DBWI: The King allowed the People's Budget to be passed

Thomas1195

Banned
As you know, in 1910, the House of Lords rejecting the People's Budget. The King, egged on by the Tories and the Lords themselves, refuses. The Liberals, with support from Labour and from the Irish Nationalists, declared a British Republic while the latter forced the Liberals to declare Home Rule for Ireland within that Republic. Asquith was unexpectedly successful at overthrowing the Monarchy and purged the Tories, effectively created a Liberal-Labour two-party system.

But what if the King backed down and accepted Asquith's demand?

How would this affect Britain in the long run? We know that British Republic did achieve huge progress, with its socio-economic development being unsurpassed in Europe by 1930s (e.g. universal healthcare introduced in 1935). Diplomatically, they also became much closer to the US and managed to pull them into the Entente in mid-1916. Would the United Kingdom be able to achieve such progress like it did under the Republic?
 
That's a very charitable description of the British Republic. In particular, the American entry into the Great War was based much more on President Roosevelt's outrage over German atrocities in Belgium and Germany's subsequent reaction to the 1915 American embargo on trade with Germany (expropriating American assets in German-controlled territory, submarine warfare against American trade with Britain and France, and of course the Von Jagow telegram). With a more even-tempered US President, for example if Taft has survived his heart attack and won a second term, I have a very hard time seeing the British Republic overcoming American concern over Republican Britain's socialist tendencies and the combined pro-neutrality efforts of the German-American lobby and the Tory Exile lobby.

Without the overthrow of the British monarchy, I expect the British Empire would have survived quite a bit longer, perhaps indefinitely. It almost certainly butterflies away the independence of the Empire of India in the immediate aftermath of the King-Emperor's abdication from the British throne, and it was Indian independence that really energized the subsequent independence movements in the other colonies and dominions.
 

Thomas1195

Banned
Without the overthrow of the British monarchy, I expect the British Empire would have survived quite a bit longer, perhaps indefinitely. It almost certainly butterflies away the independence of the Empire of India in the immediate aftermath of the King-Emperor's abdication from the British throne, and it was Indian independence that really energized the subsequent independence movements in the other colonies and dominions.
Well, but Ireland remained a part of the Republic, which gave the Liberals a reliable supporter when they could not gain a majority. The dominions were already on track towards independence following Gallipoli Campaign, but they were on good term with British Republic because the latter allowed them greater autonomy, even in foreign policy. Also, during the 1920s-1930s, the Republic actively supported industrialization in the dominions.

In particular, the American entry into the Great War was based much more on President Roosevelt's outrage over German atrocities in Belgium and Germany's subsequent reaction to the 1915 American embargo on trade with Germany (expropriating American assets in German-controlled territory, submarine warfare against American trade with Britain and France, and of course the Von Jagow telegram)
Well, Mr. Roosevelt actually gave the British a free hand to blockade Germany from the beginning. He did not bother to criticize the Brits when the latter declared the North Sea as a war zone.

I have a very hard time seeing the British Republic overcoming American concern over Republican Britain's socialist tendencies
The socialist tendencies were overstated, since the Liberals governed most of the time with well-balanced centrist policies. The Republic is essentially a liberal democracy. Actually, other countries also adopted many of their policies after seeing a fact that Britain was the first country to recover from the Great Depression in 1934.

the Tory Exile
Well, while the German Americans were quite significant (but they were eventually broken by Mr. Roosevelt after the US joined the war), the opinions of exiled monarchists actually were not so highly regarded in the US. Meanwhile, the Irish actively lobbied for war entry, and they were certainly more influential than the Tory exiles, who were considered as a bunch of reactionary imperialists. After all, these Tory exiles were only a small minority because most of them were already rounded up by Asquith, and then they were successfully vilified as being unpatriotic.
 

Thomas1195

Banned
Without the rounding up of the Tories, the Liberals might face the risk of being squeezed from the left and the right following the ww1 like in most European countries.
 
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