Kirill Lazarev To what extent WW1 was a turning point for British Empire ?

WW1 was a biggest conflict in the world history that people have ever experienced up until the WW2. WW1 showed how bad the war can be. This war taught leaders from all over the world a lesson that will be remembered for long-long years in the world history as one of the most scary wars ever fought. Costs of WW1 where uncountable. Only Britain itself spent 1/3 of its accumulated wealth. Other countries went bankrupt during fighting and so had to become part of Germany. The result of this war was that in Britain the question of Empire was asked more often, because and the government were now unsure whether it is needed. This was due to many reasons that were caused by the war and he main of them are: the war itself, economic difficulties, British attitudes towards empire and in Britain and geostrategic reasons that mainly about colonies. During the war and straight after it end, Britain experienced very big problems with money and the price-tag for the war so high that even, at that time, most powerful and economically developed country, could not really afford to fight it. During the war Britain spent 1/3 of its accumulated profit, what is enormous amount of money, considering how economically strong Britain was. The after effect of the war was that Britain lost its place of the world leading economic power and London was no longer the worlds financial center. After the war Britain and its Empire became a debtor to the USA, which is , by the way, now had the worlds financial center Wall Street in New York. During the war, the situation in country was so bad that with DORA, rationing was introduced what led to a decline on the living standards that at that time were one of the highest in the world. Also Britain seen increase in trade unions that grew in order to protect workers right in a country, where longer hours were introduced in the process of war and many rights were restricted. The costs of the empire were so high that government started to question if that they really can afford to hold such a big empire. The capacity of its capabilities were undermined and so various promises to its colonies were given saying that soon they will get dominion status. Due to the economic position, after and during the war, Britain and its empire felt so many restrains, that it totally changed the attitudes of government and people towards empire. Firstly, when the war began, national pride grew because imperial troops participated in fighting against evil enemy. No for long, though. Straight after and during the war itself, government faced great opposition from its people who put a lot of pressure on them to reduce spending on defense and focus on domestic problems. Through out the history british people were very proud of being British, but jingoism after the war was never the same. Nation that once was culturally arrogant now faced pacifism among the population Never again . This ultimately lead to the decline in the imperialism among people and government. This is because holding empire at thatq time was really expensive and at that economic position, that Britain was after WW1, holding empire was like a luxury. Britons protests against military actions led to the decline in the spending for the military what led to decline in a number of people serving in the National Service. This, of course, led to the geostrategic problems when it was to do with empire which needed a lot of men in order not only to keep control of it, but also keep it safe and protect products it produced when shipping through dangerous seas. This became increasingly difficult and so question about empire was one of the most important and so needed to be solved as quickly as possible. Geostrategic problems that arose straight after the war for Britain and its empire were massively important. Because rule expanded into new areas after war was won ( German colonies now became British) and budget for military was decreased, it became extremely difficult to control the Empire. After world war, what happened to empire is now

known as the imperial overstretch, what means the ability to efficiently control colonies. Even though there was no short term threat from Germany, britains Navy was greatly weakened after signing of the Washington Naval treaty in 1922. It states that Britain abandon 20 year treaty with the Japan. Also Britain was no longer able to control the Pacific, because it is no longer the greatest naval power due to the limitations that signing of the document brought in. It stated that for every 5 Britain ships, US had 5 and Japan only 3. This was not a very good situation to be in, because during this time, British Empire was at it largest and so required big navy and a lot of troops to control it. During this time loyalty was weak from dominions and colonies and so it was a turning point, as Britain had to act and put into life promises that were made during the war for dominions. So to conclude, it is possible to say that World War One was a turning point for a British Empire, because it has seen great changes in all aspects of life such economy, attitude towards Britain itself and so on. It is also can be said that WW1 was a turning point fro the Empire because it kick-started the movement in colonies towards independence and self-governmnet. Also ww1 led to a decline in the position Britain as the greatest military power as well as economic. This ultimately led a change in world position of Britain and its empire and so it is, in addition to what was said earlier, can be said that ww1 was a turning point for the empire. On the other hand, it can be said that it was not a turning point because despite all the fact that say opposite, because Britain still had one pf the largest navies in the world, had a lot of influence on international problems and its empire was at the largest and with some of the loyal dominions it can be said that Britain remained some power for it self.