Timelines of History Vol 8: 1850-1870 (Timelines of History Vol. 8: 1850-1870)

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This page was last edited on 5 September , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Postwar years saw great hardships, alleviated somewhat by large-scale financial aid from the United States, and some from Canada. Prosperity returned in the s. Meanwhile, in —50 the Labour Party built a welfare state, nationalized many industries, and created the National Health Service.

NATO remains a powerful military coalition. The UK has been a leading member of the United Nations since its founding, as well as numerous other international organizaations. In the s, neoliberalism led to the privatisation of nationalized industries and significant deregulation of business affairs. London's status as a world financial hub grew continuously. Since the s large-scale devolution movements in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have decentralized political decision-making.

Britain has wobbled back and forth on its economic relationships with Western Europe. It joined the European Union in , thereby weakening economic ties with its Commonwealth. However, the Brexit referendum in committed the UK to an exit from the European Union ; negotiations are currently underway. The Kingdom of Great Britain came into being on 1 May , as a result of the political union of the Kingdom of England which included Wales and the Kingdom of Scotland according to the Treaty of Union.

It enabled the two kingdoms to be combined into a single kingdom, merging the two parliaments into a single parliament of Great Britain. Queen Anne became the first monarch of the new Great Britain. Although now a single kingdom, certain aspects of the former independent kingdoms remained separate, as agreed in the terms in the Treaty of Union.

England and Scotland also continued to each have its own system of education. Meanwhile, the long War of the Spanish Succession — was underway with France. It see-sawed back and forth A more peace-minded government came to power in London and the treaties of Utrecht and Rastadt in — ended the war.

That Treaty [of Utrecht], which ushered in the stable and characteristic period of Eighteenth-Century civilization, marked the end of danger to Europe from the old French monarchy, and it marked a change of no less significance to the world at large,—the maritime, commercial and financial supremacy of Great Britain.

The Stuart line died with Anne in , although a die-hard faction with French support supported pretenders. The Elector of Hanover became king as George I — He paid more attention to Hanover and surrounded himself with Germans, making him an unpopular king. George II — enhanced the stability of the constitutional system, with a government run by Sir Robert Walpole during the period — In coalition with the rising power Prussia, defeated France in the Seven Years' War — , and won full control of Canada. Reviled by Americans as a tyrant and the instigator of the American War of Independence, he was insane off and on after as his eldest son served as regent.

The era was pro 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. It issued stock four times in that reached about 8, investors. 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. Robert Walpole was Prime Minister, —42, and indeed he invented the role. The term was applied to him by friends and foes alike by Historian Clayton Roberts summarizes his new functions:. Walpole was a master of the effective use of patronage, as were his two disciples who succeeded him as prime minister, Henry Pelham — and Pelham's brother the Duke of Newcastle — Hypocrisy became a major topic in English political history in the early 18th century.

The Toleration Act allowed for certain rights, but it left Protestant Nonconformists Such as Congregationalists and Baptists deprived of important rights, including that of office-holding. Nonconformists who wanted office ostentatiously took the Anglican sacrament once a year in order to avoid the restrictions. High Church Anglicans were outraged. They outlawed what they called "occasional conformity" in with the Occasional Conformity Act This campaign of moderation versus zealotry, peaked in during the impeachment trial of high church preacher Henry Sacheverell.

History of the United States (–) - Wikipedia

Historian Mark Knights, argues that by its very ferocity, the debate may have led to more temperate and less hypercharged political discourse. Occasional conformity was restored by the Whigs when they returned to power in English author Bernard Mandeville 's famous " Fable of the Bees " explored the nature of hypocrisy in contemporary European society. On the one hand, Mandeville was a "moralist" heir to the French Augustinianism of the previous century, viewing sociability as a mere mask for vanity and pride. On the other, he was a "materialist" who helped found modern economics.

He tried to demonstrate the universality of human appetites for corporeal pleasures. He argued that the efforts of self-seeking entrepreneurs are the basis of emerging commercial and industrial society, a line of thought that influenced Adam Smith — and 19th-century Utilitarianism. The tension between these two approaches modes ambivalences and contradictions—concerning the relative power of norms and interests, the relationship between motives and behaviours, and the historical variability of human cultures. In the to era, Whig aristocrats in England boasted of their special benevolence for the common people.

They claimed to be guiding and counseling reform initiatives to prevent the outbreaks of popular discontent that caused instability and revolution across Europe. However Tory and radical critics accused the Whigs of hypocrisy—alleging they were deliberately using the slogans of reform and democracy to boost themselves into power while preserving their precious aristocratic exclusiveness.

