That depends . Obviously , the Empire was well on its way to decentralization in the 1930 ' s and dominions like Canada and Australia and New Zealand were basically independent countries before WWII . India was definitely moving in the direction of independence , but without WWII , the British may have been able to devote the necessary resources to hold on to it for longer . They certainly wouldn ' t have had to make a deal with the Congress to be granted independence upon the conclusion of the war in return for not undermining the war effort . The African colonies and other less developed colonies , however , I think would not have been as far along without the war . Those were the colonies that needed the most effort to bring to the same level as your Canada or Australia , and the British pretty much quick marched out of those areas . I don ' t think it would have gone that way without the war .