История Великобритании

      The storm clouds of war

      By the end of the century it had become clear that Britain was no longer as powerful as it had been. In 1885 a book entitled England noted "we have come to occupy a position in which we are no longer progressing, but even falling back . . . We find other nations able to compete with us to an extent such as we have never before experienced." In Europe Germany was now united and had become very strong. Its economic prospects were clearly greater than Britain's. Like the USA it was producing more steel than Britain, and it used this to build strong industries and a strong navy.

      Why did Britain lose the advantages it had over other countries at the time of the Great Exhibition of 1851 ? There seem to be a number of reasons. Other countries, Germany particularly, had greater natural wealth, including coal and iron, and wheat-producing lands. Most British people invested their money abroad rather than in building up home industry. British workers produced less than those in other countries, and Britain was behind other countries in science and technology, as well as in management skills, and did little to change this. Public schools, the private system of education for the richer middle class, did not encourage business or scientific studies. Britain had nothing to compare with the scientific and technical education of Germany. Finally, the working class, used to low pay for long hours, did not feel they were partners in manufacture.

      The balance of power in Europe that had worked so well since Waterloo was beginning to collapse. TheBritish believed that the long period of peace had been the result of Britain's authority in world affairs. This authority came from Britain's imperial and economic power. By 1880 the British merchant fleet was four times larger than it had been in 1847, when it was already the world leader. More than two out of every three tons of shipping passing through the Suez Canal was British. By 1880, too, Britain led the world in telegraphic communications, with lines to almost every part of the world. London was beyond doubt the centre of the growing international financial system. But in spite of such things, Britain found that Germany, France and the USA were increasingly competing with her. Britain was not used to being so strongly challenged.

      Suddenly Britain realised that it no longer ruled the seas quite so assuredly, and that others had more powerful armies and more powerful industries. As a result of the growth of international trade Britain was less self-sufficient, and as a result of growing US and German competition started to trade more with the less developed and less competitive world. This experience increased its sense of political uncertainty. Britain had been surprised and shocked by the way in which almost the whole of Europe had taken the part of the Boers against Britain during the South African war, 1899-1902. It was a sharp reminder that friendship in Europe did matter, and that Britain was no longer able to persuade other countries how to behave in quite the same way that it had fifty years earlier. It had to reach agreement with them. Between 1902 and 1907 Britain made treaties or understandings of friendship with France, Japan and Russia. It failed to reach agreement with the Ottoman Empire, and with the country it feared most, Germany.

      The danger of war with Germany had been clear from the beginning of the century, and it was this which had brought France and Britain together. Britain was particularly frightened of Germany's modern navy, which seemed a good deal stronger than its own. The government started a programme of building battleships to make sure of its strength at sea. The reason was simple. Britain could not possibly survive for long without food and other essential goods reaching it by sea. From 1908 onwards Britain spent large sums of money to make sure that it possessed a stronger fleet than Germany. Britain's army was small, but its size seemed less important than its quality. In any case, no one believed that war in Europe, if it happened, would last more than six months.

        By 1914 an extremely dangerous situation had developed. Germany and Austria-Hungary had made a military alliance. Russia and France, frightened of German ambitions, had made one also. Although Britain had no treaty with France, in practice it had no choice but to stand by France if it was attacked by Germany. 

        A dreadful chain of events took place. In July 1914 Austria-Hungary declared war on its neighbour Serbia following the murder of a senior Austrian Archduke in Sarajevo. Because Russia had promised to defend Serbia, it declared war on Austria-Hungary. Because of Germany's promise to stand by Austria-Hungary, Russia also found itself at war with Germany. France, Russia's ally, immediately made its troops ready, recognising that the events in Serbia would lead inevitably to war with Germany. Britain still hoped that it would not be dragged into war, but realised only a miracle could prevent it. No miracle occurred.

      In August 1914 Germany's attack on France took its army through Belgium. Britain immediately declared war because it had promised to guarantee Belgium's neutrality by the treaty of 1838. But Britain went to war also because it feared that Germany's ambitions, like Napoleon's over a century earlier, would completely change the map of Europe. In particular Britain could not allow a major enemy power to control the Low Countries. Gazing sadly across St James's Park from his room in the Foreign Office, Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary, remarked, "The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime." In a sense the "lamps" went out for ever. For what neither Britain, nor Germany, nor anyone else realised was that after the war no one, not even the winners, would be able to return to life as it had been before.

