If the contradictions between democracy and empire were becoming a source of political tension by 1917–18, one might have expected Britain to be their most notable victim. And both at home and in the empire, London certainly did face enormous challenges. But in the face of these, it was Britain that drove the Allied war effort into the ghastly fourth year of the war.19 It was Britain that emerged from the conflict with its political system most intact and with the majority of its strategic objectives met.
