romikgosai/squad_modified huggingface dataset:
In 1922, Egypt, which had been declared a British protectorate at the outbreak of the First World War, was granted formal independence, though it continued to be a British client state until 1954. British troops remained stationed in Egypt until the signing of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty in 1936, under which it was agreed that the troops would withdraw but continue to occupy and defend the Suez Canal zone. In return, Egypt was assisted to join the League of Nations. Iraq, a British mandate since 1920, also gained membership of the League in its own right after achieving independence from Britain in 1932. In Palestine, Britain was presented with the problem of mediating between the Arab and Jewish communities. The 1917 Balfour Declaration, which had been incorporated into the terms of the mandate, stated that a national home for the Jewish people would be established in Palestine, and Jewish immigration allowed up to a limit that would be determined by the mandatory power. This led to increasing conflict with the Arab population, who openly revolted in 1936. As the threat of war with Germany increased during the 1930s, Britain judged the support of the Arab population in the Middle East as more important than the establishment of a Jewish homeland, and shifted to a pro-Arab stance, limiting Jewish immigration and in turn triggering a Jewish insurgency.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: When did Egypt regain formal independence from Britain?
A: 1922', '
Q: When did Egypt stop being a British client state?
A: 1954', '
Q: What treaty was signed in 1936?
A: Anglo-Egyptian Treaty', '
Q: When did Iraq gain independence from Britain?
A: 1932', '
Q: Britain became more pro-Arab in the 1930s at the expense of which race?
A: Jewish']
The ability of the Dominions to set their own foreign policy, independent of Britain, was recognised at the 1923 Imperial Conference. Britain's request for military assistance from the Dominions at the outbreak of the Chanak Crisis the previous year had been turned down by Canada and South Africa, and Canada had refused to be bound by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. After pressure from Ireland and South Africa, the 1926 Imperial Conference issued the Balfour Declaration, declaring the Dominions to be "autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another" within a "British Commonwealth of Nations". This declaration was given legal substance under the 1931 Statute of Westminster. The parliaments of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, the Irish Free State and Newfoundland were now independent of British legislative control, they could nullify British laws and Britain could no longer pass laws for them without their consent. Newfoundland reverted to colonial status in 1933, suffering from financial difficulties during the Great Depression. Ireland distanced itself further from Britain with the introduction of a new constitution in 1937, making it a republic in all but name.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: When was the right of Dominions to determine their own foreign policy recognized?
A: 1923', '
Q: Which treaty did Canada ignore?
A: Treaty of Lausanne', '
Q: When was the Balfour Declaration issued?
A: 1926', '
Q: When was the status of Dominions as equal autonomous communities given legal force?
A: 1931', '
Q: When did Ireland issue a new constitution?
A: 1937']
After the German occupation of France in 1940, Britain and the empire stood alone against Germany, until the entry of the Soviet Union to the war in 1941. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill successfully lobbied President Franklin D. Roosevelt for military aid from the United States, but Roosevelt was not yet ready to ask Congress to commit the country to war. In August 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt met and signed the Atlantic Charter, which included the statement that "the rights of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they live" should be respected. This wording was ambiguous as to whether it referred to European countries invaded by Germany, or the peoples colonised by European nations, and would later be interpreted differently by the British, Americans, and nationalist movements.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: When was France occupied by Germany?
A: 1940', '
Q: When was the Atlantic Charter signed?
A: August 1941', '
Q: Which British Prime Minister signed the Atlantic Charter?
A: Churchill', '
Q: Which US President signed the Atlantic Charter?
A: Roosevelt', "
Q: Which country first entered World War 2 after France's defeat?
