United Kingdom history 1914-45

For earlier periods of the history of the British Isles see Britain, ancient, Roman Britain, England: history to 1485, England: history 1485-1714, United Kingdom history 1714-1815, United Kingdom: history 1815-1914, Ireland: history 1782 to 1921, Scotland: history 1513 to 1603, Scotland: history 1603 to 1746, Scotland: history from 1746, Wales: history to 1066, and Wales: history 1066 to 1485.

Britain in World War I In 1914, for the first time for a century, Britain became involved in a European war. For the causes of that war, and military developments from 1914 through to 1918, see World War I.

In the political field, Herbert Asquith, prime minister since 1908, was to continue until 1915 as head of a Liberal government, and then as leader of a coalition until 1916. With the outbreak of war divisive issues such as Irish home rule and women's suffrage were put aside, and the wave of industrial strikes that had marked the immediate prewar years came to a halt, as the nation united in patriotic fervour for what everybody believed would be a short war.

The new war minister, Gen Horatio Kitchener - one of the few who were expecting an extended war - immediately set about forming a volunteer army, which by the end of 1915 had recruited some 2.6 million men. However, the skilled industrial workforce became dangerously diluted, and this, together with the failure of the government to implement central planning to put the economy on a war footing, led to shortages of such vital supplies as shells.

The resultant political scandal forced Asquith to form a coalition government in May 1915, in which eight Conservatives and one Labour minister joined the cabinet. Control of munitions production was taken away from Kitchener and placed in the hands of a new munitions ministry under David Lloyd George. From this point the government began to impose tighter controls on industry, the workforce, and society in general, and in January 1916 compulsory military conscription was introduced.

As 1916 progressed public optimism decreased. The failure of such major offensives as that at Gallipoli and on the Somme (see Somme, Battle of the), together with food shortages caused by the success of German submarines, all contributed to dissatisfaction with the government, and in December Asquith's coalition collapsed. It was replaced by a new coalition under the premiership of Lloyd George (who had been war minister since the death of Kitchener in June), with the close support of the Conservative Bonar Law.

Lloyd George pursued the war with aggressive energy. Government control of the economy and society became more all-embracing, and so-called ‘war socialism’ was introduced, although in reality this was principally a close alliance between government and private industry, which did well under the arrangement. Shortages in the workforce continued to be a problem, especially after the upper age for conscription was raised to 50 in May 1918 in response to the German Spring Offensive. However, women had been increasingly encouraged to join the workforce - a significant social innovation - and were rewarded with the promise of the vote once the war was over.

The war eventually came to an end in November 1918 with the collapse of the Central Powers. The Allied victory probably had more to do with the success of the British naval blockade on Germany, starving it of resources, than with the military conduct of the war. In the end it was a war of attrition, in which the side whose resources (both material and manpower) lasted out emerged victorious. British losses were lower than those of the other major combatants, but nevertheless amounted to some three-quarters of a million deaths.

The struggle for Irish independence With the prospect of home rule shelved for the duration of the war, many Irish nationalists rallied around the radical Sinn Fein movement. In April 1916 Sinn Fein launched the armed Easter Rising in Dublin against British rule. The rising was suppressed and the leaders executed, but hostilities resumed in 1918. Guerrilla attacks on the British army, especially by members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), continued until 1921. A truce was declared in 1921, and following the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 6 December the southern counties of Ireland achieved self-governing dominion status as the Irish Free State, while Northern Ireland remained a part of the United Kingdom, but with its own parliament. For more details of these and subsequent events in Ireland, see Ireland: history 1782-1921, Ireland, Republic of, and Northern Ireland.

Lloyd George's post-war government The war had transformed British society, and had in particular given many women a new degree of social and economic freedom. The beginnings of political freedom came with the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which gave the vote to all women over 30 with residential or business qualifications, as well as all men over 21.

In the December general election Lloyd George's coalition was returned with a massive majority, amid popular clamour for revenge against Germany. The Liberal Party had been split since 1916 between the followers of Lloyd George and the followers of Asquith, and at the election the success of the Labour Party put it in a position to challenge the Liberal Party as the official opposition. Irish nationalists practically disappeared, while the 73 Sinn Feiners refused to take their seats, among them being Countess Markievicz, the first woman MP.

