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| Manchester United |
Unfinished journey (59)
(Part Fifty-Nine, Depok, West Java, Indonesia, 10
September 2014, 17:04 pm)
United Kingdom, or the United Kingdom (the United
Kingdom), as well as Spain, Germany and Italy, can not be separated from the
news about the football.
Champions League prize will be added
Real Madrid get the largest share of Champions League
prize.
Top clubs in Europe would certainly getting richer after
Football Federation (UEFA) decides that the money from the Champions League
would be a plus.
The addition of prize money made possible thanks to the
increase in revenue from television rights and sponsorship for the next three
years.
"Great family of European football is very solid and
prosperous," said Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, chairman of the European Club
Association Football (ECA) which is also the president of Bayern Munich.
The total prize money for the 32 clubs competing in the
Champions League reached $ 1.16 billion.
Of these, the largest portion won Real Madrid the
Champions League last season, who earn $ 74 million.
ECA Secretary General, Michele Centenaro, said during the
next three years this prize money will rise at least 30%.
But amid this increase in prize money, the criticism
appears also assess the increase in prize money will only add to the width of
the gap between the rich clubs and poor.
In response to this criticism of UEFA and the ECA will
spend greater competition for clubs who can not qualify for the group stage of
the Champions League.
Arsenal heavy group, mild group Chelsea
Champions League trophy is considered the most important
in the club level.
Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool go heavy group,
while Chelsea lightest incoming group in the group stage of the Champions
League from 2014 to 2015.
Lottery division of the group took place at the FIFA
headquarters in Monaco, Thursday afternoon local time.
Football, Champions League
At the end of the show, made the delivery of Europe's
best players, with three finalists Cristiano Ronaldo, Manuel Neuer and Arjen
Robben, Ronaldo won.
Arsenal repeat last season's story: back in the same
group with Borrusia Dortmund for the second time in a row.
In Group D, Arsenal and Dortmund this time accompanied by
Galatasaray (Turkey) and Anderlecht (Belgium). Jürgen Klopp's Dortmund under
devastating Madrid under Mourinho, München in the German Super Cup, and Arsenal
at the Emirates in the Champions League last season.
Turkish giants Galatasaray are always dangerous. While
the Belgian champions Anderlecht are the last three seasons full of talented
players.
Manchester City, for the third time in four seasons, are
in a group with Bayern Munich. In the E group, there exist also CSKA Moscow and
Roma.
May not be called "Group of Death," but the
group E appeared among the most severe.
Manuel Pellegrini's toughest opponent forces that Munich
would have been full of world champions and cared for Pep Guardiola.
But CSKA Moscow offers a formidable challenge, especially
field trips and the distance that must be taken.
While Rome is Italy terrifying new force under French
coach Rudi Garcia.
History
Ronaldo is the best player of Europe from 2013 to 2014.
Liverpool for the first time to qualify for the Champions
League after five years, included in Group B along with defending champions,
plus Spanish giants Real Madrid Basel (Switzerland) and Ludogorets (Bulgaria).
Real Madrid as the defending champion, with the most
expensive player Ronaldo, Bale, Rodriguez, certainly not a team nuts.
However, Liverpool have good sejarahh: win all three last
European competition with Real, without ever conceding a single goal.
Basel is a dark horse that always makes a surprise hit
last --musim Chelsea, Manchester United get rid of the previous season.
While newcomers Ludogorets is sensational. Established in
2001, and passes through a dramatic play-off.
The Bulgarian club must undergo opponent Steau Bucharest
on penalties, with the goalkeeper sent-off in the last minute.
Players behind them, Cosmin Moti took over as goalkeeper,
and managed to hold two penalty kicks.
Chelsea continued shaded by luck, gets easy opponents,
the group arguably the lightest: Schalke (Germany), Sporting Lisbon (Portugal),
Maribor (Slovenia).
A complete list of the Champions League group division
2014-2015
Group A: Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Olympiacos, Malmoe
Group B: Real Madrid, FC Basel, Liverpool, Ludogorets
Group C: Benfica, Zenit St. Petersburg, Bayer Leverkusen,
Monaco
Group D: Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund, Galatasaray,
Anderlecht
Group E: Bayern Munich, Manchester City, CSKA Moscow,
Rome
Group F: Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Ajax, APOEL
Nicosia
Group G: Chelsea, Schalke, Sporting CP, Maribor
Group H: FC Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, Athletic Club, BATE
Borisov.
Shopping Premier League player to accomplish Rp16
trillion
Manchester United is the biggest player buyers
Premier League clubs have spent £ 835 million or Rp16
trillion for spending transer players throughout the season this year,
surpassing the previous year of £ 630 million.
Analysis of Deloitte shows that of the total money spent,
as much as £ 530 million has been spent abroad, £ 240 million into the club and
£ 65 million to teams Football League.
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| Elizabeth II Queen of the UNited Kingdom |
Shopping player this season marked the presence of
Colombian striker, Radamel Falcao, to Manchester United for a fee of around £ 6
million.
MU also have to spend £ 13.8 million to bring the Dutch
national team defender, Daley Blind. Not to mention Danny Welbeck spearheading
a move to Arsenal for a fee of £ 16 million.
Earlier, Manchester United must spend the money to bring
in around £ 59.7juta Argentine national team midfielder Angel Di Maria of Real
Madrid.
investment player
Transfer period has closed on September 1st at 23:00 UK
Time.
Monday is also the closure of the transfer deadline day
in the Football League and Scottish League.
Dan Jones, partner in Deloitte's Sport Business Group,
said, "In the summer, where the world's best players in the World Cup we
once again see how the Premier League clubs can successfully compete on a
global level in terms of attracting talent.
"We continue to see increasing revenues Premier
League clubs, thanks to increased broadcasting contracts which later became
fruitful investment in players.
Manchester United spent £ 150 million to buy new players
in this transfer season, which is the highest figure spent by a Premier League
club. (BBC)
History of the United Kingdom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For history prior to the Acts of Union of 1707 (Great
Britain) and 1800 (Ireland), see History of England, History of Scotland,
History of Wales, and History of Ireland.
A published version of the Articles of Union, agreement
that led to the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707
The history of the United Kingdom as a unified sovereign
state began in 1707 with the political union of the kingdoms of England and
Scotland,[1] into a united kingdom called Great Britain. On this new state the
historian Simon Schama said "What began as a hostile merger would end in a
full partnership in the most powerful going concern in the world... it was one
of the most astonishing transformations in European history."[2] A further
Act of Union in 1800 added the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland.
The early years of the unified kingdom of Great Britain
were marked by Jacobite risings which ended with defeat for the Stuart cause at
Culloden in 1746. Later, in 1763, victory in the Seven Years War led to the
dominance of the British Empire, which was to be the foremost global power for
over a century and grew to become the largest empire in history. As a result,
the culture of the United Kingdom, and its industrial, political,
constitutional, educational and linguistic legacy, is widespread.
In 1922, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Ireland
effectively seceded from the United Kingdom to become the Irish Free State; a
day later, Northern Ireland seceded from the Free State and became part of the
United Kingdom. As a result, in 1927 the United Kingdom changed its formal
title to the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland,"[3] usually shortened to the "United Kingdom", the
"UK" or "Britain". Former parts of the British Empire
became independent dominions.
In the Second World War, in which the Soviet Union and
the US joined Britain as allied powers, Britain and its Empire fought a
successful war against Germany, Italy and Japan. The cost was high and Britain
no longer had the wealth or the inclination to maintain an empire, so it
granted independence to most of the Empire. The new states typically joined the
Commonwealth of Nations.[4] The United Kingdom has sought to be a leading
member of the United Nations, the European Union and NATO, yet since the 1990s
large-scale devolution movements in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have
brought into question the future viability of this constantly evolving
political union.
Main article: 18th century Britain
Birth of the Union[edit]
Main articles: Treaty of Union and Acts of Union 1707
See also: Union of the Crowns and History of the
formation of the United Kingdom
"Articles of Union with Scotland", 1707
The united kingdom of Great Britain came into being on 1
May 1707, as a result of the political union of the Kingdom of England (which
included Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland. The terms of the union had been
agreed in the Treaty of Union that was negotiated the previous year and then
ratified by the parliaments of Scotland and England each approving Acts of Union.[5]
Although previously separate states, England and Scotland
had shared monarchs since 1603 when James VI of Scotland become James I of
England on the death of the childless Elizabeth I, an event known as the Union
of the Crowns. The Treaty of Union enabled the two kingdoms to be combined into
a single kingdom with the two parliaments merging into a single parliament of
Great Britain. Queen Anne, who reigned from 1702 to 1714, had favoured deeper
political integration between the two kingdoms and became the first monarch of
Great Britain. The union was valuable to England from a security standpoint,
since it meant that Scotland lost the possibility to choose a different monarch
on her death, reducing the chance of a European power using Scotland as a route
to invading England.
Although now a single kingdom, certain aspects of the
former independent kingdoms remained separate, in line with the terms in the
Treaty of Union: Scottish and English law remained separate, as did the
Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the Anglican Church of England. England and
Scotland also continued to have their own systems of education.
The creation of Great Britain happened during the War of
the Spanish Succession, in which just before his death in 1702 William III had
reactivated the Grand Alliance against France. His successor, Anne, continued
the war. The Duke of Marlborough won a series of brilliant victories over the
French, England's first major battlefield successes on the Continent since the
Hundred Years War. France was nearly brought to its knees by 1709, when King
Louis XIV made a desperate appeal to the French people. Afterwards, his general
Marshal Villars managed to turn the tide in favour of France. A more
peace-minded government came to power in Great Britain, and the treaties of
Utrecht and Rastadt in 1713–1714 ended the war.
Hanoverian kings[edit]
George I in 1714, by Godfrey Kneller
Queen Anne died in 1714, and the Elector of Hanover,
George Louis, became king as George I (1714–1727). He paid more attention to
Hanover and surrounded himself with Germans, making him an unpopular king,
However he did build up the army and created a more stable political system in
Britain and helped bring peace to northern Europe.[6][7] Jacobite factions
seeking a Stuart restoration remained strong; they instigated a revolt in
1715–1716. The son of James II planned to invade England, but before he could do
so, John Erskine, Earl of Mar, launched an invasion from Scotland, which was
easily defeated.[8]
George II (1727–1760) enhanced the stability of the
constitutional system, with a government run by Sir Robert Walpole during the
period 1730–42.[9] He built up the first British Empire, strengthening the
colonies in the Caribbean and North America. In coalition with the rising power
Prussia, defeated France in the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), and won full
control of Canada.[10]
George III reigned 1760–1820; he was born in Britain,
never visited Hanover, and spoke English as his first language. Frequently
reviled by Americans as a tyrant and the instigator of the American War of
Independence, he was insane off and on after 1788 as his eldest son served as regent.[11]
The last king to dominate government and politics, his long reign is noted for
losing the first British Empire with a loss in the American Revolutionary War
(1783), as France sought revenge for its defeat in the Seven Years War by
aiding the Americans. The reign was notable for the building of a second empire
based in India, Asia and Africa, the beginnings of the industrial revolution
that made Britain an economic powerhouse, and above all the life and death
struggle with the French, the French Revolutionary Wars 1793–1802, ending in a
draw and a short truce, and the epic Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), ending with
the decisive defeat of Napoleon.[12]
South Sea Bubble[edit]
The era was prosperous as entrepreneurs extended the
range of their business around the globe. The South Sea Bubble was a business
enterprise that exploded in scandal. The South Sea Company was a private
business corporation set up in London ostensibly to grant trade monopolies in
South America. Its actual purpose was to re-negotiate previous high-interest
government loans amounting to £31 million through market manipulation and
speculation. It issued stock four times in 1720 that reached about 8,000
investors. Prices kept soaring every day, from £130 a share to £1,000, with
insiders making huge paper profits. The Bubble collapsed overnight, ruining
many speculators. Investigations showed bribes had reached into high
places—even to the king. Robert Walpole managed to wind it down with minimal
political and economic damage, although some losers fled to exile or committed
suicide.[13][14]
Warfare and finance[edit]
From 1700 to 1850, Britain was involved in 137 wars or
rebellions. It maintained a relatively large and expensive Royal Navy, along
with a small standing army. When the need arose for soldiers it hired
mercenaries or financed allies who fielded armies. The rising costs of warfare
forced a shift in government financing from the income from royal agricultural
estates and special imposts and taxes to reliance on customs and excise taxes
and, after 1790, an income tax. Working with bankers in the City, the
government raised large loans during wartime and paid them off in peacetime.
