British history - the 19th and 20th century

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The twentieth century:

In 1901, Queen Victoria died at the age of 81 years. Her eldest son Edward VII became the new king of the United Kingdom. His reign took only 9 years because in 1910 he also died. The new King was his second eldest son George V. His reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, and the Indian independence movement, which radically changed a lot.

Also around the beginning of the twentieth century after some time Britain stopped being the world's richest country. May a failure of confidence in gradual reforms was the reason.

The first 20 years were a period of extremism in Britain. Women fought for the right to vote and were ready to die for their beliefs. In 1918, all their fights finally paid off when women got the right to vote. So this time changed a lot even for the rights of women living nowadays. Also the urban working class was fed up with their lives because the bad living and working conditions nearly destroyed them. Finally, they began to make their voice heard.

In 1914, Great Britain declared war on Germany and won. The price that Britain paid for this war wasn't worth this won because Britain lost a lot of money. This war between Germany and Great Britain is also called “The Great War”.

In 1919, Britain became less of an empire but more of a confederation (Bund). Because of the Treaty of Versailles, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa were no longer part of the British Empire and were represented separately.

In 1926, the urban working class was powerful enough to hold a General Strike. When the owners of the factories wanted them to work longer for less money, the workers had enough and decided to strike. They thought they were strong enough to change something. They stayed off work but after 9 days they continued to work for more hours and less money because they did not want to be unemployed. Afterwards the government passed a law, which banned strikes.

In 1939, Britain declared again together with France war on Germany. During this war Britain noticed that they were no longer able to act unilaterally because of the dismantling of the empire, so they worked together with France and America. After the 2nd World War, Britain was very poor. Lots of cities were destroyed and they needed reconstruction. Britain was one of the winners of the 2nd World War but it also lost India some time after the war.

The history of Northern Ireland:

By the beginning of the twentieth century most of Ireland's population wanted an internal self-government or complete independence from Britain. Ireland was a part of Britain during the 19th and half of the 20th century.

Liberal governments in Britain often tried to make this idea come true but there was a problem with the Protestants living in Ireland. They were against the idea of living in a country dominated by Catholics.

So in 1920, the British government decided to separate the country into the Catholic south and the Protestant six counties. Actually in Ireland Catholics were the majority but for this counties 65%, so the majority, was Protestant.

But this move from Britain wasn't enough for the south. They wanted complete independence from Britain. This wish was followed by a war with the outcome that in 1922, the south become independent from Britain.

In 1949, Ireland became a republic. This act was signed into law in 1948 but came into force in 1949.

Thank you for your attention!

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