Greater Britain

This article is about the use of the term in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For the island off the northwest coast of Europe on which England, Scotland, and Wales are located, see Great Britain. For the 18th century state which unified England and Scotland into a single kingdom, see Kingdom of Great Britain.

Greater Britain was a term that arose in the second half of the 19th century in British discourse about the British Empire. The term was used in different ways by different people and sometimes in different ways by the same person.[1] Many were associated with the Imperial Federation League, a political grouping that encompassed political activists from a broad range of backgrounds in supporting a more positive approach to the empire in the policies of the British government.

During the 20th century, Oswald Mosley revived the term with his book The Greater Britain, which was published by the British Union of Fascists in 1932 to launch his party. He wrote, "Our task is not to invent Fascism, but to find for it in Britain its highest expression and development".[2] In 1964 John Tyndall founded the Greater Britain Movement (GBM) and derived its name from Moseley's earlier book.[3] Although Tyndall initially aimed to link up with other Neo-Nazis internationally, such open espousal of Nazism was disavowed in 1966, and the GBM was dissolved with Tyndall calling on its members to join the recently-formed National Front.[4]

  1. ^ Bell, Duncan (2007). The Idea of Greater Britain: Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860-1900. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  2. ^ Cook, Colin (2000). Towards a Greater Britain: a political biography of Oswald Mosley, 1918-1947 (PDF). Oxford: Oxford brookes University RADAR.
  3. ^ David Boothroyd, Politico's Guide to the History of British Political Parties, London: Politico's, 2001, p. 93
  4. ^ Billig, Michael (1978). Fascists: A Social Psychological View of the National Front. London: Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-150-04004-0.