The Commonwealth and Britain’s Turn to Europe, 1945–73.

British policy-makers in the decades after the Second World War sought to frame British foreign policy in terms of three ‘circles’, the Commonwealth, the US and western Europe . Moves towards European integration threatened to shut Britain out of one circle and severely diminish its influence in the other two. The pull of the Commonwealth was fading, but it remained the single most important issue in Britain’s first negotiations to join the European Communities, in 1961–63. By the time of the second application in 1966–67 Commonwealth countries had made alternative dispositions and the Commonwealth was itself becoming increasingly fractured; hence, the Commonwealth was less of an issue then or in the subsequent successful negotiations in 1970–71. Britain’s applications nevertheless represent a watershed in British–Commonwealth as well as British–European relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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