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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Second,
there was the great dependency of India. Most of it was ruled,
directly by the British, and even in the
states governed by the Indian princes,
British advice prevailed. “Since 1876 India had been formally an
Empire in its
own right, thus bestowing on the British monarch the somwhat hybrid title of
Queen – or
King – Emperor. The British Raj in India was fundamentally
autocratic, the domination of one race over a
subject people. No amount of
benevolent and imperial administration could alter that fact. True, Parliament
and
Cabinet in London could over-rule the Viceroy, but distance and the complexities
of governing India
made this unlikely.”17 It was spice trade in the early
seventeenth
century that initially stimulated British interest in India. By the end
of the nineteenth century not only
was half the British army stationed in India at
India’s expense, but a numerous and readily available
Indian army was also
maintained. Moreover, India provided Britain with her largest and most
profitable
market within the Empire. Few would have disagreed with the Viceroy Curzon
when he said,
“As long as we rule India we are the greatest power in the world.”

Thirdly,
and finally, there were the self-governing communities of mostly
British stock. In theory their
constitutions, based on the Westminster model, made
them subordinate to the British government and
Parliament, but in practice
Britain gave them a free hand in their domestic affairs, although dominating
their
foreign policy for the simple reason that she guaranteed and largely paid for their
defence. These
colonies of white settlement were Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, The Cape, Natal and Newfoundland.
“There were other groups of white
settlers, notably in the West Indies and parts of Africa, who did not
enjoy self-
governing status. In 1902 there were, moreover, the two newly conquered Boer
republics (the
Orange Free State and the Transvaal) whose future within the
Empire was uncertain.”18

British
possessions in other areas were often without the coherent
justification or strategy. For example, the West
African colonies were either

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