Mitchell defends the Whigs, pointing out that thanks to them radicals always had friends at the centre of the political elite, and thus did not feel as marginalized as in most of Europe. He points out that the debates on the Reform Bill showed that reformers would indeed receive a hearing at parliamentary level with a good chance of success. Liberal and radical observers noted the servility of the English lower classes, the obsession everyone had with rank and title, the extravagance of the aristocracy, a supposed anti-intellectualism, and a pervasive hypocrisy that extended into such areas as social reform.

There were not so many conservative visitors. They praised the stability of English society, its ancient constitution, and reverence for the past; they ignored the negative effects of industrialization. From to , Britain was involved in 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 , an income tax.

Working with bankers in the City, the government raised large loans during wartime and paid them off in peacetime. 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. The French Revolution polarized British political opinion in the s, with conservatives outraged at the killing of the king, the expulsion of the nobles, and the Reign of Terror.

Britain was at war against France almost continuously from until the final defeat of Napoleon in 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 gentry and the upper classes.

The signing of the Treaty of Paris 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.

During the s and s, 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. In the Patriots expelled royal officials and declared the independence of the United States of America.

After capturing a British invasion army in , 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. 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 , in response to increased concessions to Catholics by Parliament. The Treaty of Paris was signed in , formally terminating the war and recognising the independence of the United States. The loss of the Thirteen Colonies, at the time Britain's most populous colonies, marked the transition between the "first" and "second" empires, [30] in which Britain shifted its attention to Asia, the Pacific and later Africa.

Adam Smith 's Wealth of Nations , published in , 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 [31] confirmed Smith's view that political control was not necessary for economic success.

During its first years of operation, the focus of the British East India Company had been trade, not the building of an empire in India. 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. On 22 August , James Cook discovered the eastern coast of Australia [32] while on a scientific voyage to the South Pacific. In , 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 the first shipment of convicts set sail, arriving in The British government had somewhat mixed reactions to the outbreak of the French Revolution in , and when war broke out on the Continent in , it initially remained neutral.

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 — Britain alone among the nations of Europe never submitted to or formed an alliance with France. Throughout the s, 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 accomplished little except the capture of the Dutch fleet. 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: Napoleon threatened invasion of Britain itself, and with it, a fate similar to the countries of continental Europe that his armies had overrun. 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. Ireland thus became an integral part of the United Kingdom, sending around 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. The Roman Catholic hierarchy had endorsed the Union.

However the decision to block Catholic Emancipation fatally undermined the appeal of the Union. During the War of the Second Coalition — , Britain occupied most of the French and Dutch colonies the Netherlands had been a satellite of France since , but tropical diseases claimed the lives of over 40, troops. When the Treaty of Amiens created a pause, Britain was forced to return most of the colonies.

In May , war was declared again.

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Napoleon's plans to invade Britain failed due to the inferiority of his navy, and in , Lord Nelson's fleet decisively defeated the French and Spanish at Trafalgar, which was the last significant naval action of the Napoleonic Wars. In , 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. Napoleon hoped that isolating Britain from the Continent would end its economic dominance.

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 the main British colonies.

The Spanish uprising in 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 , 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 , the British and their allies had to fight him again. A key element in British success was its ability to mobilize the nation's industrial and financial resources and apply them to defeating France. 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 , in The system of smuggling finished products into the continent undermined French efforts to ruin the British economy by cutting off markets.

It was willingly supported by hundreds of thousands of investors and tax payers, despite the higher taxes on land and a new income tax. By contrast the French financial system was inadequate and Napoleon's forces had to rely in part on requisitions from conquered lands. Napoleon also attempted economic warfare against Britain, especially in the Berlin Decree of 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. Even more damage was done to the economies of France and its allies, which lost a useful trading partner. Simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 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 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. Peace was agreed to at the end of , but Andrew Jackson , unaware of this, won a great victory over the British at the Battle of New Orleans in January 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 The major result was the permanent defeat of the Indian allies the British had counted upon. The US-Canada border was demilitarised by both countries, and peaceful trade resumed, although worries of an American conquest of Canada persisted into the s. The postwar era was a time of economic depression, poor harvests, growing inflation, and high unemployment among returning soldiers. As industrialisation progressed, Britain was more urban and less rural, and power shifted accordingly.

