History of the British Isles

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The history of the British Isles until a few hundred years ago was the history of several states that ruled different areas of Great Britain and Ireland . Therefore, there are separate history articles for the individual regions:

On the other hand, these areas have temporarily grown together, then also separated again, so that the history of the kingdom united under English rule is also available.

The Hadrian's Wall

However, so that an overview can also be obtained of developments that affected smaller sub-areas or a larger context, references to more comprehensive articles and short descriptions of overarching contexts are offered here:

Early middle ages

Heptarchy

King Arthur

Only a few members of the island peoples could read or write, so that the years between 400 AD and 800 AD are often referred to as the dark ages. There are virtually no written records from that time. Legends and sagas such as King Arthur's Round Table have their origins in this time.

Despite the almost four hundred years of occupation of the island, the Romans left little culture behind , apart from buildings and objects. First of all, their successors left their mark on the island in a more brutal and sustainable manner. Germanic tribes, Jutes , Angles and Saxons , plundered and murdered the area abandoned by the Romans and smothered the Roman life of the Celts in large areas . As a result, the new rulers founded seven smaller kingdoms, the so-called heptarchy, on what is now England and partly also Scotland :

The latter stretched from York up the east coast to what is now Edinburgh . It became the largest kingdom on this multi-ethnic island.

While the British had remained Christian and the mission via St. Patrick to Ireland and in the 6th century also reached Scotland , the Anglo-Saxons initially stuck to their Germanic paganism. With the conversion of the kings of Kent by Augustine in 597, the Christian age of England began, which reached its first climax with the work of Beda around 700.

Among the seven kingdoms, Northumbria dominated in the 7th century, which was replaced by the Mercias (under Offa ) in the 8th century , before the rise of Wessex began in the 9th century.

England

Beginning with the raid of Lindisfarne Abbey in 793, many more raids by the Vikings on England followed. At first there was only looting, but later the Vikings began to settle and trade in England. The area ruled by the Vikings was called Danelag (English Danelaw) and recognized from 884 by the other kingdoms. Today there are still many traces of the Vikings in England; for example there are still many words in the English language . The similarities between the old English language and the old Nordic language led to a great exchange. York was a Viking settlement that was then called Jórvík .

Alfred the Great faced the Danish threat and was able to defeat a large Danish army at Eddington in 878. But he agreed with them on the establishment of the Danelag (see above). He finally took London and thus gave the empire a center, while for the first time an English national consciousness (cf. Origin of England ) made itself felt. Alfred's successors created an administrative system in which sheriffs were crown officials at the head of a county , a shire , with several counties being grouped into an earldom under an earl .

King Æthelstan was able to drive the Cornwallers out of Exeter in 936 and drew a line on the outer edge of his kingdom of Wessex , on the River Tamar . He called himself Rex totius Britanniae (King of all British), but could only bring Wales and Scotland under loose suzerainty. In contrast, he conquered Northumbria permanently. After 930 his documents were made by a single firm in Winchester , which suggests a kind of capital of his kingdom.

King Æthelred , on the advice of Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury, was the first medieval ruler to introduce a general tax, the Danegeld . With it he paid 10,000 pounds (3,732 kg) silver tribute to the Vikings around 991 after the lost Battle of Maldon in Essex in order to buy their deduction. In 1002 he married the Norman duke's daughter Emma in anticipation of Norman support against the Vikings. In doing so, he laid the foundation for the later Norman conquest of England. He fled to Normandy from Sven Gabelbart in 1013 and died in 1016.

Wilhelm the conqueror

His successor was the Dane Canute the Great , who ruled England and Denmark in personal union (see North Sea region ). He married Æthelred's widow and converted to Christianity . In 1028 he conquered Norway . Its Christianization began with Anglo-Saxon priests.

With Eduard the Confessor (1042-1066) an Anglo-Saxon took over the English throne again. But he had lived in Normandy until he was 38 and preferred Norman nobles at his court. In some areas he prepared the rulership organization that the Norman kings would then enforce, in particular the direct royal appointment of clerics to administrative posts and bishop's seats based on the model of the Ottonian imperial church system.

