A Detail on the British Empire Between the Great Wars, from 1918 to 1939 Essay Example

state with Eamon de Valera as its leader.

The British government refused to recognize this state, and years of guerrilla warfare ensued in which hundreds of people were killed. In 1922, both parties signed a bill recognizing an Irish free state, part of the British Commonwealth with a status identical to that of Canada, for example. Northern Ireland, being predominantly protestant, remained in the hands of the British. This Bill, however, was not accepted by all revolutionaries, and conflict carried on throughout the century and up until the early years of the next.The Economic DeclineImmediately after the conclusion of the War, Britain noticed a slight boom in its economy: soldiers returning from war found jobs, stimulating growth, industry grew to incorporate needs people could not fulfill in the War years, such as luxury goods, and there was a general feeling of contentment among the populace.

However, soon the economy started to go into a decline again, a decline that would not stop until the rearmament before World War II.The huge numbers of soldiers returning from the War caused a great level of unemployment among the populace, increasing social and civil unrest, driving down wages, and pushing up prices. Labor Unions took great measures to protect their members through measures such as strikes: between 1919 and 1920 there were close to 2000 different strikes all around the country. By 1921, it is estimated that as much as one fourth of the British workforce was unemployed, putting gargantuan stress on the social welfare system. In fact, from 1920 up until the Second World War, many people only had a few months' work in 19 years.

The main difficulties

were felt in Britain's old industries, such as steel, textiles, shipbuilding, farming, and especially coal. Many of Britain's industrial factories and machines were getting old, and many other countries could supply identical goods for a fraction of Britain's price. In addition, during the war exports had not been sustained, and so Britain's customers had had to turn to other sources for their goods, not all of them returned to Britain at peace time. To make matters worse, Britain returned to the Gold Standard in 1925, making its currency extremely stable and attractive to buyers.

This in turn drove up the Pound's exchange rate, augmenting the already-high price of exports: Britain's customers could no longer afford the high price of British produced goods, and turned to other suppliers for their needs: they could get cheaper coal from Eastern Europe, cheaper steel from Germany, Sweden or the United States, cheaper textiles from the Far East, cheaper ships from Norway or Japan, and cheaper corn from Canada or the USA. Thus it was that Britain really fell into a decline in terms of trade, and consequently in terms of the general economy.Limited Social ChangeBefore the First World War, the Liberal government of Lloyd George had made a start on a welfare state. Many hoped that this state of affaires would continue, and indeed promises were made to tackle for example the problem of bad housing, this was exemplified by Lloyd George saying in 1918 that Britain would have to be, for the soldiers returning from the war, "a country fit for heroes to live in".

Under this banner, a new initiative was created, the "Homes for Heroes" Act.

However, only 170,000 homes were built under this Act, not solving the problem of slums in the cities. This was basically the only improvement made before the Second World War, with other social reforms having to wait until the conclusion of the above-mentioned war. This reform stagnation is attributed sometimes to "cautious and unimaginative politicians"2 that headed Britain in the inter-war years.One important social change was the issue of woman sufferage: in 1918 parliament gave woman householders, householders' wives, and women university graduates over 30 years of age the right to vote, and in 1928 lowered the voting age to 21, putting them on equal footing with men.The Liberal Decline and the Rise of LabourIn the pre-war years, Lloyd George had been part of a government with the Liberal party, which had been the main ruling party for eight years before the war's breakout.

In 1916, however, he broke with the party and formed a coalition with the conservative party, and was elected to the post of prime minister. After the war was over, he kept the coalition and was reelected easily. Most of his supporters were conservatives, with those opposed to him being the Irish, the Labour party, and the rest of the Liberals. During this period also the influence and power of the Liberal party was declining and that of the Labour party was gaining: the latter's close ties to unions and its bases with the common people made it an obvious choice for workers in Britain suffering economic damage.In 1922, the Conservatives broke away from George Lloyd and created a purely conservative government, led in 1923 by Stanley Baldwin, who was Prime

Minister from 1923-24, 1924-29, and 1935-37.

It was in 1922 also that Labour, for the first time, won more seats in parliament than did the Liberals. In 1924, the first ever Labour government came to power, under a coalition between them and the Liberals which allowed them to gain the upper hand against the Conservatives, who still had the largest number of seats. The coalition broke apart in the autumn of 1924 when the Liberals refused to back Ramsay MacDonald, the Labour Prime Minister. Elections were called, and Baldwin returned as Conservative Prime Minister.Reforms InitiatedThe first Labour government, before being ousted by the Conservatives, did implement a number of reforms, with the consent of the Liberals of course. The most important out of all these was Wheatley's Housing Act which gave local councils loans to build cheap, good houses to rent, in a further effort to erase the problem of slums in Britain.

