After World War II, Britain lost so many colonies. Which place was the most distressing to Britain?
After World War II, Britain lost so many colonies. Which place was the most distressing to Britain?
Before the end of World War II, Britain had always been known as the "Empire on which the Sun Never Sets." You must know that this is not an exaggeration, because when Britain was at its most powerful, it could really achieve "The Sun Never Sets." As early as the end of the 15th century, Britain defeated Spain. At this point, Britain, the empire on which the sun never sets, appeared. Until World War II, Britain was the most powerful country in the world, because at that time, Britain was the most powerful country on earth. There are territories in all 24 time zones.
When Britain was at its most powerful, it controlled a territory of more than 34 million square kilometers, accounting for almost a quarter of the total surface area. The famous economist Jevons once said The plains of North America and Russia are our cornfields, Canada and the Baltic Sea are our forests, Australia is our pastures, Peru is our silver mines, South Africa is our gold mines, and India is our plantations. , the East Indies are our sugar cane, coffee, and spice plantations, and the United States is our cotton plantations. ?It can be seen that it was precisely because Britain was the empire on which the sun never set at that time that Jevons had such confidence to say such a thing.
But what many people didn’t expect was that Britain finally agreed to that sentence, and the situation changed. Thirty years later, Hedong and Thirty Years later, Hexi. Although Britain had controlled the world for hundreds of years, Jack The places Vince mentioned later broke away from the British and became independent countries one by one. Among these independent countries, there was one that later developed more than the British. This country was the United States. The two world wars made the United States divisive. After courting the sale of weapons and making huge war profits, the United States successfully became the world's leading economic power. Of the 58 colonies that Britain previously ruled, there are now only 14 left. As for Britain, it has lost so many Among the many colonies, which place worries Britain the most?
The author believes that among the more than 40 colonies lost by the United States, the most distressing one for the United Kingdom is the loss of India, because in addition to the huge territory of India, the loss of India by the United Kingdom also marked the The fall of a jewel in the crown made Britain even more heartbroken. After India became independent, a series of chain reactions occurred, which caused Britain to gradually lose control of its colonization of Africa and the Middle East. In the process, Israel was born. Egypt became independent one after another, and Zimbabwe also declared independence from British control.
It can be seen that the British loss of India has obviously become a milestone, because in addition to losing control of India, the British also gradually let more colonies out of British control, which made the British From then on, it was no longer an empire on which the sun never set. Initially, the British colonial territory in India was very large, including today's India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and even Myanmar. From the Persian Gulf to Southeast Asia, they were all British colonies. The land in this area is fertile and the products are rich, and it can contribute more than 40% to the UK's GDP every year. It can be seen that the UK was very distressed after losing India.