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

171

within the
Empire to Britain, there were almost at the same period, increasing
competition both economically and
politically from Germany, Japan, Russia and
the United States. However, the crucial challenge was made by the
United States.
As the United States’ s industry continued to expand faster and faster in the
inter-
War period, and therefore she sought markets beyond her shores, America
inevitably came into
conflict with the Empire’s economy, which was, as has been
said, under threat from inside already.

Consequently, as a result of the pre-World War Two pressures, the growth
of foreign political and
economic challenges, especially the USA, the
developments that had already taken place in the Empire nations
such as the
granting of full nationhood to the white Dominions, due to their own economic
and political
advancements, and with India already pressing for independence,
Britain was in a less advantageous position
to fight another World War. After the
1939-45 War, in spite of the defeat of the enemy once more, the United
Kingdom
had lost a quarter of what had remained of her wealth after the first World War,
moreover, heavy
destruction had been inflicted on Britain, thus a massive
programme of War reconstruction was urgently
needed. Additionally, as after
1941 the United States and the Soviet Union bore an increasing share of the
War
effort, they emerged as two new super-powers, with the US possessing the atomic
weapon. Although
Britain had the technology to develop such a weapon, given
all her economic pressures the cost of competing
with nuclear weapons to the
degree that the new super-powers had the resources for, was not something
that
she could afford. The British political elite were faced with a number of factors:
first and
foremost the Americans did not approve of colonialism, as the book in
Chapters Four and Six have shown; they
believed that they had fought a war for
democracy and liberty and saw no reason for continuation of
colonialism which
they too had been victims of and rejected two hundred years or so earlier. There
was
also the socialist inspired propaganda coming from the Soviet Union pointing

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213