To What Extent Did the Suez Crisis of 1956 Lead to the End of the British Empire from the Year’s C1956-1965?

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To what extent did the Suez Crisis of 1956 lead to the end of the British Empire from the year’s c1956-1965? The Suez Crisis of 1956 was more of an effect rather than a cause of decline, the crisis brought to light the true problems that Britain was facing. Various other factors such as political pressure from America and fear of communist ideology being spread in Africa impacted the rate of progress towards decolonisation. Furthermore change of ideology due to the Second World War had influenced the rise in nationalism in Britain’s African Empire which proved to be a challenge for Britain. Therefore even though the Suez Crisis sparked a rise in nationalism which effectively hindered British imperialism, factors such as economics and economic debt pressures from abroad significantly impacted the decolonisation of Britain’s African Empire. The crisis wasn’t seen as a turning point in Britain’s African empire as supported by Anthony Eden, British prime minister at the time, stated in his note of review for Britain’s position, that “the alarming increase in the welfare state”this refers to the post world war two issues such as the end of lease programme and the substantial increase in the cost of the welfare state, which suggest Britain was facing economic problems and as stated by Peter Unwin a diplomat that worked in the Foreign Office in 1956, “Britain’s imperial positions were shaky before Suez, their attempt to reassert their proved impotence” both sources signify that decolonisation was inevitable due to the economic and financial difficulties the country was facing rather than the crisis of 1956. Furthermore, Ascherson supports Eden by emphasising that “the shattering of trust in government was followed by crumbling uncertainties” these uncertainties refer to Britain’s economic status and the decline of its global empire. However, in terms of assessing both
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