A: Soviet Union"]
In December 1941, Japan launched, in quick succession, attacks on British Malaya, the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, and Hong Kong. Churchill's reaction to the entry of the United States into the war was that Britain was now assured of victory and the future of the empire was safe, but the manner in which British forces were rapidly defeated in the Far East irreversibly harmed Britain's standing and prestige as an imperial power. Most damaging of all was the fall of Singapore, which had previously been hailed as an impregnable fortress and the eastern equivalent of Gibraltar. The realisation that Britain could not defend its entire empire pushed Australia and New Zealand, which now appeared threatened by Japanese forces, into closer ties with the United States. This resulted in the 1951 ANZUS Pact between Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Which country attacked British Malaya in 1941?
A: Japan', '
Q: Which country attacked Hong Kong in 1941?
A: Japan', '
Q: When was the ANZUS Pact formed?
A: 1951', '
Q: Which countries were in the ANZUS Pact?
A: Australia, New Zealand and the United States', '
Q: Which territory had been compared to Gibraltar?
A: Singapore']
Though Britain and the empire emerged victorious from the Second World War, the effects of the conflict were profound, both at home and abroad. Much of Europe, a continent that had dominated the world for several centuries, was in ruins, and host to the armies of the United States and the Soviet Union, who now held the balance of global power. Britain was left essentially bankrupt, with insolvency only averted in 1946 after the negotiation of a $US 4.33 billion loan (US$56 billion in 2012) from the United States, the last instalment of which was repaid in 2006. At the same time, anti-colonial movements were on the rise in the colonies of European nations. The situation was complicated further by the increasing Cold War rivalry of the United States and the Soviet Union. In principle, both nations were opposed to European colonialism. In practice, however, American anti-communism prevailed over anti-imperialism, and therefore the United States supported the continued existence of the British Empire to keep Communist expansion in check. The "wind of change" ultimately meant that the British Empire's days were numbered, and on the whole, Britain adopted a policy of peaceful disengagement from its colonies once stable, non-Communist governments were available to transfer power to. This was in contrast to other European powers such as France and Portugal, which waged costly and ultimately unsuccessful wars to keep their empires intact. Between 1945 and 1965, the number of people under British rule outside the UK itself fell from 700 million to five million, three million of whom were in Hong Kong.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: How much money did the US loan to Britain after WW2?
A: $US 4.33 billion', '
Q: When did Britain finish paying back the US loan?
A: 2006', '
Q: When did the US make a large loan to Britain?
A: 1946', '
Q: Though the US and the Soviet Union were both against colonialism, what was the US more afraid of?
A: communism', '
Q: How many people outside the UK were under British rule in 1945?
A: 700 million']
The pro-decolonisation Labour government, elected at the 1945 general election and led by Clement Attlee, moved quickly to tackle the most pressing issue facing the empire: that of Indian independence. India's two major political parties—the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League—had been campaigning for independence for decades, but disagreed as to how it should be implemented. Congress favoured a unified secular Indian state, whereas the League, fearing domination by the Hindu majority, desired a separate Islamic state for Muslim-majority regions. Increasing civil unrest and the mutiny of the Royal Indian Navy during 1946 led Attlee to promise independence no later than 1948. When the urgency of the situation and risk of civil war became apparent, the newly appointed (and last) Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, hastily brought forward the date to 15 August 1947. The borders drawn by the British to broadly partition India into Hindu and Muslim areas left tens of millions as minorities in the newly independent states of India and Pakistan. Millions of Muslims subsequently crossed from India to Pakistan and Hindus vice versa, and violence between the two communities cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Burma, which had been administered as part of the British Raj, and Sri Lanka gained their independence the following year in 1948. India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka became members of the Commonwealth, while Burma chose not to join.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Who led the British government elected in 1945?
A: Clement Attlee', "
Q: What were India's two largest political parties in the 1940s?
A: the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League", "
Q: What was India's majority religion in the 1940s?
A: Hindu", '
Q: When India was split into Hindu and Muslim areas, what country did the Muslim area become?
A: Pakistan', '
Q: When did Burma get its independence?