Foreign affairs were largely taken up with the Paris Peace Conference, and the peace treaty with Germany was signed on 28 June 1919 (see Versailles, Treaty of). The harsh terms of the treaty were forced through by the French, against more pragmatic arguments for moderation by the British representatives. The treaty aroused long-lasting resentment in Germany, and was to contribute to the later rise of national socialism. Dealing with the repercussions of the treaty was to occupy successive British governments right up to World War II.

One more positive result of the treaty was the creation of the League of Nations, of which Britain became a founder-member. The League awarded to Britain various former German colonies - Tanganyika and parts of Togo and Cameroon - to administer under mandate, as well as parts of the dismantled Turkish Empire, namely Palestine and Transjordan.

At home, the end of the war was followed by a short-lived economic boom, followed by economic decline as wartime demand for industrial supply evaporated. This was accompanied by high unemployment and the resumption of industrial unrest. The Miners' Federation called for nationalization of mines and formed, with railway and transport workers, the Triple Alliance. The miners' strike of 1921 was settled by the Sankey coal commission, which recommended nationalization, though its recommendation was not to be adopted for another quarter of a century. An industrial court, composed of employees and employers, was established to settle industrial disputes.

The rise of the Labour Party In 1922 confidence in the Lloyd George's coalition government diminished, a general election took place, and a Conservative ministry under Bonar Law was returned. Labour became the second-largest party in the House of Commons, and from this point was to replace the Liberal Party as the official opposition. The Conservatives, however, had no clear majority. Law resigned owing to ill health in May, and was succeeded as prime minister by Stanley Baldwin. Baldwin proposed to abandon free trade and restore import duties as a response to the economic slump, and on this issue another general election was held in December.

Again no one party had an overall majority, but in January 1924 the Labour Party assumed office under Ramsay MacDonald, but the new government was dependent on the support of the Liberals. In its short period in office the first Labour administration managed to achieve little. In February the government formally recognized the USSR - Britain had earlier backed the anti-communist White forces in the Russian Civil War - and MacDonald was continually attacked for his supposed soft attitude towards communism abroad and at home. Over this issue the Liberals withdrew their support from the government in October 1924. Labour's defeat in the subsequent election was partly due to the forged Zinovyev letter, which appeared to be an appeal by Soviet communists to their British counterparts to launch an uprising. The Conservatives, under Baldwin, were returned to power with a large majority.

The period of the general strike In industry class feeling had become bitter, and unemployment gave rise to increasing alarm. In the coal industry many mines were closed and many areas were reduced to destitution, especially in south Wales and in the north of England.

By 1926 the mine-owners were demanding that the miners accept lower wages and longer hours. The miners went on strike in early May, and the miners asked the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to call a general strike. More than 2 million workers in transport, newspapers, and the iron and steel industries came out in sympathy, and the government responded by invoking the Emergency Powers Act of 1920, and used troops to control essential supplies. The TUC called off the general strike after nine days, although the miners did not return to work until November.

The following year the government introduced the Trades Disputes Act, which made general strikes illegal. Baldwin's chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill - who had played a prominent part in the defeat of the general strike - included in his 1928 budget a policy of granting rating (local taxation) relief to depressed industries. However, the government refused requests for aid from the agricultural sector, which was also in a depressed state.

Britain in the depression The general election of May 1929 was the first in which all women over 21 were entitled to vote, this right having been granted by the 1928 Franchise Act. The election resulted in Labour returning to power under MacDonald, although without a working majority. Unemployment, already serious, became considerably worse following the Wall Street crash in October 1929, which was followed by a worldwide depression.

Unemployment figures reached over 2.8 million in 1931, while a budget deficit of £40 million was shown to be imminent. The government could only obtain foreign loans if it cut its spending, and the Labour cabinet resigned when it was proposed to cut unemployment payments. MacDonald remained in office and formed a coalition ‘National Government’ with the Liberals and Conservatives. One of the first acts of the new government was the abandonment of the gold standard in order to avert the collapse of the pound. After the National Government had been returned a second time and by a great majority, Neville Chamberlain, the Conservative chancellor of the Exchequer, reversed the country's traditional free-trade policy by introducing the Import Duties Bill 1932, under which Britain's fiscal policy became definitely protectionist.