By 1930, nearly a million houses were built under this Act.Under the Conservatives as well reforms went underway: Baldwin's minister of Health, Neville Chamberlain, improved pensions for widows and the old, and reorganized the system of unemployment benefit. Then, however, Britain was engulfed in what became known as the General Strike.Events Leading to the General StrikeIn Britain in the 19th Century, coal was one of its founding points and was exported massively and to great profit.

During the First World War, however, the coal industry was taken into the control of the government. At this time wages were good, and the workers were happy. At the conclusion of the war, however, the mines were handed back to their owners, and it was

at this point that the problems started: the mine machinery was all outdated, and the cost of running the mines ran extremely high. This coupled with the crashing of coal prices (�1.

20/ton by spring 1921 compared to �5.75/ton in the summer of 1920) due to the collapse of home industry, and therefore demand, meant that mine owners were finding it extremely hard to make a profit. Even foreign exports were stagnating as, despite the drop in prices and because of the return to the Gold Standard, the price of coal was still too high for foreign buyers.Mine owners could therefore see only one way of drawing profit out of their ventures: the cutting of wages. Miners, however, were obstinately and bitterly opposed to this, and called a strike.

The miners had beforehand arranged a sort of Union alliance with the Railway and Transport workers called the Triple Alliance, calculated to increase the power of all three. When these wage cuts were announced and the strike called by the miners, however, their two allies refused to go on strike themselves, and the miners were forced to go back to work at their lower wages.In 1925, coal prices dropped again, and owners now proposed an increase the hours of worked per day from seven to eight, in addition to another wage cut. Here the triple alliance kept together, and the government, led by Baldwin, granted a subsidy to keep things as they were for nine months. Baldwin, however, did not intend to subsidize miners forever and so began making preparations for a second strike, including the creation of a volunteer force called the OMS (Organization for the

Maintenance of Supplies) that would keep the country going in case of a large strike like the one anticipated.

The miners also made preparations: they arranged for the support of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), the body representing all trade unions. On May 1st 1926, when the subsidy ended, even though the TUC did not really want to go on strike, a General Strike was called and put into effect.The General StrikeIn this strike, in addition to the miners, workers from myriad different industries such as chemical workers, printers, engineers, and shipbuilders came out, grinding all industry and transport to a complete halt. The OMS set to work as planned however, and kept the country going at a more or less steady rate. Nevertheless it could not keep things going forever, and so the morale of the strikers was extremely high.

The TUC leadership however, unhappy with being accused of attacking the constitution, and not really having public support, called off the strike after nine days, leaving the miners to continue alone. They did, but were forced after seven months to return to their jobs, having failed their goal. The Government took this excuse to institute anti-strike retaliatory measures: the Trades Dispute Act 1927, for example, made sympathetic strikes illegal. Many strikers were also discriminated upon by their employers upon returning to work, and so Union membership declined, with people turning more to the Labour Party, who became the largest party in 1929, and, in a coalition with the liberals, made their leader, Ramsay MacDonald, Prime Minister once again.

They advocated a policy of social and welfare reform, and full employment, but were almost immediately plunged

into a gigantic economic crisis.The Great DepressionThe great Wall Street Crash in October 1929 truly brought ruin to the American economy, and hit Britain extremely hard: American loans to Europe were now drastically cut, and also the giant market that America had been for foreign goods was now severely reduced, as the people did not have money to buy goods anymore. British exports fell from �729 million in 1929 to �389 million in 1931. MacDonald took Britain off the Gold Standard in 1931, but even this was not enough to spark enough life into the economic sphere.

Unemployment skyrocketed, and by 1932 there were nearly three million unemployed in Britain. Worst hit were Britain's older industries which had already been struggling: 34% of coal miners, 47% of steel workers, and 62% of shipbuilders were unemployed.Ramsay MacDonald, in response to this crisis, did what a Conservative Prime Minister would do: he proposed cuts in public spending such as the lowering of the dole3, cuts in the salaries of teachers, soldiers, policemen, and civil servants. The Labour Party did not agree to this, so Ramsay MacDonald assumed leadership of the country under the National Government, a coalition with Conservatives and Liberals. The government also instituted plans to build houses and automobiles, and expand electrical coverage, plans which stimulated the economy and ultimately led to a gradual recovery. In the 30's also the government began to nationalize utilities, such as coal, and set prices and wages in the large industries such as steel.

