The day of small nations has long passed away. The day of Empires has come." Joseph Chamberlain, 1904.

        World War 1 began on June 28th 1914 with the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne, Franz Josef in Sarajevo, Bosnia.  “The main effect on the British Empire (of World War 1) was to encourage national feelings….in terms of great attachment to Britain and yet turned out to have the effect of helping to dissolve the Empire”[3].  A campaign to instil feelings of patriotism was launched across the Empire.  At the beginning of the war, there was no conscription within the Empire, so volunteers had to be convinced to join the army.  This attempt at army recruitment through patriotism was not as successful as was needed to sustain the war effort.  In 1916 conscription was introduced.  1917 saw the Liberal British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, convene an Imperial War Cabinet.  This essentially consisted of the Dominion Prime Ministers and the British War Cabinet.  Among the members of this Cabinet, a resolution was made that a process of continuous consultation would be used to work out Imperial foreign policy towards the rest of the world.  During the war years, Ireland was an incessant flash point of dissatisfaction with British Imperial rule.  The Easter Rising of 1916 clearly demonstrates this.  While the rising had not been a popular event among the population of Ireland as a whole, the subsequent execution of its leaders created martyrs.  A wave of sympathy and patriotic feeling swept the island.  This was clearly a county unhappy with its position as a colonial arm of the Empire.  

        Following the end of the war, the British Empire’s delegation at the peace talks in Versailles (1919) fully supported the Dominions rights to be represented there.  Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles German colonies were brought under the control of the League of Nations, which had also been established at the peace talks.  The Dominions of the British Empire were given power over some of these – New Zealand was given Samoa, Australia was given responsibility for a portion of former German New Guinea among others.  About this time the British Empire was beginning to be known by a new term of reference, that of the British Commonwealth.  

        Dominions were experiencing a growth in nationalistic feeling.  Leading on from this there was an expectation of level pegging with Britain within the new Commonwealth.  Dependence on the large British trading market for exports of goods had dwindled due to Dominions development of their own industries.  A factor that would also contribute to the down spiral of the British Empire was that of the downfall of other previously strong empires.  Both the Turkish and Austro-Hungarian Empires were virtually destroyed by the war.  “The overseas Empires of France, Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands stood unshaken by the war, and the change that the development of the Dominions might cause the British Empire was far from obvious.”[4].  Thus the Dominions were gaining a more privileged status within the sphere of British rule.  The Treaty of Versailles also allowed for some Dominions to be granted membership of the League of Nations.  Canada, Australia and South Africa, as self-governing states joined the League as did India, which, although not a self-governing state was allowed to join.  

        Nationalism developed in India as it had in other parts of the Empire.  Mohandas Gandhi was a leading figure in India who promoted the upsurge in nationalism.  “Indian nationalists hoped for …the constitution to acknowledge the fact that India was a nation and was entitled to self-determination” [5].  In post-war India there were problems indeed.  Economic problems, health issues and the political acts that seemed to be talking India backward instead of allowing for progression lead to widespread discontent.  In 1920, Gandhi’s methods of non-violent demonstration were used by the Indian Congress who refused to have anything to do with the orders of the ruling British and boycotted their goods.  India was clearly a Dominion that sought to exercise as much power as she could within the Commonwealth.

        The inter-war years gave way to “the defeat of the imperial idea”[6].  The Commonwealth, due to the failure of its policy of continuous consultation was forced to determine a new way to organise external policy.  At the 1923 Commonwealth conference, the dominions wanted their place and position clearly defined by the constitution.  Clearly, many things had changed for the Dominions in the post war era.  By 1931 the legal positions of the Dominions had been clearly defined by the introduction of the Statute of Westminster.  Their parliaments could now take as much constitutional control of themselves as they wished to take.  The constitutions of the already deemed self-governing states-Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa-were reliant on the British legislation, the Irish constitution was based on the terms of the 1921 treaty.  Under the Statute both South Africa and Ireland were given the right to amend their own constitutions.  The Depression of the 1930’s proved to be a great difficulty to the Dominions.  A series of trading arrangements that were made between the Dominions and Britain during this difficult decade were seen to bring a satisfactory end to many of the economic problems that arose.  However, the 1930’s were to produce a much more troubling problem.  The Nazi’s led by Adolf Hitler were the instigator’s of this threat, a threat which culminated in the Second World War.

        This war saw an even more far reaching effects on the British Commonwealth than could previously been thought possible.  “Under the impact of war the British people…ceased to believe in empire”[7].  Just as during the First World War the population of the Empire began to lose faith in the ideals of Imperialism.  The war that had begun in 1939 did not come to an end until May 1945.  The people of the British Empire had truly suffered through what was known in Ireland as the Emergency.  “The Second World War had been fought to save democracy and freedom from the evils of Nazism…..In the aftermath, it became harder to justify the continuation of empires”[8].  The war had begun on the premise of protecting the rights of one small country, namely Poland.  How could it be justifiable for Empire’s to remain in control of smaller nations following this?

        The foreign policy of the formerly colonising power of Britain in the post war years was mainly the withdrawal form her imperial status.  The world had changed so dramatically in light of the Second World War that tit would have been virtually impossible for any other way forward.  There was a “ ‘revolution of expectations’… The days of ignorance, illiteracy and superstition were rapidly passing away”[9] were over for those countries which had been under the rule of the British Empire.  Many of the ‘white’colonies of the Empire had already achieved levels of self-determination-Australia, South Africa, Ireland…. Now it became the time for other colonies of the Empire to seek this level for themselves.  The first colony to gain her independence was the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the Empire-India.  On 15th August 1947 India was granted her independence from Britain.  The country was separated in two to try to abate the religious problems that a united India would face.  India was to remain a Hindu state and a new state was created in the former northern area of the country.  This new state was predominantly Moslem and became known under the name Pakistan.  Both these states, though independent from British rule decided to remain part of the British Commonwealth.  Burma was granted independence in January 1948 and opted to follow a different path by remaining outside the Commonwealth.  In 1960 Cyprus became independent with Malta following suit in 1964.  Egypt and the Sudan left British control in the early part of 1956.  Africa also saw a number of colonies achieve independence from their coloniser.  In 1951 the Gold Coast, know known as Ghana became independent.  The 1960’s saw a number of states become independent, including Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Kenya and Zanzibar.  Though there states of independence were not achieved easily they all succeeded in their goal.  Decolonisation continued in Africa right up until 1980 when the former Southern Rhodesia became Zimbabwe.  In 1949 Ireland left the Commonwealth and finally achieved the independent state it had fought so long for.  However, the northern part of the country was kept under British control and is now known as Northern Ireland.

        British rule in Asia and Africa was nearly obliterated during the post World War Two period.  The great Empire’s had now all fallen-Turkey, Germany, Austria-Hungry and finally Britain.  “ Imperial expansion had itself been inspired by a blend of political ideas and fused nationalism and loyalty to the monarch.”[10]  In the post World War 1 era the development of nationalism within the colonies, which previously were not seen as a destructive force became the downfall of an Empire.  In 1815 Britain had controlled North America, India, parts of South Africa and South America, Ireland and parts of Australia.  This control spread dramatically up until 1914.  A short 50 years later the Empire lay in ruins and the former supremacy and power of the Empire was no more.