1.4 Foreign relations, 1951-64

Question 1

When was the Treaty of Rome? What did it do?

Answer 1

1957, set up the EEC

Question 2

When did the Macmillan government submit Britain’s application to join the EEC?

Answer 2

1961

Question 3

What did the Macmillan government hope would come from the EEC for Britain?

Answer 3

• boost industrial production for larger scale export market
• increase industrial efficiency, with greater production
• stimulate economic growth

Question 4

Why was the US keen to see Britain join the EEC?

Answer 4

Saw Britain as vital link between Europe and America - rising tensions of Cold War

Question 5

What made negotiations with the EEC extremely complex + difficult?

Answer 5

Britain wanted to keep its position in the Commonwealth and the United States as well

Question 6

Who was Macmillan’s chief negotiator in the many months with the EEC?

Answer 6

Edward Heath

Question 7

When did the negotiations with the EEC seem to have reached a successful conclusion? What then happened?

Answer 7

January 1963 - Charles de Gaulle exercised France’s right of veto

Question 8

When had Britain become a founder member of NATO?

Answer 8

1949

Question 9

What events put the special relationship under strain (despite still remaining strong allies throughout)?

Answer 9

• Burgess and Maclean affair
• Britain’s relationship w/ EEC
• Suez Crisis

Question 10

What did Labour Foreign Secretary Ernie Bevin say about nuclear deterrent in 1946?

Answer 10

‘We’ve got to have this thing over her whatever it costs. We’ve got to have the bloody Union Jack on top of it.’

Question 11

When were Britain’s first tests of the atomic bomb under Churchill?

Answer 11

1952 - by this point, US and USSR were already developing the more powerful H bomb

Question 12

What world ranking was Britain to develop nuclear weapons?

Answer 12

3rd nuclear power

Question 13

When was Britain’s H bomb first tested?

Answer 13

1957

Question 14

When was the CND created?

Answer 14

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament - 1958

Question 14

How many people took part in a CND demonstration at Aldermaston? When?

Answer 14

around 8000 people, 1958 - second march in 1959 even bigger

Question 15

Under what agreement did the US agree to share nuclear technology with Britain? When?

Answer 15

Mutual Defence Agreement, 1958

Question 16

What was abandoned in 1960?

Answer 16

Britain’s own rocket project, Blue Streak

Question 17

What was Blue Streak replaced by?

Answer 17

dependence on the American Polaris submarine weapons system

Question 18

When was the Korean War?

Answer 18

1950-53

Question 19

How many soldiers did Britain send in the UN Force to Korea?

Answer 19

90,000 - 2nd biggest contingent after the USA

Question 20

How many British troops had died by the end of the Korean War?

Answer 20

over 1000

Question 21

When was Suez?

Answer 21

1956

Question 22

What percentage of Western Europe’s oil imports passed through the Suez Canal?

Answer 22

80%

Question 23

What did Colonel Nasser announce in 1956?

Answer 23

The nationalisation of the Suez Canal Company to provide finance for the Aswan Dam

Question 24

Who agreed with Eden that he should not allow Nasser to get away with ‘unprovoked aggression’?

Answer 24

Most of Eden’s cabinet, including Chancellor Harold Macmillan

Question 25

What two countries encouraged Eden over Suez? Where did they meet?

Answer 25

Israel and France - top secret meeting at Sèvres in Paris

Question 26

When was the plan made at Sevres put into operation?

Answer 26

29 October 1956

Question 27

Opposition to Suez within Britain

Answer 27

Labour Party, anti-war protests held, public opinion split on need for intervention

Question 28

What was caused by US opposition to Suez?

Answer 28

Britain not strong enough to stand up to American pressure - plunged into serious financial crisis

Question 29

When had Britain decided to withdraw from India?

Answer 29

1947

Question 30

In the 50s, what national independence movements did Britain find itself fighting against?

Answer 30

Malaya, Kenya and Cyprus

Question 31

Where and when was the Mau Mau rebellion?

Answer 31

Kenya, 1952

Question 32

What was the first African colony to be granted independence?

Answer 32

Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast), 1957

Question 33

What colonies gained independence in 1960?

Answer 33

Nigeria and Cyprus

Question 34

What colonies gained independence in 1961?

Answer 34

Tanganyika (later combined with Zanzibar to form Tanzania) and Sierra Leone

Question 35

What colony gained independence in 1962?

Answer 35

Uganda

Question 36

What colony gained independence in 1963?

Answer 36

Kenya

Question 37

Where and when was Macmillan’s ‘wind of change’ speech?

Answer 37

Capetown, 1960 - called for decolonisation, recognition of independence movements, and majority rule