POLITICS & HISTORY
It also begs the question as to where Britain finds itself in the world today. Earlier this year, India overtook the UK as the 5 th biggest economy in the world, and in a post-Brexit Britain, the pursuit for a trade deal with India is ongoing. Ongoing questions over the role of the monarchy and its own links to colonialism were highlighted at the death of Queen Elizabeth II and even closer to home, issues over the Northern Ireland protocol are all shaped in some way or another by Empire. However, imperialism is not exclusive to Britain. Empires have sprung up across the world throughout history and will continue to do so in different forms. Even today, imperialism still exists but in a far more subtle form. The dominance of American foreign policy and the growing influence of China across parts of Africa are evidence of a newfound form of predatory imperialism across the modern world, the most obvious form being Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the separatist regions it has claimed such as Crimea.
There is a sense that Britain struggles in finding its place in the modern world. Despite having been on a general decline since the collapse of the British Empire after WWII, Britain continues to exercise enormous soft power across the world. Being a close ally of the US ensures Britain is considered a beacon for liberal values across the world and has a role to play in defending them. While Britain’s first non-white Prime Minister is not the cure to racism or the answer to rampant and divisive ‘populism’ across the West, it does represent multiculturalism in action and a more united Britain coming to terms with itself where some of the barriers to power are slowly being eroded (by no means all barriers). The key takeaway from this, however, ought to be that understanding Empire is key to understanding Britain and its future role to play in a rapidly changing modern world.
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