what does it mean to be part of the commonwealth

Staying in the Middle East had led step-by-step to the confrontation with President Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt, and the disastrous decision to seek his overthrow by force in collusion with Israel. It was Britain's overseas assets that would help to defend it.īy the end of the decade, things were not going well. Europe, by contrast, they saw as a zone of economic and political weakness. They wanted help from Australia and hoped for Indian support against Soviet influence in Asia.Īcross the whole spectrum of party opinion, British leaders had no doubt that Britain must uphold its status as the third great power, and that it could only do so by maintaining its empire and the Commonwealth link.

In Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and the Gulf, the British were determined to hang on to their treaties and bases, including the vast Suez canal zone. That meant staying on in the Middle East even after the breakdown of British control in Palestine and its hasty evacuation in 1948. Britain's strategic defence against the new Soviet threat required forward air bases from which to bomb Southern Russia - the industrial arsenal of the Soviet Union.

Nor was it simply an economic imperative. The British were also determined to exploit the tropical colonies more effectively due to the fact that their cocoa, rubber and tin could be sold for much-needed dollars.

What does it mean to be part of the commonwealth