It is a hard fact that the British Empire was one of the most successful empire ever. They almost conquered over 50 percent of the world. Their process of colonisation was rampant and was at its peak in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Queen ruled all over the world with her massive Royal army. Britain is also known to start the industrial revolution in the world. The revolution was a new attempt to manufacture goods at a fast and efficient rate.
Britain’s citizens also remained faithful to the monarchy and supported the colonization. However, many were unaware of the exploitation and crude behavior over the colonized. Countries like India and African countries faced the worse form of exploitation. Many violent uprising rises against the misdeed of the British empire. But sadly most of them failed to overthrow the dominance. But then the empire started to fall and crumble into pieces. Why? What led to the fall of British Empire?
Factors behind the fall of the British empire:
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Rising competition:
Despite the Industrial revolution, the country was facing huge competition with USA and Germany. Who was going ahead in terms of infrastructure and economic power? Britain was losing the competition by a fair margin.
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Maintainance cost:
Britain faced costly wars in their colonized countries. They daily faced challenges from the freedom fighters of those countries. Which made them spend more on their army to sustain their dominance over those countries.
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The Great War:
The World War 1, perhaps the most important reason behind the fall. The war crippled Britain’s economy. And it also led to the beginning of the great depression in Britain. Situations were so bad that they had to borrow from their former colony USA.
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The loss of control:
Britain started to lose control over its main countries; Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa. The residents of these countries got control over the government and decided to move further apart from their mother country. This made Britain devoid of the natural resources of these countries.
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The Second World War:
The World War 2 is the biggest factor behind the fall of Britain. Its soldiers fought bravely against the Nazi Germany. But in the war, the country lost a massive amount of man power and economic resources. All of the major industrial sectors were closed and led to huge unemployment in the country. Whereas the USA had less involvement in the war which made them stand as the next superpower in the world.
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Independence movements:
After the establishment of UN as a governing body. The world saw many independence movements against the British. India got its independence just after two years of the Second World War. And most of the African got their independence by the end of the 1980s.
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Decline of public support:
The residents of Britain lost their faith over the monarchy and the empire. This led to increase in democracy in the country. Now people started to question the methods of their authority and to participate in the decision-making process.
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