Decolonization and the end of the Empire

After centuries as a Colonial Power, the 2 World Wars of 20th Century left the British Empire on a weak position. The massive loss of lives, the costs of the war, the weakening of trade and industry, a change on the mentality of the British society, the cultural impact of the wars and its horrors, are some of the internal factors that pushed the government to make changes. Meanwhile, the indepentist movements on many colonies, the status of the United States and the URSS as the new world super-powers (both with anti-colonialist ideas), the lack of strenght of colonial authorities for enforcing the laws and a world's change on mentality toward colonialism, were some of the external factors that contributed to the end of colonial empires, including the British.

The first important partition of the Empire, ocurred on 1947, when India (the most important colony of the Empire at the time), gain its independence from Great Britain and then split on India and Pakistan (which later would also split into Bangladesh and modern Pakistan). It is worth to mention that the separation from Great Britain was fairly peacefull and previously negotiated (sadly, the same can't be said about India and Pakistan split).

Soon after, on May of 1948, Palestine also separated from the Empire and the State of Israel was created. This was related with the fact that many Jewish people, refugees and survivors of WWII, Nazi prosecution and the Holocaust, wanted to return to the land of their ancestors, despite the opposition of the arab and muslim populations that unhabited the zone at the time. The split of Palestine was ac omplicated process and a war exploded just after it, yet British Empire didn't get directly involved on the conflict, since their objective was the separation from Palestine and the creation of the new Jewish state of Israel.

On the same year, a civil war started on Malasya, between the forces of the Malayan Federation and the Commonwealth and a pro-Independence communist Liberation Army. The war extended for more than 10 years, until 1960, when the Federation forces declared the state of emergency over, the Liberation army was defeated and Malasya came out as an independent state with approval of the British authorities.

On 1956, Egypt unilaterally nationalised the Suez Canal, after some years of tense relationships with the British. Great Britain was not on the best position, but still plot a plan with Israel and France to declare war on Egypt and retake the Canal. However the intervention of the USA in this issue, put an end to the conflict and put pressure on Great Britain, who despite their military achievements on the conflict was forced to accept the terms of USA, making evident to the rest of the world the weak state in which the Empire was already.

The tendency of decolonization continued during the next decades. Malta gain its independence in 1964. By 1968, with exception of South Rodesia, all the British Colonies on Africa had already had their independences. Between 1970 and 1980, the colonies on the Pacific, starting with Fiji and finishing with Vanuatu, acquired their independences. On 1981 Belize gained its independence, this was the last British colony on the Caribbean. Many other territories also gained its independence, and Hong Kong was the last colony of the Empire, when in 1997, after decades of tension and then negotiation with China, Great Britain finally handed over the city to the Chinese government, with the only condition that it will keep some autonomy fromt he rest of the country during 50 years. That transfer of sovereignity over this region, is what the majority of experts considered the official end of the British Empire.

Beside the political, military and economical reasons of why the British Empire dissolved, we need to llok at the ideological and cultural reasons. Contrary to the independence process of the Americas, the majority of the Independence process of the former british colonies went out without a direct fight between the independentist and the metropoli. Instead, most of the process came to be for convenience of the british and negociation. I think that the breaking point on the mentality came after the 2 World Wars. Because of the huge loss of life, the unclear achievements and the horros commited by their enemies against specific collectives during WWII, the British became more sensible about the importance of individual lives and aware of the horrors that discrimination toward other nations/ethnicities could cause. The second realization may not have a huge impact at first (after all, racism perdured as a genralized thing on Great Britain some decades after the WWII), however as many other breakpoints on this timeline, it started a series of events, reactions and actions that eventually lead the English to be more respectful toward other nations. Either way, is undeniable that the loss of millions of people and the atrocities of the war caused a sensibilization toward life among the people, which translated on a bigger respect and value-giving toward individuals, something that one way or another helped to have a smoother transition of power on most of the former colonies and contributed to the "let them be, let them live" process that were most of the independences from the Empire.

Sources:

Abernathy, D. (2000). The Dynamics of Global Dominance: European Overseas Empires, 1415-1980. Yale University Press.

Lawrence, J. (2001). The Rise and Fall of the British Empire. Abacus.

Lloyd, T. (1996). The British Empire 1558-1995. Oxford University Press.

Macdonald, B. (1994). Britain. Tides of history: the Pacific Islands in the twentieth century. University of Hawaii Press.

Owen, R. (2001). Suez Crisis. The Oxford Companion to the Politics of the World (2nd ed.)  Oxford University Press.

Piers, B. (2007). The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997. Random House.

Sprinhall, J. (2001). Decolonization since 1945: the collapse of European overseas empires. Palgrave.

Talbot, I; & Gurharpal, S. (2009). The Partition of India. Cambridge University Press.

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