The British Empire

Lesson 7: World War Two and After

The Post War Years

The great social-leveling influence of the long War meant that Britons were anxious for change. The enormous social, economic, and political problems called for a sea-change. The election of l945 returned the Labour Party to power with a huge majority. Under Clement Attlee, the new government began some of the greatest changes in Britain's long history -- nothing less than a reconstruction of the nation.

Desperate measures were necessary. Regardless of how it saw itself, Britain was no longer one of the Great Powers of the world. Despite being on the winning side, it could no longer keep up pretenses; its cities had been damaged, its navy and army stretched to the limit, its war debt enormous.

Britain had been the only power to fight the War from the beginning to the end, and the cost was simply too much. Its export trade had been completely shattered by the need to concentrate on war production. Even by the end of l94l, the nation had completely exhausted its economic resources and had to rely on massive U.S Aid under the Lend-Lease Act. Between l945 and l968, over 500 million people in former British dependencies became self-governing, most becoming members of the British Commonwealth.

The first meeting of the Indian National Congress took place in Bombay I 1885. It was helped enormously by the complete lack of human sympathy and understanding of Viceroy lord Curzon (l899-1905). His partition of Bengal further alienated Indian public opinion especially the Hindus, bringing millions to the nationalist cause.

The partition was revoked in l9ll and from henceforth the goal of British policy in India was to meet the demands of its people for a greater share in government. The advent of World War 1 then put India’s problems on the back burner.

During the war, it was believed that loyal assistance from India would be repaid by substantial political concessions, if not independence or dominion status after the war. Leading Muslims such as Ali Jinnah agreed to set aside doctrinal differences to work with the Hindu majority to attain national freedom from British rule.

The Amristsar Massqacre of unarmed Indian men, women and children in April, l9l9 turned former loyal supporters of the British Raj into national revolutionaries. During World War 11 the Indian Committtee of the British War Cabinet was presided over by Clement Attlee, of the Labour Party, Its plan was to set up an Indian Constitutional Assemble immediately after the War to work out the terms for Indian independence.

This duly took place in August, l947. The Constitution of India came into force on January 26, l950, the first day that India was proclaimed a republic and the first to achieve membership in the Commonwealth.

In July, l948, the Citizenship Act gave Commonwealth citizens the status of British subjects. Britain hoped that the Commonwealth of Nations, loosely associated under the Crown, would provide a bond of unity with the mother country through both economic ties and a shared sympathy for constitutional government.

The list of nations that joined the Commonwealth included India, Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), the West Indies (which formed a federation in January, l957), Ghana, the Gold Coast, Singapore, and Cyprus). These countries were followed by Uganda, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Tanganyika (l962); Kenya (l963); Malta (l964); the Gambia and the Maldives (l965); Botswana, Lesotho, and Guyana (l966); Mauritius and Swaziland (l968). Nations that left the Commonwealth were Eire (the Irish Republic, l949), South Africa (l96l), and Palestine (where the new state of Israel had been formed in l948). Rhodesia became independent in l980 as Zimbabwe.

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