Why did the british empire become unprofitable suddenly after world war 2? How was it profitable before it and what changed?
>>18674681>Why did the british empire become unprofitable suddenly after world war 2?because all their colonies were third world shitholes that couldn't afford higher taxes Britain would've needed to cover the expense of their post-war recovery while their economy was stagnating >How was it profitable before it...?because Britain wasn't fighting a World War or recovering from one so taxes within their colonies could remain low while the Crown extracted them for profit
>>18674681The USA made dismantling the British Empire a condition of entering the war. Not sure why this info is so widely suppressed.
>>18674692if that's all it took for Britain to dismantle their entire empire, then they didn't deserve their empire in the first place
>>18674681I can understand giving up India because it is a worthless shithole full of rebellious Indians but why the fuck would you give up Malaya? Of all the fucking colonies to give up. Malaya was loyal. Malaya was profitable.
>>18674681They were unable to defend it, and without the US, Hitler woulda got crowned in Buckingham Palace. Those paupers weren't an empire, they were a potempkin village.
>>18674697Britain did not give a flying fuck about the Empire by this point. The parts that mattered, Australia, Canada, India etc were already on route to independence. Britain was not going to rise losing WW2 over an empty shithole desert in Africa full of niggers who couldn't read
>>18674805Amerimutt education
>>18674681incrementalistic communism took over british parliament
>>18674805is this before or after berlin is reduced to radioactive ash?
>>18674800>India is a worthless shithole/his/ at its finest lmao India was the British Empire, everything else was just added on to defend the maritime route to India.
>>18674681>Soviet Union agitating for colonial independence movements >Indian Navy already mutinying and Indian Army on the brink of mutiny >UK itself massively indebted and population exhausted by war >Dominions like Canada and Australia resigning themselves to the USA's sphere of influence (see Curtin's own speech about Australia's future) >USA itself refusing to help maintain the Empire >UK spending massive amounts of its already strained resources on its occupation of Germany and preparation for NATO/Anti-Soviet commitment in Europe + Nuclear weapons development British government saw the writing on the wall and knew it was fucked under these circumstances. Better cut ties before it got ugly (see: Portugal in Angola, France in Algeria)
>>18674873Was this not foreseen in 1939? If the empire was so fragile why knowingly gamble it all away?What was the logic?
>>18674897It was forseen since the 1920s, the issue is that there's really nothing they could do about it really.Massacre Indians en masse? Lol congrats on losing India then, the very thing they wanted to keep. Shit like Armistar was a shitshow even with the British public itself.Ask Canada to resist falling into the US sphere of influence? Fucking how, logistically it's just impossible for Canada to not be trade dependant on the US and Canada's elite wouldn't bankrupt themselves trying to desperately cling onto a more British dominant economy over the influx of American capital. Let Germany just run rampant in Europe and do whatever the fuck it wants? Great now you'll be at the mercy of a Continental hegemon who at some point in the future can fuck you over (and Nazi Germany had established itself a precedent of being untrustworthy and shamelessly backtracking on previous agreement) Prevent the Russian Revolution entirely? Already tried that and failed, ain't nobody in the British working class signing up for a massive war to topple the USSR (a country that the British workers were actually sympathetic to until the 1950s).The logic was to win a war in order to manage whatever came next on their own terms, not to passively wait for the rest of the world to make those decisions for them and potentially *really* fuck the UK up. For all the doomposting about how Britain supposedly became a Mordor hellscape ghetto without muh empire, everyone seemingly forgets that Quality of Life for the average Tommy probably peaked in the 1960s when the NHS was at its peak and nobody gave a fuck about African colonies becoming independent
>>18674865The bongs couldn't feed themselves in 1940, lad. What others might do is immaterial.
>>18674870>defend the maritime route to IndiaLike when the bong navy ran like scalded dogs from the Jap navy, along that route?
>>18674910So, in other words, the conclusion would seem to be that the empire was ruined by WWI.In which case, the question is simply pushed back to 1914. Did no one in the British establishment foresee that involvement in WWI might be deleterious for British imperial interests? It seems the 20th century is just one long list of miscalculation after another. The priority, it seems, should have been checking the power of the US or at least ensuring the bear isn't given a chance to awaken (as WWI and II provided). Why were they so incompetent in terms of understanding long-term consequences?You can see why conspiracies get thrown around over the downfall of the British Empire and the motives of its leaders. Long-term planning seems absent.
