The Last Thousand Days of the British Empire: The Demise of a Superpower, 1944-47

• Book ID: 126194677
• Publisher: Penguin
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 85 KB
• Category: Standards

✦ Synopsis

'I have not become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.'Winston Churchill's famous statement in November 1942, just as the tide of the Second World War was beginning to turn, pugnaciously proclaimed his loyalty to the world-wide institution which he had served devotedly for most of his life. The majority of the British people, who believed they were fighting the war to beat the Germans and preserve the Empire, shared his view. Yet less than five years after Churchill's trenchant speech, and despite -- apparently -- winning the war, the British Empire effectively ended with Indian Independence in August 1947 and the end of the British Mandate in Palestine in May 1948. How did this rapid change of fortune come about?In January 1945, just before the conference at Yalta between Churchill, Stalin and Truman, where the disposition of so much of the post-war world was made, Lord Wavell, the Viceroy of India wrote in his diary:...

✦ Subjects

История