Fundamental Changes

in
Politics and Society after

Reasons of its failure:

- costs and efforts of two world wars

World War I

- cost of keeping up the empire

- weaknesses in Britains industrial power

Nostalgia for the good old days

Family values reigned

Neighbours always do a good for each other
You could leave your front door unlocked
Policemen, teachers were respected
Children were obedient

British society in 1900 was sharply divided along class/ gender lines
Women
were
SECOND CLASS CITIZENS
Since it was not until 1918 that they could vote
in parliamentary elections
1911 Parliament Act established the supremacy

of the elected House of Commons of the UK

over the unelected House of Lords

being

the workshop of the world

the sick man of Europe

Colonial agreement
1907
The United
Kingdom
Germany

Entente
cordiale1904

Russian
Empire

Triple Entente

France
Triple
Alliance

Agreement on
colonies 1900
Agreement on
Neutrality 1902

Ita

ly

AustriaHungary

London: the worlds capital city

In political terms
In commercial terms
In industrial terms

Central Powers

Triple Entente

1879 Central Powers

(Germany(Germany- AustriaAustriaHungary)
Hungary)

1893 French -Russian

alliance

1882 Triple Alliance

(GermanGerman-AustrianAustrianItalian)
Italian)
1883 Romania joins

(against being isolated)

1904 Entente Cordiale

FrenchFrench- English
alliance
1907 English Russian
Alliance

 The arrangement was too loose

to work well
by November 1914 a special
Cabinet committee was needed

the War Council

Popular opinion held that

it would all be over by Christmas

in 1914, but even less sanguine observers

generally accepted that advanced western
societies could not long sustain the economic
and social strains of war (p151)

The Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) was passed in the United
Kingdom on 8 August 1914, during the early weeks of World War I

Some of the things the British public were not allowed to do

-included flying a kite,

-lighting a bonfire,
- buying binoculars,
- feeding wild animals bread,
-discussing naval and military matters
- buying alcohol on public transport.
-Alcoholic beverages were watered down
- pub opening times were restricted to noon3pm
and 6:30pm9:30pm (the requirement for
an afternoon gap in permitted hours lasted
in England until the Licensing Act 1988
was brought into force).

Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith,

(12 September 1852 15 February 1928) served as the Liberal
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916.
He was the longest continuously serving Prime Minister in the 20th
century until 5 January 1988.

David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor

(17 January 1863 26 March 1945) was a British Liberal politician
and statesman. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at
the head of a wartime coalition government between the years
191622 and was the Leader of the Liberal Party from 192631.

DORA ushered in a variety of authoritarian social control

mechanisms, such as censorship.

Britain at War 1914-1918

Wartime politics :
before the war burst out in 1914
neither civil nor military organization was readily
adaptable to the needs of war
The Committee of Imperial Defence had been set
up by Balfour in 1904

-the Prime Minister

-the Secretary of State for War
-the First Lord of the Admiralty
-the Secretary of State for India
-the Chancellor of the Exchequer
a Committee of this CID (set up in 1911) produced
for every department a scheme of action in the
event of war

War Cabinet
its members: David Lloyd George

Lord Curzon of Kedleston (Lord President of the Council)

Andrew Bonar Law (Chancellor of the Exchequer)
Other members:
Arthur Henderson (December 1916 - August 1917)
Lord Milner (December 1916 - April 1918)
Jan Smuts (June 1917 - January 1919)
George Barnes (May 1917 - January 1919)
Sir Austen Chamberlain (April 1918 - October 1919)
Sir Eric Geddes (January 1919 - October 1919)

The Imperial War Cabinet was created by British Prime Minister

David Lloyd George in the spring of 1917 as a means of coordinating the British Empire's military policy during the First
World War.
Lloyd George
Sir Robert Borden, Prime Minister of Canada
Louis Botha, Prime Minister of South Africa
Billy Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia
William Massey, Prime Minister of New Zealand
Jan Smuts (general, of South Africa)
the British Secretary of State for India and other senior ministers
from Britain and the dominions.

"Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867", an agreement,

Austria - Hungary from 1867 was a dualist Empire

Within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, both the Austrian

empire and the Hungarian kingdom became independent states
with separate legislative bodies and governments responsible
to their legislatures.
The link between them was further assured by the common
affairs of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy:
defence,
foreign affairs and
the finances related to these.
Francis Joseph, who had been uncrowned up till then, was
crowned King of Hungary in the summer of 1867

three distinct elements ruled the Austro

Hungarian Empire:
common foreign, military and joint financial
policy under
the monarch
the "Austrian" government
the Hungarian government
Hungary and Austria maintained separate
-parliaments, each with its own prime minister.