>>18674915>The bongs couldn't feed themselves in 1940, ladBritain hasn't fed itself since the 1700s, no shit. It was kept supplied by imports in protected convoys, hence German submarine crews having a worse mortality rate than lung cancer. >>18674920Yep exactly! Good example as to why the Empire wasn't lasting for much longer when it had to confront an industrialized rival power contesting it in the region while another rival was at their doorstep.>>18674924Well no shit, you can ask the same question about every single empire/state which participated in WWI, it was a disasterous mess for the entirety of Europe and historians have spent 100+ years dissecting it for that same reason. The Russian Tsar's cabinet didn't intend on destroying the monarchy and igniting a revolution, the German Kaiser didn't think he was going to be running away from his own troops into exile, and France wasn't actually banking on losing an enormous chunk of its male demographic in the carnage of the trenches.
>>18674910>It was forseen since the 1920s, the issue is that there's really nothing they could do about it really.It was known before the end of the 19th century. Not accepted, but known. They were withdrawing military assets from the Far East. Too expensive, and their economy was already declining, vs Germany particularly. The Boers, few in number, sent their logistics into chaos. Rampant incompetence in government. What do? Join frogs and rooshians and commit suicide.It was dead man walking in 1900. Not accepted, but known.
>>18674931>imports in protected convoysThey weren't protected, the U-boats were killing them and without the US, THEY STARVE.
>>18674681It was a bureaucratic mess stacked with retarded laws from the mercantilist era. Reforming their economy across the entire world would've taken a lot of time and money while trying to avoid commie backed colonial uprisings. In the end, America was going to surpass them economically and end up dominating the third world anyway.
>>18675027>the U-boats were killing themALRIGHT LETS PLAY A GAMELAST 3 DIGITS selects your Uboot, tell us about your horrible fate in a watery grave!ROLLING
>>18675187https://uboat.net/boats/listing.html>187>Sunk on 4 February 1943 in the North Atlantic east of Newfoundland, in position 50.12N, 36.35W, by depth charges from the British destroyers HMS Vimy and HMS Beverley. 9 dead and 45 survivors.Holy shit 45 survivors is crazy, I should start gambling with this kind of luck.
One time there was a giant pile of wealth, perhaps 3 trillion dollars of this thing called wealth, stacked and stored away in India but the British stole it all by building railroads and by WW2 the entire pile of "wealth" had been transported to Britain.
>>18674681>suddenly
>>18675187Playing.
>>18674681India was the cash cow
>>18674681India, Canada, Egypt, Malaysia, and the Gulf States were never unprofitable, and the only ones who try to argue this are britbongs butthurt they lost everything and need to post-justify it. The British are a people physiologically incapable of admitting their blunders
>>18674681It wasn't? Literally the only 'unprofitable' colonies were the ones in the middle of Africa.
>>18674681The British empire was never unprofitable. This is a 21st century lie meant to justify America's betrayal of their Anglo "ally" after WW2.
>>18674681Why do you think Britain had 2.5 million people in 1500, and over 50 million people in 1950?England's unprecedented population growth was sustained through global colonization and resource-extraction. Otherwise they would be about as relevant as Iceland.So no, the British empire wasn't unprofitable. I've only ever heard Americans and butthurt bongs try to argue this
>>18674681If it was unprofitable then why has England entered a state of permanent decline ever since losing their empire?>But muh 1990s/2000s prosperityLiterally just a brief bubble caused by the collapse of the USSR and opening of China for capitalist investment
>>18675297>>18675298>>18675305Yet all that wealth rarely ever reached the common British people.
>>18675297>>18675298>>18675305>>18675306>>18675309The most obvious samefag in the history of samefagging.
>>18675311So? We measure wealth by the overall nation's wealth, not how well-distributed it is.You may as well argue ancient Egypt wasn't wealthy for its time because of how the hecking poors were treated
>>18675314>no argument
>>18675316Then what is all that wealth even good for you fucking Jew??
>>18675330When did I say it's good? I made no morality-based statements, just objective ones.
