Backbencher

I liked this lecture the most out of all the others since this one dealt more with WWI and WWII and looked at the defense measures that Australia and New Zealand took during that time as well as during the Cold War. It basically tells us that both countries relied on Great Britain for defense, but we don’t really see Great Britain aiding either of the colonies much during WWII. In fact, both Australia and New Zealand had to look to the US for aid during this time. I can sort of understand why Great Britain didn’t help them too much. First off, the Japanese weren’t an immediate threat to the British regardless if they were beginning to encroach on the British Empire. The Germans on the hand were directly attacking the English seat of power and basically it was a priority to defend the homeland rather than the colonies. The colonies had men that could have enlisted and Britain most likely felt that if the colonies were overtaken, they would simply regain their lost ground after they dealt with Germany. Either way, the events of WWII strengthened the ties between the US and Australia, but not so much with NZ. We see Australia supporting the US in most of their Cold War campaigns as well as the anti-terrorist campaigns in the Middle East. Overall, I feel that those events have greatly weakened Great Britain’s involvement with both Australia and NZ and those ties will eventually become nonexistent.