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

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manufacturing goods. This was due to her population, size and resources that she
had acquired after her
independence, which also, eventually guaranteed her
supremacy. Additionally, although the Empire nations
demonstrated a firm co-
operation with Britain during the First World War, for some time, in fact
since
the late nineteenth century, there had been a growing movement towards
economic and political
independence among them, in particular Australia,
Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. This was as a result
of their own
economic development which at last led to Britain granting them legislative
control over
their internal affairs, such as fiscal and trading policies as the
nineteenth century came to an end. Having
obtained control over their internal
affairs, the white Dominions, as they became in the twentieth century,
began to
call for political control over their external affairs. Also, as early as the late
nineteenth
century, India too bad been asking for more self rule, first internally
and then over her foreign affairs,
though not to the extent that Australia, Canada,
Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa had been asking.
India’s demand was that
she should be treated equally to that treatment the white Colonies received
from
Britain, and not to be left behind, as Chapter Two showed. The First World War,
however,
strengthened the nationalism of the white Dominions and India. The
intensification of nationalism in the
white Dominions following the 1914-18 War
led eventually to the Statute of Westminster. As a result of the
Statute of
Westminster in 1931, the full nationhood of the white Dominions was made
official and the
British Commonwealth was set up, as they decided to maintain
their ties with Britain. As India observed the
white Dominions being given full
nationhood, she too followed their path at a speed that no British political
elite
had contemplated.

Moreover,
apart from the economic and technological development that
had taken place in the nineteenth and the
twentieth century in the white
Dominions, which were already posing economic and political challenges
from

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