Lloyd George ,Clemenceau ,Orlando , Wilson

Paris Peace Conference

the Treaty of Versailles, 1919, 28 June 1919, (the German Empire in

Weimar Republic form)
the Treaty of Saint-Germain, 10 September 1919, (Austria)
the Treaty of Neuilly, 27 November 1919, (Bulgaria)
the Treaty of Trianon, 4 June 1920, (Hungary)
the Treaty of Svres, 10 August 1920; subsequently revised by the
Treaty of Lausanne, 24 June 1923, (Ottoman Empire).
The aim of the conference to punish Germany and its allies

The system of the dualist empire

On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip assassinated

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.
Before entering the war, only the prime minister Count Istvn Tisza
hesitated, unconvinced that it was the best time to engage in battle.
As soon as Germany promised to neutralise the Kingdom of
Romania and promised that no territories of the Kingdom of Serbia
would be annexed to Austria-Hungary, he then decided to support
the war.
After the ultimatum sent to Serbia by Franz Josef I, the war broke
out and soon spread over much of Europe and beyond.

In November 1918, World War I ended for Austria-Hungary with a

complete military loss, even if at the time of the collapse, all forces
were standing outside of borders of 1914.

With the collapse of the army, Austria-Hungary also collapsed.

The ethnic groups of Kingdom of Hungary called for
independent nation-states,but this totally disconsidered the
hungarian population and national interests

. In the dictate of Trianon Treaty of Trianon signed on July 4, 1920,

Hungary was forced to loose
- two-thirds of its territory,
- more than half of its population,
(more territory than any other country at that time
(excluding colonies).
- Eight million Hungarians left in Hungary
- more than 3 million Hungarians were stranded outside of the
newly established borders.
New nations, such as Czechoslovakia,
Poland, and
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
have arisen and some already existing countries have extended their
territories (Italy and Romania).
-The souther part of Hungary was given to Yugoslavia and
renamed Vojvodina.
-Bosnia-Herzegovina was also given to Yugoslavia and
-Croatia became part of Yugoslavia also, after a 900 years federation
with Hungary.
-More than 104.000 square kms-the whole of Eastern Hungary and
Transylvania-- were awarded by the Entente to Romania ,
more than what was left for Hungary itself 93.030sq.kms.
- The northern part of Hungary was annexed by the newly created
Czechoslovakia.

Martha Beatrice Webb, Lady Passfield

socialist and social reformer.
The

landslide in England towards Social Democracy proceeds

steadily, but it is the whole nation that is sliding, not the one
class of manual workers.

The UK has undergone TRANSFORMATION

From the most powerful and successful example of a
LIBERAL CAPITALIST ECONOMY (before 1914)
Into a prototype of the
SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC WELFARE-STATE

- social legislation

- expansion of social services

- replacement of the Liberal Party by the Labour Party

- the changing character of CONSERVATIVISM

in Modern Britain

The Loss of Britain :

by 1918 Britain had an army of over 5 million men
750 000 had died
2 000 000 seriously wounded

The Representation of the People Act 1918 was an Act of

Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in the United
Kingdom
The terms of the act were:
All adult males gain the vote, as long as they are 21 years old
or over and are are resident in the constituency
Women over 30 years old receive the vote but they have to be
either a member or married to a member of the Local
Government Register
Some seats redistributed to industrial towns
Elections to be held on a decided day each year
The size of the electorate tripled from the 7.7 million who
had been entitled to in 1912 to 21.4 million by the end of
1918.

The Coupon election in 1918 led to the Coalition Government

of the 478 seats held by the Coalition no less than 335 were
held by the Conservatives
The election inaugurated nearly twenty years of Conservative
hegemony

Andrew Bonar Law (known as Bonar; 16 September 1858 30

October 1923) was a British Conservative Party statesman and
Prime Minister.

The Coupon election in 1918 led to the Coalition Government

of the 478 seats held by the Coalition no less than 335 were
held by the Conservatives
The election inaugurated nearly twenty years of Conservative
hegemony

Andrew Bonar Law (known as Bonar; 16 September 1858 30

October 1923) was a British Conservative Party statesman and
Prime Minister.

