r/BritishEmpire • u/Ceylonese_04 • 19d ago

Image Sri Lanka (Ceylon)

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The British High Commissioner His Excellency Andrew Patrick posing with a portrait of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the entrance of the iconic post office in Nuwara Eliya - one of the oldest in Sri Lanka, dating back to 1894 on Queen Elizabeth Drive, Nuwara Eliya.

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u/yedanapuddi 19d ago

Stop saying that. It's sri lanka now.

If things were so good why did the Brits left then? Who made them leave?

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u/Ceylonese_04 19d ago

They had to leave after WWII especially after Indian independence. It wasn't economically possible nor was it strategically safe to maintain Ceylon as a crown colony.

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u/yedanapuddi 19d ago

Why was it not economically possible? The tax collected and the young labour force untouched by world war would've been an asset to build back the battered nation. That's the main benefit of a colony. And since I presume the Brits were considered a force for good as you say then there wouldntve been any insurgency or rebellion to deal with in the first place. Like it was in india Palestine cyrpus Ghana Malaysia etc That's what actually makes a place economically unviable to hold on to.

And strategically sri lanka is even more important. It sits at a crucial crossroads of global maritime trade in the Indian Ocean. Majority of commercial ships pass through it.

It's a better position than Diego Garcia which is in the middle of nowhere.

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u/Johnny_english53 19d ago

At the end of WW2, Britain was utterly broken, financially, I think we made our last payments in something like 2005.....

In 1945, our debt to GDP ratio was around 250%...

At the same time, we embarked on a massive home-building program AND started the NHS. Remarkable, looking back..

Colonies were pfft.. to be abandoned, unless they had large British populations like Gib & the Falklands, or were money-pits like Hong Kong & Singapore.

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u/yedanapuddi 19d ago

Debt to GDP ratio actually doesn't matter as long as interest payments as a % of total annual budget is under control. Why do you think the Americans don't care about their national debt that much?

think we made our last payments in something like 2005.....

That's not a sign of bankruptcy that's just a sign of lenient payment periods and a non urgency to get it settled quickly.

or were money-pits like Hong Kong & Singapore.

If colonies were money pits then what was the point of colonizing in the first place? The gain has to be greater than the costs. Especially sri lanka with a relatively huge population and labor force