WHEN Britain declared war on Germany on August 4th 1914, it was committing not only its own men, but those of its empire. The five “dominions”—Australia, Canada, Newfoundland (which joined with Canada in 1949), New Zealand and South Africa—were self-governing but had no power over foreign policy. Most entered the war willingly, proud to go to the aid of the empire, often pictured as a lion with its cubs, as in the image above. But as the war dragged on and their young men died in droves (see chart), they pressed for more say in its conduct and, after it ended, more control over their destinies. The men who came home often found that fighting for Britain had, paradoxically, made them feel more distant from it. A century later, many historians see the first world war as the former dominions’ “war of independence”.“My three years in the British navy have…shown me how completely indifferent was the centre of the imperial faith, England, to my native land,” wrote Arthur Lower, a Canadian who became a historian on his return. “I came back from the war much more of a Canadian than I went into it.” Such sentiments across the dominions led eventually to the 1931 Statute of...
from The Economist: International http://ift.tt/1nWDplY
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