Практический проект в рамках ВКР «Возможности применения образовательного лонгрида в обучении иностранному языку»
How the Mighty Have Fallen
A multimedia longread describing the reasons for the decolonisation of the Second British Empire
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Click on the lines for a more in-depth insight in the unfolding events; hover over the question marks for a brief summary.
Colonial decline:
• The Maori Wars
• Jamaica’s Morant Bay Rebellion
• Establishment of Dominions
• Red River Rebellion
• Boer Wars
• Statute of Westminster
• Loss of India
• The Atlantic Charter
The Maori Wars took place from 1845 to 1872 between the New Zealand Colonial government and allied Maori on one side and Maori and Maori-allied settlers on the other.

Though the wars were initially localised conflicts triggered by tensions over disputed land purchases, they escalated dramatically from 1860 as the government became convinced it was facing united Maori resistance to further land sales and a refusal to acknowledge Crown sovereignty.
A colonial struggle erupted in 1865 with the Morant Bay Rebellion, when freed slaves, protesting at their impoverishment and lack of equality, were brutally crushed by Governor Eyre. The uprising’s ringleaders were hanged and many blacks shot or flogged, and their villages burnt down.
The term Dominion was used from 1907 to 1948 to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire.

"Dominion status" was formally accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State to designate "autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations”.

India, Pakistan, and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) were also dominions for short periods of time.
The Red River Rebellion was the sequence of events that led up to the 1869 establishment of a provisional government by the Métis leader Louis Riel and his followers at the Red River Colony, in what was the early stages of establishing today's Canadian province of Manitoba. It had earlier been a territory called Rupert's Land and been under control of the Hudson's Bay Company before it was sold.
The First Boer War of 1880-1881 was a war fought between the British Empire and Boers of the Transvaal (as the South African Republic was known while under British administration). The war resulted in a Boer victory and eventual independence of the South African Republic.

The Second Boer War of 1899-1902 was fought between the British Empire and two independent Boer states, the South African Republic (Republic of Transvaal) and the Orange Free State, over the Empire's influence in South Africa. The trigger of the war was the discovery of diamonds and gold in the Boer states. Initial Boer attacks were successful, and although British reinforcements later reversed these, the war continued for years with Boer guerrilla warfare, until harsh British counter-measures including a scorched earth policy brought the Boers to terms.
The Statute of Westminster of 1931 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that sets the basis for the relationship between the Commonwealth realms and the Crown.

Passed on 11 December 1931, the Statute established the legislative independence of the self-governing Dominions of the British Empire from the United Kingdom.

As the Statute removed nearly all of the British parliament's authority to legislate for the Dominions, it had the effect of making the Dominions largely sovereign nations in their own right. It was a crucial step in the development of the Dominions as separate states.
From Bengal Famine of 1873–1874, through the Imperial Conference of 1926 and Indian Round Table Conferences of 1931-1933, to the Government of India Act of 1935 and the 'Quit India' movement of 1942, resulting in Indian Independence Act of 1947 and Indian partition into India and Pakistan.
The Atlantic Charter was a statement issued on 14 August 1941 that set out American and British goals for the world after the end of World War II.

The charter's adherents signed the Declaration by United Nations on 1 January 1942, which was the basis for the modern United Nations.
Rifts at home:
• Fenian Rising
• The Irish Question
• Easter Uprising in Dublin
• The Abdication Crisis
• Irish War of Independence and the Anglo-Irish Treaty
• Labour government and its reforms before and after WW2
The Irish Republican Brotherhood organised the Fenian Rising of 1867 as a rebellion against British rule in Ireland. Due to poor planning and British infiltration of the nationalists, the rebellion never got off the ground. Most of the leaders in Ireland were arrested, but although some of them were sentenced to death, none suffered execution.
The Irish Question was the issue debated primarily among the British government from the early 19th century until the 1920s of how to respond to Irish nationalism and the calls for Irish independence. The unsolved Home Rule Bill issue, the unionists and the republicans—all of those needed to be taken appropriate care of if Britain were to remain stable.
The Easter Uprising, also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the aim of establishing an independent Irish Republic while the United Kingdom was fighting the First World War.
The Irish War of Independence or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-military Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and its paramilitary forces the Auxiliaries and Ulster Special Constabulary (USC).