      Part II. The Twentieth Century.

      15    Britain at war

      At the start of the twentieth century Britain was still the greatest world power. By the middle of the century, although still one of the "Big Three", Britain was clearly weaker than either the United States or the Soviet Union. By the end of the seventies Britain was no longer a world power at all, and was not even among the richest European powers. Its power had ended as quickly as Spain's had done in the seventeenth century.

      One reason for this sudden decline was the cost and effort of two world wars. Another reason was the cost of keeping up the empire, followed by the economic problems involved in losing it. But the most important reason was the basic weaknesses in Britain's industrial power, and particularly its failure to spend as much as other industrial nations in developing its industry.

      Now, near the end of the century, Britain has lost much of its earlier self-confidence, but no one is sure what the reasons for this are. Some argue that the workforce is lazy, or that the trade unions are too powerful, or that there are not enough good managers. Others blame the immigrants who have settled in Britain from the old colonies since the Second World War. No one doubts that Britain is living in an age of uncertainty.

      Britain still has some valuable advantages. The discovery of oil in the North Sea has rescued the nation from a situation that might have been far worse. And in electronics and technology Britain is still a world competitor.

      A nation's story is not, or should not be, solely about wealth or power, but about the quality of the community's existence. Britain's loss of power need not damage that quality, unless this is measured only in material terms.

      The First World War

      Germany nearly defeated the Allies, Britain and France, in the first few weeks of war in 1914. It had better trained soldiers, better equipment and a clear plan of attack. The French army and the small British force were fortunate to hold back the German army at the River Marne, deep inside France. Four years of bitter fighting followed, both armies living and fighting in the trenches, which they had dug to protect their men.

      Apart from the Crimean War, this was Britain's first European war for a century, and the countrywas quite unprepared for the terrible destructive power of modern weapons. At first all those who joined the army were volunteers. But in 1916 the government forced men to join the army whether they wanted to or not. A few men, mainly Quakers, refused to fight. For the first time, a government accepted the idea that men had the right to refuse to fight if they believed fighting to be wrong. But the war went on, and the number of deaths increased. On 1 July 1916 Britain attacked German positions on the River Somme. By the evening it had lost 20,000 dead and 40,000 wounded. In fact, five months of fighting from 1 July 1916 cost Britain 400,000, France 200,000 and Germany 500,000 dead and wounded. At Passchendaele, the following year, the British army advanced five miles at the cost of another 400,000 dead and wounded. Modern artillery and machine guns had completely changed the nature of war. The invention of the tank and its use on the battlefield to break through the enemy trenches in 1917 could have changed the course of the war. It would have led to fewer casualties if its military value had been properly understood at the time.

      In the Middle East the British fought against Turkish troops in Iraq and in Palestine, and at Gallipoli, on the Dardanelles. There, too, there were many casualties, but many of them were caused by sickness and heat. It was not until 1917 that the British were really able to drive back the Turks.

      'Somehow the government had to persuade the people that in spite of such disastrous results the war was still worth fighting. The nation was told that it was defending the weak (Belgium) against the strong (Germany), and that it was fighting for democracy and freedom.

      At the same time popular newspapers, using large print, memorable short sentences and emotional language, encouraged the nation to hate Germany, and to want Germany's destruction. National feelings were even stronger in France, which had already been badly defeated by Germany in 1871. As a result, when Germany offered to make peace at the end of 1916, neither the British nor the French government welcomed the idea. Both were prisoners of the public feelings they had helped to create.

      The war at sea was more important than the war on land, because defeat at sea would have inevitably resulted in British surrender. From 1915 German submarines started to sink merchant ships bringing supplies to Britain. At the battle of Jutland, in 1916, Admiral Jellicoe successfully drove the German fleet back into harbour. At the time it was said, with some truth, that Admiral Jellicoe was the only man on either side who could have lost the war in a single afternoon. If Germany's navy had destroyed the British fleet at Jutland, Germany would have gained control of the seas around Britain, forcing Britain to surrender. In spite of this partial victory German submarines managed to sink 40 per cent of Britain's merchant fleet and at one point brought Britain to within six weeks of starvation. When Russia, following the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, made peace with Germany, the German generals hoped for victory against the Allies. But German submarine attacks on neutral shipping drew America into the war against Germany. The arrival of American troops in France ended Germany's hopes, and it surrendered in November 1918.

