The Empire in 1921: Internal Strains and External Pressures

  • Max Beloff
Chapter

Abstract

In 1915 the Royal Colonial Institute set as the theme for its research monograph for the year, the applicability of the claim by the Athenian demagogue Cleon, as recorded by Thucydides, that ‘a Democracy cannot manage an Empire’ to the ‘present conditions and future problems of the British Empire, especially the question of the future of India’. The winning entry was published in the following year, by which time it was clear to the author, as to his countrymen at large, that the struggle in which the Empire was engaged would have major effects both upon Britain itself and upon its other constituent parts.1 The text reflects both the mood of the time and the light the war had thrown upon Britain’s lack of preparedness in some areas, and the extent to which it was possible to identify some at least of what would prove to be the major problems of the post-war years.

Keywords

Middle East Nationalist Movement British Empire Dominion Government White Settler 
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Notes

  1. 1.
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  2. 2.
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  3. 4.
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  5. 6.
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  6. 7.
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  28. 35.
    See D. Wormell, Sir John Seeley and the Uses of History (Cambridge, 1980), ch. 6.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Max Beloff 1989

Authors and Affiliations

  • Max Beloff
    • 1
  1. 1.University of OxfordUK

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