Britain 1914-29 - Britain and WWI
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- Created by: ellie garrett
- Created on: 08-01-13 19:30
WWI
- Lions sacrificed by Donkeys - Sassoon and Wilfred Owen,
- WWI = 2 parallel European wars - West & East.
- world war because it involved colonial empires of Europe & US entered war in 1917.
- Revolutionary changes - overthrow of Imperial German, Austria-Hungarian, Tsarist Russian & Ottoman Turkey, and to the creation of many new national States.
- 1st Communist State -Soviet Russia.
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Political Impact - The Liberal Party
- War produced tensions in party - undermined traditional Libs beliefs
- 'shell shortage' May 1915 - forced Libs into >er extension of State power in order to produce level of munitions needed
- Asquith found it hard to give up principles such as laissezfaire
- Lloyd George - M of M 1915 - realised that state must take extensive over the economy if the war was to be won.
- 1915 - gave up ruling alone - formed war coalition inc. Cons & Labs
- Asquith retained unity of Liberals - replaced by Lloyd George
- Splits in party widened - party split during Maurice Debate 1918
- LG continued coalition > end of the war - allowed Cons revival
- Labs replaced Libs as reform party
- Libs never recovered - rapid decline after war
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Political Impact - Conservative Party
- politically weak at beginning of war - gained political momentum
- 1914 - Cons opposition of Libs had grew particularly intense over
- War got them out of position of supporting armed rebellion in Ulster - directed their energies to supporting the war effort
- 1915 - joined war coalition.- revived - found it easier to fit in than Libs - emphasis on patriotism, militarism and closeness to empire.
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Political Impact - The Labour Party
- almost split in over whether to support war - believed in international cooperation of WC - opposed to war
- Ramsay MacDonald refused to compromise & support war - criticised in press.
- Most Labs movement did support the war
- 1916 - Arthur Henderson - first Lab politician to be given a place in the cabinet.
- cooperation of the trade unions vital to war effort.
- TU membership X2 during & after war - 8 million.
- widening of the franchise - all men - gave Labour prospect of >support from WC
- war encouraged ideas of equality everyone had suffered and contributed to war effort.
- constitution 1918 committed itself to 'socialist' ideas.
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Political Impact - The Irish Nationalist Party
- war was disaster - Home Rule 'on hold'
- 1916-1918 overtaken by Sinn Fein party - wanted complete independence
- 1918 general election INs defeated by Sinn Fein 73 out of 108 Irish seats.
- Some Sinn Fein members took part in the republican rising in Easter Rising 1916
- violent suppression by British troops - moderate Irish voters switched to Sum Fein. From
- 1919 - Irish Republican Army fought British.
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The 'coupon election' of 1918
- End of war - rivalry between Asquith & LG dominated politics.
- LG popular in country, but Libs funds & organisation in constituencies under Asquith's control.
- Lloyd George fought election with Conservatives - promised if elected he would make peacetime coalition
- Those in coalition given certificate signed by LG - 'coupon'.
- Voters had to choose between two Liberal parties.
- Representation of the People Act passed - extending vote to a wide section of socieity
- 'coupon' Liberals won 133
- Asquith's Libs only 28 - Asquith lost seat
- Labour Party gained 63 - 2.4 mil votes in total
- Conservatives won - 333 seats - nationalistic mood
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State Intervention
- State influence > during war - govt gained powers - conscript men; censoring material believed could enemy; rationing food & to fixing prices,wages, profits and rents.
- <1914, Britain did not conscript men - 'Voluntarism' remained basis until 1916.
- <1914 the British Army only 250,000 men - 1914-1916 - 1mil volunteered- could not supply enough recruits
- Asquith resisted but Military Service Act brought - single men 18-41.
- Casualties on Sornme 1916 - Military Service Act extended to married men.
- 1918 - Russia pulled out & Germany about to switch millions of soldiers to Western
- Front - extended to 50 - limted freedom of individual
- Men refusing to join up = prison, & refusing to fight court marshalled and shot
- necessary for cooperation of the trade unions unsure whther they would fight 'capitalist war' - anti-war demonstrations 1914 - almost all workers supported the war effort.
- Lloyd George made dilution agreements TUs expected to work with employers
- & avoid strikes.
- TUs demanded controls & exemption of highly-skilled workers from conscription.
- 1915 - major strike on Clydeside & South Wales 1917.
- number of working days lost through strikes < from 10 mill 1913 to <3 million 1916
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Economy
- moving away from 'laissez-faire'.
- 1918 - State running whole economy.- had to support > in production of weapons
- 2 mill shells produced <1915 - 1918 - > to 187 mill & > from 270 1914 to 120,870 1918.
- Had to supply war materials to allies - demands for transport, > protect + provision of food & coal - >ed prices & shortages of materials and workers 1914.
- Private industry could not cope - State commandeered stocks of vital war materials & fixing prices
- failure of Neuve Chapelle offensive 1915 - 1st major assault by against Germans in West, a failure - blamed on a shortage of shells.