Harold Godwinson achieved that Eduard chose him as his successor. At the Battle of Stamford Bridge he could a Norwegian invading army under Harald III. strike back. But just three weeks later, on October 14, 1066, the weakened British troops were defeated in the Battle of Hastings by the invading army under the leadership of William of Normandy (also called William I of England or William the Conqueror). The Normans introduced their effective leaning system . Wilhelm ordered the creation of the Domesday Book , which regulated the registration of taxes for the entire population, their lands and possessions. He also expropriated the Anglo-Saxon nobles and put Norman nobles in their place.

The English Middle Ages were marked by many civil wars, international wars, the occasional turmoil, and extensive political intrigue among the aristocracy and the royal upper classes. Heinrich I , also known as Heinrich Beauclerc, worked hard for reform, stabilized the country and smoothed the waves between the Anglo-Saxon and Norman classes. The loss of his son Wilhelm in 1120 was intended to undermine his reforms.

Thomas Becket - Window of Canterbury Cathedral

The reign of Stephen (1135-1154) was followed by a major change in the balance of power in the direction of feudal barons and England sank into civil war and lawlessness. The uprising and civil war lasted until 1148. Stephan could continue to rule unhindered until his death in 1154. In 1153 he reached an agreement with Henry of Anjou (later King Henry II of England), which guaranteed peace between them on the condition that the crown should pass into the possession of Henry. Heinrich II from the House of Plantagenet founded the Angevin Empire . Under his rule the kingship strengthened again, also in relation to the church. The Constitutions of Clarendon in 1164 led to resistance from Chancellor Thomas Becket , Archbishop of Canterbury, but he was murdered in 1170. The conquest of Ireland began in 1171. Richard the Lionheart fought successfully in the 3rd Crusade , but on his return by land he was captured by the Austrian Duke Leopold V and Heinrich VI. After a large ransom was paid for his release in 1194 and he returned to his empire, he fought successfully against Philip II of France, but failed to recapture all of the territories that had been lost in his absence. This is how the Angevin Empire began to shrink. In the following years Richard concentrated on dealing with the rebellious nobility in Aquitaine. During the siege of Chalus Castle he was hit by a crossbow bolt and died on April 6, 1199. His brother Johann Ohneland took over the rule . When he lost an even larger part of his land holdings in the Battle of Bouvines (1214), the nobility defied a number of concessions that are laid down in the Magna Carta of 1215. Admittedly, this Carta did not affect government practice until Henry III. stronger because the latter had received decisive support from the nobility after the conquest of London by the French and therefore included them more in its government decisions.

Wales

Wales was divided into a multitude of small areas in the early Middle Ages and it was rare for a ruler to unite the entire area, as Rhodri Mawr did during the 9th century. Rhodri's grandson Hywel Dda was able to create a common law, but after his death the land was divided again. A legal practice that had been adopted from Celtic times led to constant feuds, namely the right of inheritance of all sons, including the illegitimate.

Scotland

For a long time it was assumed that the Picts had been destroyed by the invading forces of the Scots , Britons , Angles and Vikings . There are now many indications against this assumption. In post-Roman times there were several Pictish kingdoms in the Scottish area. In the 6th century, Gaelic-speaking Irish settled in what is now Argyll in the west and founded the Kingdom of Dalriada (Dal Riata) there. In the seventh century, however, the Picts increasingly opposed the advance of the Gaelic Dalriadians.

Kenneth MacAlpin , the Scotic King of Dalriada, was finally named King of the Picts around 843. For the first time the two peoples were united and a single ruling king ruled over most of what is now Scotland. This region was initially called the Alba, and Kenneth and subsequent kings continued to be referred to as the 'Kings of the Picts' for the next 60 years.

Bagpiper in the Highlands

In the almost two hundred years that followed, Alba was ruled by a number of kings. The succession was decided by the tradition of the tanistry , that is, a member of the royal family was previously appointed to this office of the new king. (see designation )

Under the successors of Kenneth MacAlpin, the Picts and the Scots slowly became a unified people. The new kingdom was very unevenly structured. The Lowlands were organized according to the Anglo-Norman feudal system . In the Highlands, however, the patriarchal clan structures of Celtic origin persisted . Because of the continuing bloody raids by the Vikings and the clashes with the highland clans, the Scottish rulers were only able to maintain their independence from their English neighbors with difficulty. England gained more and more influence through cleverly arranged marriages with the Scottish royal family.

