ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the factors that explain the changes that have affected Britain, there has been a tendency to focus more on economic matters. A number of scholars have emphasised the inevitability of Britain's relative decline, given the country's small size and the fact that its share of world trade would decline as other nations undertook economic development. In evaluating Britain's European policy, a number of scholars have criticised post-war governments for failing to understand the challenges that Britain faced and thereby not adapting to the reality of European cooperation. Europe has proved a complex issue for Britain arguably because the history of Britain in the twentieth century has been different from the majority of other members for whom Europe has become a crucial external stabilising factor. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin, met at Yalta in the Crimea to discuss the nature of Europe's post-war reconstruction.
