Проект: Britain at war

Britain at war

The First World War

Germany nearly defeated the Allies, Brirain and France, in the first few weeks of war in 1914. It had better trained soldiers, better equipment and a clear plan of attack. This was Britain's first European war for a century, and the country was quite unprepared for the terrible destructive power of modern weapons. . 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 dead and wounded.

In the Middle East the British fought against Turkish troops. 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 that it was defending the weak (Belgium) against the strong (Germany), and that it was fighting for democracy and freedom.

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. German submarine attacks 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.  

France and Britain met to discuss peace at Versailles in 1919. Germany was not         come   to the conference, but was forced to accept its punishment, which was extremely severe. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 hait and skirts, began to smoke and drink openly, and to wear cosmetics. Married women wanted smaller families, and divorce became easier.

Ireland

Before the beginning of the First World War the British government had agreed to home rule for Ireland. When war began in 1914, the government delayed the introduction of home rule, and called on Irishmen to join the army.

There was another group of Irishmen, however, who did not see why they should die for the British, who had treared Ireland so badly. They did not only want home rule, but full independence. At Easter 1916, these republicans rebelled in Dublin.

The "Easter Rising" was quickly put down. But the British executed all the leaders, which was a serious mistake. The public was shocked, not only in Ireland, but also in London.

In the 1918 elections the tepublicans won in almost every area except Ulster. They announced that Ireland was now a republic.  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.

The Angle-Irish Treaty of 1921 led to civil war between the Irish themselves. The pro-Treaty forces won, and the republicans, who insisted that all Ireland, including Northern Ireland, should be an independent republic, were defeated.

Within the Republic of Ireland the majority have continued ro believe that all Ireland should one day be united, but without the use of force.

Disappointment and depression

Alongside the social effects of the war were far­ reaching economic ones. The cost of the war had led to an enormous increase in taxation, from 6 per cent of income in 1914 to 25 per cent in 1918. The demands of the war had also led to a doubling in the size of the civil service, and greater government control of national life. It was inevitable that there should be increasing disagreement between workers and the government. Then, In 1926 it was a general strike by all workers.

It is possible to argue that Britain missed an opportunity to reform the economic structure of the country after the war. But instead of careful planning, businessmen were allowed to make quick profits, particularly in the cotton mills, the shipyards and engineering industries. But perhaps there was little the government could do to control the situation, as it was not in control of economic forces. All over Europe and America a serious economic crisis, known as lithe depression", was taking place. It affected Britain most severely from 1930 to 1933, when over three million workers were unemployed.

Because the worst effects of the depression in Britain were limited to certain areas, the government did not take the situation seriously. The areas most affected by the depression were those which had created Britain's industrial solution, including Clvdeside, Belfast, the strial north of England and southeast Wales. The working class in these areas still lived in poor conditions. Men and women could not expect to live as people in richer areas, and more died in the first year of life.

In the 1930, the British economy started to recover, especially in the Midlands and the south. This could be seen in the enormous number of small   houses which were being built along main roads far into the countryside. Unplanned suburbs grew especially quickly around London, where the underground railway system, the "tube", had spread out into the country.

Economic recovery resulted partly from the danger of another war. By 1935 it was clear that Germany, under its new leader Adolf Hitler, was preparing to regain its position in Europe, by force if necessary. Britain had done nothing to increase its fighting strength since 1918 because public opinion in Britain had been against war. The government suddenly had to rebuild its armed forces, and this meant investing a large amount of money in heavy industry. By 1937 British industry was producing weapons, aircraft and equipment for war, with the help of money from the United States.

The Second World War

. In 1920 the Allies had created rhe League of Nations which, it was hoped, would enable nations to co¬operate with each other. Although the League did not forbid war, its members agreed to respect and preserve the borders and territory of all other members. But in 1935 Italy invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia), a fellow member of the League. Britain and France were anxious to win Italy's co-operation against Hitler, who was illegally rearming Germany, and therefore decided against taking action against Italy as the rules of the League required them to do. This failure to use the League's authority had serious results. Italy's Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, and Hitler realised that Britain and France lacked the will to make sure the standards the League demanded of its members were followed.

But in order to avoid war in 1938, the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, accepted and co-operated in the takeover of German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia by Germany. Chamberlain returned from meeting Hitler in Munich. He reassured Britain that he had Hitler's written promise that Germany had no more territorial ambitions, in the memorable words, "peace for our time". Six months later Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia. Britain, realising that war was inevitable, gave a guarantee of support to Poland if Germany invaded.

In September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, and Britain entered the war. The British felt again that they were fighting for the weaker nations of Europe, and for democracy. They had also heard about the cruelty of the Nazis from Jews who had escaped to Britain.

Everyone in Britain expected Germany to invade, but the British air force won an important battle against German planes in the air over Britain. This, however, did not prevent the German air force from bombing the towns of Britain. Almost one and a half million people in London were made homeless by German bombing during the next few months.

The war had begun as a traditional European struggle, with Britain fighting to save the "balance of power" in Europe, and to control the Atlantic Ocean and the sea   surrounding Britain. But the war quickly became worldwide. Both sides wanted to control the oil in the Middle East, and the Suez Canal,        s route to India. In 1941 Japan, attacked British colonial possessions,   including Malaya (Malaysia), Burma and India. As a result, Britain used soldiers from all parts of its empire to help fight against Germany, Italy and Japan. But the weakness of Britain was obvious to the whole world when its army surrendered Singapore to Japan

Britain     could not possibly have defeated Germany without the help of its stronger allies, the Soviet Union and the United States. By 1943 the Soviet army   as pushing the Germans out of the USSR, and Britain had driven German and Italian troops out of North Africa. Italy surrendered quickly following Allied landings in July 1943.

In 1944 Britain and the United States invaded German-occupied France. They had already started to bomb German towns, causing greater destruction than any war had ever caused before. Such bombing had very doubtful military results. In order to save further casualties among their own troops, Britain and the United States then used their bombing power to defeat Japan. This time they used the new atomic bombs to destroy most of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, two large Japanese cities.

It was a terrible end to the war, and an equally terrible beginning to the post-war world. But at the time there was great relief in Britain that the war had finally ended. It had lasted longer than the First World War, and although less than half as many British troops had died this time. The Soviet Union, Germany and Japan paid a fair more terrible price, as did ethnic groups like the Jewish and gypsy peoples, several million of whom were deliberately killed.