Politics 1918-1945 Flashcards
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How did Britian emerge after WW1?
Britian emerged victorious, but economically damaged with 3.2 billion pounds in debt to the USA.
What was the Liberal Party like?
Believed in free trade and limited government role.
Were a party of social reform, and from 1906 included state pensions, unemployment relief, and start of state provided healthcare.
They also dominated British Politics before WW1 but faced unrest over the womens suffrage movement and the Ireland home rule problem.
Also appeal of liberals towards working class began to decline as the party that focused on social reform to the public became Labour.
Why did war divide liberals?
. Many opposed the power of state and conscription
. War led to coalition with conservatives in 1915 and sir lloyd george became PM in 1916. Unpopular with many liberal MP’s.
. Also in the 1916 election, George stood against many liberal MP’s who were against him and this caused a further divide.
What was labour party like?
Came from trade union congress, meaning had strong links to unions and could use it to their advantage to raise pay for many working class men and also get a union backet MP into the parliment.
After 1911, liberals allowed MP’s to get paid so there were more working class people able to become one. Also 1918 peoples representation act saw the voting rise from 7.7 to over 20 million people.
MORE People voting, and less rich in the government— good for labour.
What was conservative party like?
Conservatives had normally been a party of the rich people but with new electoral reforms they had to rebrand themsleves and started toa ppeal more towards the middle class.
They also started to support David Lloyd george from 1922.
What were the representation of the people act 1918 and 1928?
The 1918 representation of the people act said that all men british over 21 had to vote and women over 30 could as well if they owned property or were memeber of local gov register or married to one.
representation of peoples act in 1928 put the same 21 rule to women.
What was the 1918 election like?
By now lloyd had split liberal party (it was in decline)
so it was liberal/conservative coalitition against the remaining liberals and the labour.
The coalition won by a landslide however the popularity was mostly due to the conservatives in coalation.
remaining liberals were declinied due to coalition and lack of social reform they promised and also was due to rise of labour party.
How was david lloyd george in 1918?
quite respected and seen as man who won the war and also represented britian at paris peace conference.
what did lloyd george do on june 1922.
he was involved in a scandal of selling titles. this knowledge that he did this was widespread and he did a lot of it he sold 1,500. also when the 1922 honours list came out, many on them had criminal convictions and george said this was stupid. he also decided to go to war with turkey.
all conservative individuals who were in a colaition with him disagreed with him and held a secret meeting at cartlon club and decided to abandon coalition.
what was the novemember 22 election like after coalition ended?
it was a conservative landslide win with over 300 seats and liberal was veryyyy low.
who was the first ever labour pm and when was the first time they were in gov?
it was ramsay mcdonald in 1924. their win was alarming for many consservative supported media and also labours regimes were criticsed as being too soviet.
what was a main problem that mcdonald encountered in his party?
strained relations with national eexectuvie committee of labour party. basically macdonald had to make harsh decisions which did affect poorer voters as he was prime minister. however the rest of the party criticsed him for being not radical. he knew if he became radical, cuz lbour was knew, they wouldnt do good
btw macdonald was suspicious of communism
why/how did macdonalds govenrment collapse in the fall of 1924?
Ramsay MacDonald’s 1924 government collapsed because of the Campbell Case. His government was accused of stopping the prosecution of a communist journalist, J.R. Campbell, for inciting mutiny. This led to a vote of no confidence, which Labour lost, forcing MacDonald to resign.
general election of 1924 october?
labours lectionc aqmpaign was alrready broken from that story in the daily mail. they said that the russian person zinoviev had sent a letter to the british communist party.
however, labour ote didnt collpase, but they did loose and stanley baldwins conservative party won!!!! yay
this election saw a decline in its share of votes by 12%!!!!
tell me about conservative dominance from 1924-29?
formed by stanley bawdin and was altenrtaive to socialism in britian.
baldwin wanted to appeal to all classes though and did not want ppl to think labour was agents of the ussr.
reforms to labour funding
although baldwin wanted to peacfully coeexist w labour, many conservative mps thought the gov should reduce all trade unions and funding of labour. in 1925 there was a private bill to stop labour party receivling poltical levy from trade unions. however it was opposed by baldwin.
however, later in 1927 he did sucuumb to pressure and said how political levy on union memebrs cant be passed to labour. reduced labours financing by 35%.
what happened in 1929 election?
macdonald and labour party won and reutned to power?
