WW2 is widely considered the deathblow to the British Empire. They were still fully intact after WW1, they still had India, a lot of Africa, etc and that all played an important role in how WW2 played out.
After WW2 is when they started slowly granting everyone independence, in major part because they didn’t have the resources anymore to keep control of everything after being economically drained by both the world wars.
You could make the argument that losing the American colonies was an early indicator of the beginning of their decline, but that’s really debatable. They did grow in land area in other regions (Africa mainly) after that point. Personally I would make the argument that the WW1-WW2 era was the high point of British power in comparison to the other global powers.
Would WWI be a good end point for the British empire too, or would it be when they lost the American colonies?
WW2 is widely considered the deathblow to the British Empire. They were still fully intact after WW1, they still had India, a lot of Africa, etc and that all played an important role in how WW2 played out.
After WW2 is when they started slowly granting everyone independence, in major part because they didn’t have the resources anymore to keep control of everything after being economically drained by both the world wars.
You could make the argument that losing the American colonies was an early indicator of the beginning of their decline, but that’s really debatable. They did grow in land area in other regions (Africa mainly) after that point. Personally I would make the argument that the WW1-WW2 era was the high point of British power in comparison to the other global powers.
The British Empire didn’t reach its greatest extent until 1920, though the economic and industrial damage was ultimately fatal.
The loss of the 13 colonies wasn’t too bad in the long run, and afterward the British empire entered its most rapid expansion.