- Lloyd George - extended (DORA) & campaigned for a M of M to oversee war materials - appointed as head
- set up central purchasing system for buying war materials, organised science to help war effort & encouraged development of new weapons such as mortars
- Encouraged factories to convert to war production & built national factories - Leeds employed 16,000 & produced 25 mill shells p.a.
- Controlled railways, iocks and coal mines
- 1918 - managed 250 factories, supervised 20,000 & employed 4 mil - women encouraged to work
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Economy cont'd
- State introduced British Summer Time & reduced strength of alcohol drinks
- German U-boats sinking merchant ships - Dept of Food Production - subsidised farmers to plough up wasteland, allocated fertilisers, supplied POWs to work land
- Spending from £200 mill 1913 to £2,608 mill 1918 - borrowed money from own people & neutral countries - national debt >ed by 1,200 %
- Increase taxation - income tax extended 1915
- traditional export markets were blocked off, hurting profits
- Bought war material from US suppliers through J. P. Morgan - loan of $5,000 mill 1915
- war cost $5 mill p/d, - $2 million from US
- 1916 - report to King George V warned B faced bankruptcy - Asquith replaced by LG
- 'We are going to lose this war' - LG
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Social change - Classes
- WC:
- full employment and created
- controls on rents & prices of essential commodities.
- % of population in poverty
- M + UC
- Income tax rose & profits limited
- > death rate of junior officers
- > taxes on land - lestates had - 25% land holdings sold 1917-21.
- war >ed social mobility - class divisions were not broken
- WC girls worked in munitions, MC girls nursing or admin
- armed forces - divisions between officers & volunteers .
- death toll - common bond of suffering and loss
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Social change - Impact on beliefs and attitudes
- Education was disrupted
- 300,000 children lost their fathers
- war gave churches >er public role - chaplains needed in forces
- challenge to the Christian denominations - slaughter on Western Front
- Quakers efused to fight - 'conchies' - pacifists prisoned.
- Church attendance rose - < since 1850s
- Rowntree's 1935 survey in York - attendance <ed 35% 1901 to 18% 1935
- war weakened assumptions of superiority of European values & civilisation - strengthened ideas of anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism.
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Working women
- 6 mill men in armed forces - 1 million women entered workforce - 250,000 moved to wartime jobs
- 1918, women = 1/3 of workforce
- 1918 - 80% of workforce in shell factories was female.
- transport - >ed 18,000 1914 to 117,000 1918.
- banking and finance - >ed 600%
- 1000s women filled labour shortage in agriculture.
- women workers in shipbuilding and engineering.
- MC - young women replaced men in admin jobs and entered nursing
- Served in armed forces- auxiliary services
- Many killed or injured in shell,factory explosions - 100> from diseases contracted
- long hours and night shift - disrupted family life
- better paid than domestic service
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Working women
- efforts of women of vital importance to success of war effort
- contribution challenged Victorian view of women
- Many women became the main breadwinner.
- Many MC women often experienced some financial independence
- 1919 -Sex Disqualification Act opened up Civil Service, local government and jury service to women.
- Changes in women's fashions by the end of the war - shorter skirts & hairstyle
- did not always receive the same pay as men
- > in women workers was seen as transitory rather than permanent social change
- 1918 - many women returned to pre-war jobs or homes.
- 1921 - %age of women in workforce same as 1911.
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Women's suffrage before 1914
- 1897 - National Union of Women's Suffrage (Suffragists) founded Millicent Fawcett.
- Believed in non-violent methods - petitions to parliament, pamphlets
- and meetings.
- Women's Social and Political Union ('Suffragettes') formed in Manchester 1903 by Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst & daughters - believed in direct action - demonstrations, posters and violence
- chained themselves to railings & hunger strikes when arrested - forced feeding 1909.
- In 1910-11, Co~ciliation Bill - gave some women the vote.
- activity suspended Asquith did not deliver promises.
- 1912-14 campiagns > extreme - > hunger strikes - 'Cat and Mouse Act' 1913
- Burned down buildings, inc. LG's house.
- I1913 - Emily Davison committed suicide at Epsom racecourse.
- 1914 - NUWSS had 50,000 members
- WSPU smaller but made national impact.
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Votes for Women
- suffrage campaign convinced policians & press that existing situation unfair
- violence of suffragettes - > opposition
- suffragette campaign ended 1914 fully supported the war.
- suffrage campaigns suspended in wartime as woman
- gave vote to women 30> married to householder
- women not given vote on equal terms untill 1928
- Pre-war expansion of female employment & suffragist + suffragette campaigns played part in gaining vote
- war may have delayed the granting of votes for women.
- Lib and Lab feared property-based franchise for women would benefit Cons - offset 1918 - extended vote to all men.
- 1918 Act didnt bring transformation of politics.
- Most women in munitions factories too young to receuive vote
- Few women selected as parliamentary candidates & < elected as MPs.
- Most women voters > conservative & moderate than men
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