DBWI: The Sun Finally Sets Over the British Empire

In two weeks, the United Kingdom will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Statute of Westminster, which resulted in greater self-government for its dominions and created a Commonwealth parliament. It was definitely a crowning achievement for Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the UK from 1930-1936.

What would have happened if the Statute of Westminster never became law?

1. Would the United States succeed in forming a free trade pact with Mexico, Central America and South America known as the Americas Free Trade Agreement (AFTA), which the Dominions of Canada and Newfoundland refused to join?

2. Would a second Great War have been averted?

3. Would the Hashemites have won the civil war that united the various emirates into the Kingdom of Arabia?

4. Would the Dominion of Palestine continue to attract Jewish immigrants, especially refugees from the pogroms in Russia?

5. Would Russia have remained a consitutional monarchy (with the military in de facto control of the government)?

6. Would the African dominions enjoy prosperity and political freedom if they were totally dependent of the British Empire (including the Union of South Africa).

7. Would would the sectarian situation have been like in the Irish Free State?
 
Comrade, it has been brought to the attention of the Secretariat that on this website and in other capacities you have been engaged in the politically-incorrect counter-revolutionary slander of our Worker's and Peasant's State, in particular points 4-6. You shall report yourself to the nearest camp for re-education on Marxist dialectical materialism and the true history of the People's Democratic Republic.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Comrade, it has been brought to the attention of the Secretariat that on this website and in other capacities you have been engaged in the politically-incorrect counter-revolutionary slander of our Worker's and Peasant's State, in particular points 4-6. You shall report yourself to the nearest camp for re-education on Marxist dialectical materialism and the true history of the People's Democratic Republic.

What rubbish! Thank goodness the last of these pretentious, beret-wearing, university coffeehouse types are now being arrested. These sit-ins at sports stadiums and loony claims of representing the "sovereignty of the people" (whatever that is) were amusing for a time but are now becoming annoying.

In answer to your question, the suggestion of some at the time of the Statute of Westminster that the various Dominions should be given de facto independence would have been a most unfortunate event. Can you imagine a world without the British Empire? Thank God for Churchill and his political skills!

(OOC: https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=77995)
 
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