The rise in taxes amounted to 20% of national income, but the private sector
benefited from the increase in economic growth. The demand for war supplies
stimulated the industrial sector, particularly naval supplies, munitions and
textiles, which gave Britain an advantage in international trade during the
postwar years.[15][16][17]
The French Revolution polarized British political opinion
in the 1790s, with conservatives outraged at killing of the king, the expulsion
of the nobles, and the Reign of Terror. Britain was at war against France
almost continuously from 1793 until the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815.
Conservatives castigated every radical opinion in Britain as
"Jacobin" (in reference to the leaders of the Terror), warning that
radicalism threatened an upheaval of British society. The Anti-Jacobin
sentiment, well expressed by Edmund Burke and many popular writers was
strongest among the landed genrty and the upper classes.[18]
British Empire[edit]
Main article: British Empire
Lord Clive meeting with Mir Jafar after the Battle of
Plassey, by Francis Hayman (c. 1762).
The Seven Years' War, which began in 1756, was the first
war waged on a global scale, fought in Europe, India, North America, the
Caribbean, the Philippines and coastal Africa. The signing of the Treaty of
Paris (1763) had important consequences for Britain and its empire. In North America,
France's future as a colonial power there was effectively ended with the ceding
of New France to Britain (leaving a sizeable French-speaking population under
British control) and Louisiana to Spain. Spain ceded Florida to Britain. In
India, the Carnatic War had left France still in control of its enclaves but
with military restrictions and an obligation to support British client states,
effectively leaving the future of India to Britain. The British victory over
France in the Seven Years War therefore left Britain as the world's dominant
colonial power.[19]
During the 1760s and 1770s, relations between the
Thirteen Colonies and Britain became increasingly strained, primarily because
of opposition to Parliament's repeated attempts to tax American colonists
without their consent.[20] Disagreement turned to violence and in 1775 the
American Revolutionary War began. In 1776 the Patriots expelled royal officials
and declared the independence of the United States of America. After capturing
a British invasion army in 1777, the US formed an alliance with France (and in
turn Spain aided France), evening out the military balance. The British army
controlled only a handful of coastal cities. 1780–81 was a low point for
Britain. Taxes and deficits were high, government corruption was pervasive, and
the war in America was entering its sixth year with no apparent end in sight.
The Gordon Riots erupted in London during the spring of 1781, in response to
increased concessions to Catholics by Parliament. In October 1781 Lord
Cornwallis surrendered his army at Yorktown, Virginia. The Treaty of Paris was
signed in 1783, formally terminating the war and recognising the independence
of the United States.[21]
British general John Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga
(1777), painting by John Trumbull 1822
The loss of the Thirteen Colonies, at the time Britain's
most populous colonies, marked the transition between the "first" and
"second" empires,[22] in which Britain shifted its attention to Asia,
the Pacific and later Africa. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, published in
1776, had argued that colonies were redundant, and that free trade should
replace the old mercantilist policies that had characterised the first period
of colonial expansion, dating back to the protectionism of Spain and Portugal.
The growth of trade between the newly independent United States and Britain
after 1783[23] confirmed Smith's view that political control was not necessary
for economic success.
During its first 100 years of operation, the focus of the
British East India Company had been trade, not the building of an empire in
India. Company interests turned from trade to territory during the 18th century
as the Mughal Empire declined in power and the British East India Company
struggled with its French counterpart, the La Compagnie française des Indes
orientales, during the Carnatic Wars of the 1740s and 1750s. The British, led
by Robert Clive, defeated the French and their Indian allies in the Battle of
Plassey, leaving the Company in control of Bengal and a major military and
political power in India. In the following decades it gradually increased the
size of the territories under its control, either ruling directly or indirectly
via local puppet rulers under the threat of force of the Indian Army, 80% of
which was composed of native Indian sepoys.
Voyages of the explorer James Cook
On 22 August 1770, James Cook discovered the eastern
coast of Australia[24] while on a scientific voyage to the South Pacific. In
1778, Joseph Banks, Cook's botanist on the voyage, presented evidence to the
government on the suitability of Botany Bay for the establishment of a penal
settlement, and in 1787 the first shipment of convicts set sail, arriving in
1788.
At the threshold to the 19th century, Britain was
challenged again by France under Napoleon, in a struggle that, unlike previous
wars, represented a contest of ideologies between the two nations.[25]
British Empire in 1921
The British government had somewhat mixed reactions to
the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, and when war broke out on the
Continent in 1792, it initially remained neutral. But the following January,
Louis XVI was beheaded. This combined with a threatened invasion of the Netherlands
by France spurred Britain to declare war. For the next 23 years, the two
nations were at war except for a short period in 1802–1803. Britain alone among
the nations of Europe never submitted to or formed an alliance with France.
Throughout the 1790s, the British repeatedly defeated the navies of France and
its allies, but were unable to perform any significant land operations. An
Anglo-Russian invasion of the Netherlands in 1799 accomplished little except
the capture of the Dutch fleet.
It was not only Britain's position on the world stage
that was threatened: Napoleon threatened invasion of Britain itself, and with
it, a fate similar to the countries of continental Europe that his armies had
overrun.
1800 to 1837[edit]
Main article: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Further information: Georgian era, British Regency,
Victorian era, British Empire and History of British society § Georgian society
Union with Ireland[edit]
The Flag of the United Kingdom is based on the flags of
England, Scotland and Ireland
Main article: Act of Union 1800
On 1 January 1801, the Great Britain and Ireland joined
to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Events that culminated in the union with Ireland had
spanned several centuries. Invasions from England by the ruling Normans from
1170 led to centuries of strife in Ireland and successive Kings of England
sought both to conquer and pillage Ireland, imposing their rule by force
throughout the entire island. In the early 17th century, large-scale settlement
by Protestant settlers from both Scotland and England began, especially in the
province of Ulster, seeing the displacement of many of the native Roman
Catholic Irish inhabitants of this part of Ireland. Since the time of the first
Norman invaders from England, Ireland has been subject to control and
regulation, firstly by England then latterly by Great Britain.
After the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Irish Roman Catholics
were banned from voting or attending the Irish Parliament. The new English
Protestant ruling class was known as the Protestant Ascendancy. Towards the end
of the 18th century the entirely Protestant Irish Parliament attained a greater
degree of independence from the British Parliament than it had previously held.
Under the Penal Laws no Irish Catholic could sit in the Parliament of Ireland,
even though some 90% of Ireland's population was native Irish Catholic when the
first of these bans was introduced in 1691. This ban was followed by others in
1703 and 1709 as part of a comprehensive system disadvantaging the Catholic
community, and to a lesser extent Protestant dissenters.[26] In 1798, many
members of this dissenter tradition made common cause with Catholics in a
rebellion inspired and led by the Society of United Irishmen. It was staged
with the aim of creating a fully independent Ireland as a state with a
republican constitution. Despite assistance from France the Irish Rebellion of
1798 was put down by British forces.
Possibly influenced by the War of American Independence
(1775–1783), a united force of Irish volunteers used their influence to
campaign for greater independence for the Irish Parliament. This was granted in
1782, giving free trade and legislative independence to Ireland. However, the
French revolution had encouraged the increasing calls for moderate
constitutional reform. The Society of United Irishmen, made up of Presbyterians
from Belfast and both Anglicans and Catholics in Dublin, campaigned for an end
to British domination. Their leader Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763–98) worked with
the Catholic Convention of 1792 which demanded an end to the penal laws.
Failing to win the support of the British government, he travelled to Paris,
encouraging a number of French naval forces to land in Ireland to help with the
planned insurrections. These were slaughtered by government forces, but these
rebellions convinced the British under Prime Minister William Pitt that the
only solution was to end Irish independence once and for all.
Henry Gratton, an Irish politician who opposed the union
with Britain
The legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland was
brought about by the Act of Union 1800, creating the "United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland". The Act was passed in both the Parliament of
Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland, dominated by the Protestant
Ascendancy and lacking representation of the country's Roman Catholic
population. Substantial majorities were achieved, and according to contemporary
documents this was assisted by bribery in the form of the awarding of peerages
and honours to opponents to gain their votes.[27] Under the terms of the
merger, the separate Parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland were abolished,
and replaced by a united Parliament of the United Kingdom. Ireland thus became
an integral part of the United Kingdom, sending around 100 MPs to the House of
Commons at Westminster and 28 representative peers to the House of Lords,
elected from among their number by the Irish peers themselves, except that
Roman Catholic peers were not permitted to take their seats in the Lords. Part
of the trade-off for the Irish Catholics was to be the granting of Catholic
Emancipation, which had been fiercely resisted by the all-Anglican Irish
Parliament. However, this was blocked by King George III, who argued that
emancipating the Roman Catholics would breach his Coronation Oath. The Roman
Catholic hierarchy had endorsed the Union. However the decision to block
Catholic Emancipation fatally undermined the appeal of the Union.
Napoleonic wars[edit]
Main article: The United Kingdom in the Napoleonic Wars
During the War of the Second Coalition (1799–1801),
Britain occupied most of the French and Dutch colonies (the Netherlands had
been a satellite of France since 1796), but tropical diseases claimed the lives
of over 40,000 troops. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain was
forced to return most of the colonies. The peace settlement was in effect only
a ceasefire, and Napoleon continued to provoke the British by attempting a
trade embargo on the country and by occupying the German city of Hanover (a
fief of the British crown). In May 1803, war was declared again. Napoleon's
plans to invade Britain failed due to the inferiority of his navy, and in 1805,
Lord Nelson's fleet decisively defeated the French and Spanish at Trafalgar,
which was the last significant naval action of the Napoleonic Wars.
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| David Cameron PM Britain |
The British HMS Sandwich fires to the French flagship
Bucentaure (completely dismasted) into battle off Trafalgar. The Bucentaure
also fights HMS Victory (behind her) and HMS Temeraire (left side of the
picture). In fact, HMS Sandwich never fought at Trafalgar, it's a mistake from
Auguste Mayer, the painter.[28]
The series of naval and colonial conflicts, including a
large number of minor naval actions, resembled those of the French
Revolutionary Wars and the preceding centuries of European warfare. Conflicts
in the Caribbean, and in particular the seizure of colonial bases and islands
throughout the wars, could potentially have some effect upon the European
conflict. The Napoleonic conflict had reached the point at which subsequent
historians could talk of a "world war". Only the Seven Years' War
offered a precedent for widespread conflict on such a scale.