Ireland

Early Christian Ireland from 450 to around 800 with an independent Celtic church was a leader in Europe through education and culture and developed an extensive missionary culture. Irish missionaries served all over Western Europe. St. Gallen (approx. 750) is one of the most important founding monasteries . Since Ireland was called “Scotia Major” in Latin , these monks were also called “Scots” or “Iro Scots”. The Schottenstift in Vienna is one of the founding monasteries of the “Schotten” . The Book of Kells manuscript is one of the most important works of art of that time that is still preserved today.

Book of Kells

Political disagreement and Viking raids (since 795) heralded the end of this period. The Vikings came from Norway, had already settled Orkney and Shetland , and then reached Ireland. After the initial raids, they began to build permanent settlements. These were the first actual cities in Ireland, from which z. B. Dublin , Wexford and Waterford emerged .

The end result of many wars was a strengthening and eventual domination of Tara over the rest of Ireland, in which the Vikings in Ireland also lost their independence. The end of the 10th century saw a return to a united Irish government under the High King Brian Boru , who became sole and undisputed ruler of Ireland in 1002 and defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 .

The unified Ireland experienced a period of relative peace in the following 150 years and made advances in art and culture (literature, manuscripts, buildings in Romanesque and Gothic styles). This time ended with the invasion of the Normans under Henry II in 1169, which was triggered and promoted by conflicts within Ireland.

From the High Middle Ages to the early modern period

England

The claim of Edward III. on the French throne was the trigger for the Hundred Years War , which officially came to an end in 1453. The conflict developed in several phases, with significant fighting such as the Battle of Crécy and the Battle of Azincourt . However, it strained the state budget while the bubonic plague , which spread across Europe, reached England in 1349, killing about a third of the population. The subsequent failures in the Hundred Years' War were one of the reasons for the Wars of the Roses , a decades-long conflict between the House of Lancaster and House of York over the crown. This ended with the victory of Henry Tudor, Henry VII , in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

Henry VIII of England

King Henry VIII fell out with the Roman Catholic Church because of his divorce from Catherine of Aragon . Although his religious position was not necessarily Protestant , the schism resulted in England's final turning away from the Roman Church . A notable victim of the schism was Heinrich's Chancellor Thomas Moore ( Thomas More ). A time of great religious and political unrest followed, which led to the Reformation , the royal expropriation of monasteries and the riches of the churches.

Heinrich's daughters, Maria I and Elisabeth I , professed completely different positions. Their reigns (especially the Marias) were marked by religious persecution. The Catholic Maria was married to Philip II from Spain, which is also strictly Catholic. She was crowned in 1553. Her determined attempts to suppress Protestantism after she took office earned her the nickname "Bloody Mary".

Wales and Cornwall

Under their last Prince Owain Glyndŵr , the Welsh made another attempt to shake off English rule, but his invasion of England in 1405 (near Worcester ) was unsuccessful despite French support, as was his guerrilla war , which he continued until 1412.

In 1497 Michael An Gof led Cornish rebels in a march on London. In a battle on the River Ravensbourne at the Battle of Deptford Bridge , An Gof and his men fought for Cornwall's independence on June 17, 1497, but were defeated. This fight was the last major rebellion before the Civil War .

Scotland

1157 ceded Malcolm IV. "The Maiden" (1153–1165), Northumbria to Henry II . His brother William I (1165-1214) was forced to submit to the English feudal rule. Alexander II (1214–1249) then managed to restore the royal authority domestically and internationally to a limited extent, but he lost the rich Scottish possessions on English soil. His son Alexander III. finally defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Largs in 1263. During his reign, the Scots began to see themselves as a unified people.

But even under Edward I of England , Scotland came under English law and administration. Thereupon Scotland formed the Auld Alliance with France for mutual support against the common enemy England.

Robert Bruce before the Battle of Bannockburn

Then the Scottish struggle for independence began . In 1297 William Wallace destroyed an army of Edward I with around 10,000 knights at the Battle of Stirling Bridge , but he was executed in London in 1305. This is how he became a Scottish martyr and national hero. Then Robert the Bruce defeated in 1314 in the Battle of Bannockburn with 8,000 men about 24,000 English under Edward II. In 1328 the independence of Scotland was achieved by the English King Edward III. recognized in the Edinburgh and Northampton Agreement .