A: 1948']
The British Mandate of Palestine, where an Arab majority lived alongside a Jewish minority, presented the British with a similar problem to that of India. The matter was complicated by large numbers of Jewish refugees seeking to be admitted to Palestine following the Holocaust, while Arabs were opposed to the creation of a Jewish state. Frustrated by the intractability of the problem, attacks by Jewish paramilitary organisations and the increasing cost of maintaining its military presence, Britain announced in 1947 that it would withdraw in 1948 and leave the matter to the United Nations to solve. The UN General Assembly subsequently voted for a plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What race was the majority in Palestine in the 1940s?
A: Arab', '
Q: When did Britain announce plans to withdraw from Palestine?
A: 1947', '
Q: Which entity decided to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states?
A: The UN General Assembly', '
Q: Where did many Jewish refugees want to move because of the Holocaust?
A: Palestine']
Following the defeat of Japan in the Second World War, anti-Japanese resistance movements in Malaya turned their attention towards the British, who had moved to quickly retake control of the colony, valuing it as a source of rubber and tin. The fact that the guerrillas were primarily Malayan-Chinese Communists meant that the British attempt to quell the uprising was supported by the Muslim Malay majority, on the understanding that once the insurgency had been quelled, independence would be granted. The Malayan Emergency, as it was called, began in 1948 and lasted until 1960, but by 1957, Britain felt confident enough to grant independence to the Federation of Malaya within the Commonwealth. In 1963, the 11 states of the federation together with Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo joined to form Malaysia, but in 1965 Chinese-majority Singapore was expelled from the union following tensions between the Malay and Chinese populations. Brunei, which had been a British protectorate since 1888, declined to join the union and maintained its status until independence in 1984.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: When did the Malayan Emergency begin?
A: 1948', '
Q: When did Britain give the Federation of Malaya its independence?
A: 1957', '
Q: When did Singapore leave the Federation of Malaya?
A: 1965', "
Q: What race was the majority of Singapore's population?
A: Chinese", '
Q: When did Brunei get its independence?
A: 1984']
In 1951, the Conservative Party returned to power in Britain, under the leadership of Winston Churchill. Churchill and the Conservatives believed that Britain's position as a world power relied on the continued existence of the empire, with the base at the Suez Canal allowing Britain to maintain its pre-eminent position in the Middle East in spite of the loss of India. However, Churchill could not ignore Gamal Abdul Nasser's new revolutionary government of Egypt that had taken power in 1952, and the following year it was agreed that British troops would withdraw from the Suez Canal zone and that Sudan would be granted self-determination by 1955, with independence to follow. Sudan was granted independence on 1 January 1956.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What party regained power in Britain in 1951?
A: Conservative Party', '
Q: Which party was Winston Churchill in?
A: Conservative Party', '
Q: Who ruled Egypt in 1952?
A: Gamal Abdul Nasser', '
Q: When did Sudan receive independence?
A: 1 January 1956', '
Q: Britain wanted to retain control of the Suez Canal to help its importance in what region?
A: Middle East']
In July 1956, Nasser unilaterally nationalised the Suez Canal. The response of Anthony Eden, who had succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister, was to collude with France to engineer an Israeli attack on Egypt that would give Britain and France an excuse to intervene militarily and retake the canal. Eden infuriated US President Dwight D. Eisenhower, by his lack of consultation, and Eisenhower refused to back the invasion. Another of Eisenhower's concerns was the possibility of a wider war with the Soviet Union after it threatened to intervene on the Egyptian side. Eisenhower applied financial leverage by threatening to sell US reserves of the British pound and thereby precipitate a collapse of the British currency. Though the invasion force was militarily successful in its objectives, UN intervention and US pressure forced Britain into a humiliating withdrawal of its forces, and Eden resigned.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: When was the Suez Canal nationalized?
A: July 1956', '
Q: Who became British Prime Minister after Winston Churchill?
A: Anthony Eden', '
Q: Which country did Eden conspire with to cause an attack on Egypt?
A: France', '
Q: Who decided to sell US reserves of the British pound to cause the pound to collapse?
