In 1875, when Britain acquired a majority share of the Suez Canal, it already possessed a worldwide empire on which the sun never set. Conquests between then and World War I made the empire even bigger, backed by a strong industrial economy and a faith that imperialism was good and right. For many Britons, such as Winston Churchill, possession of the empire was a source of pride and an essential part of being British, though there were already a few, especially in the labor movement, who rejected the idea that they should dominate other peoples.
Historian Patrick Allitt describes how the British Empire reached its zenith during and just after World War I, but how it then began to decline, partly because of critics such as Gandhi and doubts about whether domination of other peoples was justifiable. After World War II the Labour government of Clement Attlee began to break up the empire, giving independence to India, Israel, and then to Britain’s many colonies in Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia. British forces were humiliated during the Suez Crisis of 1956 when the United States refused to join them in chastising the Egyptian leader Nasser. Historians have disagreed ever since about whether the British Empire was, on balance, a force for good or evil. They agree, however, that its political and cultural consequences were immense, helping to make English the world’s default language and turning Britain itself into a multicultural and multiracial society.
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