In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees,
which brought into effect the Continental System. This policy aimed to weaken
the British export economy closing French-controlled territory to its trade.
The British army remained a minimal threat to France; the British standing army
of just 220,000 at the height of the Napoleonic Wars hardly compared to
France's army of a million men—in addition to the armies of numerous allies and
several hundred thousand national guardsmen that Napoleon could draft into the
military if necessary. Although the Royal Navy effectively disrupted France's
extra-continental trade—both by seizing and threatening French shipping and by
seizing French colonial possessions—it could do nothing about France's trade
with the major continental economies and posed little threat to French
territory in Europe. In addition, France's population and agricultural capacity
far outstripped that of Britain.
Many in the French government believed that isolating
Britain from the Continent would end its economic influence over Europe and
isolate it. Though the French designed the Continental System to achieve this,
it never succeeded in its objective. Britain possessed the greatest industrial
capacity in Europe, and its mastery of the seas allowed it to build up
considerable economic strength through trade to its possessions from its
rapidly expanding new Empire. Britain's naval supremacy meant that France could
never enjoy the peace necessary to consolidate its control over Europe, and it
could threaten neither the home islands nor nor the main British colonies.
The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to
gain a foothold on the Continent. The Duke of Wellington and his army of
British and Portuguese gradually pushed the French out of Spain and in early
1814, as Napoleon was being driven back in the east by the Prussians,
Austrians, and Russians, Wellington invaded southern France. After Napoleon's
surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned, but
when he escaped back into France in 1815, the British and their allies had to
fight him again. The armies of Wellington and Von Blucher defeated Napoleon
once and for all at Waterloo.
Financing the war[edit]
A key element in British success was its ability to
mobilize the nation’s industrial and financial resources and apply them to
defeating France. With a population of 16 million Britain was barely half the
size of France with 30 million. In terms of soldiers the French numerical
advantage was offset by British subsidies that paid for a large proportion of
the Austrian and Russian soldiers, peaking at about 450,000 in 1813.[29] Most
important, the British national output remained strong and the well-organized
business sector channeled products into what the military needed. The system of
smuggling finished products into the continent undermined French efforts to
ruin the British economy by cutting off markets. The British budget in 1814
reached £66 million, including £10 million for the Navy, £40 million for the
Army, £10 million for the Allies, and £38 million as interest on the national
debt. The national debt soared to £679 million, more than double the GDP. It
was willingly supported by hundreds of thousands of investors and tax payers,
despite the higher taxes on land and a new income tax. The whole cost of the
war came to £831 million. By contrast the French financial system was
inadequate and Napoleon’s forces had to rely in part on requisitions from
conquered lands.[30][31][32]
Napoleon also attempted economic warfare against Britain,
especially in the Berlin Decree of 1806. It forbade the import of British goods
into European countries allied with or dependent upon France, and installed the
Continental System in Europe. All connections were to be cut, even the mail. British
merchants smuggled in many goods and the Continental System was not a powerful
weapon of economic war.[33] There was some damage to Britain, especially in
1808 and 1811, but its control of the oceans helped ameliorate the damage. Even
more damage was done to the economies of France and its allies, which lost a
useful trading partner.[34] Angry governments gained an incentive to ignore the
Continental System, which led to the weakening of Napoleon's coalition.[35]
War of 1812 with United States[edit]
Signing of the Treaty of Ghent (December 1812) with the
U.S. diplomats
Simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes and
British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United
States. The "second war of independence" for the American, it was
little noticed in Britain, where all attention was focused on the struggle with
France. The British could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall
of Napoleon in 1814. American frigates also inflicted a series of embarrassing
defeats on the British navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in
Europe. A stepped-up war effort that year brought about some successes such as
the burning of Washington, but many influential voices such as the Duke of
Wellington argued that an outright victory over the US was impossible.[36]
Peace was agreed to at the end of 1814, but Andrew
Jackson, unaware of this, won a great victory over the British at the Battle of
New Orleans in January 1815 (news took several weeks to cross the Atlantic
before the advent of steam ships). Ratification of the Treaty of Ghent ended
the war in February 1815. The major result was the permanent defeat of the
Indian allies the British had counted upon. The US-Canadian border was
demilitarised by both countries, and peaceful trade resumed, although worries
of an American conquest of Canada persisted into the 1860s.
George IV and William IV[edit]
Britain emerged from the Napoleonic Wars a very different
country than it had been in 1793. As industrialisation progressed, society
changed, becoming more urban and less rural. The postwar period saw an economic
slump, and poor harvests and inflation caused widespread social unrest. Europe
after 1815 was on guard against a return of Jacobinism, and even liberal
Britain saw the passage of the Six Acts in 1819, which proscribed radical
activities. By the end of the 1820s, along with a general economic recovery,
many of these repressive laws were repealed and in 1828 new legislation
guaranteed the civil rights of religious dissenters.
A weak ruler as regent (1811–20) and king (1820–30),
George IV let his ministers take full charge of government affairs, playing a
far lesser role than his father, George III. The principle now became
established that the king accepts as prime minister the person who wins a
majority in the House of Commons, whether the king personally favors him or
not. His governments, with little help from the king, presided over victory in
the Napoleonic Wars, negotiated the peace settlement, and attempted to deal
with the social and economic malaise that followed.[37] His brother William IV
ruled (1830–37), but was little involved in politics. His reign saw several
reforms: the poor law was updated, child labour restricted, slavery abolished
in nearly all the British Empire, and, most important, the Reform Act 1832
refashioned the British electoral system.[38]
There were no major wars until the Crimean War of
1853–56.[39] While Prussia, Austria, and Russia, as absolute monarchies, tried
to suppress liberalism wherever it might occur, the British came to terms with
new ideas. Britain intervened in Portugal in 1826 to defend a constitutional government
there and recognising the independence of Spain's American colonies in
1824.[40] British merchants and financiers, and later railway builders, played
major roles in the economies of most Latin American nations.[41] The British
intervened in 1827 on the side of the Greeks, who had been waging a war of
independence against the Ottoman Empire since 1824.
Whig reforms of the 1830s[edit]
The Whig Party recovered its strength and unity by
supporting moral reforms, especially the reform of the electoral system, the
abolition of slavery and emancipation of the Catholics. Catholic emancipation
was secured in the Catholic Relief Act of 1829, which removed the most
substantial restrictions on Roman Catholics in Britain.[42]
The Whigs became champions of Parliamentary reform. They
made Lord Grey prime minister 1830–1834, and the Reform Act of 1832 became
their signature measure. It broadened the franchise and ended the system of
"rotten borough" and "pocket boroughs" (where elections
were controlled by powerful families), and instead redistributed power on the
basis of population. It added 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000 in
England and Wales. The main effect of the act was to weaken the power of the
landed gentry, and enlarge the power of the professional and business
middle-class, which now for the first time had a significant voice in
Parliament. However, the great majority of manual workers, clerks, and farmers
did not have enough property to qualify to vote. The aristocracy continued to
dominate the government, the Army and Royal Navy, and high society.[42] After
parliamentary investigations demonstrated the horrors of child labour, limited
reforms were passed in 1833.
Chartism emerged after the 1832 Reform Bill failed to
give the vote to the working class. Activists denounced the 'betrayal' of the
working class and the 'sacrificing' of their 'interests' by the 'misconduct' of
the government. In 1838, Chartists issued the People's Charter demanding
manhood suffrage, equal sized election districts, voting by ballots, payment of
MPs (so poor men could serve), annual Parliaments, and abolition of property
requirements. Elites saw the movement as pathological, so the Chartists were
unable to force serious constitutional debate. Historians see Chartism as both
a continuation of the 18th century fight against corruption and as a new stage
in demands for democracy in an industrial society.[43]
In 1832 Parliament abolished slavery in the Empire with
the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. The government purchased the slaves for
£20,000,000 (the money went to rich plantation owners who mostly lived in
England), and freed the slaves, especially those in the Caribbean sugar
islands.[44]
Leadership[edit]
Prime Ministers of the period included: William Pitt the
Younger, Lord Grenville, Duke of Portland, Spencer Perceval, Lord Liverpool,
George Canning, Lord Goderich, Duke of Wellington, Lord Grey, Lord Melbourne,
and Sir Robert Peel.
Victorian era[edit]
Main article: Victorian era
Queen Victoria (1837–1901)
Victoria became queen in 1837 at age 18. Her long reign
until 1901 saw Britain reach the zenith of its economic and political power.
Exciting new technologies such as steam ships, railroads, photography, and
telegraphs appeared, making the world much faster-paced. Britain again remained
mostly inactive in Continental politics, and it was not affected by the wave of
revolutions in 1848. The Victorian era saw the fleshing out of the second
British Empire. Scholars debate whether the Victorian period—as defined by a
variety of sensibilities and political concerns that have come to be associated
with the Victorians—actually begins with her coronation or the earlier passage
of the Reform Act 1832. The era was preceded by the Regency era and succeeded
by the Edwardian period.
Historians like Bernard Porter have characterized the
mid-Victorian era, (1850-1870) as Britain's 'Golden Years.'.[45] There was
peace and prosperity, as the national income per person grew by half. Much of
the prosperity was due to the increasing industrialization, especially in
textiles and machinery, as well as to the worldwide network of trade and
engineering that produce profits for British merchants and experts from across
the globe. There was peace abroad (apart from the short Crimean war, 1854–56),
and social peace at home. Opposition to the new order melted away, says Porter.
The Chartist movement, peaked as a democratic movement among the working class
in 1848; its leaders moved to other pursuits, such as trade unions and
cooperative societies. The working class ignored foreign agitators like Karl
Marx in their midst, and joined in celebrating the new prosperity. Employers
typically were paternalistic, and generally recognized the trade unions.[46]
Companies provided their employees with welfare services ranging from housing,
schools and churches, to libraries, baths, and gymnasia. Middle-class reformers
did their best to assist the working classes aspire to middle-class norms of
'respectability.'
There was a spirit of libertarianism, says Porter, as
people felt they were free. Taxes were very low, and government restrictions
were minimal. There were still problem areas, such as occasional riots,
especially those motivated by anti-Catholicism. Society was still ruled by the
aristocracy and the gentry, which controlled high government offices, both
houses of Parliament, the church, and the military. Becoming a rich businessman
was not as prestigious as inheriting a title and owning a landed estate.
Literature was doing well, but the fine arts languished as the Great Exhibition
of 1851 showcased Britain's industrial prowess rather than its sculpture,
painting or music. The educational system was mediocre; the capstone
universities (outside Scotland) were likewise mediocre.[47] Historian Llewellyn
Woodward has concluded:[48]
For leisure or work, for getting or spending, England was
a better country in 1879 than in 1815. The scales were less weighted against
the weak, against women and children, and against the poor. There was greater
movement, and less of the fatalism of an earlier age. The public conscience was
more instructed, and the content of liberty was being widened to include
something more than freedom from political constraint.... Yet England in 1871
was by no means an earthly paradise. The housing and conditions of life of the
working class in town & country were still a disgrace to an age of plenty.