By now the country's financial outlook had improved, but no appreciable decline in unemployment came until 1934. In 1935 MacDonald was succeeded as prime minister by the Conservative Stanley Baldwin, and by 1936 unemployment showed a further decline. This was partly attributable to the improvement in the iron and steel industry, which was helped by the government's plans for rearmament in response to developments in Nazi Germany.

the abdication crisis King George V died on 30 January 1936 and was succeeded by Edward, Prince of Wales, as Edward VIII. The new king reigned for less than a year, abdicating on 10 December 1936, uncrowned, in consequence of his proposed marriage to Mrs Wallis Simpson, an American citizen whose two previous marriages had ended in divorce. Such a marriage was felt by many to be unsuitable for the head of the Church of England, and Edward left Britain immediately afterwards and married Mrs Simpson in France the following year. He was created Duke of Windsor after his abdication. His brother succeeded to the crown as George VI.

British foreign policy to 1935 Much of British foreign policy in the period up to 1935 was aimed at ameliorating the consequences of the Treaty of Versailles, and rehabilitating Germany into the community of nations. This policy was often conducted in the face of French resistance. The Dawes Plan of 1924 and the Young Plan of 1929 were attempts to lessen Germany's crippling burden of reparation payments, and the Locarno Pact of 1925 contributed to European security and allowed Germany to enter the League of Nations (see Locarno, Pact of). Following the introduction of the Young Plan the Allies agreed to end their occupation of the German Rhineland.

In the wake of World War I, there was much discussion concerning disarmament. International agreement on limitations to naval power was reached at the Washington Conference of 1921, and an Anglo-American naval treaty was signed in 1930. The World Disarmament Conference in Geneva began to meet in 1932, headed by Arthur Henderson, who had been foreign secretary in Ramsay MacDonald's second Labour government.

In imperial affairs, the Statute of Westminster of 1931 granted to the self-governing dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa) complete autonomy in external as well as internal affairs, in effect making those countries completely independent of Britain. In India nationalist pressure brought about slow constitutional progress, and from 1937 nationalist politicians began to participate in provincial government (see India: history 1858-1947).

The Abyssinian crisis From 1935 domestic politics in Britain were overshadowed by growing threats to world peace. Japanese aggression in China led Britain to reassess its naval policy, while the invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) by the Italian fascist dictator Mussolini appeared to pose an implicit threat to British interests in the Near East. Although the League of Nations imposed sanctions against Italy, they had little effect, partly owing to the backward state of British rearmament.

At this juncture Sir Samuel Hoare, the British foreign secretary, and Pierre Laval, the French premier, concluded the Hoare-Laval Pact, by which Italy was to receive substantial concessions at the expense of Abyssinia. There was a public outcry against these proposals, however, and Hoare was replaced by Anthony Eden. Eden was himself to leave the government early in 1938 following a disagreement with his colleagues over Anglo-Italian relations.

The policy of appeasement Early in 1936 the international situation underwent further deterioration following Germany's denunciation of the Locarno Pact. Italy had by now completed the conquest of Abyssinia. Britain began to carry out rearmament on a larger scale, but the pace remained slow, and popular feeling - as a result of what many now regarded as the senseless slaughter of World War I - was strongly pacifist. Germany, having already embarked on a massive rearmament programme, seized its chance to occupy the Rhineland, which had been declared a demilitarized zone.

During 1937 the international situation grew worse. Two wars were in progress: the Sino-Japanese War and the Spanish Civil War. Japan and Germany both left the League of Nations before the year ended. Regarding the civil war in Spain, the British government, like the French, pursued a policy of ‘nonintervention’, and at the same time strove unsuccessfully to bring about the withdrawal from Spain of Italian, German, and Soviet ‘volunteers’ representing the rival ideologies of fascism and communism.