During the Wars of the Roses , which weakened England, Scotland flourished comparatively. But it was drawn into unsuccessful wars with England by France and Spain (see Battle of Flodden Field ). Since the Reformation there has also been an ecclesiastical element in these international relations. Because the Pope did not accept the divorce from his wife Catherine of Aragon , the English King Henry VIII of Rome split up in 1534 . (see England)

The Pope tried to bring Scotland under his influence in order to win a base for the Counter-Reformation under the leadership of Spain or France. In order to forestall this, Henry VIII offered the young Jacob V his daughter Maria (later Mary "the Catholic") as his wife. But in 1537 he married Madeleine, a daughter of the French king Franz I and in second marriage Marie de Guise . This led to a conflict with Henry VIII and in 1542, a few days after the Battle of Solway Moss , Jacob died. His only legitimate child, Mary , who was just six days old , succeeded him.

Ireland

In 1171 Henry II declared himself King of Ireland and distributed lands as fiefs to Anglo-Norman barons. With the consolidation of Anglo-Norman supremacy, the first central administration of Ireland (especially under King John Ohneland (John Lackland) 1199-1216) and the founding of many cities went hand in hand. Many of Ireland's major cathedrals also date from this period. Only in the southwest and northwest did Irish princes retain control of some remote principalities.

In 1297 the first Irish parliament was established. In the course of the 14th century there were several uprisings in Ireland against English sovereignty, which flared up especially in Connacht . During the Hundred Years War and the Wars of the Roses that followed , English influence waned. Although the Poynings' Law, created under Henry VII in 1494, made the decisions of the Irish Parliament dependent on the approval of the English king, England actually only exercised direct rule over the Pale , a strip of land in the east of Ireland.

In 1542, under Henry VIII , Ireland was placed directly under the English crown. In addition, all church property on the Irish island was confiscated. Both the Irish and most of the settlers from the Anglo-Norman era stayed with the Catholic faith. Edward VI. feared that foreign powers like Spain could play the predominantly Catholic Ireland against England and began with the targeted settlement of English in the area outside the Pale. This led to uprisings in 1568 and 1579, but it was not until Hugh O'Neill , with Spanish support, that he was able to raise an army. In 1595 a rebellion broke out in Ulster , which quickly spread to the whole of Ireland and was not put down until 1603.

The road to the UK

England

Under Elizabeth I (1558–1603) England rose to become the strongest sea power. This necessarily happened in conflict with Spain, which had been leading up to that point . But the support of English piracy and the attacks on colonies and silver transports had to provoke Spain particularly, especially since Elisabeth reintroduced Protestantism with the Supreme Act of 1559. The Spanish attempted an invasion of England in 1588 , but the disastrous Spanish Armada was defeated by a combination of naval battles and inclement weather.

After Elizabeth's death, the English crown fell to King James VI. of Scotland . When James I (1603-1625) he united the two countries in 1603 in personal union and called himself since 1604 as King of Great Britain . This personal union meant the end of Scottish independence, even if it was still a century before the Anschluss. England was economically and politically several times stronger than Scotland.

Charles I of England

Jacob was a Protestant and his succession to the throne, unlike that of his Catholic mother Maria Stuart , was undisputed, but he was also a staunch supporter of absolutism . He therefore inevitably came into conflict with the English parliament , which had been increasingly involved in political decisions for about 300 years. This conflict should only under his successor, of course I Charles are held.

Because the Irish uprising of 1595 had started from Ulster , Jacob settled there on a large scale Protestant English and Scottish settlers. In doing so, he did indeed achieve greater loyalty in this region to the British Crown; on the other hand, he created the long-term religious conflict in the province.

Jacob's successor Charles I (1625–1649) came into conflict with parliament because of his Catholic marriage and his tax collection without parliamentary approval. This demanded in 1628 in the Petition of Rights the express confirmation of his rights. Because he was in financial difficulties because of his participation in the Thirty Years War , the king officially agreed, but he dissolved parliament in 1629 and ruled completely absolutist from then on. But in 1640 he had to convene parliament again to finance the fight against religious unrest in Scotland. The short and the immediately following Long Parliament were marked by frequent conflicts with the Crown .

Finally in 1642 the civil war broke out; Oliver Cromwell emerged from it as leader and victor. He fought together with the Puritans and the petty nobles ("Commons") against the Lords and the King. This was followed by a brief republican phase ( Commonwealth of England ) between 1649, the year of the execution of Charles I, and 1660 , which was de facto a Cromwell military dictatorship . With the navigation act of 1651, this laid an important basis for the naval rule of England. After his death in 1658, his son Richard Cromwell took over power for a short time , but he could not hold out, so that in 1660 Charles II was called into the country. Karl promised general religious freedom, but then had to grant a preference for Protestants in the test file in 1673 . In 1679 he issued the Habeas Corpus Act under pressure from Parliament . It was very popular with the people and ensured a short period of peace and cultural prosperity.