A: Eisenhower', '
Q: What country did Britain convince to attack Egypt?
A: Israeli']
The Suez Crisis very publicly exposed Britain's limitations to the world and confirmed Britain's decline on the world stage, demonstrating that henceforth it could no longer act without at least the acquiescence, if not the full support, of the United States. The events at Suez wounded British national pride, leading one MP to describe it as "Britain's Waterloo" and another to suggest that the country had become an "American satellite". Margaret Thatcher later described the mindset she believed had befallen the British political establishment as "Suez syndrome", from which Britain did not recover until the successful recapture of the Falkland Islands from Argentina in 1982.

Questions and answers:
["
Q: Where did 'Britain's Waterloo' occur?
A: Suez", "
Q: Who referred to 'Suez Syndrome'?
A: Margaret Thatcher", '
Q: When did Britain retake the Falkland Islands?
A: 1982', '
Q: From whom did Britain retake the Falkland Islands?
A: Argentina', "
Q: A British minister thought which country was becoming an 'American satellite'?
A: Britain"]
While the Suez Crisis caused British power in the Middle East to weaken, it did not collapse. Britain again deployed its armed forces to the region, intervening in Oman (1957), Jordan (1958) and Kuwait (1961), though on these occasions with American approval, as the new Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's foreign policy was to remain firmly aligned with the United States. Britain maintained a military presence in the Middle East for another decade. In January 1968, a few weeks after the devaluation of the pound, Prime Minister Harold Wilson and his Defence Secretary Denis Healey announced that British troops would be withdrawn from major military bases East of Suez, which included the ones in the Middle East, and primarily from Malaysia and Singapore. The British withdrew from Aden in 1967, Bahrain in 1971, and Maldives in 1976.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: When did Britain withdraw from Aden?
A: 1967', '
Q: When did Britain withdraw from Bahrain?
A: 1971', '
Q: When did Britain withdraw from the Maldives?
A: 1976', "
Q: Who was Harold Wilson's Defense Secretary?
A: Denis Healey", "
Q: Where did Britain's army attack in 1961?
A: Kuwait"]
Britain's remaining colonies in Africa, except for self-governing Southern Rhodesia, were all granted independence by 1968. British withdrawal from the southern and eastern parts of Africa was not a peaceful process. Kenyan independence was preceded by the eight-year Mau Mau Uprising. In Rhodesia, the 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence by the white minority resulted in a civil war that lasted until the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979, which set the terms for recognised independence in 1980, as the new nation of Zimbabwe.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What was the last British colony remaining in Africa?
A: Southern Rhodesia', '
Q: When was the second-to-last British colony in Africa granted independence?
A: 1968', '
Q: When was the Unilateral Declaration of Independence of Rhodesia?
A: 1965', '
Q: What new country did the Lancaster House Agreement recognize?
A: Mau Mau Uprising', '
Q: Where was the Mau Mau Uprising?
A: Kenyan']
Most of the UK's Caribbean territories achieved independence after the departure in 1961 and 1962 of Jamaica and Trinidad from the West Indies Federation, established in 1958 in an attempt to unite the British Caribbean colonies under one government, but which collapsed following the loss of its two largest members. Barbados achieved independence in 1966 and the remainder of the eastern Caribbean islands in the 1970s and 1980s, but Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos Islands opted to revert to British rule after they had already started on the path to independence. The British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Montserrat opted to retain ties with Britain, while Guyana achieved independence in 1966. Britain's last colony on the American mainland, British Honduras, became a self-governing colony in 1964 and was renamed Belize in 1973, achieving full independence in 1981. A dispute with Guatemala over claims to Belize was left unresolved.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Which British territory received independence in 1961?
A: Jamaica', '
Q: Which British territory received independence in 1962?
A: Trinidad', '
Q: When did Barbados get independence?
A: 1966', '
Q: Which islands decided to return to British rule after receiving independence?
