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 IV

Other Pressures on the British Empire

Before proceeding to
the policy ideas and political attitudes of the British political
elite in response to the changing
situation affecting the empire, consideration will
be given to the external pressures on the empire which
also contributed to the
process of decolonisation. But weshall start by examining how the empire
was
protected and utilised at its height and the special effort that this called for,
representing,
therefore, a crucial aspect of the British political elite’s leadership.

Imperial Defence

Extraordinary though it may seem, in the mid-nineteenth century a small
group of islands lying of the
north-west coast of the continent of Europe
constituted the leading nation in world affairs. Before the
seventeenth century,
however, “little England, perched precariously on the edge of the great
landmass
of Europe, had never been very noteworthy, except as the subject of occasional
toing and
froing by Teutonic and Gallic peoples. England was a centre neither of
civilization, of military power
nor of economic importance.”1

Feeling so threatened, the English had to make strong efforts to circumvent
or thwart the other
powers that stood in their way. Starting weak in the power
stakes, the English had to struggle to
establish their identity and self-respect. The
alternative was to be crushed by the power of continental
Spain, and later, France.
Thus, in the sixteenth century there were signs of impatience with such a
status

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