The policy of appeasement towards aggressor nations was continued by Neville Chamberlain, who succeed Baldwin as prime minister in 1937. Easy enough to criticize as weak and naïve in retrospect, appeasement at the time had few critics in Britain, a notable exception being Winston Churchill, who had been excluded from government since 1929. Initially few people believed Hitler's expansionist threats were anything but bluster, and Hitler himself had many admirers in the British establishment. By the end of 1937, however, Britain was more united on the main issue of rearmament, and to raise the money for this the rate of income tax was increased. But the German pace of rearmament continued to draw further ahead of the British effort.

The Munich Agreement The threats to peace grew more specific in 1938, and the year was marked by successive crises. Hitler assumed command of all the armed forces of the German Reich, thus proclaiming the restoration of Germany to its full military strength and its reliance upon that strength in seeking a remedy for its grievances.

Events were by now moving too swiftly for conciliatory action, and, by the beginning of September the countries of Europe were ranging themselves for conflict. Hitler's demands that Czechoslovakia cede the Sudeten to Germany seemed to make war inevitable and, as France had guaranteed the integrity of Czechoslovakia, and Britain was committed to uphold the security of France, Britain was immediately involved.

In September Chamberlain resolved to make a personal effort to avert the catastrophe. Travelling for the first time by aeroplane, he sought a direct interview with Hitler at his home at Berchtesgaden, and followed this journey by two other flights to Germany in order to secure the acceptance of a plan agreed upon with France, which, in effect, called upon Czechoslovakia to make heavy sacrifices in the cause of peace. In the same month the Munich Conference was held, at which Chamberlain signed (29 September) with Hitler a declaration pledging their two countries to seek peaceful means of settling any future differences arising between them. Chamberlain sincerely believed that he had, in his own words, ‘brought back peace in our time’. But most neutral opinion justifiably regarded the declaration on Hitler's part as worthless and hypocritical and the whole transaction as a betrayal of Czechoslovakia.

Preparations for war In 1939 foreign policy still dominated all other political issues in Britain, and nominally the government was still wedded to appeasement. The first sign of any change in the government's policy was the opening of consultations with the USSR on the possibility of German aggression in southeastern Europe, but the discussion had no concrete result.

On 31 March, when the air was full of rumours of German designs on Poland, Chamberlain announced that Britain would lend its support to Poland if that country were attacked. Again, when Italy overran Albania, the prime minister announced that, in the event of any action that threatened Greece or Romania, Britain would lend those countries all the support in its power.

These pledges marked the end of the much-criticized appeasement policy, and the government now introduced a limited measure of conscription and by doubling the strength of the Territorial Army. Having given guarantees to Greece and Romania, the government realized the importance of securing the assistance of Turkey, and negotiations with that country were successful. Chamberlain was in fact making every effort to build up a ‘peace front’, but his hopes of getting the support of the USSR were disappointed.

With the German threat to Danzig (Gdańsk) in July and flagrant violations of Polish rights there, the approach of war was now obvious. The British people had by now become inured to the prospect of war, and on all sides it was recognized that Nazi methods were incompatible with any settled order in Europe. On 24 August Lord Halifax (the foreign secretary) reiterated Britain's resolve to stand by Poland. However, Hitler ignored this, and German armies invaded Poland on 1 September. On 3 September Britain declared war.

For fuller details of the course of the war see World War II

The phoney war On the outbreak of war the government immediately introduced a number of measures. Under the National Service Bill nearly all men from the age of 18 to 41 became liable to be called up for military service. An Emergency Powers Act was passed at the same time, which empowered the government to do almost anything to secure public safety, maintain order, and prosecute the war. Large-scale evacuation of women and children was carried out from London and other big cities, leading to serious educational and social problems.

Owing, however, to the fact that there were no air raids in the early months of the war many of these returned to their former homes. For many months - during the so-called phoney war, when there was no fighting in Western Europe - the people of Britain largely followed their normal peacetime way of life, a state of things that was destined to be rudely interrupted by Hitler's offensives in Western Europe, starting with the attack on Norway in April 1940, and ending with the defeat of France in June.

It was increasingly felt during the first nine months, while Chamberlain was prime minister, that the war was not being prosecuted with the efficiency or vigour necessary to ensure even the possibility of ultimate victory. Matters came to a head with the utter failure of the Norwegian expedition, and the various elements of discontent boiled up in a debate in the House of Commons in which Leo Amery summed up the feeling of the effective majority when he addressed to the prime minister the words of Oliver Cromwell to the Long Parliament, ending in the cry ‘In God's name go!’.

