History UsefulNotes / TheBritishEmpire

Following the 2016 'Brexit' Referendum, however, the Empire is coming back into public discourse. Among the many reasons behind it, one persistent idea (whether it is justified or not) is that Britain never really adjusted to losing the Empire, which was part of why it never really fitted comfortably in the EU -- the idea of Britain being, as Churchill said, 'with Europe but not of it', is a very old one (older in fact than either the EU or the British Empire itself). Furthermore, it is possible that imperial ideas are not so dead and buried as most would like to think -- after the Referendum, there remained an underlying belief among some of the populace (the size of which is up for debate, often over-inflated by "Remain" voters and minimalized by "Leave" voters) that after Britain's departure from the EU, [[UsefulNotes/TheCommonwealthOfNations the Commonwealth]] -- largely composed of ex-British colonies -- would happily support the now "independent" UK as part of a strategy that was described by more realistic Civil Service officials as 'Empire 2.0' (or rather, an attempt at it). Needless to say, once this got out it was met with ridicule. Even after, however, the strategy of the Conservative government was to seek to cultivate links with former Commonwealth nations (and the US) and seek advantageous post-Brexit free trade agreements. One it has found rather difficult for a number of reasons -- rich former colonies like India aren't inclined to prioritize a trade agreement with Britain, UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump's notorious unpredictability and belief that America 'is being taken advantage of' (the fact he's also roundly despised in Britain doesn't help) and greater international priorities taking precedence such as the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.

As noted by Creator/GeorgeMacDonaldFraser in his non-fiction memoirs, the sudden disappearance of the empire overnight led to a major generation gap between those who had been raised within it, before UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and the post-war generation of TheFifties and TheSixties, most of whom were raised in a post-imperial Britain. This has had the paradoxical effect in that very little British media after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII (even by the Left) really deals with the Empire (something which Fraser wrote Literature/{{Flashman}} to avert). PeriodDrama in Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian eras after the war tend to deal with class, gender and LGBT issues in earlier eras which has in some cases [[PoliticallyCorrectHistory dialled down the level of popular and intellectual support]] the Empire had at its height.

The British Empire was the largest to have ever existed, covering over a quarter of the globe and roughly the same again of its population at its peak in 1920. It is usually considered to have existed from 1707 (when the British state was created by the Union of England and Scotland) to 1997 (with the transfer of sovereignty over UsefulNotes/HongKong to the People's Republic of China). It covered all seven continents -- yes, even UsefulNotes/{{Antarctica}}.[[note]]The only other empire to have achieved that is the French colonial empire -- even Spain only managed six, including Antarctica but excluding Oceania.[[/note]] Because of the rotation of the earth illuminating different areas of the globe, it was often stated, and technically true (even today, due to the remaining overseas dependencies such as Pitcairn Island), that the sun NEVER set on the British Empire[[note]]a snide Irish remark upon this, somewhat ironic given the Irish people's critical contribution (roughly half of all the crown's sailors, soldiers, and civil servants outside the British Isles), being 'because even God himself can't trust an Englishman in the dark'. Another remark adds 'and where the blood never dries'. The latter incidentally comes from the ''English'' Chartist activist,

The Empire that everyone imagines include character archetypes like the GreatWhiteHunter, the AdventureArchaeologist, MightyWhitey, EvilBrit, the StiffUpperLip Englishman who is both a soldier and a scholar, a master of several languages, who worries his seniors about potentially GoingNative, and who tend to feel out of place in Britain. The main appeal is exoticism, tourism, visiting new lands and glimpsing it unspoiled and isolated from the world, shedding a single tear, and then making sure that no one can experience that the way they did, either Englishmen after them, or the colonized natives who they oppressed or displaced, who eventually end up MajoredInWesternHypocrisy. Romantic notions aside, what kept the British Empire together in its day were ultimately the principles of DivideAndConquer and ''[[AppealToForce argumentum ad baculum]]''. There would not have been a British Empire in the first place if its constituent peoples were free, or possessed agency in any meaningful capacity, to leave it whenever they were so inclined. The British ensured wherever possible to militarily disarm the locals, rig the infrastructure and transportation for rapid troop movements and deployments, as well as a steady stream of assassinations, imprisonments and bribery required to maintain control. More occasionally the locals would attempt rebellions which would be greeted with frequently brutal counter-measures; however these were restricted to a small minority of people. This brutality became harder to conceal and make palatable as time went on, and the British lost their grip on the levers of mass media and propaganda which played an immense role in justifying and enabling their regime to its own citizens as well as international observers.

