Twelve years of Conservative rule in the United Kingdom ended this summer with the Labour Party’s victory in the general election. The new government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer has the responsibility of overcoming many critical issues in Britain, and his biggest task yet might be the struggle to maintain good relations with the rest of the European Union in the aftermath of Brexit. While the future of the ties between the E.U. and the U.K. is uncertain, there is one ambitious geopolitical project from the former Conservative era that might forever be lost to history.
The legacy of the old British Empire continues today through the association of its former colonies and dominions with the British Crown in London. The U.K. is today the political head of the “Commonwealth of Nations,” a coalition whose members are former territories, such as Canada, India, South Africa and New Zealand, all of which have had some level of regional autonomy while they were administered as colonies. A concept first devised in the late 1800s called the “Imperial Federation” aimed to unite former colonies and dominions by creating a federalized union between Britain and its dominions. This was a political strategy that hoped to greatly increase the unity of the British Empire, but after decades of negotiations and political maneuvering, it still failed due to the desire of the dominions to become independent from London. Especially in the post-World War II environment, the decline of the U.K. as a major power overpowered any idealism regarding unifying the empire in the face of the pragmatic interests of overseas dominions.
After it politically fell out of favor, the Imperial Federation was mostly thought of as a bygone idea from the age of imperialism — the 20th century saw Britain losing its empire through decolonization and instead becoming much closer to the rest of Europe in economics and politics. However, the vote to leave the E.U. through the Brexit campaign caused a strange revival of this old idea. The Conservative government, which pushed on with the decision to leave the E.U., also made adamant efforts to negotiate free-trade deals with Australia, New Zealand and Canada in the hopes of creating a common Anglosphere for economic ties. When looking back at the aftermath of the Brexit vote, the past eight years show how desperate and optimistic this “strategy” really was.
The reason to think of this strategy as “desperate” is precisely because the idea of recreating the British Empire cannot be backed with a solid vision — Britain is not in a position to lead a major power bloc, like imagined with this plan, when Britain itself is troubled by stagnation on a variety of levels. Therefore, the revival of this idea from a century ago only has the value of a glorified promise that cannot be realized when geopolitical realities are considered.
Since its departure from the E.U., Britain has faced significant challenges. It lost not only a key source of its economic prosperity but also its political prestige on the international stage. The British economy saw a troublesome stagnation and currently has the worst performance among the G7 nations. Britain has also become much more politically unstable since Brexit, with the last few years of Conservative rule being infamous for the quick succession of prime ministers failing to sustain stability in the country. These are the consequences of a country already losing geopolitical strength after decolonization, now losing even more power due to the misguided political choice of choosing to leave the E.U. These challenges should be a cause for concern for all those who care about Britain’s future.
The main argument for reviving the Imperial Federation concept was always a political maneuver designed to sustain Britain’s colonial influence. After decolonization, that aim became to preserve, at the very least, the image and prestige of that legacy. However, the current circumstances of the U.K. cannot guarantee that Great Britain itself can remain united in the face of separatism in Scotland and Northern Ireland [HYPERLINK https://www.bupipedream.com/opinions/columnists/deniz-gulay-6/144555/], let alone the vague idea of unity between London and former overseas colonies.
Major economic and political problems put Britain at a distinct disadvantage and any attempts at creating a federal union between itself and its former colonies cannot be expected to survive in this century. This is due to the fact that the new labour government much more heavily prioritizes Britain’s relationship with the E.U., with a reentry into the union remaining a difficult question. In light of this change, of course, it is difficult to imagine Britain’s former colonies agreeing to such a plan today — Canada and Australia have much greater economic ties to the United States and China, respectively. It is equally difficult to imagine former colonies such as South Africa and India to accept being ruled by London, considering the permeating legacy of imperial colonialism. Additionally, new associations such as BRICS provide much broader economic ties than what Britain could offer alone. The development of economic powers such as China provides a reliable and lucrative alternative to an economically and politically unpredictable U.K., which makes the geopolitical argument for a federal union also disadvantageous.
Britain’s best hope to preserve and improve its prosperity is to reconnect with Europe, which in of itself is going to be a great political challenge. The hopes of the Conservatives to rekindle imperial patriotism cannot be taken seriously in the 21st century.
Deniz Gulay is a sophomore majoring in history.
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