Re: The decline of The British Empire
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Obviously, the death knell was WWII. Britain was fighting for its life and suffered severe economic reprecussions, so they couldn't spare the troops to keep their colonies under control. I'm not sure, but I think there might have been a moral component as well: that the Brits believed it was wrong to subjugate other countires.
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Mmmm, no. Troops in WWII were not a major issue, thanks partly to conscription; all of the independences happened after WWII, although they temporarilty lost some colonies to the Japanese. As for them not believing in subjugating other people, do us a favour. They had the biggest Empire the world ever saw and brutally put down resistance to their rule, both non-violent and violent, well into the 1960s. Simply put, the Empire wasn't profitable and they couldn't afford it, and things like Suez and the spread of nationalisms deprived them of political clout to enforce their view of things.
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