Abstract
The First World War had been a test of empire and empire had responded to it. Britain had emerged from the world struggle with her empire materially as well as emotionally stronger. And, while the war quickened the process of Dominion nationalism, which must at least present problems for any ideas of a centralised future for the empire, and had witnessed the defection of most of Ireland, it had not raised doubts about the whole relationship of Britain to her empire. The outbreak of the Second World War saw the Dominions rally round again, but without the deep sense of kith and kin that characterised August 1914, and with some 20 years of Dominion statehood, political calculation by Dominion political élites, and hard economic bargaining with the United Kingdom behind them. The Dominion partners had their own objectives, albeit they could see these as reconcilable with the wider war effort waged on Britain’s behalf. The Second World war also obliged Britain to take note of the gap between the dependent empire and the rest. At a conference held in London, in October 1939, Reginald Coupland warned that nowhere was there ‘any acceptance of the sincerity of our expressed intentions in the dependent Empire’. In India the British had delayed too long, and had alienated the educated part of the community.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
A. J. Stockwell (ed.), BDEE, series B, vol. 3: Malaya, part I: The Malayan Union Experiment, 1942–1948 (London: HMSO, 1995), pp. 1–7.
For an excellent analysis of the impact of war see John Darwin, Britain and Decolonisation: The Retreat from Empire in the Post-War World (London: Macmillan, 1988), ch. 2.
For the Middle East see Elizabeth Monroe, The British Moment in the Middle East, 1914–1956 (London: Chatto and Windus, 1963), pp. 124–9.
Trevor Reese, Australia in the Twentieth Century — A Short Political Guide (London: Chatto and Windus, 1964), p. 110.
Duncan Anderson, ‘Slim’, in John Keegan (ed.), Churchill’s Generals (London: Weidenfeld, 1991), p. 314.
N. Mansergh (ed.), Constitutional Relations between Britain and India, vol. III (London: HMSO, 1971), pp. 656–7.
W. R. Louis, ‘American Anti-Colonialism and the Dissolution of the British Empire’, International Affairs, 61:3 (Summer 1985), p. 395.
D. A. Low and A. Smith (eds), History of East Africa, vol. 3 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976), p. 175.
D. Reynolds, Britannia Overruled: British Policy and World Power in the Twentieth Century (London: Longmans, 1991), p. 178.
David Goldsworthy (ed.), BDEE, series A, vol. 3: The Conservative Government and the End of Empire, part I: International Relations (London: HMSO, 1994), pp. liv-iv.
R. F. Holland, The Pursuit of Greatness: Britain and the World Role, 1900–1970 (London: Fontana, 1991), pp. 132–3;
Lorna Lloyd, ‘Britain and the Transformation from Empire to Commonwealth’, Round Table, no. 343 (1997), pp. 346–7.
John Gallagher, The Decline, Revival and Fall of the British Empire, ed. Anil Seal (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), p. 73.
R. Hyam (ed.), BDEE, Labour Government and the End of Empire, 1945–1951, series A, vol. II, part 1: High Policy and Administration (London: HMSO, 1992), p. 141.
Kwame Nkrumah, Towards Colonial Freedom: Africa in the Struggle against World Imperialism (London: Heinemann, 1963).
J. A. Hobson, Imperialism: A Study (London, 1902).
David Boucher, ‘British Idealism, the State and International Relations’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 55 (1994), pp. 682–3.
David Goldsworthy, ‘Keeping Change within Bounds’,JICH, 18: 1 (1996), pp. 81–108.
Thomas R. Mockaitis, British Counterinsurgency, 1919–1960 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990), pp. 111–24.
G. E. Metcalfe, Great Britain and Ghana: Documents of Ghanaian History, 1807–1957 (London: Nelson, 1964), pp. 682–3.
Prosser Gifford and W. R. Louis, The Transfer of Power in Africa: Decolonisation, 1940–1960 (London: Yale University Press, 1982), p. 137.
D. Birmingham, The Decolonisation of Africa, (London: University College Press, 1995), pp. 26–9.
G. H. Kelling, Centralism and Rebellion: British Policy in Cyprus, 1939–1955 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1990), pp. 1–16.
R. F. Holland, European Decolonisation, 1918–1981: An Introductory Survey (London: Macmillan, 1985), pp. 258–9.
Stockwell (ed.), BDEE, Malaya, part II: The Communist Insurrection, 1948–1953 (London: HMSO, 1995), pp. 158–60.
John M. MacKenzie, Propaganda and Empire: The Manipulation of British Public Opinion, 1880–1960 (Manchester University Press, 1996) p. 235.
Ibid., pp. 231–3: See also Thomas G. August, The Selling of Empire British and French Imperial Propaganda, 1890–1940 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985), passim.
David Butler, The British General Election of 1951 (London: Macmillan, 1952), pp. 35–6.
David Butler, The British General Election of 1955 (London: Macmillan, 1955), p. 91.
John Turner, Profiles in Power: Macmillan (London: Macmillan, 1994), pp. 146–7.
David Butler, The British General Election of 1959 (London: Macmillan, 1959), pp. 264, 278.
Copyright information
© 1999 D. George Boyce
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Boyce, D.G. (1999). The Changing World of Empire, 1939–59. In: Decolonisation and the British Empire, 1775–1997. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27755-1_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27755-1_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-62104-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-27755-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)