English history
The Fall of the Empire
The fall of the British Empire was caused by World War II for two reasons. Firstly, many
nations felt that their sacrifice should be rewarded with independence, for example India.
Also, the losses to the Japanese destroyed the myth of the European omnipotence. Secondly,
heavily in debt to the United States, the United Kingdom was financially exhausted. This left
it almost impossible to defend its wider colonies by force. So the vast markets were opened to
American companies and to weaken the UK in general.
No empire has been larger or more diverse than the British Empire. At its apogee in the
1930s, 42 million Britons governed 500 million foreign subjects. Britannia ruled the waves,
and a quarter of the earth's surface was coloured red on the map. Where Britain's writ did not
run directly, its influence, sustained by matchless industrial and commercial sinews, was often
paramoun...
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