      ' By this time Britain had an army of over five million men, but by this time over 750,000 had died, and another two million had been seriously wounded. About fifty times more people had died than in the twenty-year war against Napoleon. Public opinion demanded no mercy for Germany.

      In this atmosphere, France and Britain met to discuss peace at Versailles in 1919. Germany was not invited to the conference, but was forced to accept its punishment, which was extremely severe. The most famous British economist of the time, John Maynard Keynes, argued that it was foolish to punish the Germans, for Europe's economic and political recovery could not take place without them. But his advice was not accepted.

      Apart from hatred of Germany, there was great sorrow for the dead. The destruction had been terrible. As one young soldier wrote shortly before he himself died, "Everywhere the work of God is spoiled by the hand of man." Wives had lost their husbands, children had lost their fathers, parents had lost their sons. It was natural for a nation in these circumstances to persuade itself that the war had somehow been worth it. Those who died in battle have been remembered ever since in these words:

      They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

      At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.

      "For the Fallen", Laurence Binyon 1869-1943

      There was also anger about the stupidity of war, best expressed by Britain's "war poets". As the most famous of them, Wilfred Owen, wrote, shortly before he himself died on the battlefield, "My subject is War, and the pity of War." The poems written by young poet-soldiers influenced public opinion, persuading many that the war had been an act against God and man. "Never again" was the feeling of the nation when it was all over.

      When peace came there were great hopes for a better future. These hopes had been created by the government itself, which had made too many promises about improved conditions of life for soldiers returning from the war. As soon as the war had ended, the government started a big programme of building homes and improving health and education. But there was far less progress than people had been led to hope for.

      The rise of the Labour Party

      An important political development during the war was the rapid growth of the Labour Party. Although it was formally established in 1900, its beginnings dated from 1874, as part of the trade union movement. The trade unions themselves had grown enormously, from two million members to five million by 1914, and eight million by 1918. In that year, for the first time, all men aged twenty-one and some women over thirty were allowed to vote. The number of voters doubled from eight to sixteen million people, most of whom belonged to the working class.

      As a result of these changes, the Labour Party, which had won twenty-nine seats in the 1906 election, won fifty-seven seats in 1918, 142 seats in 1922, and 191 seats in 1923. The following year the first Labour government was created. The Labour Party, however, was not "socialist". Its leaders Were, or had become, members of the middle classes. Instead of a social revolution, they wanted to develop a kind of socialism that would fit the situation in Britain. This was partly because Labour's leaders did not wish to frighten the voters. It was also because middle-class thinkers before the war had almost completely failed to interest the working class in socialist ideas. In fact Karl Marx, who spent most of his life in Britain studying and writing, was almost unknown except to a few friends. Both he and his close friend Friedrich Engels, who owned a factory in Manchester, had little hope of the British working classes becoming truly socialist. In 1885 Engels had written of the trade unionists: "The fools want to reform society to suit themselves, but not reform themselves to suit the development of society." Most working-class people wished to improve their financial situation and to enjoy the advantages of the middle class without becoming involved in socialist beliefs. The trade unions and the Labour movement had been shaped by the experiences of the nineteenth century. They did not believe they could bring down the existing form of government, and in any case they wanted to change things by accepted constitutional means, in Parliament. This was partly because they were supported not only by the working class but also by radicals already in Parliament.

      By 1914 the socialist Beatrice Webb could write: "The landslide in England towards social democracy proceeds steadily, but it is the whole nation that is sliding, not one class of manual workers." That slide has continued for most of this century. As a result, the effect on Britain of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution in Russia was not as great as many feared it would be. Enough people were interested in Marxism to establish a Communist Party, but the Labour Party firmly refused to be connected with it. However, Marxism stirred a deep-seated fear in the Conservative Party, which has continued to see evidence of Marxist Socialism behind the Labour Party, the trade unions and strike action.

      As a result of Labour's success in 1924, the Liberal Party almost completely disappeared. Liberals with traditional capitalist ideas on the economy joined the Conservative Party, while most Liberal "reformers" joined the Labour Party.

