The modern age 1901 - 1945

THE MODERN AGE 1901 - 1945

After Queen Victoria's death, Edward VII come to the throne and a general election proclaimed the victory for the Liberal Party which introduced new reforms, for exemple the achievement of free school meals, an old age pensions scheme, a Labour Exchanges where people could go looking for work and an Education Act (1902) which permetted school education for all children up to age of fifteen.

The Liberals found some difficult concerning the menagment of the budget and so they introduced a heavier taxation on the wealthy, particulary for land-owners and for House of Lords who threatened British political life, but in 1911 a Parliament Act was introduced, by which the Hause of Lords could no longer question financial legislation passed in the Commons.

In these first years of the century, Britain began to lose her power in Europe, in fact Germany, with her modern industries and powerful army and navy, was trying to extend her control over the Balkan states. Germany would endanger British position also in the Near-East Europe and Egypt, therefore Britain allied herself with France, Japan and Russia and she began to reorganise her navy.

In the Archiduke Francis Ferdinand was murdered at Sarajevo by a serbian and a war broke out. Austria and Germany declared war on Serbia and on the other side France, Russia, Italy and Britain alliated themselves with Serbia against Austria and Germany.

The World War I ended in 1918 and it was fought mostly in the trenches of northen France. New technologies were used such as aeroplanes, submarines, tanks and chemical weapons but a lot of men had died. An armistice and a peacy treaty were signed at Versailles and a League of Nations was founded at Geneva (today's United Nation) with the aim of keeping peace and controlling difficult political situations all over the world.

In this period Britain had also to face the Irish Question. In fact Ireland was under British control but she wanted to have a self-government. For this reason in 1916, when Britain was engaged to fight in the war, a group of republicans irishmen rebelled in Dublin. The revolt, called Easer Rising, was put down and some republicans were executed.

In 1919, after an election which proclaimed the victory of Sinn Féin, a War of Independance was led by IRA (Irish Republican Army) and Sinn Féin. It ended in 1921 with the establishment of the IRISH FREE STATE, an independent Ireland within the British Commonwealth. Only Ulster, or Northen Ireland, remained united with Britain and it was excluded from the Republic. This was not satisfactory to everyone and the IRA split in two factions: the Irish Free State Army, who accepted the treaty, and the Irregulars, who were in favour of a united and republican Ireland. But after the 1932 election, the new Prime Minister Eamon de Valera began to work towards the foundation of the Irish Republic Eire, which was officially created in 1937.

After War World I, in Britain prevailed a strong patriotism and hatred of the Germans.

Moreover, the inter-war years signed the rise of the Labour Party. In 1918, for the first time, all men aged twenty-one and women over thirty were allowed to vote. The voters were mostly workers and their votes increased the ranks of the trade unions. In 1924 the first LABOUR GOVERNMENT was created. It was more in line with working class aspirations than those of the upper and middle classes, in fact the Labour's growth brought to the disappearence of the Liberal Party which was mostly voted by the upper middle classes.

In 1926 a general strike demonstrated the non-revolutionary character of the British Labour Party and of the trade unions. Soldiers were used to break strikes and send men back to work. But when the mine-owners decided to reduce the coal-miners wages, a general strike ensued and union leaders were afraid that the strike might take a revolutionary turn. The strike continued for six months but at the end miners had to go back to work.

During the 1920s British commerce knew a strong competition, particularly from the United States and Japan, and the introduction of oil and hydro-electric power brought to a reduction of British coal exports. Moreover British trade, dependent on shipping, had suffered from war damage to the merchant fleet, the unemployment and the Wall Street Crash contributed to a Great Economic Depression

In this period Britain had also to face a WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT. In fact women had taken men's places in the factories, they became more independent and they asked for the achievement of the right to vote. After a lot of difficults, suffrage was finally granted to women over the thirty in 1918, and over the twenty-one in 1928.

The first half of the XXth century saw the transformation of the British Empire into the British  Commonwealth, an association of self-governing countries. This countries (Australia, New Zeland, Canada, Newfoundland, South Africa) had their own parliaments and they were autonomous Communities within the British Empire, as sanctioned by the Statue of Westminster (1931).

India refused to cooperate with Britain and she asked for independence. She was under the leadership of Gandhi who was against any kind of violence. Britain was forced to pass the Government of India Act (1935) which created a federation of provinces but in 1948 Britain left India which was divided into two indipendent states.

The treaty of peace of Versailles signed the end of the War World I and imposed impossible conditions on defeat Germany, despite she had a great economic crise. This economic crise helped the Nazi Party to rise to the power and then it began to invade the rest of Europe.

The League of Nations was thwarted by the United States and the Soviet Union and in the same time Japan, Germany and Italy left the League.

Britain was afraid and wanted to avoid another world war, while in Spain there was a civil war in which Hitler and Mussolini gave their support to General Francisco Franco, who was a right wings dictatorship of Spain.

In 1938 Germany expanded her power in Austria and most of Czechoslovakia.