Foreign policy[edit]
Free trade imperialism[edit]
The Great London Exhibition of 1851 clearly demonstrated
Britain's dominance in engineering and industry; that lasted until the rise of
the United States and Germany in the 1890s. Using the imperial tools of free
trade and financial investment,[49] it exerted major influence on many
countries outside Europe, especially in Latin America and Asia. Thus Britain
had both a formal Empire based on British rule and an informal one based on the
British pound.[50]
Russia, France and the Ottoman Empire[edit]
Main articles: Eastern Question and Crimean War
One nagging fear was the possible collapse of the Ottoman
Empire. It was well understood that a collapse of that country would set off a
scramble for its territory and possibly plunge Britain into war. To head that
off Britain sought to keep the Russians from occupying Constantinople and
taking over the Bosporous Straits, as well as from threatening India via
Afghanistan.[51] In 1853, Britain and France intervened in the Crimean War
against Russia. Despite mediocre generalship, they managed to capture the
Russian port of Sevastopol, compelling Tsar Nicholas I to ask for peace.[52] A
second Russo-Ottoman war in 1877 led to another European intervention, although
this time at the negotiating table. The Congress of Berlin blocked Russia from
imposing the harsh Treaty of San Stefano on the Ottoman Empire.[53] Despite its
alliance with the French in the Crimean War, Britain viewed the Second Empire
of Napoleon III with some distrust, especially as the emperor constructed
ironclad warships and began returning France to a more active foreign policy.
But after Napoleon's downfall in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, he was
allowed to spent his last years exiled in Britain.
 |
| United Kingdom Maps |
American Civil War[edit]
During the American Civil War (1861–1865), British
leaders personally disliked American republicanism and favoured the more
aristocratic Confederacy, as it had been a major source of cotton for textile
mills. Prince Albert was effective in defusing a war scare in late 1861. The
British people, who depended heavily on American food imports, generally
favoured the United States. What little cotton was available came from New
York, as the blockade by the US Navy shut down 95% of Southern exports to
Britain. In September 1862, during the Confederate invasion of Maryland,
Britain (along with France) contemplated stepping in and negotiating a peace
settlement, which could only mean war with the United States. But in the same
month, US president Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation.
Since support of the Confederacy now meant support for slavery, there was no
longer any possibility of European intervention.[54]
Meanwhile the British sold arms to both sides, built
blockade runners for a lucrative trade with the Confederacy, and
surreptitiously allowed warships to be built for the Confederacy. The warships
caused a major diplomatic row that was resolved in the Alabama Claims in 1872,
in the Americans' favour.[55]
Empire expands[edit]
In 1867, Britain united most of its North American
colonies as the Dominion of Canada, giving it self-government and
responsibility for its own defence, but Canada did not have an independent
foreign policy until 1931. Several of the colonies temporarily refused to join
the Dominion despite pressure from both Canada and Britain; the last one,
Newfoundland, held out until 1949.
The second half of the 19th century saw a huge expansion
of Britain's colonial empire in Asia and Africa. In the latter continent, there
was talk of the Union Jack flying from "Cairo to Cape Town", which
only became a reality at the end of World War I. Having possessions on six
continents, Britain had to defend all of its empire with a volunteer army, for
it was the only power in Europe to have no conscription. Some questioned
whether the country was overstretched.
The rise of the German Empire since 1871 posed a new
challenge, for it (along with the United States) threatened to take Britain's
place as the world's foremost industrial power. Germany acquired a number of
colonies in Africa and the Pacific, but Chancellor Otto von Bismarck succeeded
in achieving general peace through his balance of power strategy. When William
II became emperor in 1888, he discarded Bismarck, began using bellicose
language, and planned to build a navy to rival Britain's.[56]
Ever since Britain had taken control of South Africa from
the Netherlands in the Napoleonic Wars, it had run afoul of the Dutch settlers
who further away and created two republics of their own. The British imperial
vision called for control over the new countries and the Dutch-speaking
"Boers" (or "Afrikaners") fought back in the War in
1899–1902. Outgunned by a mighty empire, the Boers waged a guerilla war, which
gave the British regulars a difficult fight, but weight of numbers, superior
equipment, and often brutal tactics eventually brought about a British victory.
The war had been costly in human rights and was widely criticised by Liberals
in Britain and worldwide. However, the United States gave its support. The Boer
republics were merged into Union of South Africa in 1910; it had internal
self-government but its foreign policy was controlled by London and was an
integral part of the British Empire.[57]
Free trade imperialism[edit]
Britain in addition to taking control of new territories,
developed an enormous power in economic and financial affairs in numerous
independent countries, especially in Latin America and Asia. It lent money,
built railways, and engaged in trade. The Great London Exhibition of 1851
clearly demonstrated Britain's dominance in engineering, communications and
industry; that lasted until the rise of the United States and Germany in the
1890s.[49][58]
In 1890-1902 under Salisbury Britain promoted a policy of
Splendid isolation with no formal allies.[59]
Ireland and the move to Home Rule[edit]
Main articles: History of Ireland (1801–1922) and Great
Famine (Ireland)
Part of the agreement which led to the 1800 Act of Union
stipulated that the Penal Laws in Ireland were to be repealed and Catholic
Emancipation granted. However King George III blocked emancipation, arguing
that to grant it would break his coronation oath to defend the Anglican Church.
A campaign under lawyer and politician Daniel O'Connell, and the death of
George III, led to the concession of Catholic Emancipation in 1829, allowing
Catholics to sit in Parliament. O'Connell then mounted an unsuccessful campaign
for the Repeal of the Act of Union.
When potato blight hit the island in 1846, much of the
rural population was left without food because cash crops were being exported
to pay rents.[60][61] British politicians such as the Prime Minister Robert Peel
were at this time wedded to the economic policy of laissez-faire, which argued
against state intervention of any sort. While enormous sums were raised by
private individuals and charities (American Indians[who?] sent supplies, while
Queen Victoria personally gave the present-day equivalent € 70,000), lack of
adequate action let the problem become a catastrophe. The class of cottiers or
farm labourers was virtually wiped out in what became known in Britain as 'The
Irish Potato Famine' and in Ireland as the Great Hunger.
Most Irish people elected as their MPs Liberals and
Conservatives who belonged to the main British political parties (note: the
poor didn't have a vote at that time). A significant minority also elected
Unionists, who championed the cause of the maintenance of the Act of Union. A
former Tory barrister turned nationalist campaigner, Isaac Butt, established a
new moderate nationalist movement, the Home Rule League, in the 1870s. After
Butt's death the Home Rule Movement, or the Irish Parliamentary Party as it had
become known, was turned into a major political force under the guidance of
William Shaw and in particular a radical young Protestant landowner, Charles
Stewart Parnell. The Irish Parliamentary Party dominated Irish politics, to the
exclusion of the previous Liberal, Conservative and Unionist parties that had
existed. Parnell's movement proved to be a broad church, from conservative
landowners to the Land League which was campaigning for fundamental reform of
Irish landholding, where most farms were held on rental from large aristocratic
estates.
Parnell's movement campaigned for 'Home Rule', by which
they meant that Ireland would govern itself as a region within the United
Kingdom, in contrast to O'Connell who wanted complete independence subject to a
shared monarch and Crown. Two Home Rule Bills (1886 and 1893) were introduced
by Liberal Prime Minister Ewart Gladstone, but neither became law, mainly due
to opposition from the House of Lords. The issue divided Ireland, for a
significant unionist minority (largely though by no means exclusively based in
Ulster), opposed Home Rule, fearing that a Catholic-Nationalist parliament in
Dublin would discriminate against them and would also impose tariffs on
industry; while most of Ireland was primarily agricultural, six counties in
Ulster were the location of heavy industry and would be affected by any tariff
barriers imposed.
Leadership[edit]
Prime Ministers of the period included: Lord Melbourne,
Sir Robert Peel, Lord John Russell, Lord Derby, Lord Aberdeen, Lord Palmerston,
Benjamin Disraeli, William Ewart Gladstone, Lord Salisbury, and Lord Rosebery.
Queen Victoria[edit]
The Queen gave her name to an era of British greatness,
especially in the far-flung British Empire with which she identified. She
played a small role in politics, but became the iconic symbol of the nation,
the empire, and proper, restrained behaviour.[62] Her strength lay in good
common sense and directness of character; she expressed the qualities of the
British nation which at that time made it preeminent in the world. As a symbol
of domesticity, endurance and Empire, and as a woman holding the highest public
office during an age when middle- and upper-class women were expected to
beautify the home while men dominated the public sphere, Queen Victoria's
influence has been enduring. Her success as ruler was due to the power of the
self-images she successively portrayed of innocent young woman, devoted wife
and mother, suffering and patient widow, and grandmotherly matriarch.[63]
Disraeli[edit]
Disraeli
Disraeli and Gladstone dominated the politics of the late
19th century, Britain's golden age of parliamentary government. They long were
idolized, but historians in recent decades have become much more critical,
especially regarding Disraeli.[64][65]
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881), prime minister 1868 and
1874–80, remains an iconic hero of the Conservative Party. He was typical of
the generation of British leaders who matured in the 1830s and 1840s. He was
concerned with threats to established political, social, and religious values
and elites; he emphasized the need for national leadership in response to
radicalism, uncertainty, and materialism.[66] He is especially known for his
enthusiastic support for expanding and strengthening the British Empire in
India and Africa as the foundation of British greatness, in contrast to
Gladstone's negative attitude toward imperialism. Gladstone denounced
Disraeli's policies of territorial aggrandizement, military pomp, and imperial
symbolism (such as making the Queen Empress of India), saying it did not fit a
modern commercial and Christian nation. Disraeli drummed up support by warnings
of a supposed Russian threat to India that sank deep into the Conservative
mindset. Disraeli's old reputation as the "Tory democrat" and
promoter of the welfare state fell away as historians showed he that Disraeli
had few proposals for social legislation in 1874–80, and that the 1867 Reform
Act did not reflect a vision Conservatism for the unenfranchised working
man.[67] However he did work to reduce class antagonism, for as Perry notes,
"When confronted with specific problems, he sought to reduce tension
between town and country, landlords and farmers, capital and labour, and
warring religious sects in Britain and Ireland—in other words, to create a
unifying synthesis."[68]
Gladstone[edit]
Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) was the Liberal
counterpart to Disraeli, serving as prime minister four times (1868–74,
1880–85, 1886, and 1892–94). His financial policies, based on the notion of
balanced budgets, low taxes and laissez-faire, were suited to a developing
capitalist society but could not respond effectively as economic and social
conditions changed. Called the "Grand Old Man" later in life, he was
always a dynamic popular orator who appealed strongly to British workers and
lower middle class. The deeply religious Gladstone brought a new moral tone to
politics with his evangelical sensibility and opposition to aristocracy. His
moralism often angered his upper-class opponents (including Queen Victoria, who
strongly favoured Disraeli), and his heavy-handed control split the Liberal
party. His foreign policy goal was to create a European order based on
cooperation rather than conflict and mutual trust instead of rivalry and
suspicion; the rule of law was to supplant the reign of force and
self-interest. This Gladstonian concept of a harmonious Concert of Europe was
opposed to and ultimately defeated by the Germans with a Bismarckian system of
manipulated alliances and antagonisms.[69]
Salisbury[edit]
Historians portray Conservative prime Minister Lord
Salisbury (1830–1903) as a talented leader who was an icon of traditional,
aristocratic conservatism.[70] Robert Blake considers Salisbury "a great
foreign minister, [but] essentially negative, indeed reactionary in home
affairs".[71] Professor P.T. Marsh’s estimate is more favourable than
Blake's, he portrays Salisbury as a leader who "held back the popular tide
for twenty years."[72] Professor Paul Smith argues that, "into the
‘progressive’ strain of modern Conservatism he simply will not fit."[73]
Professor H.C.G. Matthew points to "the narrow cynicism of
Salisbury".[74] One admirer of Salisbury, Maurice Cowling largely agrees
with the critics and says Salisbury found the democracy born of the 1867 and 1884
Reform Acts as "perhaps less objectionable than he had
expected—succeeding, through his public persona, in mitigating some part of its
nastiness."[75]
Morality[edit]
The Victorian era is famous for the Victorian standards
of personal morality. Historians generally agree that the middle classes held
high personal moral standards (and usually followed them), but have debated
whether the working classes followed suit. Moralists in the late 19th century
such as Henry Mayhew decried the slums for their supposed high levels of
cohabitation without marriage and illegitimate births. However new research
using computerized matching of data files shows that the rates of cohabitation
were quote low—under 5%—for the working class and the poor. By contrast in 21st
century Britain, nearly half of all children are born outside marriage, and
nine in ten newlyweds have been cohabitating.[76]
Early 20th century[edit]
Prime Ministers from 1900 to 1945: Marquess of Salisbury,
Arthur Balfour, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Herbert Henry Asquith, David
Lloyd George, Andrew Bonar Law, Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley
Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain and Winston
Churchill.
