How did the invincible British Empire come into decline?

The British Empire, which consists of its territories, dominions, colonies, mandates and other areas administered by the British, is regarded by the international community and historians as the largest colonial empire in the history of the world, with an area of about 34 million square kilometers. The British Empire is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest empire in history.

It is generally believed that the Glorious Revolution in England in 1688 overthrew feudal rule, and in the "Bill of Rights" promulgated in 1689, the royal power was clearly restricted in the form of law, and the constitutional monarchy was established, which provided unprecedented productive forces for Britain and made its economy, military strength, science and technology, and culture develop rapidly.

The seizure of all of Canada from France at the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763 marked Britain's emergence as the undisputed maritime hegemon. After defeating Napoleon's First French Empire in 1815, it dominated international affairs for a century, a period known as the "British Rule".

In 1914 Britain entered the First World War. In 1921, after its victory, the former German colonies were seized under the Paris Peace Conference, and the territory reached 34 million square kilometers, covering a quarter of the world's landmass.

It is the largest country in the history of mankind, with territories covering seven continents and four oceans, including Antarctica, and there is always a place where the sun shines on the territory of the British Empire, so it is known as the "empire on which the sun never sets".

The British Empire reached its peak at the beginning of the 20th century, and after the First World War, its territorial expansion reached its limit, and when the Second World War ended, the huge loss of China's power during the war appeared, and the rapid rise of the other two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, divided the existing interests of Britain, coupled with the rise of global nationalist movements, a series of factors combined to make the British Empire gradually disintegrate, and finally transformed into the current British Commonwealth.

The transformation of the British Empire from an empire to the Commonwealth began with the dominions of Canada (1867), Australia (1901), New Zealand (1907), Newfoundland (1907) and the Union of South Africa (1910). The leaders of these new nations, together with British politicians, attended the Colonial Conference, which had been held regularly since 1887.

At the beginning of the 20th century, rising nationalist sentiment, combined with the influence of the United States and the Soviet Union, made the British Empire increasingly difficult to maintain. At the same time, the suzerainty became more and more interested in the affairs of its own country and neighboring countries, especially after World War II.

Britain was eventually forced to accept this new situation, transforming the imperial system into a loose Commonwealth, and Britain was transformed from a global power to the regional power it is today.

It has been argued that compared with the rule of France, Spain, Portugal and other countries, the British method of rule was undoubtedly more conducive to maintaining control of the colonies for a long time, and making them willing to maintain political and economic ties with Britain after independence.

Because after the first industrial revolution, Britain started to colonize and plunder the world, got many colonies, and invested a lot of costs, but it was precisely because of such rapid expansion that more and more regions rebelled against Britain, and finally Britain began to slowly decline.

Because the British Empire was overextended, it was in decline, and the industrialized class of the British Empire at the time could not keep up with the expansion of the British Empire.

The main reason is that the British colonies have been constantly independent, which has reduced the wealth of **, and secondly, the domestic industrial technology has been slow to update and backward.

I believe that the reason for the decline is the pride and arrogance of the rulers, and the result of a series of factors such as their isolation from the country.

When it comes to modern powers, it is nothing more than those in Europe and the United States, Britain, France, the United States and Germany, and Japan in East Asia, which is an exception. The history of the capital powers is very long, Spain and Portugal were the first to have maritime hegemony, at that time, except for the West, the rest of the world was dominated by agricultural civilization, Spain and Portugal relied on sea power to control the maritime trade routes, and the hegemony arose, and then hundreds of years of colonial conquest.

Feng Shui took turns, when it was the turn of Britain and France, the world pattern was no longer controlled by sea power, Britain and France caught up with the industrial revolution, the national strength increased unprecedentedly, people found that the influence of science and technology is so great, more advanced capitalism came into being. Bloody capitalism was linked to colonial methods, and Britain and France could continue to plunder precious resources from the colonies, and then force their own products to sell them, making more and more profits and making their countries stronger than ever.

With the evolution of industry, some colonies that were previously colonized by Britain and France also developed and even got rid of oppression, such as the United States. After the unification of the North and the South, the United States perfectly caught up with the second industrial revolution, and in the era of electrification, the United States was able to develop rapidly, until 1890, the economy of the United States was the largest in the world. In addition, such as the newly unified Germany, Germany also ushered in the spring of the industrial revolution, relying on industry, this rapid development is very obvious, before World War I, Germany has become the leader of the European economy, before this one-handed British and French have no threat to it, but at that time Germany was not able to catch up with the colonial boom, the development encountered a bottleneck.

At this point, the British Empire has embarked on the path of rise and decline as it likes, and now even the afterglow is almost invisible.

During World War II, Germany, the United States, and the Soviet Union relied on advanced industries to leave Britain and France far behind. In the end, the world pattern changed again, and the struggle for hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union began, while Britain and France could only be forced to follow in the footsteps of the United States, and the former hegemon became a second-rate country.

The reason for the transformation of the Anglo-French hegemony is that the needs of its development model are not satisfied, and the Anglo-French development model relies on colonialism, colonial materials, British and French goods, and colonial labor, which needs to have a perfect connection. For example, in China, Britain could transport iron, **, plunder wealth from China, sell its own goods ** to China, and even build factories in China, relying on extremely cheap local labor to continue to produce wealth. Why is this method not working now, because Britain and France have lost their hegemony, and they are not far ahead in the competition of industry.

Today's globalization and the emergence of the European Union are undoubtedly another threat to hegemony, and the United States is quite a shadow of Britain before World War I. Therefore, we can see that the United States has always maintained its hegemony through various means, in order to avoid losing the advantage of hegemony.

