英语国家概况(英国部分Unit3).ppt

2.6 4. The apex of the British Empire British Empire 1. WWI 2.6 Fearing Germany would overrun Europe and gain control of parts of the British Empire, Britain declared war on Germany in early August 1914, supported by soldiers from the dominions and colonies of the British Empire. During the war there were about 5 million British people in the army and the fledgling Royal Air Force, of whom nearly 1 million died and over 2 million were wounded. The British economy was also heavily disrupted. The country was to enter an era of social change, economic recession and large-scale unemployment. 2.6 Britain gradually capitulated to the pressures of nationalist sentiment in its colonies. Iraq gained full sovereignty in 1932; British privileges in Egypt were modified by treaty in 1936; and concessions were made 2. Commonwealth of Nations Flag of Commonwealth of Nations toward self-government in India and later in the African colonies. In 1931 the Statute of Westminster officially recognised the independent and equal status under the crown of the former dominions within a British Commonwealth of Nations, thus marking the advent of free cooperation among equal partners. 2.6 Edward VIII remained unmarried after his accession as King. Only months into his reign, he caused a constitutional crisis by proposing marriage to the American socialite Wallis Simpson, who had divorced her first husband and was seeking a divorce from her second. The prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the Dominions opposed the marriage, arguing that the people 3. Edward VIII Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson 2.6 would never accept a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands as Queen. Edward knew that the government led by British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin would resign if the marriage went ahead, which could have dragged the King into a general election and ruined irreparably his status as a politically neutral constitutional monarch. Rather than give up Mrs. Simpson, Edward