Hitler promise that there would be no more expansion on Germany's part, but later Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia. Britain gave a guarantee support to Poland if Germany invaded. In 1939 France and Britain declared war on Germany.

World war II was more terrible and longer than the first.

Italy sides with Germany which occupied and defeated France and most of Europe. In Britain the brillant Prime Minister Winston Churchill kept up the national spirit.

For the first time the war was fight not only at sea and land but also at air. The British AIR FORCE won against German planes even if German bombs caused great damages to the towns of Britain and a lot of people were made homeless.

The conflict was extended not anly in Europe but all over the world and troops from countries of the Commonwealth joined the British. The intervention of the United States, following a Japanese air attack, and the Russian Campaign, which provided damages for Germany and Italy, were decisive to fight against Germany and her allies.

British, Canadian and US forces invaded Germany, which was obliged to surrender in 1945, and landed in Sicily, causing the fall of Mussolini's Fascist regime.

In 1945 United States dropped two atomic bombs on HIROSHIMA and NAGASAKI causing a lot of death, damages and the surrender of Japan.

The new technical innovations (such as gas and light) and the reduction of the prices caused an improvements in the living conditions of the lower class between 1970 and 1914 even if there was a wide gap between the working and the rouling classes, which had most of the nation's wealth.

The edwardian age (1901-1910) saw the culmination of the processes that had characterised British social life for the past two centuries: a widespread industrialisation, the growth of the urban areas, an increase in population, the extension of the transport network, the fusion of the land-owning class with industrialists and the growth of the Victorian ideal of respectability among the middle class.

The georgian age was the period of the Belle époque and people showed their wealth. But the world war I interruped this period and habits were changed. People began to smoke cigarettes instead of cigar, they attended less the church but they went to cinema and had free attitudes in sexual matters.

Two tendences were developped: the working class were beginning to acquire upper-class habits and the upper-class gradually abandoned the gentlemanly style and were in search for fun.

The inter-war years saw the spread of new inventions (plastic, artificial fibres, petrol, cars) and new residential suburbs developped along roads. The london underground (or "tube") consented people to move easily and speadly from the suburbs to the City.

Mass production, chain stores and advertising increased the diffusion of goods. People red newspapers and "yellow press",  which were dedicated to a literate but not very educated public.

This changing life style influenced also the family. Families became smaller because of the reduction of the number of children and the increase of divorces.

Women became more emancipated, they began to smoke and drink in public and to change their look. Sexual matters were freely discussed in public.

Attitudes were changing rapidly among writers, artists and intellectuals. At the beginning of the XXth century faith had been questioned in fact people found more dificult to believe in anything (be in religion, art, progress, science or philosophy).

Most of the poets who fought during the World War I denounced the cruelty of the fighting and attacked ideals of nationalism and heroism. A pacifist movement developped round such figures as the philosopher Bertrand Russel and groups of intellectuals.

Victorian optimism dissolved with the rise of various kind of pessimism. Some artists, such as Joseph Conrad, resorted to stoicism, a philosepher current which promoted that despite life's apparent meaninglessness, man has to go on living, and the individual's attempt to make sense of the world

The first decade of the XXth century knew an explosion of new ideas that would change man's idea of himself and of the universe.

In fact in 1905 the German physicist albert einstein published the theory of relativity by which objective reality and science were seen as a substitude for religion in giving a satisfactory explanation of the universe.

Moreover British artists and intellectuals were deeply influenced by the ideas of friedrich wilhelm netzche who proclaimed that abstract values (such as "the good", "the true", "the beautiful") were decadent. He was against the tendencies of modern democracies and his theory were later linked with Nazism anf Fascism.

The impact of psychianalysis had a fudamental importance. Sigmund freud, an Austrian doctor, began to explore new areas of sensibility: the unconscious, which was considered as a dynamic force originating in instinct and repressed desires.

Modernism in literature was represented by James Joyce, Thomas Eliot and Virginia Woolf. They used psychological analysis to show the complexity of human mind and they showed the unconscious in daily life. The stream of consciousness was a particular technique used to describe it and it tried to reproduce the continuos flow of the human thought.

During the 1930s the imponence of capitalist governments, the Nazi expansion, the economic depression and the poor conditions for workers, led the majority of intellectuals to turn to the political Left. Marxism took root and some intellectals went to Spain to fight for republicans against the monarchical dictatorship of General Franco.

The period 1910-1920 saw a proliferation of artistic movement thanks to the development of technology. The futurist movement celebrated the triumph of the "modern" over the "ancient"; speed and change were considered essential virtues for artists.

Pablo picasso was the founder of cubism, a visual art based on breaking the subject into pieces and then recomposing it geometrically.

In music Arnold Schönberg made a sound harsh and grating.

In 1916 Tristan Tzara founded the dadaism, a movement which denied progress and was against social conventions on cultivating violence and destructiveness. The movement had joined the Surrealists, the famous of whom was the painter salvador dalì, and lasted the mid-1920s.