His successor Jacob II (1685–1688), as a Catholic, repealed the test act and was therefore deposed by parliament. In his place, his evangelical son-in-law William of Orange (1689-1702) was called into the country, who accepted the constitutional restriction of the king's power in the Bill of Rights (1689).

Scotland

James I moved to London and came to Scotland only once during his reign (1617). He tried to fill new offices with English and Scots equally and to promote a more extensive union between the two states. But he soon had to give it up in favor of greater participation by the English.

Jacob's second son, Charles I , was born in Scotland, but grew up in England and was not very familiar with Scottish conditions when he ascended the throne in 1625. The greatest problems in dealing with Scotland caused him his full adherence to the divine right of the crown and his attempt to enforce the episcopal Anglican church order in Scotland, which had been Calvinist reformed since 1560 , in which the Church of Scotland rejected an episcopal hierarchy in favor of the presbyterial church constitution.

In 1638 the reformed Scottish nobility and bourgeoisie united in the so-called National Covenant , in which they demanded the independence of the new, reformed church from secular influences and the abolition of the old hierarchies in favor of a presbytery. The members of the movement have called themselves " Covenanters " since then .

Charles I encountered similar resistance in England. During the civil war, the English parliament signed a "Solemn League and Covenant" to get the support of the Scots. This act obliged the Covenanters to introduce Presbyterianism in England and Ireland and also to pay a large sum of money. Nevertheless, under James Graham , the Earl of Montrose , a royalist force was formed in the Highlands in Scotland , which bitterly fought the Covenanters, but never gained the support of the Lowlands and was dissolved with the defeat of the king.

At first the majority of Scots fought for the cause of the English Parliament, but so many were outraged by the execution of the king in 1649 that they proclaimed his son Charles II king in Edinburgh and enthroned him at Scone in 1651 . He was supposed to be the last king to be crowned there.

The coronation brought Oliver Cromwell on the scene in Scotland: in 1650/51 he defeated the Scots with his elite troops, the Ironsides , first at Dunbar and later again at Worcester in England. Karl had to flee to France. Scotland was then occupied by Cromwell.

By 1654 his General Monk also stifled the last royalist resistance in the highlands. But in 1660 Monk's newly convened parliament ensured the restoration of the monarchy by inviting Charles II to ascend the English throne. His successor James II met resistance because of his Catholic faith. After the installation of William of Orange , there was a series of revolts in the Scottish Highlands by the Jacobites , the followers of Jacob and the Stuart dynasty.

Ireland

Under King Charles I the economic situation improved and Thomas Wentworth , who was appointed Lord Deputy in Ireland in 1632 , accommodated the Catholics. When Charles I had him executed in 1641 under pressure from Parliament, the Gaelic Irish rose in Ulster and killed several thousand English settlers. In the civil war , the Irish sided with the royalists. Gaelic Irish, "Old English" and royalist English settlers founded the Confederation of Kilkenny in 1642 , which sought a Catholic, loyal Ireland. Their troops succeeded in conquering a large part of the Irish island, but Ulster and Dublin were held by British loyal to parliament. Resettled in Ireland, Presbyterian Scots joined the Confederation of Kilkenny in 1648. After the victory in England, Oliver Cromwell undertook a punitive expedition against insurgent Ireland, which was completed in 1652.

Numerous captured insurgents were shipped to the Caribbean as slaves (one of the rarer examples of Christian slave exports), while a significant portion of the Gaelic landowners were expropriated in favor of Republican soldiers. Tens of thousands of parliamentary veterans settled mainly in Ulster. Cromwell ordered that the Gaelic Irish were only allowed to settle west of the River Shannon .

Charles II sympathized with the Catholic faith, but issued England preferential trade laws, so that Ireland had to conduct its foreign trade largely through England. In the fight against the Jacobites in 1695, William of Orange passed laws that led to a further concentration of property among Protestant English, Scots and Catholic "Old English".

