what ever happened to the british empire?

Question

200 years ago we ruled over half the globe. now we can't keep britain together, with scotland and wales going their separate ways. what happened?

Answer 1

The British Empire collapsed not only because it was founded on principals that over time became outdated but also because it was plain and simply badly managed. Todays Britain is dying because it will not accept that its glorious international days are done and instead has mortgaged its wealth on internationalism.

Through the ages of Mercantilism to Imperialism, Britain by power of its geographical position was able to almost monopolize international commerce. Its policies of picking out a few indiginous leaders to pay some sterlings to in exchange for economic control of that nation was its bread and butter. Its Industry was the most advanced and its navy was second to none for centuries. Then...it all went bad.
First of all, the days of the European domination were coming to a close. The rise of Nationalism was its first punch to the gut. Suddenly it was not so easy anymore to economically exploit the same way everywhere. Other European countries had Industrialized heavily by now and G.B. took the French and Germans more as a threat than the natives all over the world that made it rich. At the turn of the 20th century, the empire still had a slim chance but instead it totally fouled up.

First, it intervened through its own choice, for Belgium neutrality (?!) in WW1. That war they competely mismanaged and needed America to come bail it out. Wilson's 14 points cemented Nationalism in Europe and made America the 1st rate English speaking power. Then not willing to see the day of reckoning had come it and France tried to maintain the Middle East as a playground, disregarding the 14 points there. ( Which still have not been allowed to take root there). In the years that followed, like a bad game of monopoly, they had to mortgage of Palestine to the Jewish interest groups, the crown jewel of India was lost, and to be honest they never had a shot in ww2 of doing anything but hold American boots!

It as an empire was able to survive while everyone around was weak, and then when others were strong, they didnt prioritize properly and threw it all away. As for leaving the world a better place, it left a mess in every colonial place it left. From Africa, to Sri Lanka, the Middle East, India-Pakistan, and even in America; like theives in the night, they left quickly and leaving a trail of debris.

So now, you have a Britain whose navy is weak and royal marines that find victory in playing soccer on a secluded base near Basra, Iraq. 200 years ago if a foreigner was foolish enough to put a price on the prince's head, England would have sent an army and massacred everyone in sight in that land. Now they keep him home so he can appear in tabloids. The empire went from Queen Elizabeth and Cromwell to Elton John and David Beckham.

Now it is the once colonized actually colonize Britain. The only thing that keeps it even on the Security Council is that the money keeps coming in to a select group of hands. The empire was auctioned off and Britain along with it.

Answer 2

Empires are not permanent entities; in fact, there is good historical evidence that empires tend to be shorter-lived than independent states.

Concretely, in the case of the British Empire, what happened is that the UK's global military-political power did not survive the Second World War. The war with Germany resulted in the dismantling of both German and British empires de facto, with the Soviet Union and U.S. inheriting the empires previously divided between the European great powers. In the postwar period, the military power of the UK was so debilitated that it was unable to prevent the independence movement sweeping the globe, starting of course in India and Pakistan, and subsequently all over the globe, over two decades freeing hundreds of millions of people living in colonial imperialist conditions (subsequently in many of those former British colonies, people have been freed to endure neocolonial pressures from the US and continuing poverty and marginalization in the world system).

One of the historical lessons empires must learn is that a cataclysmic military defeat for the metropole state usually leads to the breaking away of the colonies or provinces. This was a problem for the Alexandrian-Ptolemaic empire, for the Western Roman Empire, for the Spanish Empire, the Napoleonic Empire, for the Ottoman Empire...and, yes, the British Empire.

Answer 3

today the British empire Exists Under British Overseas territories all 14 of them

Answer 4

We had absolutely no right to the Empire which was a glitch in our history gathered together in little more than 200 years whilst we competed with other European imperialistic powers. Not that we have a great deal to be ashamed of - I think that when the dust has settled and a dispassionate view can be taken it will be seen to have been rather more good than bad. We also should be proud in the way we withdrew from Empire - rather more voluntarily than otherwise. The British Empire was the only one in history that ended in such a way. As for the Scots and Welsh, only time will tell what will happen to the Union.

Answer 5

The world has evolved since then and many former colonialist nations including the British empire, where involved in large scale wars, where it by no means was possible to keep any colonies.

Also, most democratic countries in the west world has helped the former colonies to become independent.

Plus, all the old money in Britain has moved out of the country since long.

Answer 6

You really have very little knowledge on the history of the subcontinent. They were building cities in India when the British were still living in huts, they had written language in India when Rome was still just an insignificant little village, it was the armies of India that Alexander encountered during his eastward expansion,,,,India was a great and mighty culture long before the British.

Answer 7

White City stadium.
Used for British Empire exhibition in 1924.
After that, White city went to the dogs, and so did the Empire!

Answer 8

Well it's a long story but we had to give it up for several reasons.

1. We had no right to lord it over other countries in the first place.

2. After the end of WW2 we were bankrupt.

3. Historically all empires have ultimately failed because they became too big to hold.

4. We were overtaken as a World Power by the US (as they will inevitably be overtaken by the Chinese)

I'm sure others will be able to add to this list.

Answer 9

You want to know what really happened, the American Revolution. The American Revolution started the end of the great British empire, though it took 100's of 1,000's of years. The world's not the same as it was back then, today we are much more capable of taking care of ourselves especially with other countries supporting us. See back when the British empire was the big dawg, it was hard to fight against. Many were thrown in jail for even trying and the British colonies were no exception, but they longed to live in freedom. Now today with freedom being such a big deal, with other countries banding together in freedom it's not such a big deal. Many countries that split today usually split because they want to be themselves and not like the others. They want to try and steal the show from America, I mean just look, the European Union, isn't that something similar to America only with individual countries instead of states? The world is jealous of America and so they try and be America any way they can. If the British empire wants to stay in tacked then England is going to have to learn to play like America and give equal representation or no one country, Scotland or Wales will ever be happy.

Answer 10

Just like the Roman Empire, and every other nation that wants to dominate others, they eventually fall, as they say every dog has its day and we had ours, for good and bad.
Now its up to the Scots, Welsh to keep things together, but they don't seem to want to.