>>18675311Not sure what this proves.Britain has always been a shitty country but they used to be a powerful influential shitty country and now they're a weak irrelevant shitty country. You could argue it doesn't really matter how powerful or influential one's nation is, and there's some truth to that I suppose
>>18674681Because USA could produce all the shit that British Empire was doing for half the cost since they didn't have exploit third world colonies, as they had all the resources and skilled workforce at home, combined with American system of manufacturing and advanced industry, it allowed them to massively outpace UKUSA pretty much destoryed British Empire, but unlike /pol/pedophiles think, it wasn't some Jewish conspiracy or even a goal in itself, it was pure capitalism, the better system earned more profits and crushed the outdated competition
>>18675340>or even a goal in itselfExcept it factually was FDR's goal. His postwar vision was for America, Russia, and China to divide the world amongst themselves. The British got ripped off badly
>>18675342Nope, neither FDR or Truman did jack shit for Africa, India and other British colonies
>>18675349Another lie. Why do I even bother engaging?It factually was an American goal to rid India of British influence.
>>18675340>it's not da joos it's da american capitalists!Ok thanks for clarifying, Schloime. I'll make sure to avoid antisemitic remarks in the future
>>18675359It was FDR personal goal, which he choosed to back down from after Churchil got mad at him and FDR decided that keeping the alliance is more important I repeat for your 70 IQ brain to understand, USA didn't do jackshit for India
>>18675364I'm not suprised that your child grooming brain thinks that every single person in USA who owned a bussines was Jewish, I guess you think that Europeans are to retarded to do that
>>18675366No one was afraid of Cuckchill lmao. He let Bretton Woods go through which was the final nail in the coffin for Britain's empire.Roosevelt's goal to dismantle imperialism remained consistent and later administrations (Eisenhower) continued it
>>18675368>bussinesI thought Jews are the chosen people? Making spelling errors is out of character for your divine personage.
>>18675371>He let Bretton Woods go through which was the final nail in the coffin for Britain's empire.So exeactly what I was talking about? The better system outcompeting the outdated one? Thanks for admiting that I was right
>>18675375I thought pedophiles like you should be shoot yet you are still breathing inside your mom's house
>>18675377The only claim you've made was quibble that American capitalists aren't Jewish or something, when Jews were never part of the argument until your two-celled Hebraic mind required you to bring it up
>>18675380>should be shootKek maybe you're an Indian only pretending to be Jewish. My apologies
>>18675383I never said that tho? Are you suffering from schizophrenia in addition to your attraction to children?
>>18675386stay away from children, predator freak
>>18675305America had no obligation to keep another empire alive, your fault for losing the Battle of France in 1940
>>18675396Amerisharts seemingly have no obligation to keep their own empire alive either
>>18675396Actually America did bend over backward to try and salvage the French Empire in Vietnam. It's solely the British whom America have undermined at every turn
>>18675399there is no "obligation" retard, if something works and brings profit then it stays, evolution doesn't care about your feelings
>>18674681It was never really all that profitable (India was the most profitable and it was downhill from there). The UK was also extremely bankrupt and economically reeling from WW2. Rationing was famously only lifted in the mid fifties. And the facility with which ol' blighty gave up its empire is really exaggerated, ngl. Sure they didn't pull a France/Netherlands/Portugal but they still fought several colonial wars throughout the 1950s and gave up their scores of lesser possesions piece-meal throughout last century. They technically still hold many of those. All lot of it also has to do with a raise in relatively free-trade in the post-war making holding a billion plantation islands full of coolies more trouble than it was worth.And obviously the U.S and the soviet Union were both pushing for decolonization hard. And the public at home was also rather tired of overseas antics. British pretensions of empire were broken in half after Suez and things were set after that.P.S: This map is terrible.
>>18675309Because the UK made terrible economic decisions (from a starting point of near ruin after WW2) it likely would have still made if it decided to fight several more emergencies and drag around a squillion islands full of coolies who want rights. The place was already pretty under the weather during the inter-war period after WW1. Made worse by the great depression and WW2. Britannia was not a glowing land of unparalleled prosperity while its empire was the biggest it would ever get which then turned into the squalid island of austerity and labor strikes upon losing it.
Also, Britain simply did not have the guts to go full retard in its colonial wars. They were not motivated by residual anger from WW2 (Netherlands, France) or the senile imaginings of a dictator (Portugal).
>>18674940Oh man, this reminds me so much of the US today.Sad...>>18675342>ChinaWas China already relevant enough on the world stage in 1940 for FDR to take it seriously?