Tories feared the possible emergence of radicals who might be conspiring to emulate the dreaded French Revolution. In reality the violent radical element was small and weak; there were a handful of small conspiracies involving men with few followers and careless security; they were quickly suppressed. Sidmouth's Gagging Acts of heavily muzzled the opposition newspapers; the reformers switched to pamphlets and sold 50, a week. In reaction to the Peterloo massacre of , the Liverpool government passed the " Six Acts " in They prohibited drills and military exercises; facilitated warrants for the search for weapons; outlawed public meetings of more than 50 people, including meetings to organize petitions; put heavy penalties on blasphemous and seditious publications; imposing a fourpenny stamp act on many pamphlets to cut down the flow on news and criticism.

Offenders could be harshly punished including exile in Australia. In practice the laws were designed to deter troublemakers and reassure conservatives; they were not often used. By the end of the s, along with a general economic recovery, many of these repressive laws were repealed and in new legislation guaranteed the civil rights of religious dissenters.

A weak ruler as regent —20 and king —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. His reign saw several reforms: There were no major wars until the Crimean War of — Britain intervened in Portugal in to defend a constitutional government there and recognising the independence of Spain's American colonies in 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 Roman Catholic Relief Act , which removed the most substantial restrictions on Roman Catholics in Britain. The Whigs became champions of Parliamentary reform. They made Lord Grey prime minister —, and the Reform Act became their signature measure. It broadened the franchise slightly and ended the system of rotten and pocket boroughs where elections were controlled by powerful families , and gave seats to new industrial centres. The aristocracy continued to dominate the government, the Army and Royal Navy, and high society.

Chartism emerged after the 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 , 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. Prime Ministers of the period included: Victoria ascended the throne in at age Her long reign until 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.

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Britain again remained mostly inactive in Continental politics, and it was not affected by the wave of revolutions in 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 The era was preceded by the Regency era and succeeded by the Edwardian period.

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, —56 , and social peace at home.

Reforms in industrial conditions were set by Parliament. For example, in , the nation was scandalized by the use of children in coal mines. The Mines Act of banned employment of girls and boys under ten years old from working underground in coal mines. The Chartist movement, peaked as a democratic movement among the working class in ; 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. 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 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. The Great London Exhibition of clearly demonstrated Britain's dominance in engineering and industry; that lasted until the rise of the United States and Germany in the s. Using the imperial tools of free trade and financial investment, [61] 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. 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.

During the American Civil War — , 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 The British people, who depended heavily on American food imports, generally favoured the United States. In September , 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 would be issued in January making abolition of slavery in the Confederacy a war goal. Since support of the Confederacy now meant support for slavery, there was no longer any possibility of European intervention. However, the British working class were quite overwhelmingly pro-Union.

In the end, although Britain could survive without Southern cotton, the North's meat and grain was more important to feed the UK's urban population, especially as a series of bad harvests had affected British agriculture in the late s to early s. 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 , in the Americans' favour. In , Britain united most of its North American colonies as the Dominion of Canada , giving it self-government and responsibility for its internal affairs.

Britain handled foreign policy and defence. The second half of the 19th century saw a major expansion of Britain's colonial empire in Asia and Africa as well as the Pacific. It was the only power in Europe to have no conscription. The rise of the German Empire after 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 , he discarded Bismarck, began using bellicose language, and planned to build a navy to rival Britain's. 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 — British historian Andrew Roberts argues that the Boers insisted on keeping full control of both their two small republics, allowing no role whatever for nonwhites, and distinctly limited roles for British and other European settlers.

These " Uitlanders " with the base of the economy, and paid 80 percent of the taxes, and had no vote. The Transvaal was in no sense a democracy, argues Roberts, for no black, Britain, Catholic or Jew was allowed to vote or hold any office. Johannesburg was the business center, with 50, primarily British residents, but was not permitted any local government. The English language was banned in official proceedings; no public meetings were permitted; newspapers were closed down arbitrarily; and full citizenship was technically possible but quite rare.

Roberts says President Paul Kruger "ran a tight, tough, quasi-police state from his state capital, Pretoria. The Boer response to the British pressure was to declare war on 20 October The , Boers were massively outnumbered, but amazingly they waged a successful guerrilla war, which gave the British regulars a difficult fight. The Boers were landlocked and did not have access to outside help. The weight of numbers, superior equipment, and often brutal tactics eventually brought about a British victory.