Edwardian era 1901–1914[edit]
Main article: Edwardian era
Queen Victoria died in 1901 and her son Edward VII became
king, inaugurating the Edwardian Era, which was characterised by great and
ostentatious displays of wealth in contrast to the sombre Victorian Era. With
the advent of the 20th century, things such as motion pictures, automobiles,
and aeroplanes were coming into use. The new century was characterised by a
feeling of great optimism. The social reforms of the last century continued
into the 20th with the Labour Party being formed in 1900. Edward died in 1910, to
be succeeded by George V, who reigned 1910–36. Scandal-free, hard working and
popular, George V was the British monarch who, with Queen Mary, established the
modern pattern of exemplary conduct for British royalty, based on middle-class
values and virtues. He understood the overseas Empire better than any of his
prime ministers and used his exceptional memory for figures and details,
whether of uniforms, politics, or relations, to good effect in reaching out in
conversation with his subjects.[77]
The era was prosperous but political crises were
escalating out of control. Dangerfield (1935) identified the "strange
death of liberal England" as the multiple crisis that hit simultaneously
in 1910–1914 with serious social and political instability arising from the
Irish crisis, labor unrest, the women's suffrage movements, and partisan and
constitutional struggles in Parliament. At one point it even seemed the Army
might refuse orders dealing with Northern Ireland.[78] No solution appeared in
sight when the unexpected outbreak of the Great War in 1914 put domestic issues
on hold.
McKibben argues that the political party system of the
Edwardian era was in delicate balance on the eve of the war in 1914. The
Liberals were in power with a progressive alliance of Labour and, off and on,
Irish Nationalists. The coalition was committed to free trade (as opposed to
the high tariffs the Conservatives sought), free collective bargaining for
trades unions (which Conservatives opposed), an active social policy that was forging
the welfare state, and constitutional reform to reduce the power of the House
of Lords. The coalition lacked a long-term plan, because it was cobbled
together from leftovers from the 1890s. The sociological basis was non-Anglican
religion and non-English ethnicity rather than the emerging class conflict
emphasized by Labour.[79]
World War I[edit]
Main article: History of the United Kingdom during World
War I
Britain entered the war because of its implicit support
for France, which had entered to support Russia, which in turn had entered to
support Serbia. Even more important than that chain of links was Britain's
determination to honor its commitment to defend Belgium. Britain was loosely
part of the Triple Entente with France and Russia, which (with smaller allies)
fought the Central Powers of Germany, Austria and the Ottoman Empire. After a
few weeks the Western Front turned into a killing ground in which millions of
men died but no army made a large advance.
The stalemate required an endless supply of men and
munitions. By 1916, volunteering fell off, the government imposed conscription
in Britain (but not in Ireland) to keep up the strength of the Army. After a
rough start in industrial mobilisation, Britain replaced prime minister Asquith
in December 1916 with the much more dynamic Liberal leader David Lloyd George.
The nation now successfully mobilised its manpower, womanpower, industry,
finances, Empire and diplomacy, in league with France and the U.S. to defeat
the enemy. After defeating Russia, the Germans tried to win in the spring of
1918 before the millions of American soldiers arrived. They failed, and they
were overwhelmed and finally accepted an Armistice in November, 1918, that
amounted to a surrender.
Britain eagerly supported the war, but in Ireland the
Catholics were restless and plotted a rebellion in 1916. It failed but the
brutal repression that followed turned that element against
Britain.[80][81][82][83] The economy grew about 14% from 1914 to 1918 despite
the absence of so many men in the services; by contrast the German economy
shrank 27%. The War saw a decline of civilian consumption, with a major
reallocation to munitions. The government share of GDP soared from 8% in 1913
to 38% in 1918 (compared to 50% in 1943).[84][85] The war forced Britain to use
up its financial reserves and borrow large sums from New York banks. After the
U.S. entered in April 1917, the Treasury borrowed directly from the U.S.
government.
The Royal Navy dominated the seas, defeating the smaller
German fleet in the only major naval battle of the war, the Battle of Jutland
in 1916. Germany was blockaded, leading to an increasing shortage short of
food. Germany's naval strategy increasingly turned towards use of U-Boats to
strike back against the British, despite the risk of triggering war with the
powerful neutral power, the United States. The waters around Britain were
declared a war zone where any ship, neutral or otherwise, was a target. After
the liner Lusitania was sunk in May 1915, drowning over 100 American
passengers, protests by the United States led Germany to abandon unrestricted
submarine warfare. With victory over Russia in 1917, Germany now calculated it
could finally have numerical superiority on the Western Front. Planning for a
massive spring offensive in 1918, it resumed the sinking of all merchant ships
without warning. The US entered the war alongside the Allies (without actually
joining them), and provided the needed money and supplies to sustain the
Allies' war efforts. The U-boat threat was ultimately defeated by a convoy
system across the Atlantic.
On other fronts, the British, French, Australians, and
Japanese seized Germany's colonies. Britain fought the Ottoman Empire,
suffering defeats in the Gallipoli Campaign) and in Mesopotamia, while arousing
the Arabs who helped expel the Turks from their lands. Exhaustion and
war-weariness were growing worse in 1917, as the fighting in France continued
with no end in sight. The German spring offensives of 1918 failed, and with the
arrival of the American in summer at the rate of 10,000 a day the Germans
realized they were being overwhelmed. Germany agreed to an armistice—actually a
surrender—on 11 November 1918.
Victorian attitudes and ideals that had continued into
the first years of the 20th century changed during World War I. The army had
traditionally never been a large employer in the nation, with the regular army
standing at 247,432 at the start of the war.[86] By 1918, there were about five
million people in the army and the fledgling Royal Air Force, newly formed from
the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), was about
the same size of the pre-war army. The almost three million casualties were
known as the "lost generation," and such numbers inevitably left society
scarred; but even so, some people felt their sacrifice was little regarded in
Britain, with poems like Siegfried Sassoon's Blighters criticising the
ill-informed jingoism of the home front.
Postwar settlement[edit]
The war had been won by Britain and its allies, but at a
terrible human and financial cost, creating a sentiment that wars should never
be fought again. The League of Nations was founded with the idea that nations
could resolve their differences peacefully, but these hopes were unfounded. The
harsh peace settlement imposed on Germany would leave it embittered and seeking
revenge.
At the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, Lloyd George,
American President Woodrow Wilson and French premier Georges Clemenceau made
all the major decisions. The formed the League of Nations as a mechanism to
prevent future wars. They sliced up the losers to form new nations in Europe,
and divided up the German colonies and Ottoman holdings outside Turkey. They
imposed what appeared to be heavy financial reparations (but with in the event
were of modest size). They humiliated Germany by forcing it to declare its
guilt for starting the war, a policy that caused deep resentment in Germany and
helped fuel reactions such as Naziism. Britain gained the German colony of
Tanganyika and part of Togoland in Africa, while its dominions added other
colonies. Britain gained League of Nations mandates over Palestine, which had
been partly promised as a homeland for Jewish settlers, and Iraq. Iraq became
fully independent in 1932. Egypt, which had been a British protectorate since
1882, became independent in 1922, although the British remained there until
1952.[87]
Irish independence and partition[edit]
Main articles: Irish Home Rule bills, Partition of
Ireland and Irish War of Independence
In 1912, the House of Lords managed to delay a Home Rule
bill passed by the House of Commons. It was enacted as the Government of
Ireland Act 1914. During these two years the threat of religious civil war hung
over Ireland with the creation of the Unionist Ulster Volunteers opposed to the
Act and their nationalist counterparts, the Irish Volunteers supporting the
Act. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 put the crisis on political hold. A
disorganized Easter Rising in 1916 was brutally suppressed by the British,
which had the effect of galvanizing Catholic demands for independence. Prime
Minister David Lloyd George failed to introduce Home Rule in 1918 and in the
December 1918 General Election Sinn Féin won a majority of Irish seats. Its MPs
refused to take their seats at Westminster, instead choosing to sit in the
First Dáil parliament in Dublin. A declaration of independence was ratified by
Dáil Éireann, the self-declared Republic's parliament in January 1919. An Anglo-Irish
War was fought between Crown forces and the Irish Republican Army between
January 1919 and June 1921. The war ended with the Anglo-Irish Treaty of
December 1921 that established the Irish Free State.[88] Six northern,
predominantly Protestant counties became Northern Ireland and have remained
part of Britain ever since, despite demands of the Catholic minority to unite
with the Republic of Ireland.[89] Britain officially adopted the name
"United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" by the Royal
and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927.
Interwar era[edit]
Historian Arthur Marwick sees a radical transformation of
British society resulting from the Great War, a deluge that swept away many old
attitudes and brought in a more equalitarian society. He sees the famous
literary pessimism of the 1920s as misplaced, arguing there were major positive
long-term consequences of the war to British society. He points to an energized
self-consciousness among workers that quickly built up the Labour Party, the coming
of partial woman suffrage, and an acceleration of social reform and state
control of the economy. He sees a decline of deference toward the aristocracy
and established authority in general, and the weakening among youth of
traditional restraints on individual moral behavior. The chaperone faded away;
village druggists sold contraceptives. Marwick says that class distinctions
softened, national cohesion increased, and British society became more
equal.[83]
Politics and economics of 1920s[edit]
Stanley Baldwin was Conservative Prime Minister between
1923–1924, 1924–1929 and 1935–1937.
