Before the end of World War II, Britain always claimed? Empire when the sun never sets? You know, this is no exaggeration, because when Britain is the most powerful, can it really be done? The sun never sets? . As early as the end of 15, Britain defeated Spain. At this point, Britain, an empire that never fell, appeared. Until World War II, Britain was the most powerful country in the world, because at that time Britain had territory in 24 time zones on the earth.
When Britain was the most powerful, it controlled about 34 million square kilometers of territory, accounting for almost 1/4 of the total surface area. The famous economist jevons once said? The plains of North America and Russia are our cornfields, Canada and the Baltic Sea are our forest areas, Australia is our pasture, Peru is our silver mine, South Africa is our gold mine, India is our plantation, East India is our sugarcane, coffee and spice plantation, and the United States is our cotton plantation. ? Therefore, it was precisely because Britain was an empire that the sun never set at that time that jevons had such great confidence to say such a thing.
But what many people didn't expect was that Britain finally responded to that sentence, and the wind and water turned. Thirty years, Hedong Hexi. Although Britain controlled the world for hundreds of years, these places mentioned by jevons later broke away from Britain and became independent countries one by one. Among these independent countries, one developed later than Britain. This country is America. The two world wars made the United States sell weapons at both ends, and after making a fortune, it has made the United States successfully sit on the top spot of the world economic power. At present, there are only 14 colonies ruled by Britain before. As for Britain's loss of so many colonies, which place hurts Britain the most?
The author believes that among the more than 40 colonies lost by the United States, the loss of India is probably the most painful thing for Britain, because in addition to India's territory, Britain's loss of India also marks the fall of a pearl in the Queen's crown. What saddens Britain even more is that after India's independence, a series of chain reactions appeared, which made Britain's colonization of Africa and the Middle East gradually out of control. In this process, Israel was born and Egypt became independent one after another.
It can be seen that Britain's loss of India has obviously become a milestone, because in addition to losing control of India, Britain has gradually liberated more colonies from British control, which makes Britain no longer an eternal empire. At first, Britain colonized a very large territory of India, including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and even Myanmar. From the Persian Gulf to Southeast Asia, they are all British colonies. Moreover, this area is fertile and rich in products, which can contribute more than 40% to British GDP every year. It can be seen that Britain is very upset after losing India.