Could the british empire have survived until the present day?

The key point here is India. India, India, India. It was the largest, most populous, and richest of the non-Dominion Empire states. If you keep India in somehow, you keep the Empire (which, after all, was there to support India). If you don't, it's all going away sooner-or-later, at least anything but remnants.

The best way to do this, IMHO, is for the Brits to not be quite such bastards early on, and more-or-less rapidly move towards a Dominion India post-WWI. Of course, there would need to be cooperation amongst the Dominions ITTL, at least much more than there was OTL, but that can probably be arranged. Plus, as that involves ministerial etc. meetings rather than a Parliament, the delicate question of Indian dominance can be deferred some time.
 

Susano

Banned
Hey, I'm the Africa expert around here!
Let's put the "Well-Armed african Guerrillas killing thousands" in perspective.
Yes, "British killrate in war higher than rebels' killrate" is such a good argument for having the British Empire continue...
 

terence

Banned
Despite Thatcher being in bed with Ian Smith? :confused:
Now there's an image to ponder!



There are memoir of Belgian governors in the Congo who were shitting their pants once learning that Congo rebels no longer had muskets but Ak-47s and T-34s...

Where did you get this stuff from? There was no insurgency in the Belgian Congo. Civil riots yes, but no armed insurrection. The fighting came after inependence. The Belgian Colonial Administration pulled out at a moments notice in June 1960 and the whole place fell to bits, especially after the Force Publique mutinied and the Belgian Officers went home. Most of the fighting was between Congolese and Congolese or Mercenaries and UN troops. There were certainly no T-34 tanks ( there are F**k all roads there now, so God knows what it was like in 1960. Mobutu did get his hands on some old Chinese tanks in the 1970s, but they never went very far from his main palace in Lumbumbashi.
Oh, and the Simba rebels had spears, just the thing against MIke Hoare's 0.50 calibre machine guns, but then they made themselves bulletproof through magic.
 

terence

Banned
Yes, "British killrate in war higher than rebels' killrate" is such a good argument for having the British Empire continue...

That is not the point. That African 'Guerillas' were killing thousands implies that it is thousands of settlers/colonists/ whites being killed and is just not true. As you can see the numbers are quite modest and the biggest sufferers are the Black African Population at the hands of the so-called liberation movements.
My posting is in to response to the idea that rebellion/insurgency/revolution had a major affect on the decision to de-colonise-rather the reasons were economic and political.
 
There is no British Empire without the Dominons. The Dominions did not want to be 'colonies' of the UK and the UK did not want the Dominions to be anything but independent states.

Salisbury put it simply when he referred to Australia as 'as much Britions as we.' The context was the Dominions should be self governing.

Self government was not compatible with Imperial Federation. IF was a concept only a few, a very few, supported and then mainly only in the UK.
 
Possible solutions

There is a lot of sense in having citizenship of any country dependent upon a period of public service. This need not be tied to duty in the Armed Forces. I could see a scheme whereby poor Indians could do public Service under a Food for Work Scheme, building modern housing, public utility services, road and rail links, earning the right to a pension and a house and other benefits. Sounds rather a Bevin-esque idea, doesn't it?

My respects to the wearer of the Kara. I look for your suggestions and comments on a policy that could have maintained an India within the British Empire. Long may the Golden Temple endure.

Incidentally, Clem Attlee (correct spelling) and Aneurin Bevin, together agreed on the need for a British nuclear bomb. Stafford Cripps' people (including that micromanager Harold Wilson) ineptly allowed Russia to clone the British Nene turbojet for the Mig-15.

I'll continue to read this thread with interest.
 

terence

Banned
Incidentally, Clem Attlee (correct spelling) and Aneurin Bevin, together agreed on the need for a British nuclear bomb. Stafford Cripps' people (including that micromanager Harold Wilson) ineptly allowed Russia to clone the British Nene turbojet for the Mig-15.

I'll continue to read this thread with interest.

Do not confuse "Nye" Bevan, the post war minister of Health and rabid, lefty, CND campaigner with Ernest Bevin, (correct spelling) war time Minster of Labour and Post-war Foreign Secretary.
Among his famous sayings about the British Atomic Bomb project was
" We gotta 'av it and its got to 'ave a fookin' Union Jack on it!"

The official histories also quote him as saying "Would you expect His Majesty's Secretary of State to go naked into the corridors of power?"

According to Richard Crossman, what he actually said--in cabinet, was
"You expect me to talk to them fookin' Roosians with no fookin' britches on?"
 

Stephen

Banned
Britain will first need to avoid eentangling itself in any european wars exausting its wealth and suply of patriots. Then it will need conscription to turn the ethnic Brits into a warrior caste to rule over the colonial hellots. Then they will need to do some genocide and concentration camps to supress any insurections that occur over the century with plenty of free land given to British settlers.
 
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