Expanding the welfare state[edit]
Two major programs that permanently expanded the welfare
state passed in 1919 and 1920 with surprisingly little debate, even as the Conservatives
dominated parliament. The Housing and Town Planning Act of 1919 set up a system
of government housing that followed the 1918 campaign promises of “homes fit
for heroes.” The Addison Act, named after the first Minister of Health Doctor
Christopher Addison, required local authorities to survey their housing needs,
and start building houses to replace slums. The treasury subsidized the low
rents. In England and Wales, 214,000 houses were built, and the Ministry of
Health became largely a ministry of housing.[90]
The Unemployment Insurance Act of 1920 passed at a time
of very little unemployment. It set up the dole system that provided 39 weeks
of unemployment benefits to practically the entire civilian working population
except domestic service, farm workers, and civil servants. Funded in part by
weekly contributions from both employers and employed, it provided weekly
payments of 15s for unemployed men and 12s for unemployed women. Historian
Charles Mowat calls these two laws "Socialism by the back door," and
notes how surprised politicians were when the costs to the Treasury soared
during the high unemployment of 1921.[91]
Conservative control[edit]
The Lloyd-George coalition fell apart in 1922. Stanley
Baldwin, as leader of the Conservative Party (1923–37) and as Prime Minister
(in 1923–24, 1924–29 and 1935–37), dominated British politics.[92] His mixture
of strong social reforms and steady government proved a powerful election
combination, with the result that the Conservatives governed Britain either by
themselves or as the leading component of the National Government. He was the
last party leader to win over 50% of the vote (in the general election of
1931). Baldwin's political strategy was to polarize the electorate so that
voters would choose between the Conservatives on the right and the Labour Party
on the left, squeezing out the Liberals in the middle.[93] The polarization did
take place and while the Liberals remained active under Lloyd George, they won
few seats and were a minor factor until they joined a coalition with the
Conservatives in 2010. Baldwin's reputation soared in the 1920s and 1930s, but
crashed after 1945 as he was blamed for the appeasement policies toward
Germany, and as admirers of Churchill made him the Conservative icon. Since the
1970s Baldwin's reputation has recovered somewhat.[94]
Labour won the 1923 election, but in 1924 Baldwin and the
Conservatives returned with a large majority.
McKibbin finds that the political culture of the interwar
period was built around an anti-socialist middle class, supported by the
Conservative leaders, especially Baldwin.[95]
Economics[edit]
Taxes rose sharply during the war and never returned to
their old levels. A rich man paid 8% of his income in taxes before the war, and
about a third afterwards. Much of the money went for the dole, the weekly
unemployment benefits. About 5% of the national income every year was
transferred from the rich to the poor. Taylor argues most people "were
enjoying a richer life than any previously known in the history of the world:
longer holidays, shorter hours, higher real wages."[96]
The British economy was lackluster in the 1920s, with
sharp declines and high unemployment in heavy industry and coal, especially in
Scotland and Wales. Exports of coal and steel fell in half by 1939 and the
business community was slow to adopt the new labour and management principles
coming from the US, such as Fordism, consumer credit, eliminating surplus
capacity, designing a more structured management, and using greater economies
of scale.[97] For over a century the shipping industry had dominated world
trade, but it remained in the doldrums despite various stimulus efforts by the
government. With the very sharp decline in world trade after 1929, its
condition became critical.[98]
Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill put Britain
back on the gold standard in 1925, which many economists blame for the mediocre
performance of the economy. Others point to a variety of factors, including the
inflationary effects of the World War and supply-side shocks caused by reduced
working hours after the war.[99]
By the late 1920s, economic performance had stabilised,
but the overall situation was disappointing, for Britain had fallen behind the
United States as the leading industrial power. There also remained a strong
economic divide between the north and south of England during this period, with
the south of England and the Midlands fairly prosperous by the Thirties, while
parts of south Wales and the industrial north of England became known as
"distressed areas" due to particularly high rates of unemployment and
poverty. Despite this, the standard of living continued to improve as local
councils built new houses to let to families rehoused from outdated slums, with
up to date facilities including indoor toilets, bathrooms and electric lighting
now being included in the new properties. The private sector enjoyed a
housebuilding boom during the 1930s.[100]
Labour
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| JK Rawling UK writer |
During the war trade unions were encouraged and their
membership grew from 4.1 million in 1914 to 6.5 million in 1918. They peaked at
8.3 million in 1920 before relapsing to 5.4 million in 1923.[101][102]
Coal was a sick industry; the best seams were being
exhausted, raising the cost. Demand fell as oil began replacing coal for fuel.
The 1926 general strike was a nine-day nationwide walkout of 1.3 million
railwaymen, transport workers, printers, dockers, iron workers and steelworkers
supporting the 1.2 million coal miners who had been locked out by the owners.
The miners had rejected the owners' demands for longer hours and reduced pay in
the face of falling prices.[103] The Conservative government had provided a
nine-month subsidy in 1925 but that was not enough to turn around a sick
industry. To support the miners the Trades Union Congress (TUC), an umbrella
organization of all trades unions, called out certain critical unions. The hope
was the government would intervene to reorganize and rationalize the industry,
and raise the subsidy. The Conservative government had stockpiled supplies and
essential services continued with middle class volunteers. All three major
parties opposed the strike. The Labour Party leaders did not approve and feared
it would tar the party with the image of radicalism, for the Cominterm in
Moscow had sent instructions for Communists to aggressively promote the strike.
The general strike itself was largely non-violent, but the miners' lockout
continued and there was violence in Scotland. It was the only general strike in
British history, for TUC leaders such as Ernest Bevin considered it a mistake .
Most historians treat it as a singular event with few long-term consequences,
but Pugh says it accelerated the movement of working-class voters to the Labour
Party, which led to future gains.[104][105] The Trade Disputes and Trade Unions
Act 1927 made general strikes illegal and ended the automatic payment of union
members to the Labour Party. That act was largely repealed in 1946. The coal
industry, used up the more accessible coal as costs rose output fell from 2567
million tons in 1924 to 183 million in 1945.[106] The Labour government
nationalised the mines in 1947.
Great Depression[edit]
Main article: Great Depression in the United Kingdom
The Great Depression originated in the United States in
late 1929 and quickly spread to the world. Britain had never experienced the
boom that had characterized the US, Germany, Canada and Australia in the 1920s,
so its bust appeared less severe.[107] Britain's world trade fell in half
(1929–33), the output of heavy industry fell by a third, employment profits
plunged in nearly all sectors. At the depth in summer 1932, registered
unemployed numbered 3.5 million, and many more had only part-time employment.
Experts tried to remain optimistic. John Maynard Keynes, who had not predicted
the slump, said, "'There will be no serious direct consequences in London.
We find the look ahead decidedly encouraging."[108]
Doomsayers on the left such as Sidney and Beatrice Webb,
J.A. Hobson, and G.D.H. Cole repeated the dire warnings they had been making
for years about the imminent death of capitalism, only now far more people paid
attention.[109] Starting in 1935 the Left Book Club provided a new warning
every month, and built up the credibility of Soviet-style socialism as an
alternative.[110]
Particularly hardest hit by economic problems were the
north of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales; unemployment reached
70% in some areas at the start of the 1930s (with more than 3 million out of
work nationally) and many families depended entirely on payments from local
government known as the dole.
In 1936, by which time unemployment was lower, 200
unemployed men made a highly publicized march from Jarrow to London in a bid to
show the plight of the industrial poor. Although much romanticized by the Left,
the Jarrow Crusade marked a deep split in the Labour Party and resulted in no
government action.[111] Unemployment remained high until the war absorbed all
the job seekers. George Orwell's book The Road to Wigan Pier gives a bleak
overview of the hardships of the time.
Appeasement[edit]
Vivid memories of the horrors and deaths of the World War
made Britain and its leaders strongly inclined to pacifism in the interwar era.
The challenge came from dictators, first Benito Mussolini of Italy, then Adolf
Hitler of a much more powerful Nazi Germany. The League of Nations proved disappointing
to its supporters; it was unable to resolve any of the threats posed by the
dictators. British policy was to "appease" them in the hopes they
would be satiated. By 1938 it was clear that war was looming, and that Germany
had the world's most powerful military. The final act of appeasement came when
Britain and France sacrificed Czechoslovakia to Hitler's demands at the Munich
Agreement of 1938.[112] Instead of satiation Hitler menaced Poland, and at last
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain dropped appeasement and stood firm in
promising to defend Poland. Hitler however cut a deal with Joseph Stalin to
divide Eastern Europe; when Germany did invade Poland in September 1939,
Britain and France declared war; the British Commonwealth followed London's lead.[113]
Second World War[edit]
Main articles: Home front during World War II § Britain,
Timeline of the United Kingdom home front during World War II and Military
history of the United Kingdom during World War II
Britain, along with the dominions and the rest of the
Empire, declared war on Nazi Germany in 1939, after the German invasion of
Poland. After a quiet period of "phoney war", the French and British
armies collapsed under German onslaught in spring 1940. The British with the
thinnest of margins rescued its main army from Dunkirk (as well as many French
soldiers), leaving all their equipment and war supplies behind. Winston
Churchill came to power, promising to fight the Germans to the very end. The
Germans threatened an invasion—which the Royal Navy was prepared to repel.
First the Germans tried to achieve air supremacy but were defeated by the Royal
Air Force in the Battle of Britain in late summer 1940. Japan declared war in
December 1941, and quickly seized Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore, and Burma, and
threatened Australia and India. Britain formed an alliance with the Soviet
Union (starting in 1941) and very close ties to the United States (starting in
1940). The war was very expensive. It was paid for by high taxes, by selling
off assets, and by accepting large amounts of Lend Lease from the U.S. and
Canada. The US gave $40 billion in munitions; Canada also gave aid. (The
American and Canadian aid did not have to be repaid, but there were also
American loans that were repaid.)[114]
Welfare state[edit]
Main article: Beveridge Report
Welfare conditions, especially regarding food, improved
during the war as the government imposed rationing and subsidized food prices.
Conditions for housing worsened of course with the bombing, and clothing was in
short supply.
A common theme called for an expansion of the welfare
state as a reward to the people for their wartime sacrifices [115] The goal was
operationalized in a famous report by William Beveridge It recommended that the
various income maintenance services that a grown-up piecemeal since 1911 be
systematized and made universal. Unemployment benefits and sickness benefits
were to be universal. There would be new benefits for maternity. The old-age
pension system would be revised and expanded, and require that a person
retired. A full-scale National Health Service would provide free medical care
for everyone. All the major parties endorsed the principles and they were
largely put into effect when peace returned.[116]
Royals[edit]
The media called it a "people's war"—a term
that caught on and signified the popular demand for planning and an expanded
welfare state.[117] The Royal family played major symbolic roles in the war.
