Great Britain, the Dominions and the Transformation of the British Empire, 1907-1931

The relations of Great Britain and its Dominions significantly influenced the development of the British Empire in the late 19th and the first third of the 20th century. The mutual attitude to the constitutional issues that Dominion and British leaders have continually discussed at Colonial and Imperial Conferences respectively was one of the main aspects forming the links between the mother country and the autonomous overseas territories. This volume therefore focuses on the key period when the importance of the Dominions not only increased within the Empire itself, but also in the sphere of the international relations, and the Dominions gained the opportunity to influence the forming of the Imperial foreign policy. During the first third of the 20th century, the British Empire gradually transformed into the British Commonwealth of Nations, in which the importance of Dominions excelled. The work is based on the study of unreleased sources from British archives, a large number of published documents and extensive relevant literature.

Jaroslav Valkoun is an assistant professor of general history at the Department of Historical Sciences, University of West Bohemia and the Department of Global History, Charles University, Prague.

Introduction 1 1 The British Empire, or Commonwealth? 13 2 Great Britain and Its Dominions Before the First World War 27 3 The Empire During the War and Post-War Period 87 4 The New Constitutional Status for the Dominions? 173 5 The Road to the Statute of Westminster 235 Conclusion 279 Bibliography 284 Author Index 329 Subject Index 334