To defeat the guerrillas, the British rounded up their women and children into concentration camps, where many died of disease. World outrage focused on the camps, led by a large faction of the Liberal Party in Britain. However, the United States gave its support. The Boer republics were merged into Union of South Africa in ; it had internal self-government but its foreign policy was controlled by London and was an integral part of the British Empire.

The unexpectedly great difficulty in defeating the Boers forced a reevaluation of British policy. In military terms, it was clear that the Cardwell reforms have been inadequate. The call to establish a general staff to control military operations had been shelved by the Duke of Cambridge, himself a royal with enormous authority. It took a five more years to set up a general staff and other Army reforms, under the administration of Lord Haldane.

Britain responded by a massive building program launched in by the highly controversial First Sea Lord, Sir John Fisher. He launched the HMS Dreadnought in It was the first modern battleship based on new armour. It needed new friends. It made a military alliance with Japan, and buried old controversies to forge a close relationship with the United States. 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 clearly demonstrated Britain's dominance in engineering, communications and industry; that lasted until the rise of the United States and Germany in the s. In — under Salisbury Britain promoted a policy of Splendid isolation with no formal allies. Part of the agreement which led to the Act of Union stipulated that the Penal Laws in Ireland were to be repealed and Catholic Emancipation granted. When potato blight hit Ireland in , much of the rural population was left without food. Relief efforts were inadequate and hundreds of thousands died in the Great Hunger.

Ireland became permanently smaller in terms of population. In the s new moderate nationalist movement was formed. A significant unionist minority largely based in Ulster , opposed Home Rule, fearing that a Catholic-Nationalist parliament in Dublin would discriminate against them and would also hurt its industry. Historically, the aristocracy was divided between Conservatives and Liberals. However, when Gladstone committed to home rule for Ireland, Britain's upper classes largely abandoned the Liberal party, giving the Conservatives a large permanent majority in the House of Lords.

High Society in London, following the Queen, largely ostracized home rulers, and Liberal clubs were badly split. Joseph Chamberlain took a major element of upper-class supporters out of the Party and into a third party called "Liberal Unionism" that collaborated with and eventually merged into the Conservative party. The Programme had a strong appeal to the Nonconformist middle-class Liberal element, which felt liberated by the departure of the aristocracy. The Queen played a small role in politics, but became the iconic symbol of the nation, the empire, and proper, restrained behaviour.

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. Lord Palmerston — dominated foreign policy for decades, through a period when Britain was at the height of its power, serving terms as both Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister.

He was intensely patriotic; he used the Royal Navy to undermine the Atlantic slave trade. 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. Benjamin Disraeli — , prime minister and —80 , remains an iconic hero of the Conservative Party.

He played a central role in the creation the Party, defining its policies and its broad outreach. Disraeli is remembered for his influential voice in world affairs, his political battles with the Liberal leader William Gladstone, and his one-nation conservatism or "Tory democracy". He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the glory and power of the British Empire. He was born into a Jewish family, which became Episcopalian when he was 12 years old. Disraeli fought to protect established political, social, and religious values and elites; he emphasized the need for national leadership in response to radicalism, uncertainty, and materialism.

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. In foreign policy he is best known for battling and besting Russia. Disraeli's second term was dominated by the Eastern Question —the slow decay of the Ottoman Empire and the desire of Russia, to gain at its expense. In , faced with Russian victories against the Ottomans, he worked at the Congress of Berlin to maintain peace in the Balkans and made terms favourable to Britain which weakened Russia, its longstanding enemy.

Disraeli's old reputation as the "Tory democrat" and promoter of the welfare state has faded as historians argue that he had few proposals for social legislation in —80, and that the Reform Act did not reflect a vision for the unenfranchised working man.

William Ewart Gladstone — was the Liberal counterpart to Disraeli, serving as prime minister four times —74, —85, , and — Gladstone's first ministry saw many reforms including Disestablishment of the Protestant Church of Ireland and the introduction of secret voting. His party was defeated in , but made a comeback based on opposition to Turkey's Bulgarian atrocities against Christians. Gladstone's Midlothian Campaign of —80 was an pathbreaking introduction of many modern political campaigning techniques.

His Liberal party was increasingly pulled apart on the Irish issue. He proposed Irish home rule in ; It failed to pass and the resulting split in the Liberal Party kept it out of office for most of the next 20 years. Gladstone's 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. Regarding Ireland, the major Liberal efforts focused on land reform, where the ended centuries of landlord oppression , and the disestablishment of the Anglican Church of Ireland through the Irish Church Act Gladstone became a champion of Home Rule , but it caused a deep split in the Liberal Party.

