Great Britain in The Twentieth Century - TOPIC 2 - 3 (Without The Paris Peace Conference)

GREAT BRITAIN IN THE 20TH CENTURY (BA HISTORY SURVEY)
Institute of English and American Studies, Department of English

Zoltán Cora HANDOUTS
TOPIC 2: The Great War and Britain (1914–1918)
TOPIC 3: The repercussions of the First World War on Britain
For the military history of the war: see T. Heyck, 109–117. (course reader)
GREAT BRITAIN AND THE CONSEQUENCES
United political powers – except for pacifists (NO ELECTIONS UNTIL PEACE)
Anti-war movement: pacifists; UDC (Union of Democratic Control – negotiations for

peace, spread of democracy; more just international affairs); No-Conscription
Fellowship
Attacks by the press (John French: lack of ammunition, idiotism; Gallipoli)
Frustration:
 Zeppelin bombings: Dec 1914; April 1915: London
 long war, no real successes (for either side); feeling of hopelessness
 many victims: 1500 casualties / day for 4,5 years
 no family left untouched (1 million dead, 1,5 million wounded or permanently
maimed)
 increasing paranoia and anti-German sentiment (e.g. physical insults on
English citizens with German names)
Political consequences:
Asquith (1908-1916): moderate Liberal; mediator rather than a leader, not very
decisive
War Council: Sir Herbert Kitchener (Secretary of War), Winston Churchill (First Lord
of Admiralty), D. Lloyd George (Min. of Ammunitions), Lord Curzon (Leader of the
House of Lords); H. H. Asquith PM; CONCENTRATION OF POWER: highly reflexive
political system
Asquith: to solidify his power, in May 1915 he created a great coalition (CON Bonar
Law, LAB, Arthur Henderson) – Ministry of Ammunitions: David Lloyd George (earlier
Chancellor of Exchequer) – privatized company with huge profits, enormous business
(240 000 machine guns produced by Nov 1918); removal of Churchill after Gallipoli
(April, 1915)
1
Problems:
1)
Irish rebellion: 1916 – England’s misfortune is Ireland’s opportunity: Irish Republican
Brotherhood to contact Berlin – military and financial help to start a war against the
English
Easter Rebellion in Dublin: very badly organised, no real support arrived in time –
Irish Declaration of Independence (REPUBLIC). April 1916: crushed in 4 days –
leaders executed except a few, including Eamon De Valera because he had
American citizenship as well.
Critique: Asquith treated the Irish very brutally
2)
Somme offensive: very unfortunate – attacks on Asquith (Bonar Law, LG: Min. of
Defence since June 1916, after solidifying his influence in ammunition business)
LG wanted Asquith to pass power to a more narrow war committee led by LG, mostly
supported by conservatives – but: neither Curzon, nor Austen Chamberlain acceded
to it, both LG and Asquith resigned. Asquith hoped that the king, George V, would
assign him as PM, but the king chose the more persuasive LG (Dec 7, 1916) –
Asquith resigned from politics (his son, Raymond, also died in the war).
War Cabinet by LG (1916-1918): (Balfour: For. Sec.; B. Law: Ch. of Exch.; Curzon,
Milner, Henderson, LG): strong conservative support for a strengthened war effort.
Split of the Liberal Party: Asquithian Liberals regarded this alliance with the
conservative as a treason and left DLG (100 Liberal MPs split), but it created a space
and opportunity for the Labour on the long run.
DLG (PM 1916-1922): the “Welsh Wizard”: dynamism, able politician, pragmatist; an
excellent tactician; businessman
A. J. P. Taylor: DLG was the British Napoleon, with all of Napoleon’s merits and
frailties.
2
DLG: highest concentration in his hands!!! No real friends, only temporary allies, no
solid party affiliation; but: gaining huge wealth during PM-ship; a real chameleon;
(korabeli Gyurcsány).
Lord Beaverbrook on DLG: “He did not seem to care which way he travelled
providing he was in the driver’s seat”
Spring 1917: Imperial War Cabinet – include the representatives of the dominions
(General Smuts from South Africa !)
“garden city” PM: DLG as the key figure – had his meetings in the garden of Downing
Street 10.
Sept 1917: Henderson out of the cabinet due to the internationalist turn in
internationalist communist movement
February 1918: Information Ministry – Max Aitken (Canadian millionaire) in 1917 he

became Lord Beaverbrook – increase morale and anti-German propaganda
March 1918: extension of conscription to Ireland – Irish Catholic MPs left

Westminster and joined the Sinn Fein (nationalist party in Ireland)
May 1918: final liberal split: Frederick-case: Sir Frederick Maurice, the head of the
military intelligence, accused LG that he willingly refused Douglas Haig to use the
reserve forces during the Flandrian offensive. Asquithian Liberals also moved to
attack LG. Though LG retained help from Haig, he cunningly replied that he did so on
the council of Maurice’s data and information...
Economic consequences:
 rise in taxes (MacKenna, new Chancellor of Exchequer) – income tax by 30%,
33% on luxury products, 50% extra tax on business profit
 protective tariffs: off the gold standard temporarily
 nationalisations: railways, shipping (esp. trade shipping), mining
 regulation of prices; “national thrift”
3
 cooperation of businessmen and governmental leaders: guaranteed profit

