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Britain in the 20th century

The harsh realities of maintaining a vast land empire, included the near extermination of aboriginals in Australia and the exploitation of Africans. Nonetheless British people in the early 20th century believed their empire was one of liberty, based on free trade and good government.

As Britain’s involvement with its empire increased so did demands for greater independence. This was quickly granted to some of the white colonies: Australia, Canada and New Zealand in the 20th century. However granting greater freedom proved far more difficult for Ireland and even more problematic for India. It would take thirty years of campaigns and protests and World War Two before India achieved independence in 1947. After attempting to build a new empire in Africa in the early 1950s, the British Government realised the empire project was finished.

The Commonwealth, which was designed to create some unity between Britain’s old imperial possessions, had a profound effect on Britain in the second half of the 20th century. Thousands of people from the Caribbean, the Indian subcontinent and Africa decided to migrate to the heart of the old Empire - many saw this as ‘the mother country’.

British national identity was reformed during this period, however without an empire and a global military presence, Britain struggled to find a new role in the world. Membership of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973 brought Britain back into European affairs and as the EEC became the European Union (EU) in 1992, the number of people leaving Britain to settle in Europe increased and Britain became home to many European migrants, many from Eastern Europe, in the years that followed.