BRITISH POWER

To What Extent Has British Power Declined Since 1945?



To What Extent Has British Power Declined Since 1945?

Introduction

The British Empire has been growing for more than two hundred years. The culmination of the tremendous expansion of the state is considered to be the beginning of the 19th century. At this time, a variety of different areas on all continents is rightly called an empire "on which the sun never sets." Expansive phases of the settlement and conquest began with the relatively peaceful phase of trade and diplomacy. Empire facilitated the spread of British technology, commerce, English language and forms of government around the world. The imperial hegemony was crucial for economic growth and influence of the United Kingdom on the policy of many countries. Colonies of the device, it is clear that the influence of the British Empire had a rather ambiguous. In the colonies were brought to the English language, administrative and legal framework created in the image of the UK. During the decolonization of the United Kingdom took place in an attempt to introduce the former colonies of parliamentary democracy and the rule of law, albeit with varying degrees of success. Most of the colonies decided that the Commonwealth replaces the Empire in psychological terms.

British colonies were mainly economic interests of the United Kingdom. Although the colonies of immigrants created the infrastructure for the creation of an independent economy, but in tropical regions of Africa and Asia, they only played the role of suppliers of raw materials and have received only a minimal part of the infrastructure. Today the economies of many developing countries are often dependent on exports of raw materials.

One of the main pillars of the British colonial law is that conflicts between different ethnic groups were used to protect against other colonial powers. This classic principle of “divide and conquer" is the cause of many conflicts of modernity in Northern Ireland, India, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Uganda and Iraq. A typical example is Kenya from 1952 to 1957, when a small revolt turned into a bloody war developed tribes. A total of death of 22 whites, while in the indigenous tribes has been from 18 000 to 30 000 victims.

The Second World War is said to be the war of all major powers of the 20th Century and is the largest and costliest conflict in human history ever. It was the only war in which both atomic (from the U.S. to Japan), as well as biological and chemical weapons (both mainly from Japan to China) were used. Apart from major death history of the Second World War, it also brought changes to the economies of different countries especially to the Great Britain.

Britain was one of the countries creators of the international political system after World War. At the same time as the strongest European "Great Power", the UK has traditionally sought to maintain parity of forces on the continent, alternately supporting one or another country. The new full-scale war in Europe was for the UK is ...