A: Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos', "
Q: What was Britain's last American mainland colony?
A: British Honduras"]
In 1980, Rhodesia, Britain's last African colony, became the independent nation of Zimbabwe. The New Hebrides achieved independence (as Vanuatu) in 1980, with Belize following suit in 1981. The passage of the British Nationality Act 1981, which reclassified the remaining Crown colonies as "British Dependent Territories" (renamed British Overseas Territories in 2002) meant that, aside from a scattering of islands and outposts the process of decolonisation that had begun after the Second World War was largely complete. In 1982, Britain's resolve in defending its remaining overseas territories was tested when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, acting on a long-standing claim that dated back to the Spanish Empire. Britain's ultimately successful military response to retake the islands during the ensuing Falklands War was viewed by many to have contributed to reversing the downward trend in Britain's status as a world power. The same year, the Canadian government severed its last legal link with Britain by patriating the Canadian constitution from Britain. The 1982 Canada Act passed by the British parliament ended the need for British involvement in changes to the Canadian constitution. Similarly, the Constitution Act 1986 reformed the constitution of New Zealand to sever its constitutional link with Britain, and the Australia Act 1986 severed the constitutional link between Britain and the Australian states. In 1984, Brunei, Britain's last remaining Asian protectorate, gained its independence.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: When was Canada given full control of its constitution?
A: 1982', '
Q: When did Rhodesia become Zimbabwe?
A: 1980', '
Q: What were the remaining British territories called in 1981?
A: British Dependent Territories', '
Q: What were the remaining British territories called in 2002?
A: British Overseas Territories', '
Q: Which 1980s war victory helped Britain seem more like a world power again?
A: Falklands War']
In September 1982, Prime minister Margaret Thatcher travelled to Beijing to negotiate with the Chinese government on the future of Britain's last major and most populous overseas territory, Hong Kong. Under the terms of the 1842 Treaty of Nanking, Hong Kong Island itself had been ceded to Britain in perpetuity, but the vast majority of the colony was constituted by the New Territories, which had been acquired under a 99-year lease in 1898, due to expire in 1997. Thatcher, seeing parallels with the Falkland Islands, initially wished to hold Hong Kong and proposed British administration with Chinese sovereignty, though this was rejected by China. A deal was reached in 1984—under the terms of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, Hong Kong would become a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, maintaining its way of life for at least 50 years. The handover ceremony in 1997 marked for many, including Charles, Prince of Wales, who was in attendance, "the end of Empire".

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Who was the British Prime Minister in 1982?
A: Margaret Thatcher', '
Q: Which treaty had given Hong Kong to Britain?
A: Treaty of Nanking', '
Q: When did Britain hand over Hong Kong to China?
A: 1997', '
Q: When was the Sino-British Joint Declaration?
A: 1984', '
Q: Which territory did Margaret Thatcher compare Hong Kong to?
A: Falkland Islands']
Britain retains sovereignty over 14 territories outside the British Isles, which were renamed the British Overseas Territories in 2002. Some are uninhabited except for transient military or scientific personnel; the remainder are self-governing to varying degrees and are reliant on the UK for foreign relations and defence. The British government has stated its willingness to assist any Overseas Territory that wishes to proceed to independence, where that is an option. British sovereignty of several of the overseas territories is disputed by their geographical neighbours: Gibraltar is claimed by Spain, the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are claimed by Argentina, and the British Indian Ocean Territory is claimed by Mauritius and Seychelles. The British Antarctic Territory is subject to overlapping claims by Argentina and Chile, while many countries do not recognise any territorial claims in Antarctica.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: How many overseas territories does Britain still have?
A: 14', '
Q: When did Britain decide to call its territories the British Overseas Territories?
A: 2002', '
Q: Which country besides Britain claims Gibraltar?
A: Spain', '
Q: Which country besides Britain claims the Falkland Islands?
A: Argentina', '
Q: Which country besides Britain claims the South Sandwich Islands?
A: Argentina']