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The Empire expanded until the 1920s with the inclusion of League of Nations mandated territories. But it had reached the height of its political, military and to an extent, its financial powers two decades earlier. From the forty years or so before and up to the First World War, more than 5 percent of the whole of Britain's Gross National Product was in overseas lending. By the start of WWI, that same rate of investment was declining. During that period (1880s to 1912-14) Britain was feeling as never before the commercial and political changes in the world.
The consequences of much earlier events were obvious: the Franco-Prussian War inspired by Bismarck, the unification of Italy, the formation of Germany and Russian ambitions contributed to the redrawing of Europe's boundaries and the power of her economics. America, was still instinctively isolationist, but none doubted that the Monroe Doctrine meant she would remain neutral unless her interests were threatened. Britain felt increasingly threatened highlighting the illusion that she ruled absolutely a quarter of the globe.
By the 20th century, self governing colonies and the new dominions were, in all but name, independent other than for deciding their own foreign & defence policies. Great parts of the empire, especially in Africa, flew the Union flag but just got on with their lives. Certainly the introduction of the District Officer system only worked well when there was virtual self-government among the tribes with the Officers advising and maybe collecting a few taxes. True there was company rule and an association with the crown, but proper British rule was not that old. Even in India the Crown didn't have direct rule (the raj) until 1858 and more surely three years later with the Indian Councils Act. The old order was not so old and was indeed changing.
The last of the grand Tories and the last peer to be PM (Lord Home had to renounce his title so to be). At 36 he became Secretary for India in the Derby administration and in 1878 Foreign Secretary under Disraeli whom he succeeded as Tory leader. As Foreign Secretary he went with Disraeli to the Berlin Congress (1878) called to settle the so-called Eastern Question after the Russo-Turkish war that finished that year. It was by this Congress that Britain gained Cyprus (and after which Disraeli coined the phrase "Peace with honour" - later used by Chamberlain after the Munich Agreement). Salisbury's different times as prime minister (between 1885 and 1902) were always in some coalition. His third period as PM was a Conservative-Liberal Unionist administration overshadowed by the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902).
That Kipling, long seen as the poet of the Empire, detected that the empire mood had changed. His verse, Recessional , written for the Diamond Jubilee, recognized all that was past and that not every imperial subject hymned the name of the Queen-Empress. but also the clouds to come. For example:
"If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use
Or lesser breeds without the Law -
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!"
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The British Empire is changing
Joseph Chamberlain, Liberal politician, warning on how the Empire is viewed acroos the World
"We are the most hated nation of the world, and also the best loved. We have the feeling, unfortunately, that we have to count upon ourselves alone, and I say, therefore, it is the duty of British statesmen, and it is the duty of the British people, to count upon themselves alone, as their ancestors did. I say alone, yes, in splendid isolation, surrounded by our kinfolk"
The pressures on the Empire
Liberal politician Sir William Harcourt put the matter in perspective
"We have already as much empire as the nation can carry. If you give the heart too much work to do by extending the limbs and the frame beyond measure, you enfeeble its action, and it succumbs."
