Why did Britain gradually give up its colonies?

Reasons why Britain gave up its colonies:

First, the struggle of the British colonial people

Britain's crazy plunder in the colonies brought great disasters to the colonial people. At the beginning of the 20th century, world nationalism rose, British colonists met with fierce resistance from colonial people, and British colonial rule was gradually disintegrating.

Second, the impact of the economic crisis.

The economic crisis of 1947 forced Clement Attlee's Labor government to give up maintaining Britain's status as a world-class power and accept the rise of the United States. Britain must also deal with the relations with other European countries, but the distorted relationship between Britain and the European continent has not been completely solved so far. Unable to continue colonial rule.

Third, the two world wars greatly weakened Britain's strength.

1940 when Nazi Germany attacked the British mainland, although the British army struggled to repel the Germans, the continuous bombing of major British cities such as London by the German Air Force also caused a big blow to the British economy. Nazi Germany occupied the British Channel Islands from 1940 to 1945.

By 1945, before Germany surrendered, Britain basically relied on Canada and the United States for war materials, which led to the increase of British economic dependence on the United States after World War II. The world war caused Britain's national strength to decline, and the Dominion gained more decision-making power. 1942, Australian Prime Minister john curtin ordered the Australian soldiers stationed in British Burma to be repatriated to fight for Australia.

Fourth, the rise of the world decolonization movement after World War II.

In the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, the post-war decolonization movement was realized at an unprecedented speed, and Britain almost never tried to resist this wave.

1On August 5, 947, India became independent, which was the victory of the 40-year anti-colonial struggle of the Indian National Congress. Since then, Britain has lost its most important overseas colony. However, India's independence is at the cost of splitting India and Pakistan, in order to avoid infighting between Muslims and Hindus, but it also leads to long-term tension between India and Pakistan. After India's independence, the whole world set off a wave of decolonization, and the British Empire began to collapse.

Myanmar also gained independence in 1948 and chose not to join the Commonwealth; Then came the independence of Sri Lanka (1948) and Malaya (1957). 1948 Britain ended its mandate in Palestine and Israel was founded. There are also many former British colonial countries that have become independent.

Extended data

The development of Britain today

As an important trading entity, economic power and financial center, Britain is the fifth largest economic system in the world and one of the richest, most developed and highest living standards countries in the world.

In the past three decades, the government has drastically reduced state-owned assets and slowed down the development of social welfare projects. /kloc-In the 0/8th century, British native wheat began to be exported to cheap wheat in North America, giving up planting a lot of wheat and importing a lot of grains from the United States, and gradually turned to dairy farming. Dairy farming was relatively concentrated, with a high degree of mechanization and very high benefits: 65,438+0% of the working population could meet about 60% of the food demand.

The main industries in Britain are: mining, metallurgy, chemicals, machinery, electronics, electronic instruments, automobiles, aviation, food, beverages, tobacco, textiles, paper making, printing, publishing and construction. Bio-pharmaceutical, aviation and national defense are the focus of British industrial research and development, and they are also the most innovative and competitive industries in Britain.

Like many developed countries, with the continuous development of service industry, Britain's manufacturing industry has been shrinking since the 1980s, and this situation was aggravated by two economic recessions in the 1980s and early 1990s. The textile industry is the most depressed in British manufacturing, but electronic and optical equipment, man-made fibers and chemicals, especially the pharmaceutical industry, are still strong.

The service industry, including financial insurance, retail, tourism and business services, is the pillar industry of the British economy. As of August 20 14, the output value of British service industry accounted for about three quarters of GDP. In 20 12, the total service trade in Britain was 305.85 billion pounds, or about 486.3 billion dollars.

As of August, 20 14, Britain's tourism revenue ranked fifth in the world, only next to the United States, Spain, France and Italy. It is one of the most important economic sectors in Britain, with about 2.7 million employees, accounting for 9. 1% of the employed population. In 20 12, the number of British tourists reached 3 108 million, and the income reached/kloc-0.86 billion pounds, about 29.5 billion dollars.

Baidu Encyclopedia-British Empire

Baidu Encyclopedia-UK (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)