It was also at this time that Britain abandoned free trade and practiced protectionism for the first time in a century: the government placed duties

on imports and started a campaign with the slogan: "Buy British" in an attempt to raise domestic spending on domestic goods.A Gradual RecoveryBy 1933 the newer industries were on the path to recovery, and by 1935 practically all sectors of British economy were showing signs of revival. In fact, in 1934, unemployment in London was only 61/2 % . Nevertheless in some areas unemployment was still astronomical: a case-in-point is the ship building town of Jarrow, where, because of the closing-down of the ship yards, 80% of the population was unemployed.

Agriculture also continued to go through hard times: corn prices were low, so workers turned to livestock, which did not require as many hands in the first place. Also, machines began to replace what people did before, inciting a 15% drop in the number of people working in agriculture between the wars.It was truly in the new industry where recovery shined through: for example in 1920 3 million homes had electricity. By 1937, this had increased to 9 million.

The automobile industry also experienced a boom with cheap cars being created on a massive scale on assembly lines. Workers in these lines of employment were happy: wages were steady, prices were falling, houses became affordable, as did cars, and even vacations. Radio became a necessity in every household as well. However, Britain's share of the world's export market had continued to decline, and it now faced stiff competition not only from the United States, but from Germany as well, who had gotten through the depression and, under the brutal efficiency of Adolf Hitler's leadership, was stronger than ever.In 1935 MacDonald gave way to Baldwin again

as Prime Minister, and Neville Chamberlain took over in 1937 after the latter retired.In 1939, Britain was plunged into yet another World War, fighting for its life against a smart and powerful foe intent on its destruction.

In this crisis Neville Chamberlain resigns, and Winston Churchill takes over.Despite what may seem as numerous changes in government and political alliances, the main picture in Britain remained fairly unchanging and constant: the common British man (or woman) was extremely conservative in his political ideals, and this is reflected by the figures: only once in this entire period did the Conservative party not win most seats in the British House of Commons (the Lower House of parliament), and even on this occasion they still managed to secure a total lead in votes. A large change was seen, however, in the astounding rise of Labour in Parliament and the country, to the detriment of the Liberals.The State of the EmpireDuring this inter-war period, the "British Empire was developing into the 'British Commonwealth and Empire'"4, as its colonial acquisitions started moving farther away from complete dominion and towards self-government. However, the Empire was enlarged especially by new acquisitions from the late Ottoman Empire, such as Palestine, Iraq, and the like. Britain also appropriated control over some German colonies, but all of these were referred to as 'Mandates' and not real colonies.

Also during this time, British military force was neglected severely: there was a giant wave of pacifism flooding over the country, partly due to the vivid memories of the past war, and also due to the expectation that a war at this time would involve defenseless civilians in aerial bombardment,

causing huge numbers of casualties. By 1933, Britain ranked sixth among European states in numbers of operational aircraft, the navy personnel were fewer than they had been for forty years, and the Army had been reduced by 21 infantry battalions and 61 artillery batteries.ConclusionsIn conclusion, it can be stated that the inter-war period, for the state of Britain, was one in which resolve was weakened, through the decline in military strength, and socialism and 'Labour-ism' was on the rise, to the detriment of the most prominent political party up to that point, the Liberals. The government remained very stable however, something in stark contrast to those of Russia, Germany, Turkey, and Austria-Hungary after the war. Even the General Strike brought no real threat to the British Regime, as it was fully peaceful.

And, even though the Irish crisis posed a certain challenge, British institutions survived very stably all trials they went through.The same cannot be said for Britain's economic woes: in the 20's and very early 30's all areas of British economy were in full recession, and it was in fact not until the breakout of World War II that unemployment, for example, dropped below the one million mark. The ineffectual handling of this situation was fully due to the political passiveness and conservativeness, in which, contrary to the policies of Hitler or Roosevelt, the government played little role in inciting economic revival.On the social front, progress was made, but low funds and financial woes restricted any extra spending: in fact at one point in the early thirties, 'Public Aid' was cut down, with the dole especially being the main target. This was replaced for

the most part in 1934, however.

Also, the vote was given to women and all adult men, causing a giant increase in electorate.All in all, this was a period where all of Britain's weaknesses, especially in the fields of economy and trade, were all shown clearly and made worse. It was truly during this time that Britain's decline from world prominence was made clear, even though at the time of world war II it was still considered a Great Power, the British Empire's power and prestige had been worn away to a mere shadow of its former glory.