Joseph Chamberlain formed the breakaway Liberal Unionist Party that refused to consider independence for Ireland and became allied with the Conservatives. In terms of historic reforms, Gladstone's first ministry —74 was his most successful. The Judicature Act of merged them into one central court. Local government was streamlined in a later Gladstone ministry, and made more powerful and standardized. Patronage and favoritism was replaced by civil service examinations, downplaying the role of family and aristocracy and emphasizing the role of talent and ability.

The secret ballot was enacted in to prevent the buying of votes—politicians would not pay out the money if they were not sure how the person voted. The Trade Union Act of lessened the intimidation of employers, made unions legal, and protected their funding from lawsuits. The Protestant Church of Ireland , serving a small minority of rich landowners, was disestablished.

Catholics no longer had to pay taxes to it. Its organization was confused, its policies unfair, and its cruel punishments were based chiefly on brutal flogging. At the county level, politicians name the officers of the county militia units, preferring connections in class overcapacity. The regular army called for enlistments for 21 years, but with reforms initiated by Edward Cardwell , Gladstone's secretary for war, enlistments were reduced to six years, plus six years in reserve.

Regiments were organized by territorial districts, and advanced with modern rifles. The complex chain of command was simplified, and in wartime the county militias were under the control of the central war office. Commissions of officer commissions were abolished, and flogging in peacetime was also abolished.

The reforms were not quite complete, the Royal Duke of Cambridge still had great authority, despite his mediocre abilities. Historians agree that Lord Salisbury — as foreign minister and prime minister in the late 19th century was a strong and effective leader in foreign affairs. He had a superb grasp of the issues, and proved:. Historians portray Lord Salisbury as a talented leader who was an icon of traditional, aristocratic conservatism. Marsh's estimate is more favourable than Blake's, he says Salisbury was a leader who "held back the popular tide for twenty years.

Matthew points to "the narrow cynicism of Salisbury". Prime Ministers from to The Liberal Party was in power — when it formed a wartime coalition. It passed the welfare reforms that created a basic British welfare state. It weakened the veto power of Lords, blocked woman suffrage. In it apparently "solved" the problem of Irish Home Rule but when the war broke out the solution was shelved.

Asquith was overwhelmed by the wartime role of coalition prime minister, and Lloyd George replaced him as the coalition prime minister in late but Asquith remained Liberal party leader. The two fought for years over control of the party, badly weakening it in the process. Queen Victoria died in 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 Edward died in , to be succeeded by George V , who reigned — 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. The era was prosperous but political crises were escalating out of control. Dangerfield identified the "strange death of liberal England" as the multiple crisis that hit simultaneously in — 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. McKibben argues that the political party system of the Edwardian era was in delicate balance on the eve of the war in 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 s. The sociological basis was non-Anglican religion and non-English ethnicity rather than the emerging class conflict emphasized by Labour. Asquith of the Liberal Party. The rest of the Empire automatically followed.

The cabinet's basic reasons for declaring war focused on a deep commitment to France and avoidance of splitting the Liberal Party. That would deeply split the party and mean loss of control of the government to a coalition or to the Unionist ie Conservative opposition. However, the large antiwar element among Liberals, with David Lloyd George as spokesperson, would support the war to honour the treaty that guaranteed Belgian neutrality.

So Belgium rather than France was the public reason given. Therefore the public reason given out by the government. 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. 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 main British contribution was financial--loans and grants helped Russia, Italy and smaller allies afford the war.

The stalemate required an endless supply of men and munitions. By , 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 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.

After defeating Russia, the Germans tried to win in the spring of before the millions of American soldiers arrived. They failed, and they were overwhelmed and finally accepted an Armistice in November , that amounted to a surrender. Britain eagerly supported the war, but in Ireland the Nationalists were restless and plotted a rebellion in It failed but the brutal repression that followed turned that element against Britain. The War saw a decline of civilian consumption, with a major reallocation to munitions.

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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 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 , drowning over American passengers, protests by the United States led Germany to abandon unrestricted submarine warfare. With victory over Russia in , Germany now calculated it could finally have numerical superiority on the Western Front. Planning for a massive spring offensive in , 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. 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 , as the fighting in France continued with no end in sight. The German spring offensives of failed, and with the summer arrival of American soldiers at a rate of 10, per day, [ citation needed ] the Germans realised they were being overwhelmed.

