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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Chapter II

Pax Britannica

To protect their power and
interest, the British elite needed to extend their
influence beyond the boundaries of the United Kingdom.
This, in previous
centuries and to some degree in the present time, has led them to direct
domination of
foreign lands. In this and the next chapter an outline will be given
of how the political elite has sought to
secure British power and interests in the
countries that the directly or indirectly ruled. In the subsequent
chapters I shall
be concerned with other pressures and consequently the policies that brought
about the
present relationship between Britain and those territories and countries
of the former empire. In order to be
able to sketch this special relationship it is
essential to give a historical background to the subject of
our investigation. We
begin by discussing the state’s need for expansion.

The Theory of State Expansionism

The
tendency to expand, or the principle of growth, may characterize all
social organisms. This may also be put
as the propensity of states to expand; that
is, to enlarge their physical selves, their territory, or their
overseas interests or
their influence beyond their own borders. It is a characteristic which has
played
an dominant role in the history of international relations. “Every great country,
wrote an
Italian historian, every active people naturally tends to expand.”1 If
the
state does not develop it will stagnate or die. In a developing state, there is
population growth,
the social structure and the economy become more complex

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