CULTURA-T7.

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Anónimo

Cultura de las Islas Británicas

2º Grado en Estudios Ingleses

Facultad de Filosofía y Letras

Universidad de Oviedo

Reservados todos los derechos.

No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad.
 Tema 7. World wars, welfare, and cultural revolutions

No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad.
1. The 20th century

The Edwardian period and pre-war tensions

- 1901 – Death of Victoria; accession of Edward VII
- 1903 – The Suffragettes start advocating direct action to obtain votes for women
- 1906 – Liberals win general election (January); Labour Party definitely formed
- 1909 – Lloyd George's budget rejected by Lords; Union of South Africa Act
- Louis Blériot’s flight across the English Channel in 37 minutes
- 1910 – Death of Edward VII; accession of George V
- Liberal government re-elected

Reservados todos los derechos.

- 1911 – Parliament Act curtails the power of the House of Lords to veto bills
- Lloyd George's National Insurance Act lays the foundations of the Welfare State
- 1911-12 – Railway, mining, and coal strikes
- 1912 – Anglo-German navy talks fail

World War I and the Inter-War period

- 1914 – The British Empire enters World War I
- 1916 – Easter rising in Dublin; Battle of the Somme; Battle of Jutland;
- Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister
- 1918 – Representation of the People Act enfranchised women aged 30 and over; a second
Act in 1928 will reduce the age to 21, the same as for men;
- End of First World War (November)
- 1919 – Tanks are deployed in Glasgow to prevent riots in Red Clydeside massive rally
- 1921 – Miners seek support of dockers' and railwaymen's unions in major strike;
- Lloyd George concludes treaty with republican Sinn Fein: Partition of Ireland
- 1922 – The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) comes into existence on the radio
- 1922-23 – Irish Civil War
- 1924 – (January-November) Ramsay MacDonald leads a brief first Labour government;
- 1926 – General Strike in Britain (3-12 May)
- 1929 – General election: MacDonald leads second Labour government; Wall Street Crash
- 1931 – Financial crisis; MacDonald resigns, to head the National Government coalition
- 1932 – Ottawa Conference institutes protective tariffs for imperial trade
- 1936 – Death of King George V; abdication of Edward VIII: George VI becomes king;
- Battle of Cable St in East London against Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists
- 1937 – Ireland adopts a constitution in which it becomes effectively a republic,
- It was confirmed by the Republic of Ireland Act in 1949., when Eire also left the
Commonwealth.
- 1938 – Conservative PM Chamberlain meets Adolf Hitler trying to appease him

The Second World War and the post-war

- 1939 – British guarantee to Poland; British Empire declares war on Germany
- 1940 – Churchill succeeds Chamberlain as Prime Minister;

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 - withdrawal of British troops from Dunkirk; Battle of Britain
- 1941 – Luftwaffe 'blitz' on many British cities; USSR and USA enter the war
- 1944 – D-day invasion of France; R. A. Butler's Education Act
- 1945 – End of war in Europe (8 May) and in far East (15 August);
- general election: massive Labour victory: PM Clement Attlee brings radical social
programme
- 1946 – Churchill’s “Iron Curtain speech” delivered in Missouri: the Cold War
- 1947 – Coal and other industries nationalized.

No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad.
- Transfer of power to independent India, Pakistan, and Burma
- 1948 – National Health Service is launched. Withdrawal from Palestine
- The Empire Windrush brings nearly 500 West Indian immigrants to Britain.
- The USA launch the Marshal Aid Programme to help European economies
- 1949 – NATO (North Atlantic Organization) founded.
- Devaluation of the pound
- 1950 – General election: Labour retains power by narrow majority;.
- War in Korea resulting from the Cold War, over 80.000 Britons take part

The Age of Affluence and decolonization

- 1951 – Festival of Britain; Labour defeated at general election: Churchill re-elected.

Reservados todos los derechos.

- Affluent society reaches Britain
- 1952 – Death of King George VI; Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed
- 1956 – Anglo-French invasion of Suez, followed by withdrawal
- 1960 – “Wind of change” speech given by Conservative PM Harold MacMillan in South
African Parliament signals decolonization of Africa
- 1963 – French veto Britain's application to join the European Common Market
- 1965 – Unilateral declaration of independence by Rhodesia, later renamed Zimbabwe
- 1966 – General election: Labour led by Harold Wilson wins with larger majority than 2 years
before
- The American magazine Time defines “Swinging London”
- The Sexual Offences Act legalizes consensual homosexual relations

Crisis, strikes and the Troubles

- 1968 – Restriction of Commonwealth immigration;
- The Troubles begin in Northern Ireland
- 1970 – General election: Conservatives under Edward Heath returned to office
- 1972 – National miners' strike; Bloody Sunday: British army shoot demonstrators in Derry
and kill14; Stormont government suspended in Northern Ireland;
- The Republic of Ireland joins the European Common Market (83% vote “yes”)
- 1973 – Britain enters the European Common Market
- 1975 – Popular referendum confirms British membership of the Common Market
- 1976 – Economic crisis: Britain obtains help from the International Monetary Fund.
Beginning of punk culture
- 1978 – “Winter of Discontent” amongst the trade unions
- 1979 – Devolution referendums fail to win assemblies in Wales and Scotland;
- General election: Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher

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 Thatcherism
- 1980 – Britain becomes self-sufficient in North Sea oil
- 1981 – Ten Irish republicans die on hunger strike in Maze prison;
- AIDS epidemic starts in London
- 1982 – Britain defeats Argentina in war over the Falkland Islands
- 1983 – General election: Thatcher's Conservatives returned with massive majority;
- Cruise missiles installed
- 1984 – National miners' strike, which ends after a year

No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad.
- 1989 – Poll tax introduced first in Scotland
- 1994 – IRA declares ceasefire in Northern Ireland
- Ordination of women as priests in the Church of England
- 1996 – Prince Charles and Princess Diana divorce
- The economy of the Republic of Ireland begins an economic expansion referred to as “The
Celtic Tiger” (An Tíogar Ceilteach) (until 2008)

End of the millennium

- 1997 – Labour wins general election with majority of 179;
- Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister;
- death of Princess Diana in car crash in Paris;

Reservados todos los derechos.

- Scotland and Wales vote in devolution in referendums;
- Britain withdraws from Hong Kong
- American Vanity Fair magazine publishes an issue on ‘Cool Britannia’, celebrating
British fashion, Britpop, etc.
- 1998 – Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland;
- Omagh bombing by dissident “Real IRA” kills 29 civilians but fails in its attempt to
break the peace
- 1999 – Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) begins, without Britain;
- first elections for Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly;
- hereditary peers in the House of Lords abolished
- 2000 –Millenium Dome set up for New Year celebration; Tate Modern art gallery opens
- In March 1997, the famous American Vanity Fair magazine, published a special edition on
‘Cool Britannia’ with a rock-star and his wife [Gallagher of Oasis and Patsy KensitNoel ] on the
cover, and the title reading ~ ‘London Swings! Again!’. It featured articles on notable people
like fashion-designer Alexander McQueen and sculptor Damien Hirst.
https://vlc-uk.tumblr.com/post/183462677788/cool-britannia

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 2. The Edwardian period and the years before the Great War 1901-1914

No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad.
Was the reign of Edward VII (1901-10) the last age of Victorian tranquility?
- Only in comparison with even greater turmoil later on.
- Britain couldn’t fall behind in the armament race, or afford free trade any longer …

What became of Pax Britannica?

- Britain could no longer maintain her isolation
- The Boer Wars showed the dark side of imperialism: cruel, expensive, uncoordinated
- The British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.) for the Continent and even the North Sea fleet were
insufficient compared to Germany

The rise of British Socialism

Reservados todos los derechos.

- Industry had begun to suffer periodic slumps
- Extreme poverty continued to exist in slums
- Intellectuals like George B. Shaw made socialism popular in Fabian tracts
- Socialist Sunday schools were set up
- Committed reformers like Beatrice and Sydney Webb, who on their honeymoon set off to
examine Trade Union records (in Glasgow and Dublin), local government and poor law,
making a solid survey on which Labour politics would be founded

The Parliamentary struggle for reform

- New Liberal governments (under PM Herbert Asquith, with D. Lloyd George as Chancellor of
the Exchequer) passed key social reforms, such as Old Age Pensions (1908) and a National
Insurance Bill (1911), but met fierce resistance when trying to pass a ‘super-tax’ for the very
rich, an effective tax on land, and Home Rule for Ireland

Gender
- The view of women was greatly transformed. Victorianism consolidated the idea of the
middle-class woman dedicated to attending the husband, supervising the servants,
entertaining guests and playing the piano. As working-class women became housewives,
they tended to imitate those attitudes. The Suffragettes' campaigns in the Edwardian period
and before the Great War did a little to raise consciousness, but they were often regarded as
'eccentrics' until women were given the 'right to serve' their country at war.
- Nevertheless society would continue to consider women as mothers and housewives, and to
discriminate against them in the labour markets.

Crises of every sort exploded in the first years of George V’s reign
- Quarrels in Parliament: the House of Lord (often supported by Unionists) stopped every
reform until their power of veto was restricted (1911)
- Tensions in Ulster: Unionists shipping armament
- Large strikes in key sectors (1911-12): railwaymen, miners, dockers …, because wages hadn’t
risen since 1900, while prices soared
- The Suffragettes broke windows, chained themselves to railways, burned down schools,
slashed priceless pictures in art galleries …

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 - Emily Davison gets killed as she throws herself under the King’s horse at the Empson Derby, 4
June 1913.

Outbreak of the Great War

- The Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot dead by a Serbian terrorist in Sarajevo
(Bosnia)
- Austria, sure of German support, declared war on Serbia
- Serbia, sure of Russian support, accepted the war

No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad.
- Russia mobilised troops towards Serbia
- Germany declared war on Russia and Russia’s ally, France
- As German troops invaded Belgium, Britain demanded their withdrawal, Germany ignored
this,
- and Britain had to enter the war that would deeply transform its society and world position

Reservados todos los derechos.

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