Germany agreed to a surrender on 11 November Victorian attitudes and ideals that had continued into the first years of the 20th century changed during the First World War. The army had traditionally never been a large employer in the nation, with the regular army standing at , at the start of the war. 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.

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 unfulfilled. The harsh peace settlement imposed on Germany would leave it embittered and seeking revenge. They 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 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 Nazism. 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 Egypt, which had been a British protectorate since , became independent in , although the British remained there until It was enacted as the Government of Ireland Act Civil war threatened when the Protestant-Unionists of Northern Ireland refused to be placed under Catholic-Nationalist control. Semi-military units were formed ready to fight—the Unionist Ulster Volunteers opposed to the Act and their Nationalist counterparts, the Irish Volunteers supporting the Act.

The outbreak of the World War in put the crisis on political hold. A disorganized Easter Rising in was brutally suppressed by the British, which had the effect of galvanizing Nationalist demands for independence. 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 s 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. As a leisure, literacy, wealth, ease of travel, and a broadened sense of community grew in Britain from the late 19th century onward, there was more time and interest in leisure activities of all sorts, on the part of all classes. Tourists flocked to seaside resorts; Blackpool hosted 7 million visitors a year in the s.

There were class differences with upper-class clubs, and working-class and middle-class pubs. Participation in sports and all sorts of leisure activities increased for the average Englishman, and his interest in spectator sports increased dramatically. By the s the cinema and radio attracted all classes, ages and genders in very large numbers, with young women taking the lead.

They sang along at the music hall, fancied their pigeons, gambled on horse racing, and took the family to Blackpool in summer. The cartoon realization of this life style Andy Capp began in Political activists complained that working-class leisure diverted men away from revolutionary agitation. The British film industry emerged in the s when cinemas in general broke through in the western world, and built heavily on the strong reputation of the London legitimate theatre for actors, directors and producers. It bought up the top talent, especially when Hollywood came to the fore in the s and produced over 80 percent of the total world output.

Efforts to fight back were futile—the government set a quota for British made films, but it failed.

History of the United States (1849–1865)

Hollywood furthermore dominated the lucrative Canadian and Australian markets. Bollywood based in Bombay dominated the huge Indian market. There was a revival of creativity in the —45 era, especially with the arrival of Jewish filmmakers and actors fleeing the Nazis. In Liverpool 40 percent of the population attended one of the 69 cinemas once a week; 25 percent went twice. Traditionalists grumbled about the American cultural invasion, but the permanent impact was minor.

In radio, British audiences had no choice apart from the upscale programming of the BBC, a government agency which had a monopoly on broadcasting. John Reith — , an intensely moralistic engineer, was in full charge. His goal was to broadcast, "All that is best in every department of human knowledge, endeavour and achievement The preservation of a high moral tone is obviously of paramount importance. The British showed a more profound interest in sports, and in greater variety, than any rival.

They gave pride of place to such moral issues as sportsmanship and fair play. New games became popular almost overnight, including golf, lawn tennis, cycling and hockey. Women were much more likely to enter these sports than the old established ones. The aristocracy and landed gentry, with their ironclad control over land rights, dominated hunting, shooting, fishing and horse racing.

Test matches began by the s; the most famous are those between Australia and England for The Ashes. As literacy and leisure time expanded after , reading became a popular pastime. New additions to adult fiction doubled during the s, reaching new books a year by Libraries tripled their stock, and saw heavy demand for new fiction. The first titles included novels by Ernest Hemingway and Agatha Christie. They were sold cheap usually sixpence in a wide variety of inexpensive stores such as Woolworth's.

Penguin aimed at an educated middle class "middlebrow" audience. It avoided the downscale image of American paperbacks. The line signaled cultural self-improvement and political education. Romantic fiction was especially popular, with Mills and Boon the leading publisher. The story line in magazines and cinema that most appealed to boys was the glamorous heroism of British soldiers fighting wars that were exciting and just.

Two major programs that permanently expanded the welfare state passed in and with surprisingly little debate, even as the Conservatives dominated parliament. Act set up a system of government housing that followed the campaign promises of "homes fit for heroes. The treasury subsidized the low rents. In England and Wales, , houses were built, and the Ministry of Health became largely a ministry of housing. The Unemployment Insurance Act 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 The Lloyd George ministry fell apart in Stanley Baldwin , as leader of the Conservative Party —37 and as Prime Minister in —24, —29 and —37 , dominated British politics.