what was macdonalds social reforms?
he had a more unionized gov with him this time so could pass more acts
1930 housing act cleared 3/4 of million slum houses and replaced w modern homes by 1939
the coal mines of 1930 act tried to make coal workers pay better hower sitll quite weak so could be ignored
macdoland ammended the unemployment insuracne act and gave gov power to create public work scehems to reduce unemployment. gave them 25 million!!!
what were ecnomic problems macdonald was facing?
in summer 1931 there was rumours of budget being unbalanced leading to an icnrease in government borrowing.
caused banks in america to panic sell the pound and it slumped in value…
british gov proposed spending cuts and tax hikes and also cutting 10% in unemployment help. this kept pound stble but caused hardship for poor.
this split labour party and macdonald and led the gov to resign on august 1931.
macdoland then formed a national government from three pain parties with himself.
what was the tea with macdonald and american banks
the second labour gov under macdoland couldnt finance themsleves and their commitments so they came from rpressur eunder usa banks. the usa did not want britian to spend huge amounts on welfare and they had power over britian due to britian borriwng so much from usa. these banks could lose milliosn if value of pound went down so they did not want labour to help poor or it would happen.
what was national government
1931 national government won but conservatives won most seats and macdonald was only a figurehead.
national gov economic policy
spending cuts
limited number of tarrifs (end of gold standard by 1933 was starting economic recovery)
Popularity increased
macdonald war replaced by baldwin in 1935.
what was labour doig in 1930’s
Labour party had comeback during early 1930 and lowkey decided to become opposition. Attlee let them get over 150 votes
why was there a growth in extreme political ideas
ppl had thought there was no hope and either went far left or far right
by 1934 british union of facists had 50,000 members
communist party had 9,000 members but they organized the national unemployed workers movement
who was oswald mosley
a labour mp who was inspired by musolinis italy in which a facist one party developed.
mosley hated national gov and resigned and set up a new party in march of 1931.
at first it attracted right and left attraction however he started devloping violent biff boys
in 1932, mosley drew facist organizaitons into this party to form the BUF
BUF didnt do much as challenge and the public order actg of 1936 helped it decline
however did show how more ppl were becoming rightist
what was the peace ballot
in 1934 millions of ppl 11 million said they wanted collective secuirty and supported not rearming even tho hitler was there
what was world disarment conference
world conference to stop rearment but broke down in 1933 when germany withdrew.
after this baldewin argued for agreeents limiting arms but not for disarent.
how did britian start to rearm from 1934?
raf increased in 40 squadrons
british army and roayl navy expanded and reorgizaed
staneley balwdin manifesto
baldwins manifeto was how he pledged new houses and government
abdication crisis
1937, edward v11 had playboy lifestuyle
he started relationship with american divorcee wallis ismpson
rlly bad as he wanted to marry her
Ended up abdicating
what did hitler start doing which scared biritan
hebreaks treaty of versailles by recopying rhineland in 1936 and annexed austria and sudentland in 1938.
who was chamberlain?
came after baldwin who left due to sick
chamberlain was prime misnister during economic recovery
had to deal w reacrment
who was neville chamberlain
highly political person son of high profil political figure
he is often associated w policy of appeasment of hitler and tried to prevent war by going back to germany 3 times.
he even let hittler annex sutendland and czech.
however when hitler dclared attacked poland, then britian declared war on germany.
chamberlain seen as weak.
however some say he did not be like this and acc did want rearment earlier
he also misjudeged scale of militaty sosending
he icnreased by 120 pounds, but they needed 1.5 billion.
how was chamberlainr eplaced
after war was declared there was a phoney war with little action
in a debate in parliment both sides said chamberalin was incompetent in handinlng war and chmabrrlain tried forming new coalition government but labour refused to serve with him.
churchill took over from him and had a mix of liberal labour and conservative
what was churchills premiership like
13 may situation deterioutated in franche and chuirchioll made motivating blood toil tears and sweat speech
situation worsened with dunkirk and churchill called a meeting daying britian is not going under gamn terms
churchill born into aristocratic family as conservative MP
But later crossed to being liveral
he became an independt mp in 1924 and joined baldwins gov as conservative.
churchill became poltiicaly isolated for 10 years at one point and set as conservrative mp but wasnt in nation gov because hee was unpopular because
he supported edward
he oppoissed home rule of india
he wantedfaster rearment