The Union

After the death of William of Orange , his sister-in-law Anne (1702–1714) took over the rule again in personal union . As a result, Scotland was offered full political union with England in 1706 . Fear of worse conditions in the event of refusal led to the Scottish Parliament accepting the offer. England and Scotland were united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain under the Act of Union 1707 . Anne became the first "British" Queen, the Parliament of England was converted into the Parliament of Great Britain and 45 Scottish MPs were added. Customs duties were no longer imposed on the border between the two countries. However, English law was not transferred to Scotland and some Scottish institutions were not merged with their English counterparts; these include the Bank of Scotland and the Church of Scotland .

Kingdom of Great Britain (1707-1800)

Robert Walpole

Queen Anne (1702–1714) soon became involved in the War of the Spanish Succession , which ended in 1713 after the Tories won the elections . The Protestant succession to the throne was established by the Act of Settlement in 1701, so that after Anne's death the crown fell to George I from the House of Hanover ( Welfen ). Robert Walpole , the first senior prime minister , resigned in 1742 during the reign of George II (1727-1760). Great Britain intervened under Prime Minister William Pitt, the Elder, in the Seven Years War (1756–1763). In it it won the French colonies in North America.

But this soon proved to be a loss. When George III. (1760-1820) tried to compensate for the high war costs of tax increases in the overseas colonies, the North American colonies revolted in the American War of Independence (1775-1783). After its end, William Pitt the Younger became Prime Minister at the age of only 24.

The loss of the American colonies certainly proved to be an advantage for Great Britain's position in Europe. While the continent was held in suspense by the French Revolution , Britain was led by the Industrial Revolution . In the dispute with Napoleon Bonaparte , the British got the upper hand in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The Continental System from 1806 adjourned the UK better than the continent. The loss of the American colonies was less of a problem than feared because of the introduction of free trade . Industrial development brought export opportunities that soon exceeded the earnings from the slave trade , so that it could be banned in 1807. While Napoleon overwhelmed his forces in the conflict with Russia in 1812 , Great Britain held back after its success in the British-American War (also 1812) and was able to intervene decisively in the wars of liberation on the continent (1813-1815).

Events in Ireland

Impressed by the American Revolutionary War , the Irish demanded more rights. With success: Ireland was given the right to free trade and its own parliament . The events of the French Revolution radicalized the Irish. The "Society of the United Irishmen", which was composed of members of all religious communities, called for an end to the British occupation. Their leader Theobald Wolfe Tone called for the abolition of laws that openly discriminated against the Catholic majority. In 1797 there was another major uprising in Ireland. Napoleon supported the Irish with a fleet, but this too was soon defeated.

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Queen Victoria

As a result, the government under William Pitt the Younger decided to end Ireland's formal independence for good. Ireland was annexed to the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Act of Union 1800 . The legal unity of Great Britain and Ireland was completed on January 1, 1801. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created . Ireland sent around 100 MPs to the House of Commons and 28 peers to the House of Lords .

The foreign trade problems due to the continental blockade and the lack of social security for the workers led to revolts by the machine attackers ( Luddites ). In the course of the conflict, the Peterloo massacre broke out in 1819 .

Social reforms

But under George IV. (1820-1830) in 1842 were trade unions (Trade Unions) allowed again, leading to a reform-oriented development on the part of the workers' movement led as part of the government. Under William IV (1830-1837), who was open to reforms, a House of Commons reform (redistribution of constituencies from the south ( rotten boroughs ) to the densely populated industrial cities of the north) and in 1833 a factory law to restrict child labor was introduced. Further reform laws followed (including the Poor Law of 1834) and were continued under Queen Victoria with the introduction of the 10-hour day and the centralization of the health system in 1848.

In 1838 the People's Charter was drawn up and the Chartist Movement was founded, which raised equal suffrage for all men and other political demands. They did not enforce their demands directly, but in the long term a lot was changed in their favor. So were z. B. from 1851 supra-regional professional associations formed. 1846 the Cabinet abolished Robert Peel , the Corn Laws in accordance with the wishes of the workers and the industrialists, and decided to order for free trade . Thereupon a wing of the Tory party split off under Benjamin Disraeli , who represented the interests of the large landowners.

From 1830 an increased emigration to the colonies began (especially to the Cape Colony (South Africa), Canada, Australia and New Zealand). Therefore, the white settlement colonies were given self-government rights in 1865. In the period from 1846 to 1851 there was a great famine in Ireland due to poor potato harvests , which was exacerbated by the then prevailing economic-political orthodoxy of laissez-faire . During this time, around 1 million people starved to death and around 2 million emigrated.

