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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claiming
that they no longer needed the ultimate sanction of Britain for their
actions. The growth of nationalism was
spurred on in the twentieth century by the
strong development of their economies. The four Dominions had
already healthy
exports in primary products. For example in Canada industrialisation and
mineral
exploitation were proceeding at a pace. This trend was given a further boost by
the two world
wars. This pattern being repeated in Ausralia, New Zealand and
South Africa which, though not so strong in
industrial development, nonetheless
moved ahead. Growth in population boosted these flourishing
economies.
Canada, and later Australia, showed the biggest gains, acting as magnets for
British
migrants. Indeed, in the matter of migration the theme of closer imperial
links was quite definitely
confirmed in the first part of the twentieth century, the
lure of the United States finally being broken.
“Between 1900 and 1914 Canada
took 1,500,000 and Australia 500,000 of Britain’s total flow of
4,700,000.”28 The
following figures, however, show the extent of
the United States’ previous hold:
“Between 1812 and 1914 13,600,000 British migrants went to the
United States
while only 3,800,000 chose British North America (numbers of which also
crossed to the
south), 2,200,000 to Australia and 700,000 to Southern Africa. But
from the early twentieth century this
pattern was reversed; whereas between 1890
and 1900 only 28% of migrants stayed within the empire, between
1901 and 1912
63% did.”29

The flow
from Britain was light in the 1890’s, however it picked up
thereafter particularly from 1907 onwards. The
majority now were Scotsmen and
English but not very many Irish. After the 1914-18 war migration became
more
organised and involved more state assistance. In this case immigration could be
interpreted as a
two-fold policy. One helping British development by sending out
surplus unemployed and one of helping the
empire by supplying vitally needed
labour for development.

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