Retreat from Dunkirk Within a few hours of this speech a new coalition administration had been formed, and Winston Churchill - who had joined the government on the outbreak of war as first lord of the admiralty - became prime minister. Clement Attlee, the leader of the Labour Party, became deputy prime minister, and other senior Labour figures entered the government as members of the war cabinet, and to head up the crucial ministries of labour and supply. Churchill's leadership was to make an immense contribution to the successful conduct of the war, and, through his speeches to the country, broadcast on the radio, he also played a vital role in maintaining the morale of the British people.

On 22 May Parliament passed the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act, which gave the government complete power of control over persons and property for the prosecution of the war. Thus full mobilization of the country's resources was begun much more promptly and more efficiently than it had been in World War I.

Following the sweep of the German armies across France, the British Expeditionary Force began to be evacuated at Dunkirk from 26 May, being forced to leave behind virtually all of its equipment. France surrendered shortly afterwards, and Britain appeared to be faced with imminent invasion, as the Germans massed their armies in and about the Channel ports and assembled a large fleet of transports and barges. A Home Guard of part-time soldiers was hastily enrolled in Britain to assist in the defence of their factories and homes.

The Battle of Britain and the Blitz But it was evident that as the Germans did not command the sea, they could not hope to land an invading army with any chance of success unless they first secured supremacy in the air over the Channel and the British Isles. In the middle of August they began daylight air operations on a large scale with the aim of destroying British airfields, and air battles between large forces occurred almost daily for over a month (see Britain, Battle of).

By the middle of September it was clear that the Germans were suffering ruinous loss and were no nearer to their objective. They then abandoned the massed assaults by daylight and adopted the policy of night raiding, in which they avoided heavy casualties at the cost of giving up their hope of destroying the defending air force and also at the sacrifice of anything like accuracy of aim. Their attacks fell principally on the major cities, especially London. The main ports were also heavily attacked, a great deal of damage being done. The Blitz in its most intense phase lasted till the end of spring 1941, and accounted for some 40,000 civilian deaths.

The widening of the anti-Axis alliance By this stage Britain was the only country left in Europe still resisting Hitler, although the self-governing dominions and the rest of the British Empire had all also declared war on Germany. Throughout 1941 Churchill made strenuous efforts to broaden Britain's support. The increasing scale of US aid for Britain before the USA formally declared war on the Axis, and the growth of collaboration in every sphere between the two countries, owed much to Churchill's handling of Anglo-American relations. His meeting with President Roosevelt of the USA at sea in August led to the Atlantic Charter, a statement of joint aims, and following the German invasion of the USSR in June Churchill had set aside all ideological differences to declare Britain's full support for the Soviet Union - although for geographical reasons this was largely restricted to the supply of arms and munitions via the Arctic convoys.

Over the broad field of strategy throughout 1941 the ultimately dominant factor was British sea power. The problem for Germany was how to consolidate its conquests in Western Europe while under the constant pressure of the British naval blockade. If the blockade could be maintained it was evident that the Germans during the year must attempt to break out of the encirclement, whether by invasion of Britain, by a thrust towards the Mediterranean at either end, or by pushing further east than Poland. In the event, the Germans chose the eastern and southern options. The weakest link in the British chain of encirclement was the Mediterranean, and the contest for its control was to be long drawn out and fluctuating.

At the same time the attempt to set up a German counter-blockade continued throughout 1941 in the Atlantic, where the Germans hoped, by means of unrestricted submarine warfare based on the French ports, to cut off Britain from US food supplies and munitions (see Atlantic, Battle of the (World War II)). By this time the USA had become convinced that its own national future depended upon sustaining Britain's resistance to aggression, and embarked upon the lend-lease programme, by which Britain and the USSR received vast amounts of material aid.

In December 1941 Japan launched its attacks on US and British bases in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, bring the USA into the war alongside Britain, but its initial territorial and military losses in the Asia-Pacific theatre were as disastrous as Britain's. It was to be some time before British and US naval power could rally and restore the balance.