The British Empire is credited, even by its critics, for contributing to general economic development as it enforced a free-trade area over a quarter of the globe with no tariffs (zero) in or out of it. Though of course there were tolls and stamp taxes and such. This resulted in a lot of rather lopsided economic development, with some highly-developed areas right next to or in the middle of totally untouched ones. Likewise, the British, unintentionally and unwittingly, served as an agent of modernization, being as Creator/KarlMarx noted sardonically, "conservatives at home and revolutionaries abroad". Their activities in many nations and places displaced the traditional aristocratic and tribal elites in charge, forcing the colonized and imperial subjects on a path to modernization. In some cases, the English took an active interest in nurturing and developing middle-classes in these regions to serve as a buffer and proxy to better build consensus for their conquests, as well as enabling them to participate in the developing and nurturing of free trade, general enterprise and UsefulNotes/{{Capitalism}}. [[WhatTheRomansHaveDoneForUs They played a part in the foundation and spread of industrialization around the world, leading to the development of railways, cities and bustling ports]]. Through means of its investments in education systems in the colonies[[note]]Which at times preceded their investment in education at the metropoles[[/note]], it provided a channel for UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment and its ideas of human rights, UsefulNotes/TheCommonLaw, social contract, and political independence [[HoistByHisOwnPetard to eventually be applied]] ''[[HoistByHisOwnPetard against]]'' [[HoistByHisOwnPetard them]].

* British Uganda: Had a railway, scorpions, and the young Idi Amin. It is, occasionally, [[Magazine/PrivateEye up for discussion.]]

Modern Britain has a rather mixed attitude towards the Empire. On the one hand, Brits tend to be fond of its trappings and its mystique, as well as notable imperial figures such as UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, all of which tends to fall into NostalgiaFilter and GloryDays in political discourse (in particular, UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher and the Falklands victory reconstructing imperial glory)[[note]]Encapsulated, without {{Irony}}, in the Newsweek headline "The Empire Strikes Back", with [[ComicallyMissingThePoint no one bothering to inform them]] who the bad guys in Franchise/StarWars were[[/note]]. Needless to say, the people in other independent nations don't quite share this sentiment, nor do most other British historians and scholars conducting archival research (including sources in local languages that had been neglected in pro-Imperial accounts). As a result, Brits also usually aren't particularly fond of discussing the Empire, and either [[WorthyOpponent venerate independence leaders]] like Gandhi (who might actually be better regarded in Britain than his native India), or prefer to ignore it, looking to a post-imperial future. For a while, the latter seemed to be going rather well -- it helped that Britain was still among the world's richest and most powerful nations, had the Special Relationship with the USA which allowed it to maintain a degree of reflected glory, and the national confidence boost that began under Tony Blair, leading to the so-called 'Cool Britannia'.

The British Empire was the largest to have ever existed, covering over a quarter of the globe and roughly the same again of its population at its peak in 1920. It is usually considered to have existed from 1707 (when the British state was created by the Union of England and Scotland) to 1997 (with the transfer of sovereignty over UsefulNotes/HongKong to the People's Republic of China). Because of the rotation of the earth illuminating different areas of the globe, it was often stated, and technically true (even today, due to the remaining overseas dependencies such as Pitcairn Island), that the sun NEVER set on the British Empire[[note]]a snide Irish remark upon this, somewhat ironic given the Irish people's critical contribution (roughly half of all the crown's sailors, soldiers, and civil servants outside the British Isles), being 'because even God himself can't trust an Englishman in the dark'. Another remark adds 'and where the blood never dries'. The latter incidentally comes from the ''English'' Chartist activist,