The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 was an agreement between the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and representatives of the Irish Republic that concluded the Irish War of Independence. It provided for the establishment of the Irish Free State within a year as a self-governing dominion within the "community of nations known as the British Empire", a status "the same as that of the Dominion of Canada". It also provided Northern Ireland, which had been created by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, an option to opt out of the Irish Free State, which it exercised.
In 1936, a constitutional crisis in the British Empire arose when King-Emperor Edward VIII proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who was divorced from her first husband and was pursuing the divorce of her second. The widespread unwillingness to accept Simpson as the King's consort and Edward's refusal to give her up led to his abdication in December 1936.
The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists. In all general elections since 1922, Labour has been either the governing party or the Official Opposition. Its main reforms were centred around establishing social welfare systems for everyone and ensuring equality.
Foreign Relations:
• Crimean War
• Anglo-Afghan Wars
• The rise of Germany
• The end of isolation
• World War I
• Failed policy of Hitler Appeasement
• World War II
The Crimean War was a military conflict fought from October 1853 to February 1856 in which Russia lost to an alliance made up of France, the Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom and Sardinia. The immediate cause of the war involved the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy Land, then a part of the Ottoman Empire.
Anglo-Afghan Wars, also called Afghan Wars, three conflicts (1839–42; 1878–80; 1919) in which Great Britain, from its base in India, sought to extend its control over neighbouring Afghanistan and to oppose Russian influence there.
The rise of Germany in the 19th century was a sequence of events from the unification of the German states under the leadership of Prussia by Otto von Bismarck, followed by establishing Germany as a colonial power after establishing 'Weltpolitik' in favour of the old "Realpolitik", adopting a more aggressive approach to diplomacy, which subsequently somewhat harmed British own colonial standing and status as a naval superpower.
At the beginning of the 20th century and the end of the Victorian era, Britain finally realised that it did not have enough strength to do everything on its own, and thus it ended its days of 'splendid isolation' by forming an alliance with Japan, which shaped up to become a major player in the Orient, and cooperating with it to help each other achieve their goals. Two years later, Britain also settled its grievances and antagonisms with France by the means of establishing the Entente Cordiale.
World War I was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. It led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It also was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated 8.5 million combatant deaths and 13 million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war.
Appeasement in an international context is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the UK governments of Prime Ministers Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin and (most notably) Neville Chamberlain towards Nazi Germany between 1935 and 1939.
Despite the fact that British contribution in the war effort was critical at the early stages of World War II, as well as despite the fact that the German forces did not manage to invade Britain that fought them off during the airborne Battle of Britain, this war was one of the final nails in the coffin of the British Empire as a colonial superpower, showing its incapability of protecting its dominions and kick-starting the rapid post-war decolonisation as per the conditions of the Atlantic Charter.
Economical troubles:
• The Rise of Trade Unions
• The Constitutional Crisis
• The Great Depression
• The General Strike
Trade unions, also called labour unions are associations of workers in a particular trade, industry, or company created for the purpose of securing improvements in pay, benefits, working conditions, or social and political status through collective bargaining. Through the history of British Empire, trade unions were one of the main tools of the workers to secure their rights via pushing for various reforms and acts.
The 1909/1910 Constitutional Crisis was due to the House of Lords rejecting a proposal of the Liberal government that introduced taxes on the lands and incomes of Britain's wealthy to fund new social welfare programmes. It passed the House of Commons in 1909 but was blocked by the House of Lords for a year and became law in April 1910. The Liberals countered by proposing to reduce the power of the Lords. That was the main issue of the general election in January 1910, setting the stage for a tremendous showdown.
The Great Depression in the United Kingdom, also known as the Great Slump, was a period of national economic downturn in the 1930s, which had its origins in the global Great Depression. It was Britain's largest and most profound economic depression of the 20th century.
The General Strike, the only one to take place in Britain, was called on 3rd May 1926 and lasted nine days; a historic walkout by British workers representing the dissatisfaction of millions and ushering in the need for change across the country.
An Afterword
"Was the Empire a Good Thing?"

This is a question which continues to raise emotions high—some of us may have seen the journalistic squabbles over this very question on the Internet. That is truly an unanswerable question, since it depends on where you are and what is important. Do the ex-colonies remember the violence or the schools and medicines? Colonies inherited many institutions and structures—although some of these no longer have the same resonance as they do in Britain—and the English language that is of very great importance today.

There is no doubt of the supreme value of the Empire to Great Britain: to develop from a backwater island menaced by many greater powers to the supreme international power herself—to the possessor of the largest empire the world has ever known—was no mean feat. The habits instilled by it, which include professional armed forces and a diplomatic corps of high quality, an ability to walk easily abroad and an openness to foreign influences, which is probably unique in the modern world, contribute to Britain’s continuing international position, one which is not based on its geography nor necessarily on its wealth. But it can also encourage a nostalgia about past glories which might interfere with the reality of today’s world.

One could definitely argue that the British imperialism of the past was a bit of both. Not demonic, not godly—but just 'was', a phenomenon of its time and circumstance. Let us, then, just give both good and bad things their due and see this from the point of view it is seen best—the point of view of an enquiring scholar, neither nostalgic nor hateful, but attentive and not forgetful of the lessons the Empire gave us in its growth and inevitable decline.
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