In 1865/67 there were uprisings in Ireland led by the Fenian League . In 1867 Disraeli carried out the second reform of the electoral law, which increased the number of voters from 1.4 to 2.5 million, but continued to deprive rural workers of the right to vote. In 1869, Ireland's Anglican Church was abolished as a state church and the Irish Parliamentary Party of Charles Stewart Parnell , which advocated self-governing Ireland within the United Kingdom ( Home Rule ), reached around 60 seats in the House of Commons from the 1870s.

Entry into the phase of imperialism

Benjamin Disraeli

The entry of Great Britain into this new imperialist age can be fixed for the year 1875. At that time, the conservative Disraeli government bought the Egyptian ruler Ismail's stake in the Suez Canal Company for 4 million pounds in order to secure this strategically important trade route to India. Joint British-French financial control of Egypt ended with the formal occupation by Great Britain in 1882.

Fear of Russia's southern expansion was another factor in British politics. In 1878 the island of Cyprus was occupied as a reaction to a Russian attack on the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean War from 1854 to 1856. Afghanistan was also occupied temporarily in order to reduce Russian influence there. Britain waged three bloody and unsuccessful wars against insurgents and holy warriors in Afghanistan. The first Anglo-Afghan war ended in one of the most devastating defeats of the Victorian era, when the British army was almost completely wiped out when retreating from Kabul in 1842 by Pashtun tribes armed with Russian weapons. The second Anglo-Afghan war resulted in a devastating defeat at Maiwand in 1880 , the siege of Kabul by the Afghans and the British retreat to India . In the third Anglo-Afghan war of 1919, the British were finally expelled. The Great Game for supremacy in Central Asia ended with a bloody, unsuccessful and completely unnecessary British invasion of Tibet in 1903 and 1904.

At the same time, powerful interest groups from business and politics came to the view that the formation of a “formal” empire was necessary in order to stop the loss of importance in the world markets. Above all Joseph Chamberlain advocated vehemently. During the 1890s, the new imperialism became the guiding principle of British politics. Great Britain soon took on the pioneering role in the division of Africa . So the new imperialism did not emerge from a position of strength, but was rather a consequence of fear of economic loss.

On the way to the Labor Party, Home Rule and the restriction of the rights of the House of Lords

William Ewart Gladstone

In 1884 the third law amending the electoral law was passed, according to which only one parliamentary seat was allocated in each constituency. William Ewart Gladstone , as leader of the Liberal Party Disraeli opponent, campaigned vigorously for Home Rule , an autonomy of Ireland. This led to the split in the Liberal Party in 1886, the leader of the unionist faction was Joseph Chamberlain . The Fabian Society , formed in 1883, joined forces with the Independent Labor Party, founded in 1893. From 1906 the alliance was called the Labor Party .

Prime Minister to Gladstone:
Earl of Rosebery | Marquess of Salisbury | Arthur Balfour | Henry Campbell-Bannerman | Herbert Henry Asquith | David Lloyd George

In 1901 Edward VII succeeded his mother Victoria on the throne. He did not interfere in government affairs. In 1902 Great Britain gave up its freedom of association, splendid isolation and concluded a naval alliance with Japan, and in 1904 the entente cordiale with France.

In 1910 Georg V succeeded his father Eduard. The rights of the House of Lords were restricted in 1911 ( Parliament Act ). After it had contradicted the home rule templates of the House of Commons several times , it decided that such a contradiction could only have a suspensive effect. In 1914, the year the World War began, the Home Rule Act was passed.

First World War and Irish Independence

Entry into the war was approved by all parties with the exception of a Labor Party group led by Ramsay MacDonald . So in 1915 an all-party government was formed. At its head was David Lloyd George , who wanted to achieve a broad coalition government by including the Conservatives. But Asquith's supporters went into opposition, so that the Liberal Party was split. In the years that followed, Lloyd George achieved an almost dictatorial position in the cabinet and pursued a war policy aimed at the complete defeat of the German Reich. At Easter 1916 there was an uprising in Ireland, which was suppressed but resulted in a guerrilla war lasting several years . Sinn Féin , although only insignificantly involved in the uprising, became the reservoir for the independence movement. In the general election of 1918, Sinn Féin won 80% of the Irish seats and formed the First Dáil , the first Irish parliament since 1801. Éamon de Valera was elected President of the Republic of Ireland, and a parallel government and administrative structure began . The British government immediately declared the Dail illegal. The following Anglo-Irish War (1919–1921) led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, which guaranteed independence from Great Britain for 26 of the 32 Irish counties . From the provinces of Munster , Leinster and Connaught , and three of the nine counties of Ulster who was Irish Free State (Engl. Irish Free State) formed. The six northern counties of Ulster form Northern Ireland and remained part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland .

