Okuma Testi – Loss of an Empire
- Metin
- Test
At the end of the First World War, the German colonies of Africa, as well as Iraq and Palestine in the Middle East, were added to Britain’s area of control. Its empire was now bigger than ever before, and covered a quarter of the entire land surface of the world.
There were already signs, however, that the empire was coming to an end. At the 1919 peace conference, US President Wilson disapproved of colonialism. Britain had to agree to help these territories towards self-government. The real question was how long this would take, and how much Britain would try to control the foreign policies of these territories even after self-government had been achieved. In fact, it took longer than the populations of some of these territories had been led to hope, and by 1945 only Iraq was independent, and even here Britain had a strong influence on its foreign policy.
The United Nations Charter in 1945 also called for progress towards self-government. It seemed the British Empire could not last very long. This feeling was strengthened by the fact that Britain had lost control of its colonial possessions to Japan during the WWII at great speed.
In India there had been a growing demand for freedom during the 1920s and 1930s. This was partly because of the continued mistrust and misunderstanding between the British rulers and the Indian people. But it was also the result of a growing nationalist movement, which was skillfully led by Mahatma Gandhi. By 1945 it was clear that British rule in India could no longer continue. It was impossible and extremely expensive to try to rule 300 million people without their co-operation. In 1947 the British finally left India, which then divided into a Hindu state and a smaller Muslim state called Pakistan. Britain also left Palestine, where it was unable to keep its promises to both the Arab inhabitants and the new Jewish settlers. Ceylon became independent the following year.
By 1985 Britain had few of its old colonial possessions left, and those it still had were being claimed by other countries: Hong Kong by China, the Falklands by Argentina, and Gibraltar by Spain. In 1982 Britain went to war to take back the Falklands after an Argentinian invasion. Although there was a great distance in between, British forces were able to carry out rapid recapture of the Falklands. The operation was very popular in Britain, perhaps because it suggested that Britain was still a world power. But Britain’s victory made an eventual solution to the problem more difficult, and possession of the islands extremely expensive. The war itself had cost ₤900 million, but the total cost of defending the island since 1982 has risen to ₤3 billion by 1987.