At home, the National Service Act passed at the end of 1941 conscripted for military or other vital war purposes all men between 18 and 50, and all unmarried women between 20 and 30 (later extended to 50).

The tide begins to turn During the first six months of 1942 Parliament reflected the uneasiness of the nation at a disheartening series of military reverses and disasters. The British Eighth Army was driven out of Libya, and with the Germans threatening Egypt Parliament was anxious and critical. Churchill, for the first time, had to meet the challenge of a motion of no confidence in the ‘central direction of the war’ in the House of Commons, but the vote of censure motion was defeated by 476 to 25 votes.

Although German air activity over Britain had declined greatly from the weight of the 1940 raids, the Germans, during April-May, carried out a number of heavy raids on the cathedral cities of Exeter, Bath, Norwich, and York (Canterbury was attacked in October), doing considerable damage to life and property (see Baedeker raids).

However, by the time a new session of Parliament opened in November, the Germans were in full retreat from Egypt (see Alamein, El, Battles of), a large Anglo-American expeditionary force had successfully landed in French North Africa, and the whole outlook in the Mediterranean had changed. In addition, Britain was now waging more effective war against the German submarines, and British bombers began massed attacks on German factories and cities. In 1943 Anglo-American forces invaded Italy, and Churchill, with the foreign secretary, Eden, took part in a series of international conferences at which the Allied war plans were coordinated and provision was made for continued collaboration after the war - a collaboration that, in the result, was to be far from whole-hearted.

Reshaping society The needs of total war mobilization had a great levelling effect on society in Britain. Free medical care was more widely available, and food rationing actually resulted in the poorer sectors of society being much better fed than before the war.

With the war progressing favourably, Parliament turned its attention increasingly to post-war policies, particularly in physical and social reconstruction. In February 1943 the government accepted in principle the plan for social security expounded in the Beveridge Report, and in a broadcast to the nation on 21 March Churchill outlined a four-year plan of post-war social policy to be carried out by a national government, representing all parties. Late in December R A Butler, then minister of education, introduced his new Education Bill, which completely recast the national system of education, introducing compulsory, free education to the age of 16, and reorganizing secondary schools into grammar schools, secondary modern schools, and technical schools. There were also considerable reforms in the field of social security, which laid the foundations of the post-war welfare state.

The housing problem, however, was to prove intractable, both as to immediate needs and regarding long-term programmes. The bombardment by German flying bombs and V2 rockets from 1943 prevented an early resumption of building. The Town and Country Planning Act, giving local authorities wider power to purchase compulsorily land required for the reconstruction of blitzed and blighted areas, became law after an acrimonious passage through Parliament.

The cost of the war The great industrial effort behind the armed forces assured the success of the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944 - and ultimately the success of the Allies in Europe, culminating in the German surrender in May 1945. Although the maximum mobilization of the population had been reached in 1943, the accumulation of armed strength in men and munitions continued. On D-Day there were 4.5 million men in the British armed forces and 500,000 women in the auxiliary forces.

Up to this date war production had been more than twice that achieved in World War I. Britain itself had produced 70% of the munitions supplied to the British Empire, other Empire countries had produced another 10%, while the balance came from the USA. From the beginning of the war to the end of 1943 Britain built 6,858,313 tonnes/tons of new merchant shipping and, in agriculture, the ploughing up of 28,000 sq km/11,000 sq mi of grassland had resulted in halving food imports.

By the end of the war 202,000 houses in Britain were totally destroyed, and another 255,000 rendered uninhabitable. At sea nearly 3,000 British ships had been sunk. Exports had been reduced to less than a third of the 1938 figure. Direct taxation had increased from £494 million in 1938 to £1,781 million in 1943, and indirect from £582 million to £1,249 million. Total war expenditure had now reached the great sum of £25,000 million. To pay for imports of war materials the government had to sell overseas assets worth £1,065 million, while incurring fresh overseas debts totalling £2,300 million.

Nearly a quarter of a million members of the British armed forces and over 58,000 civilians lost their lives during the war.

Although the war in the Asia-Pacific theatre was to continue until August 1945, victory in Europe was followed by a general election, in which the Labour Party won a landslide victory.

For British history from 1945 see United Kingdom.