They refused to leave London during the Blitz and were indefatigable in
visiting troops, munition factories, dockyards, and hospitals all over the
country. Princess Elizabeth joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS—a
part of the army) and repaired trucks and jeeps.[118] All social classes
appreciated how the royals shared the hopes, fears and hardships of the
people.[119]
Memory[edit]
The themes of equality and sacrifice were dominant both
during the war, and in the memory of the war. There was little antiwar
sentiment during or after the war. Furthermore Britain turned more toward the
collective welfare state during the war, expanding it in the late 1940s and
reaching a broad consensus supporting it across party lines. By the 1970s and
1980s, however, historians were exploring the subtle elements of continuing
diversity and conflict in society during the war period.[120] For example, at
first historians emphasized that strikes became illegal in July 1940, and no
trade union called one during the wear. Later historians pointed to the many
many localized unofficial strikes, especially in coal mining, shipbuilding, the
metal trades, and engineering, with as many as 3.7 million man days lost in
1944.[121]
Postwar[edit]
Main articles: Postwar Britain and History of the United
Kingdom (1945–present)
Britain was a winner in the war, but it lost India in
1947 and nearly all the rest of the Empire by 1960. It debated its role in
world affairs and joined the United Nations in 1945, NATO in 1949, where it
became a close ally of the United States. After a long debate and initial rejection,
it joined the European Union in 1973. Prosperity returned in the 1950s and
London remained a world center of finance and culture, but the nation was no
longer a major world power.[122]
Austerity, 1945–1950[edit]
The end of the war saw a landslide victory for Clement
Attlee and the Labour Party. They were elected on a manifesto of greater social
justice with left wing policies such as the creation of a National Health
Service, an expansion of the provision of council housing and nationalisation of
the major industries. Britain faced severe financial crises, and responded by
reducing her international responsibilities and by sharing the hardships of an
"age of austerity."[123] Large loans from the United States and
Marshall Plan grants helped rebuild and modernize its infrastructure and
business practices. Rationing and conscription dragged on into the post war
years, and the country suffered one of the worst winters on record.[124]
Nevertheless, morale was boosted by events such as the marriage of Princess
Elizabeth in 1947 and the Festival of Britain.[125]
Nationalisation[edit]
Labour Party experts went into the files to find the
detailed plans for nationalisation that had been developed. To their surprise,
there were no plans. The leaders realized they had to act fast to keep up the
momentum of the 1945 electoral landslide. They started with the Bank of
England, civil aviation, coal, and cables and wireless. Then came railways,
canals, road haulage and trucking, electricity, and gas. Finally came iron and
steel, which was a special case because it was a manufacturing industry.
Altogether, about one fifth of the economy had been nationalised. Labour
dropped its plans to nationalise farmlands. The procedure used was developed by
Herbert Morrison, who as Lord President chaired the Committee on the
Socialization of Industries. He followed the model that was already in place of
setting up public corporations such as the BBC in broadcasting (1927)As. The
owners of corporate stock were given government bonds, and the government took
full ownership of each affected company, consolidating it into a national
monopoly. The management remained the same, only now they became civil servants
working for the government. For the Labour Party leadership, nationalisation
was a method to consolidate economic planning in their own hands. It was not
designed to modernise old industries, make them efficient, or transform their
organisational structure. There was no money for modernisation, although the
Marshall Plan, operated separately by American planners, did force many British
businesses to adopt modern managerial techniques. Old line socialists were
disappointed, as the nationalised industries seemed identical to the old
private corporations, and national planning was made virtually impossible by
the government’s financial constraints. Socialism was in place, but it did not
seem to make a major difference. Rank-and-file workers had long been motivated
to support Labour by tales of the mistreatment of workers by foremen and the
management. The foremen and the managers were the same men as before with much
the same power over the workplace. There was no worker control of industry. The
unions resisted government efforts to set wages. By the time of the general
elections in 1950 and 1951, Labour seldom boasted about nationalisation of
industry. Instead it was the Conservatives who decried the inefficiency and
mismanagement, and promised to reverse the takeover of steel and
trucking.[126][127]
Prosperity of 1950s[edit]
As the country headed into the 1950s, rebuilding
continued and a number of immigrants from the remaining British Empire, mostly
the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent, were invited to help the rebuilding
effort. As the 1950s wore on, Britain lost its place as a superpower and could
no longer maintain its large Empire. This led to decolonisation, and a
withdrawal from almost all of its colonies by 1970. Events such as the Suez
Crisis showed that the UK's status had fallen in the world. The 1950s and 1960s
were, however, relatively prosperous times after the Second World War, and saw
the beginning of a modernisation of the UK, with the construction of its first
motorways for example, and also during the 1960s a great cultural movement
began which expanded across the world. Unemployment was relatively low during
this period and the standard of living continued to rise with more new private
and council housing developments taking place and the number of slum properties
diminishing.
The postwar period also witnessed a dramatic rise in the
average standard of living,[128][129] as characterised by a 40% rise in average
real wages from 1950 to 1965.[130] Earnings for men in industry rose by 95%
between 1951 and 1964, while during that same period the official workweek was reduced
and five reductions in income tax were made.[131] Those in traditionally poorly
paid semi-skilled and unskilled occupations saw a particularly marked
improvement in their wages and living standards. As summed up by R. J. Unstead,
"Opportunities in life, if not equal, were
distributed much more fairly than ever before and\ the weekly wage-earner, in
particular, had gained standards of living that would have been almost
unbelievable in the thirties."[132]
In 1950, the UK standard of living was higher than in any
EEC country apart from Belgium. It was 50% higher than the West German standard
of living, and twice as high as the Italian standard of living. By the earlier
Seventies, however, the UK standard of living was lower than all EEC countries
apart from Italy (which, according to one calculation, was roughly equal to
Britain). In 1951, the average weekly earnings of men over the age of stood at
21 £8 6s 0d, and nearly doubled a decade later to £15 7s 0d. By 1966, average
weekly earnings stood at £20 6s 0d.[133]
Between 1951 and 1963, wages rose by 72% while prices
rose by 45%, enabling people to afford more consumer goods than ever
before.[134] Between 1955 and 1967, the average earnings of weekly-paid workers
increased by 96% and those of salaried workers by 95%, while prices rose by
about 45% in the same period.[135] The rising affluence of the Fifties and
Sixties was underpinned by sustained full employment and a dramatic rise in
worker‘s wages. In 1950, the average weekly wage stood at £6.8s, compared with
£11.2s.6d in 1959. As a result of wage rises, consumer spending also increased
by about 20% during this same period, while economic growth remained at about
3%. In addition, food rations were lifted in 1954 while hire-purchase controls
were relaxed in the same year. As a result of these changes, large numbers of
the working classes were able to participate in the consumer market for the
first time.[136]
The significant real wage increases in the 1950s and
1960s contributed to a rapid increase in working-class consumerism, with
British consumer spending rising by 45% between 1952 and 1964.[137] In
addition, entitlement to various fringe benefits was improved. In 1955, 96% of
manual labourers were entitled to two weeks’ holiday with pay, compared with
61% in 1951. By the end of the 1950s, Britain had become one of the world's
most affluent countries, and by the early Sixties, most Britons enjoyed a level
of prosperity that had previously been known only to a small minority of the
population.[138] For the young and unattached, there was, for the first time in
decades, spare cash for leisure, clothes, and luxuries. In 1959, Queen magazine
declared that "Britain has launched into an age of unparalleled lavish
living." Average wages were high while jobs were plentiful, and people saw
their personal prosperity climb even higher. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan
claimed that "the luxuries of the rich have become the necessities of the
poor." Levels of disposable income rose steadily,[139] with the spending
power of the average family rising by 50% between 1951 and 1979, and by the end
of the Seventies, 6 out of 10 families had come to own a car.[140]
As noted by Martin Pugh,
"Keynesian economic management enabled British
workers to enjoy a golden age of full employment which, combined with a more
relaxed attitude towards working mothers, led to the spread of the two-income
family. Inflation was around 4 per cent, money wages rose from an average of £8
a week in 1951 to £15 a week by 1961, home-ownership spread from 35 per cent in
1939 to 47 per cent by 1966, and the relaxation of credit controls boosted the
demand for consumer goods."[141]
By 1963, 82% of all private households had a television,
72% a vacuum cleaner, 45%a washing machine, and 30% a refrigerator. In
addition, as noted by John Burnett,
“What was equally striking was that ownership of such
things had spread down the social scale and the gap between professional and
manual workers had considerably narrowed.”
A study of a slum area in Leeds (which was due for
demolition) found that 74% of the households had a T.V., 41% a vacuum, and 38%
a washing machine. In another slum area, St Mary’s in Oldham (where in 1970 few
of the houses had fixed baths or a hot water supply and half shared outside
toilets), 67% of the houses were rated as comfortably furnished and a further
24% furnished luxuriously, with smart modern furniture, deep pile carpeting,
and decorations.
The provision of household amenities steadily improved
during the second half of the Twentieth Century. From 1971 to 1983, households
having the sole use of a fixed bath or shower rose from 88% to 97%, and those
with an internal WC from 87% to 97%. In addition, the number of households with
central heating almost doubled during that same period, from 34% to 64%. By
1983, 94% of all households had a refrigerator, 81% a colour television, 80% a
washing machine, 57% a deep freezer, and 28% a tumble-drier.[142]
Between 1950 and 1970, however, Britain was overtaken by
most of the countries of the European Common Market in terms of the number of
telephones, refrigerators, television sets, cars, and washing machines per 100
of the population (although Britain remained high in terms of bathrooms and
lavatories per 100 people). Although the British standard of living was
increasing, the standard of living in other countries increased faster.[143] In
1976, UK wages were amongst the lowest in Western Europe, being half of West
German rates and two-thirds of Italian rates.[144] In addition, while
educational opportunities for working-class people had widened significantly
since the end of the Second World War, a number of developed countries came to
overtake Britain in some educational indicators. By the early 1980s, some 80%
to 90% of school leavers in France and West Germany received vocational
training, compared with 40% in the United Kingdom. By the mid-1980s, over 80%
of pupils in the United States and West Germany and over 90% in Japan stayed in
education until the age of eighteen, compared with barely 33% of British
pupils.[145] In 1987, only 35% of 16- to 18-year-olds were in full-time
education or training, compared with 80% in the United States, 77% in Japan,
69% in France, and 49% in the United Kingdom.[146]
Empire to Commonwealth[edit]
Britain's control over its Empire loosened during the
interwar period. Nationalism strengthened in other parts of the empire,
particularly in India and in Egypt.
Between 1867 and 1910, the UK had granted Australia,
Canada, and New Zealand "Dominion" status (near complete autonomy
within the Empire). They became charter members of the British Commonwealth of
Nations (known as the Commonwealth of Nations since 1949), an informal but
close-knit association that succeeded the British Empire. Beginning with the
independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, the remainder of the British Empire
was almost completely dismantled. Today, most of Britain's former colonies
belong to the Commonwealth, almost all of them as independent members. There
are, however, 13 former British colonies, including Bermuda, Gibraltar, the
Falkland Islands, and others, which have elected to continue rule by London and
are known as British Overseas Territories.
From the Troubles to the Belfast Agreement[edit]
Main article: The Troubles
In the 1960s, moderate unionist Prime Minister of
Northern Ireland Terence O'Neill tried to reform the system and give a greater
voice to Catholics who comprised 40% of the population of Northern Ireland. His
goals were blocked by militant Protestants led by the Rev. Ian Paisley.[147]
The increasing pressures from nationalists for reform and from unionists for No
surrender led to the appearance of the civil rights movement under figures like
John Hume, Austin Currie and others. Clashes escalated out of control as the
army could barely contain the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the
Ulster Defence Association. British leaders feared their withdrawal would give
a "Doomsday Scenario," with widespread communal strife, followed by
the mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of refugees. London shut down Northern
Ireland's parliament and began direct rule. By the 1990s, the failure of the
IRA campaign to win mass public support or achieve its aim of a British
withdrawal led to negotiations that in 1998 produced the 'Good Friday
Agreement'. It won popular support and largely ended the Troubles.[148][149]
The economy in the late 20th century[edit]
Main article: History of the United Kingdom
(1945–present)
After the relative prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s, the
UK experienced extreme industrial strife and stagflation through the 1970s
following a global economic downturn; Labour had returned to government in 1964
under Harold Wilson to end 13 years of Conservative rule. The Conservatives
were restored to government in 1970 under Edward Heath, who failed to halt the
country's economic decline and was ousted in 1974 as Labour returned to power
under Harold Wilson. The economic crisis deepened following Wilson's return and
things fared little better under his successor James Callaghan.
