Conclusion: Aims — Constraints — Criticisms

Abstract

The period 1919–24 saw fundamental change to the orientations of British foreign policy. In 1919 Britain was effectively at war with Russia: by 1924 a limited trade flowed between the two countries. Britain had fought a war against Germany from 1914 to 1918, imposed a harsh peace settlement upon her in 1919, and then spent the following years trying to revise that settlement. Indeed, by 1923 Britain was trying to curb the excesses of her Entente partner against Germany. Lloyd George and Curzon had been determined to impose the vindictive Treaty of Sèvres on a prostrate Turkey in 1920: by 1923 Curzon was trying to negotiate a settlement with Ismet Pasha as an equal party. In 1920 Britain had accepted responsibility for Iraq and Palestine, and had then spent the next three years debating whether those responsibilities could be abdicated. In 1918 the British Empire appeared triumphant and supreme. Her world authority had seemingly been confirmed and enhanced by the defeat of Germany. By 1922 it was apparent that Britain did not possess the means or influence to mould the postwar world to her own desiderata. Moreover, the United States was emerging ever more prominently as the heir to Britain’s global predominance.