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Britain was offered a loan at 2% interest to be paid over 50 years starting in 1950 by both Canada and the United States. Historian Alan Sked has commented that, "the U.S. didn't seem to realize that Britain was bankrupt", and that the loan was "denounced in the House of Lords, but in the end the country had no choice."
However, during World War I, the British government was forced to borrow heavily in order to finance the war effort. The national debt increased from £650m in 1914 to £7.4 billion in 1919. During World War II the government was again forced to borrow heavily in order to finance war with the Axis powers.
Eden had ignored Britain's financial dependence on the US in the wake of World War II, and was forced to bow to American pressure to withdraw. Eden had poor staff support because the Foreign Office , Commonwealth Relations Office , and Colonial Office had been slow to realise the need for change in Britain's world role.
Deindustrialisation or the loss of heavy industry, especially coal mining, shipbuilding and manufacturing, grew worse after 1970 as the British economy shifted to services. London and the South East maintained prosperity, as London became the leading financial centre in Europe and played a major role in world affairs.
For general overviews of British politics since 1945, see: Post-war Britain (1945–1979) Political history of the United Kingdom (1979–present) While coverage of British social history over the same period can be found below: Social history of post-war Britain (1945–1979) Social history of the United Kingdom (1979–present)
Only half of the loan was actually drawn by the British government and it was repaid by 4 May 1979, [12] the day after the general election. Denis Healey , the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, went on to state that the main reason the loan had to be requested was that public sector borrowing requirement figures provided by the Treasury ...
Nottingham isn’t the first significant city in Britain to tread in bankruptcy territory—in September, Birmingham, the U.K.’s second-largest city, also did the same after not not having ...
The aftermath of World War II saw the rise of two global superpowers, the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR). The aftermath of World War II was also defined by the rising threat of nuclear warfare, the creation and implementation of the United Nations as an intergovernmental organization, and the decolonization of Asia, Oceania, South America and Africa by European and East Asian ...