The British Imperial Establishment, Post Imperial Era, and the ‘Churchillian’ World View, 1945-2016. (Adjustments & Challenges in Contemporary British Diplomatic Strategy)

5

Consequently, the United Kingdom’s Cabinet Committee on Defence Co-
ordination was called the
“Committee of Imperial Defence”. Nevertheless, these
countries in the late nineteenth century, in
particular Australia, Canada, New
Zealand and South Africa, or, as they later became to be known, the
Dominions,
had been posing economic challenges to Britain as a result of their own
industrial
developments. As well as the economic challenges within the Empire there were
political
challenges again posed to the mother country by the four white
Dominions. This was a request for more
political independence over foreign
affairs, having already obtained legislative control over their internal
matters,
such as fiscal and trading policies, in the late nineteenth century. By 1931 the
white
Dominions’ full nationhood had become official, known as the Statute of
Westminster. However, as they
maintained their links wuth Great Britain, they
became the British Commonwealth. On the other hand, as the
nineteenth century
came to a close and as the twentieth century progressed, Britain began to face
the
rising competition of Germany, Japan and the United States, both economically
and politically. As we
said earlier, and as the thesis will show, the pressures
exerted by the new rising powers, especially the
United States, brought a turning
point in the history of the British Empire especially after the Second World
War.
With regard to India and colonies in Asia, Africa and in the rest of the world, the
impact of the
First World War had already intensified the spread of nationalism
among the colonies. However, in India’s
case, the feeling of nationalism had
begun even in the late nineteenth century. The start formally began in
1882 when
an elected majority was made for local municipal boards – local self-government.
This start
was because of the promises of equality between the white colonies and
India made by the British political
elite which did not materialize.

Therefore, this led to a
local press, which had been printing without restriction,
publishing articles critical of British rule in
India.

Following the granting of
self-government to the white Dominions, the Indian
demand for political independence grew faster than any
British authority had even

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