6 days ago
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
London lets the sun go down on the British Empire
The decision by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to transfer the Chagos Islands, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius is a pragmatic response to a changing world, but one heavy with symbolism as the light goes out on the saying that the sun never sets on the British Empire.
With the Chagos gone, when dawn breaks on Pitcairn Island in future it will still be night in Akrotiri and Dhekelia on Cyprus, the nearest British outposts far to the west.
The Chagos – British since 1814 – include Diego Garcia, a remote atoll hosting a military base operated by the US and the UK since the 1970s and a linchpin in their Five Eyes Anglosphere intelligence alliance with Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Starmer secured a $7.1 billion 99-year lease from Mauritius to keep Diego Garcia. Back home, UK conservatives and media complained the deal was dangerous thanks to Mauritius' friendship with China, but all Five Eyes members had signed off on it.
Britain was forced by international law to return the archipelago, and departs leaving the usual colonial shambles with locals expelled for the military base and descendants demanding compensation.
The British Empire reached its zenith between the World Wars, when it controlled 25 per cent of the world's surface and population. But England nearly bankrupted itself fighting the Second World War and, either by choice or under duress, started divesting colonies. With the Chagos archipelago about to go, only a few handfuls of islands and military bases such as Gibraltar remain scattered across the North and South Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and the Pacific.
Australia too backed away after the Second World War, when the fall of the British base at Singapore forced us to defend ourselves at Kokoda, and we gratefully turned to the US for protection.
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But our Empire heart beat strongly for years. Many older Australians may remember the almost national ecstasy that greeted the first visit by Queen Elizabeth I in 1954. That loyalty was further fanned by the Empire (later Commonwealth) Games, but the UK's decision to join the European Common Market removed stars from some Australian eyes, and the 1975 dismissal of the Whitlam government by the Queen's man shattered the reality for many – but not enough to vote for a republic. However, the turmoil assisted the 1986 passing of the Australia Act, removing legal recourse to the Privy Council in London.
Nevertheless, British institutions still course through our daily lives. Aside from the language, there are parliaments, the law and the King of Australia. The royals are lead acts on social media and tabloids, especially Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. But monarchy's power is on full display this week in Canada after new Prime Minister Mark Carney invited King Charles III to open parliament as a bulwark against US President Donald Trump's 51st state rantings.