      The rights of women

      In 1918, some women over the age of thirty gained the right to vote after a long, hard struggle. John Stuart Mill, a radical thinker, had tried unsuccessfully to include votes for women in the 1867 Reform Bill. The industrial revolution had increased the power of men, and their feelings about property. Karl Marx noticed that the factory- owning Englishman's attitude of "chivalry" to women had not prevented them from forcing women to work like slaves in their factories and workhouses.

      A man thought of his wife and daughters as his property, and so did the law. It was almost impossible for women to get a divorce, even for those rich enough to pay the legal costs. Until 1882, a woman had to give up all her property to her husband when she married him. And until 1891, husbands were still allowed by law to beat their wives with a stick "no thicker than a man's thumb", and to lock them up in a room if they wished. By 1850, wife beating had become a serious social problem in Britain. Men of all classes were able to take sexual advantage of working women. Women were probably treated worse in Britain than in any other industrialising European country at this time.

      After 1870 the situation, particularly for middle-class women, began to improve. Women were allowed to vote and to be elected to borough or county councils. A very small number started to study at Oxford and Cambridge in separate women's colleges. But while they were allowed to follow the same course of study as men, they could not receive a degree at the end. Middle-class women became increasingly determined to have equal rights.

      Working-class women were more interested in their legal rights concerning working conditions, and they found support in the trade union movement. In 1888 the policy of the unions was that "where women do the same work as men, they should receive equal pay. It was nearly another century before this principle became law. Female membership of the unions increased, but it was not always easy to persuade working men to respect the equal rights of their wives, particularly in times of unemployment.

      In 1897 women started to demand the right to vote in national elections. Within ten years these women, the "suffragettes", had become famous for the extreme methods they were willing to use. Many politicians who agreed with their aims were shocked by their violent methods and stopped supporting them. However, if they had not been willing to shock the public, the suffragettes might not have succeeded.

      The war in 1914 changed everything. Britain would have been unable to continue the war without the women who took men's places in the factories. By 1918 29 per cent of the total workforce of Britain was female. Women had to be given the vote. But it was not until ten years later that the voting age of women came down to twenty-one, equal with men.

      The liberation of women took other forms. They started to wear lighter clothing, shorter hair and skirts, began to smoke and drink openly, and to wear cosmetics. Married women wanted smaller families, and divorce became easier, rising from a yearly average of 800 in 1910 to 8,000 in 1939. Undoubtedly many men also moved away from Victorian values. Leading writers like D.H. Lawrence, Aldous Huxley, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf freely discussed sexual and other sensitive matters, which would have been impossible for earlier generations.

      Once women could vote, many people felt that they had gained full and equal rights. But there was still a long battle ahead for equal treatment and respect both at work and at home. The struggle for full women's rights is one of the most important events in recent British social history, and its effects continue to be felt.

      Ireland

      Before the beginning of the First World War the British government had agreed to home rule for Ireland. It was afraid, however, that the Protestants in the north would start a civil war in Ulster if home rule was introduced. For this reason, when war began in 1914, the government delayed the introduction of home rule, and called on Irishmen to join the army. Many thousands did, encouraged by their MPs, who hoped that this show of loyalty would help Ireland win self-government when the war ended.

      There was another group of Irishmen, however, who did not see why they should die for the British, who had treated Ireland so badly. They did not only want home rule, but full independence. At Easter 1916, these republicans rebelled in Dublin. They knew they could not win, but they hoped their rising would persuade other Irishmen to join the republican movement. The "Easter Rising" was • quickly put down, and most Irish disapproved of it. But the British executed all the leaders, which was a serious mistake. The public was shocked, not only in Ireland, but also in London. Irish Americans were also angry, just at the moment when America had joined Britain in the war against Germany.

      In the 1918 elections the republicans won in almost every area except Ulster. Instead of joining the British parliament, however, they met in their own new parliament, the Dail in Dublin, and announced that Ireland was now a republic. Irishmen joined the republic's army, and guerrilla fighting against the British began. As a result the British government decided to make peace. In 1921 it agreed to the independence of southern Ireland. But it also insisted that Ulster, or Northern Ireland as it became known, should remain united with Britain.