastated. The bombing of the air had devastated many British cities, and there were serious shortages of supplies and reconstruction work were under way. Looking at it in a more detailed way for the five years British citizens in small cities faced 60,595 civilians killed and 86,182 seriously injured. Rationing of food began in January 1940 and clothes in June 1941. By 1943, pretty much all household items were either in short supply and had to be queued for, or was just not possible to obtain.The government had to think seriously about whether Britain could support a world power. The British system of self-governing colonies and free dominions seemed to almost doom the British Empire to future decolonisation, because they couldn’t afford the upkeep of it anymore. The system used by the British seemed to ultimately have the goal of moving towards some form of imperial federation and it could be argued that the Second World War, and to some of extent the First World War, disrupted this evolution of Empire to Federation, or that the British system itself was always going to end the way it did and that World War Two just sped up the process.

However, the decline of the British Empire is also said to be more political than I initially thought, as Ronald Hyam states in his book 'The Road to Decolonization' that as a result of World War II, the loss of staff and resources was enormous and gradually allowed the colonies to seek independence. America made money from the loss of power and did not help the British so much that it took the opportunity to seize power in peace conferences. In many cases the colonies left without much bloodshed, in part because of the changing social and political climate of the day and the colonies were seen as a setback and not a prestigious prize as they had been before. The First and Second World Wars left Britain weak and indifferent to the monarchy. And many parts of the state donated troops and resources to the war effort and adopted a growing view of independence. This led to the continued decline of the empire after 1945. In the Asian and African colonies, ethnic groups used many methods to end British rule. By the late 1960's, most parts of Britain had become independent states. It is interesting that Hyam also talks about how the British empire has brought so many changes to so many people and so many countries, so many good and bad changes that I think it is important to touch on because you compare them in so many ways. An example of this is that the British Empire struggled to abolish slavery in the 1800s, but gained over-slavery in the 1700s. To many people, the British state meant land loss, discrimination, and discrimination. Overall the statistics show that between 1945 and 1965, the number of people under British rule, besides the UK, decreased from 700 million to 5 million, with 3 million of them being from Hong Kong.

When the US joined World War II in December 1949, Churchills confidence significantly grew as he predicted a comfortable victory for the war, however he didn’t realise the losses which lay ahead which was a big factor in the Empire’s decline. British forces were quickly wiped out in the Far East, resulting in irreversible damage on Britains’ standing as an imperial power. Therefore, realising that Britain struggled to defend its empire, Australia and New Zealand had a closer bond with the US and distancing from Britain which undermined the status the Empire initially had. I feel like this incident is often overlooked by some people, as it is considered small compared to the rest of the impacts on the Empire’s decline. However it is clear Churchill was a bit arrogant in this situation, resulting in irreversible damage in the power Britain possessed and this irreversible damage in my opinion was one of the more pivotal moments in the process of the Empire’s decline.

The Impact of World War II on the British Empire Decline

Although I also found out during my research process that World War I also had an impact on the Empire’s decline. Firstly, I think it is also important to acknowledge the Empire’s impact on the war as it was ruled by the Royal Family and many people across the Empire turned to the Royal Family, particlaury King George V, to motivate and help them understand as to why they were fighting. These statistics convey how many soldiers across the globe aided Britain and served: India - 1,440,437, Canada - 628,964, Australia - 412,953, South Africa - 136,070, New Zealand - 128,825, Other colonies - 134,837. Despite most of the fighting taking place in Europe it is very clear to see the impact of the war on people all over the world. In 1914, Britain sat atop the greatest empire there had ever been in history, however after 4 and a half years of war, more than 700,000 Britons had perished and many more injured with life changing wounds. This had unfortunately led to Britain being in serious debt, especially compared to the US as none of their land had been affected and they barely suffered as many casualties due to their late arrival into the war. Following the First World War, it was noticeable that countries that had evolved into becoming independent from the British Empire did not assist them in the following years such as Ireland and Australia. I found out that Britain called out for military assistance when there was the outbreak of ‘Chanak crisis’ which was a war scare in September 1922 between the United Kingdom and the Government of the Grand National Assembly in Turkey, however the request for assistance was turned down by South Africa and Canada.

To say that British rule left their mark on independent nations is an understatement, as to this day the English language is the primary language of 460 million people and is spoken by about 1.5 billion as a first, second or foreign language. Different colonies were shaped over time in a political, social and economic adaption and The British Empire played a significant role in that. The emergence of the British Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries included ‘naval capabilities, commercial interests and the industrial revolution’. Therefore to conclude this question, ‘Did World War II cause the British Empire to collapse?’ It is clear that much research and evidence has been found to support the argument that World War II had a huge impact on The British Empire’s decline. From the Psychological, Ideological and Economic destruction it had and the decolonisation that took place the years after. However I also feel like, with the information that I researched, that the Empire was always doomed to fall due to how it was mainly relying on local people to make it work, and once trust had been taken away from the people, the Empire was always going to slowly decline which could argue that World War II was not the only cause of The British Empire’s demise but could simply be looked at as a catalyst. I believe that one of the main consequences from World War II was definitely the Economic impact it had, as it led to Britain being less recognized as a prominent country, mostly by the United States. As I mentioned before, the aerial bombardment of many british cities was a disaster for the Empire, as it led to many shortages of goods and labour for rebuilding the country and it had even got to the point where the government had to think seriously about whether Britain could afford to sustain a global empire any more. Therefore the British Empire had a very long and powerful reign for centuries, but it was inevitable that some day, it was going to fall and I believe that World War II was simply the catalyst that sped up the process of the Empire’s demise, having gone from controlling 25% of the world’s land to barely nothing and it is also speculated to be because of a man named Franklin D Roosevelt who decided the British Empire was a bad idea and used the opportunity presented by WWII to do something about it.