(“interlocking directorates”: elite power, decision competences – lehet a
zavarosban halászni)
 1914-1915: Defence of Realms Acts (DORA): regulation and centralisation;
increase in governmental authority; censorship; increase of the bureaucracy of
the state; introduction of ID cards, registration of residency; passport, etc.
 war time “collectivist” state expansion (state socialist elements – Fabian roots)
 Protectionism: NO LAISSEZ-FAIRE, LAISSEZ-PASSER – NO FREE TRADE
– disrupted world market – damaged British foreign trade; almost 100% of the
British trading fleet was destroyed by the War – traditional British industries
and trade in ruins
 Growing indebtedness – quick inflation (growing national expenditures and
bottleneck of workforce – need more money to finance the war and for the
citizens: increase in taxes implies increase in prices that in turn necessitates
the increase in wages – increase in savings in families due to the lack of
surplus consumption –
 Loans: private British loaners (banks, companies) + big brother: USA –
altogether 850 million pounds to the USA
 7.8 billion pounds altogether expenditures (GDP multiplied!)
 traditional industries (staple industries) declined
 Jan 1918: rationing of the food (jegyrendszer, kuponrendszer)
 rows before shops, lack of supplies and goods, slower and more crammed
railway traffic and transport
 BUT: GAINS also
 no unemployment, or rather underemployment in certain sectors
 new industries improving: automobile, aircrafts, electronics, chemical
industries
 technological innovations: metallurgy, petrochemicals
 monopolies, cartels, trusts in the industry
 thrust to decolonization (withdrawal of forces from the colonies)
Social consequences:
 Compulsory conscription: compulsory conscription from Jan 1916: 18-41 ages
unmarried (from May: married as well), except for those who were working in
“protected jobs” (mines, arsenals, etc.)
4
 DILUTION: labour market transformation – conscriptions – army and

heightened production – underemployment – growing labour force demand –
quickly growing female employment: 800 000 women in factories, 200 000 in
offices, and countless women as nurses or bus or tram drivers (it did more
good to female emancipation than Mrs. Pankhurst’s lousy feminist street
campaigns) – women and unskilled male workers to work in skilled male jobs
 dilution of beer and limitation of pubs’ opening times (LG: “England has three
enemies: Germany, Austria, and the alcohol. I think the latter is the most
dangerous.”)
 labourers: 25% increase in the standard of living (NOT SALARY)
 women’s status: growing importance on the labour market, work in male jobs,
emancipation, personal freedom, more free time activities and more money to
spend; a change of lifestyle began to unfold; “OFFICE GIRLS”
 Though Victorian morals lived on, men increasingly admitted women’s rights
 J. L. Garvin (conservative editor of the Observer, 1916): “Time was when I
thought that men alone maintained the State. Now I know that men alone
could never have maintained it, and that henceforth the modern State must be
dependent on men and women alike for the progressive strength and vitality of
its whole organisation.” (Heyck, 120. p.)
 February 1918: Fourth Reform Act: extension of voting right to propertied
women over 30 years, and to men over 21 years (1832, 1867, 1884)
 growing trade union membership
 women’s improving chances in the labour market and gaining political rights
 Dec 1919 Sex Disqualification Act: opened civil service to women (Lady Astor
as the first woman MP in 1919)
 landed class: lost property and income to a minor extent
 middle class: suffering from high taxes and rising prices; and devastating
losses in the ranks due to casualties
 working class: full employment + high wages + reduction in alcohol
consumption + improved nutrition + growing life expectancy and standard of
living
 1 million dead, 1,5 million wounded or permanently maimed
 almost 100% destruction of the trade fleet
 housing shortage(800 000 – partly destroyed (but only to a minimal extent),
and mostly lacked as the repercussion of the lack of housing between 1914
and 1918
5
 3 days of celebration after the German truce
A.J.P. Taylor (Perry, 689–690.): lays stress on the negative effects of the war: doubt,
irrationality, disintegration, demoralization and disappointment – generations and civil
populace manipulated by war and propaganda
“The First World War was difficult to fit into the picture of a rational civilisation
advancing by ordered stages. The civilised men of the twentieth century had outdone
in savagery the barbarians of all the preceding ages, and their civilized virtues –
organisation, mechanical skill, self-sacrifice – had made war’s savagery all the more
terrible. Modern man had developed powers which were not fit to use. European
civilisation had been weighed in the balance and found wanting.”

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GREAT BRITAIN IN THE 20TH CENTURY (BA HISTORY SURVEY)

Institute of English and American Studies, Department of English

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE CONSEQUENCES

Anti-war movement: pacifists; UDC (Union of Democratic Control – negotiations for

Attacks by the press (John French: lack of ammunition, idiotism; Gallipoli)

Critique: Asquith treated the Irish very brutally

February 1918: Information Ministry – Max Aitken (Canadian millionaire) in 1917 he

March 1918: extension of conscription to Ireland – Irish Catholic MPs left

 cooperation of businessmen and governmental leaders: guaranteed profit

 DILUTION: labour market transformation – conscriptions – army and

 3 days of celebration after the German truce

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