The first is the success of the industrial revolution and the failure of the industrial revolution. The British Empire was the beneficiary of the first industrial revolution. Since the Napoleonic Wars were raging on the European continent during the outbreak of the First Industrial Revolution, the British Isles stopped and there was an environment for peaceful development.

Officially, the British Empire was larger.

The Mongol Empire (1206 1635), a large empire spanning the Eurasian continent in history, was the result of the expansion of the Great Mongol Empire, extending from the Pacific Ocean in the east, the Arctic Ocean in the north, the Black Sea coast in the west (Hungary at its peak), and the South China Sea in the south. It occupies 22% of the world's land area, more than 1 5, twice the size of the Soviet Union in the 20th century, and twice the size of present-day Russia, ruling over 100 million people. The Orientals believed the empire to be about 34 million square kilometers, and it is now officially recognized as 33 million square kilometers, but some areas are disputed, such as the Northern Frontier of the Mongol Empire in the Historical Atlas of China, which reached the Kara Sea.

The other layout is as follows:

The British Empire refers to the great empire composed of the British mainland and its dominions, colonies, territories, trusts and protectorates, and is the largest country in history and the largest global colonial empire. The empire reached its peak in the early 19th century, with a population of about 400 to 500 million, a quarter of the world's population at the time; The territory is about 33.67 million square kilometers, accounting for a quarter of the world's total land area. The empire, following the Spanish Empire in the 16th century, was known as the "empire on which the sun never sets".

After decolonization in the 20th century, its overseas territories gradually became independent, and most of them formed a peace organization with Britain after independence, the British Commonwealth. The formation of the British Empire was the result of more than 300 years**, immigration and military conquest, as well as peaceful commercial and diplomatic activity. The layout is as follows:

Why isn't that the case in the United States? In the final analysis, it is all the fault of the war, and if a world war does not break out again, will Japan be able to drag the United States into the water? I am afraid that if no world war breaks out again, no country will be able to surpass the United States, and there is a reason that if two world wars do not break out, there will be no country that can replace Britain.

I think there are several main reasons:

First. Britain is the pioneer of world capitalism, but it does not mean that it will always be ahead, so in terms of system, other countries follow the example of Britain to build a new capitalist system and develop their own economies according to their own realities, and if they do it right, it is possible to catch up with and surpass Britain.

Second. In the early stage of capitalism, the capitalist international market had not yet been formed and was underdeveloped, so the imperfect market could only be maintained and developed by expanding the land area where consumers were located and plundering raw materials. When emerging capitalist countries such as Germany, the United States, and Japan emerged and old capitalist countries such as France caught up, the international market was basically perfected, and a stable raw material and consumer group had been formed.

At this time, the competition between countries depends on the strength of the technology, capital, and other aspects of each country's industrial system. At this time, the British capitalists were no longer very optimistic about the industry that played an important role in the country's prosperity, but more interested in the overseas ** that was easier to profit, and a large amount of capital outflowed to the colonies led to a general lack of funds in the domestic industry, and it was impossible to update technology, and its industrial system gradually tended to age. At the same time, the emerging capitalist countries such as Germany, the United States, and Japan did not have so many colonies, so they were trying to update their technology in order to gain more market share and income.

Britain has not been stronger but has begun to lag behind, while other countries are emerging.

Third. The blow of two world wars. The two world wars were basically based on Europe, and the long-term war greatly depleted Britain's national strength, and many of its original spheres of influence and economic and political influence were replaced by the United States in the war, which is also a very important reason.

Fourth, the independence movement of the colonies. The independence of the colonies also dealt a heavy blow to the declining British Empire, which lost a large number of its former raw material sources and overseas markets.

Its own decline and external shocks led to the decline of the British Empire.

Generally speaking, the decline of Britain is recognized as occurring in the 100-year period from 1850 to 1950. So much has happened in these hundred years, and many events have been closely linked to the fate of the British Empire. But I personally believe that the main line of Britain's decline in the past hundred years is still relatively obvious.

In chronological order, I summarize the "three seconds" of the British Empire:

The Second Industrial Revolution (1870-1914): Bessemer Converter Steelmaking + AC – Railroad + Telegraph – Rise of the Continental States.

Second Boer War (1899-1902): British victory – the center of gravity shifts back to Europe – the colonies stop expanding and their control wanes.

World War II (1939-1945): Threat of Homeland Invasion – Lend-Lease Act – Complete dismantling of the colonial system.

These three events constituted precisely the beginning—acceleration—culmination—of Britain's decline.

The main thing is "a colony that becomes a colony and a colony that loses".

The vast colonies brought great benefits to Britain, but at the same time they were a burden and the beginning of degeneration.

In the second industrial revolution, Britain was reluctant to adopt new technologies and equipment, and its economic development was slow. Why?

Because 1Britain has a vast overseas colony, and it can make huge profits without updating technology, which leads to laziness, lack of progress, and lack of innovation.

2.A large amount of capital has been invested overseas, so that there is a lack of sufficient capital for industrial development.

3.The United States took advantage of the Second Industrial Revolution and developed rapidly to catch up with and surpass Britain. Britain lost its monopoly as the "factory of the world".

4.The colonial and semi-colonial economies developed slowly due to their long-term repression (do you think how much industrial output the colonies could have?). Coupled with the gradual collapse of the colonial system, the Dominion secession movement intensified.

The potential of the British Empire is unlimited, and if the British Empire is still there, it will certainly be able to compete with the current United States.

After World War II, the vitality was greatly damaged, and the colonies became independent one after another.

And then there was no then.

Britain will not easily go to extinction before 2040, because the British will not easily go to the road of extinction, and the British brain has unlimited potential.