The British Empire

olddaddy

This is a carry over from another thread, in which I got into the "Barbarians at the Gate". I was watching the incident in which Iran siezed the British sailors and marines, and couldn't help but note that had this happened less than 100 years ago, the Prime Minister would have called out the troops and gone through Persia like shit through a goose and returned with their people. The sun never set on the British Empire. So, what happened? Who were the barbarians at the gates? Did the Germans start nailing the coffin shut, only to have America show up and enough hammers and nails to deal with all? You ask an American, and they will say the US bailed Britain's ass out of WW 2. You ask a Brit, and they will tell you they were in it before America, and were doing quite nicely on their own, thank you.

Was America the barbarian at the gates of the British Empire? Did the British traffic with those that would replace them? Was this a good thing?

 

 

 

MadAce

The Uk grew up. Awesome, init?

Cowinspace

The Empire was too large, just as with others (not just ancient but contemporary [French, Spanish, Dutch, etc.]) there were to few to keep the colonies in line, and after two great wars, several indepedance movements It just broke up. Its not gone though, just as Rome went from republic to empire, Britain went from empire to commonwealth.



And Empires arn't exactly hard to get, even Belgium had one

Cheeseman162

Not only that, but Empires really generated little to no profit--most times even a deficit. This of course excludes India but even that colony brought a marginal revenue compared to what could have been gained from a developing economy on the home front as well in these burgeoning soon-to-be-nations. The reason why these empires were constructed in the first place--excluding early colonies in the Americas--was merely for status. Those with the most colonies were seen as the best, and colonies were passed off for diplomatic reasons.



Anyway, as a reason why the British Empire fell, it's simply as it was stated earlier: Britain, along with other powers, simply realized that there was no reason for their empire. WWII simply heralded the final nail in the coffin as they realized that another empire is not what the world needs but cooperation between friendly nations for the good of everyone.