First Labour government: January

November 1924
R. Macdonald made it clear that his main priority was
to undo the damage which he believed had been
caused by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, by settling the
reparations issue and coming to terms with Germany
-Housing (Financial Provisions) Act 1924 was an Act of
Parliament in the United Kingdom. The act increased
government subsidies to be paid to local authorities to
build housing for rent for low paid workers from 6 to 9.

- A major triumph for MacDonald was the conference held

in London in JulyAugust 1924 to deal with the
implementation of the Dawes Plan

-tariff reform
To cover the costs of the Second Boer War, Lord Salisbury's suggested
introducing import taxes or tariffs on foreign metal, flour and grain coming
into Britain.

- Irish Home Rule

The Government of Ireland Act 1920 was the Act of the Parliament of the
United Kingdom which partitioned Ireland. it is also known as
the Fourth Home Rule Bill
The Act was intended to establish separate Home Rule institutions within
two new subdivisions of Ireland: the six north-eastern counties were to form
"Northern Ireland", while the larger part of the country was to form
"Southern Ireland". Both areas of Ireland were to continue as a part of the
United Kingdom, and provision was made for their future unification under
common Home Rule institutions.

In an agreement of August 1924, the main points of The Dawes

Plan were:
The Ruhr area was to be evacuated by Allied occupation troops.
Reparation payments would begin at one billion marks the first year,
increasing to two and a half billion marks annually after five years"
(Merrill 93)
The Reichsbank would be reorganized under Allied supervision.
The sources for the reparation money would include transportation,
excise, and custom taxes.
The Dawes Plan did rely on money given to Germany by the US.
The German economic state was one in which careful footing was
required, and the Dawes plan was of the nature that only with the
unrelated help of loans from the US could it succeed.
The plan was accepted by Germany and the Triple Entente and went
into effect in September 1924. Although German business
rebounded and reparation payments were made promptly, it became
obvious that Germany could not continue those huge annual
payments for long. As a result, the Young Plan was substituted in
1929.

Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (3 August 1867

14 December 1947) was a British Conservative politician, who
dominated the government in his country between the two world
wars. Three times Prime Minister, he is the only one to serve under
three different monarchs (George V, Edward VIII and George VI).

we stood for stable government and for peace in

the country between all classes of the community

-in February 1924 that negotiations would begin

to negotiate a treaty with the Soviet Union

Upon Bonar Law's resignation in May 1923, Baldwin became Prime

Minister and Conservative Party leader. He called an an Election
on the issue of tariffs and lost the Conservatives' majority, after
which Ramsay MacDonald formed a minority Labour
government.
James Ramsay MacDonald, (12 October 1866 9 November
1937) was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime
Minister, leading a minority government for two terms.

A settlement of relations between the two countries will assist in

the revolutionizing of the international and British proletariat not
less than a successful rising in any of the working districts of
England, as the establishment of close contact between the British
and Russian proletariat, the exchange of delegations and workers,
etc. will make it possible for us to extend and develop the
propaganda of ideas of Leninism in England and the Colonies
The damning document was published in the conservative
British Daily Mail newspaper four days before the election.
The Zinoviev letter (On 25 October 1924 )

After winning the 1924 General Election Baldwin formed his second
government,

Votes summary
Popular vote
Conservative 46.79%
Labour 30.68%
Liberal 17.78%
Constitutionalist 1.17%
Others 3.58%

Seats summary
Parliamentary seats
Conservative 66.99%
Labour 24.55%
Liberal 6.5%
Constitutionalist 1.14%
Independent 0.49%
Others 0.81%

The Wall Street Crash heralded the global Great Depression and
Britain was particularly badly hit. The government was trying to
achieve several different, contradictory objectives:
trying to maintain Britain's economic position by maintaining the
pound on the gold standard,
balancing the budget,
and providing assistance and relief to tackle unemployment.

Thank You for your Attention

the General Strike in 1926

the 1927 Trades Disputes Act
Second Labour government: June 1929 August 1931

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic

depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the
Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it
started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s.

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 (October 1929),, was the most
devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States,
taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout.
The crash signaled the beginning of the 12-year Great Depression
that affected all Western industrialized countries and that did not
end in the United States until the onset of American mobilization for
World War II at the end of 1941.