| Description |
During the second and third quarters of the 19th century, Britain reached the apogee of its economic, financial and imperial dominance. But, from the 1870s onwards, while its empire's boundaries continued to expand, its unchallenged global position was increasingly eroded. In the aftermath of two world wars, the empire dissolved in only fifty years, and Britain itself was exposed to successive "invasions." After 1945, the empire came home, in that onetime colonial peoples settled in Britain in unprecedented numbers; the country reluctantly joined the EU, and it accepted both US bases and increasingly Washington's lead in foreign policy. |