A strict modernisation of its economy began under the
controversial Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher following her election as
prime minister in 1979, which saw a time of record unemployment as
deindustrialisation saw the end of much of the country's manufacturing
industries but also a time of economic boom as stock markets became liberalised
and State-owned industries became privatised. Inflation also fell during this
period and trade union power was reduced.
However the miners' strike of 1984–1985 sparked the end
of most of the UK's coal mining. The exploitation of North Sea gas and oil
brought in substantial tax and export revenues to aid the new economic boom.
This was also the time that the IRA took the issue of Northern Ireland to Great
Britain, maintaining a prolonged bombing campaign on the British mainland.
After the economic boom of the 1980s a brief but severe
recession occurred between 1990 and 1992 following the economic chaos of Black
Wednesday under government of John Major, who had succeeded Margaret Thatcher
in 1990. However the rest of the 1990s saw the beginning of a period of
continuous economic growth that lasted over 16 years and was greatly expanded under
the New Labour government of Tony Blair following his landslide election
victory in 1997, with a rejuvenated party having abandoned its commitment to
policies including nuclear disarmament and nationalisation of key industries,
and no reversal of the Thatcher-led union reforms.
 |
| William Shakespiere, English Writer |
From 1964 up until 1996, income per head had doubled,
while ownership of various household goods had significantly increased. By
1996, two-thirds of households owned cars, 82% had central heating, most people
owned a VCR, and one in five houses had a home computer.[150] In 1971, 9% of
households had no access to a shower or bathroom, compared with only 1% in
1990; largely due to demolition or modernisation of older properties which
lacked such facilities. In 1971, only 35% had central heating, while 78%
enjoyed this amenity in 1990. By 1990, 93% of households had colour television,
87% had telephones, 86% had washing machines, 80% had deep-freezers, 60% had
video-recorders, and 47% had microwave ovens. Holiday entitlements had also
become more generous. In 1990, nine out of ten full-time manual workers were
entitled to more than four weeks of paid holiday a year, while twenty years
previously only two-thirds had been allowed three weeks or more.[146] The
postwar period also witnessed significant improvements in housing conditions.
In 1960, 14% of British households had no inside toilet, while in 1967 22% of
all homes had no basic hot water supply. By the Nineties, however almost all
homes had these amenities together with central heating, which was a luxury
just two decades before.[151] From 1996/7 to 2006/7, real median household
income increased by 20% while real mean household incomes increased by 23%.
There has also been a shift towards a service-based economy in the years following
the end of the Second World War, with 11% of working people employed in
manufacturing in 2006, compared with 25% in 1971.
Common Market (EEC), then EU, membership[edit]
Britain's wish to join the Common Market (as the European
Economic Community was known in Britain) was first expressed in July 1961 by
the Macmillan government, was negotiated by Edward Heath as Lord Privy Seal,
but was vetoed in 1963 by French President Charles de Gaulle. After initially
hesitating over the issue, Harold Wilson's Labour Government lodged the UK's
second application (in May 1967) to join the European Community, as it was now
called. Like the first, though, it was vetoed by de Gaulle in November that
year.[152]
In 1973, as Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister,
Heath negotiated terms for admission and Britain finally joined the Community,
alongside Denmark and Ireland in 1973. In opposition, the Labour Party was
deeply divided, though its Leader, Harold Wilson, remained in favour. In the
1974 General Election, the Labour Party manifesto included a pledge to
renegotiate terms for Britain's membership and then hold a referendum on
whether to stay in the EC on the new terms. This was a constitutional procedure
without precedent in British history. In the subsequent referendum campaign,
rather than the normal British tradition of "collective
responsibility", under which the government takes a policy position which
all cabinet members are required to support publicly, members of the Government
(and the Conservative opposition) were free to present their views on either
side of the question. A referendum was duly held on 5 June 1975, and the
proposition to continue membership was passed with a substantial majority.[153]
The Single European Act (SEA) was the first major revision
of the 1957 Treaty of Rome. In 1987, the Conservative government under Margaret
Thatcher enacted it into UK law.[154]
The Maastricht Treaty transformed the European Community
into the European Union. In 1992, the Conservative government under John Major
ratified it, against the opposition of his backbench Maastricht Rebels.[155]
The Treaty of Lisbon introduced many changes to the
treaties of the Union. Prominent changes included more qualified majority
voting in the Council of Ministers, increased involvement of the European
Parliament in the legislative process through extended codecision with the
Council of Ministers, eliminating the pillar system and the creation of a
President of the European Council with a term of two and a half years and a High
Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to present
a united position on EU policies. The Treaty of Lisbon will also make the
Union's human rights charter, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, legally
binding. The Lisbon Treaty also leads to an increase in the voting weight of
the UK in the Council of the European Union from 8.4% to 12.4%. In July 2008,
the Labour government under Gordon Brown approved the treaty and the Queen
ratified it.[156]
Devolution for Scotland and Wales[edit]
Main articles: Scottish devolution and Welsh devolution
On 11 September 1997, (on the 700th anniversary of the
Scottish victory over the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge), a
referendum was held on establishing a devolved Scottish Parliament. This
resulted in an overwhelming 'yes' vote both to establishing the parliament and
granting it limited tax varying powers. Two weeks later, a referendum in Wales
on establishing a Welsh Assembly was also approved but with a very narrow
majority. The first elections were held, and these bodies began to operate, in
1999. The creation of these bodies has widened the differences between the
Countries of the United Kingdom, especially in areas like healthcare.[157][158]
It has also brought to the fore the so-called West Lothian question which is a
complaint that devolution for Scotland and Wales but not England has created a
situation where all the MPs in the UK parliament can vote on matters affecting
England alone but on those same matters Scotland and Wales can make their own
decisions.
21st century[edit]
War in Afghanistan and Iraq, and terrorist attacks[edit]
In the 2001 General Election, the Labour Party won a
second successive victory, though voter turnout dropped to the lowest level for
more than 80 years.[159] Later that year, the September 11th attacks in the
United States led to American President George W. Bush launching the War on
Terror, beginning with the invasion of Afghanistan aided by British troops in
October 2001. Thereafter, with the US focus shifting to Iraq, Tony Blair
convinced the Labour and Conservative MPs to vote in favour of supporting the
2003 invasion of Iraq, despite huge anti-war marches held in London and
Glasgow. Forty-six thousand British troops, one-third of the total strength of
the Army's land forces, were deployed to assist with the invasion of Iraq and
thereafter British armed forces were responsible for security in southern Iraq.
All British forces were withdrawn in 2010.[160]
The Labour Party won the 2005 general election and a
third consecutive term.[161] On 7 July 2005, a series of four suicide bombings
struck London, killing 52 commuters, in addition to the four bombers.
Nationalist government in Scotland[edit]
2007 saw the first ever election victory for the
pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) in the Scottish Parliament
elections. They formed a minority government with plans to hold a referendum
before 2011 to seek a mandate "to negotiate with the Government of the
United Kingdom to achieve independence for Scotland."[162] Most opinion
polls show minority support for independence, although support varies depending
on the nature of the question. The response of the unionist parties was to
establish the Calman Commission to examine further devolution of powers,[163] a
position that had the support of the Prime Minister.[164]
Responding to the findings of the review, the UK
government announced on 25 November 2009, that new powers would be devolved to
the Scottish Government, notably on how it can raise tax and carry out capital
borrowing, and the running of Scottish Parliament elections.[165] These
proposals were detailed in a white paper setting out a new Scotland Bill, to
become law before the 2015 Holyrood elections.[165] The proposal was criticised
by the UK parliament opposition parties for not proposing to implement any
changes before the next general election. Scottish Constitution Minister
Michael Russell criticised the white paper, calling it "flimsy" and
stating that their proposed Referendum (Scotland) Bill, 2010, whose own white
paper was to be published five days later, would be "more substantial".[165]
According to The Independent, the Calman Review white paper proposals fall
short of what would normally be seen as requiring a referendum.[166]
The 2011 election saw a decisive victory for the SNP
which was able to form a majority government intent on delivering a referendum
on independence.[167] Within hours of the victory, Prime Minister David Cameron
guaranteed that the UK government would not put any legal or political
obstacles in the way of such a referendum.[168] Some unionist politicians,
including former Labour First Minister Henry McLeish, have responded to the
situation by arguing that Scotland should be offered 'devo-max' as an
alternative to independence,[169] and First Minister Alex Salmond has signalled
his willingness to include it on the referendum ballot paper.[170]
The 2008 economic crisis[edit]
In the wake of the global economic crisis of 2008, the
United Kingdom economy contracted, experiencing negative economic growth
throughout 2009. The announcement in November 2008 that the economy had shrunk
for the first time since late 1992 brought an end to 16 years of continuous
economic growth. Causes included an end to the easy credit of the preceding
years, reduction in consumption and substantial depreciation of sterling (which
fell 25% against the euro between January 2008 and January 2009),[171] leading
to increased import costs, notably of oil.
On 8 October 2008, the British Government announced a
bank rescue package of around £500 billion[172] ($850 billion at the time). The
plan comprised three parts.: £200 billion to be made available to the banks in
the Bank of England's Special Liquidity Scheme; the Government was to increase
the banks' market capitalization, through the Bank Recapitalization Fund, with
an initial £25 billion and another £25 billion to be provided if needed; and
the Government was to temporarily underwrite any eligible lending between
British banks up to around £250 billion. With the UK officially coming out of
recession in the fourth quarter of 2009—ending six consecutive quarters of
economic decline—the Bank of England decided against further quantitative
easing.[173]
The 2010 coalition government[edit]
The United Kingdom General Election of 6 May 2010
resulted in the first hung parliament since 1974, with the Conservative Party
winning the largest number of seats, but falling short of the 326 seats
required for an overall majority. Following this, the Conservatives and the
Liberal Democrats agreed to form the first coalition government for the UK
since the end of the Second World War, with David Cameron becoming Prime
Minister and Nick Clegg Deputy Prime Minister.[174]
Under the coalition government, British military aircraft
participated in the UN-mandated intervention in the 2011 Libyan civil war,
flying a total of 3,000 air sorties against forces loyal to the Libyan dictator
Muammar Gaddafi between March and October 2011.[175][176] 2011 also saw England
suffer unprecedented rioting in its major cities in early August, killing five
people and causing over £200 million worth of property damage.[177]
In late October 2011, the prime ministers of the
Commonwealth realms voted to grant gender equality in the royal succession,
ending the male-preference primogeniture that was mandated by the Act of
Settlement 1701.[178] The amendment, once enacted, will also end the ban on the
monarch marrying a Catholic.[179] (Continoe)
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