Ireland's constitutional ties to Great Britain gradually dissolved until the Republic of Ireland was established in 1949 . Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom and the official name was changed to "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".

Interwar period

In 1924 the Labor Party under Ramsay MacDonald formed the government with a minority cabinet, but in the same year, following new elections with Stanley Baldwin , the Conservatives took over the office of prime minister again. The Liberals were so weakened in this election that they have not appointed a Prime Minister to this day. In 1926, the miners' strike expanded into a general strike , but it soon collapsed, weakening the unions.

With the establishment of Dominions , the end of the British Empire was heralded. Women were given the right to vote from the age of 21.

In 1929 the Labor Party became the strongest party for the first time, but it soon had to give up its minority government in favor of an all-party government . Resistance from parliamentarians led to party division tendencies. The Westminster Statute of December 11, 1931 confirmed the Dominion status established in 1926. From 1933 onwards there was an economic upswing, particularly in the automotive and electrical industries, but unemployment remained high. The government was therefore interested in limiting the costs of armaments and therefore agreed to a British-German fleet agreement in 1935 , in which the ratio of the fleets was set at 35: 100 (D: GB).

The reputation of the monarchy was damaged when Edward VIII insisted on marrying an American woman who had already been divorced twice. In 1936 he was forced to abdicate.

In the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, Great Britain pursued a strict policy of non-interference, which was manifested in the August 1936 Non-Interference Agreement. It banned military support for both parties in the civil war. From the beginning, however, the agreement was consistently undermined by the fascist powers Italy and Germany, so that it primarily benefited the rebels and harmed the republic.

In order not to endanger the relationship with Germany, which improved in 1935, Great Britain approved the German invasion of the demilitarized Rhineland in 1936, although this contradicted the Treaty of Versailles and in 1938 accepted the annexation of Austria to Germany. In the course of his appeasement policy , Neville Chamberlain even campaigned for the adoption of the Munich Agreement of 1938, which obliged Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Germany. It was only when Hitler invaded Prague, contrary to his promises, in March 1939, that the United Kingdom promised Poland , Greece and Romania military support in the event of a German invasion. In April 1939, therefore, general conscription was reintroduced.

Second World War

Churchill 1944

Upon the German invasion of Poland, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany. But the military preparations had not yet progressed very far, so that military setbacks quickly occurred ( Dunkerque ). The British invasion plans in Scandinavia were also thwarted by the German invasion of Denmark and Norway .

In May 1940, Winston Churchill , who had been a cabinet member since 1939 and had long warned against the appeasement policy, became Prime Minister. But he too suffered further setbacks. France capitulated in June 1940 and the United Kingdom was isolated. But Churchill mobilized all the forces in the country for the war, so that a planned German invasion of Great Britain could be prevented by a successful air war . Although Coventry , large parts of London and other cities were destroyed in German air strikes and over 32,000 civilians were killed, Hitler had to give up the invasion. The situation eased somewhat when the United States supported Great Britain with war material in early 1941 ( Lending and Lease Act of March 11, 1941). Also in 1941, compulsory service for women aged 20 to 30 was introduced, which in 1942 was extended to 18 to 50 years.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, large parts of the British Empire in Southeast Asia were occupied by the Japanese and Churchill's position wavered, but strengthened again as the military situation improved in the fall of 1942. On December 1, 1942 Lord William Henry Beveridge presented a report on the establishment of the welfare state .

From the end of 1942 onwards there were military successes, on the one hand in the North African campaign under the leadership of General Bernard Montgomery , on the other hand in the invasion of Sicily and Italy in 1943, finally in the invasion of France in 1944 and the final defeat of Germany in 1945.

Post-war period (1945–1951)

After the Second World War , the United Kingdom became a great power of the second order and gradually lost its empire and then its supremacy in the Commonwealth of Nations .

Despite the military victory, the Conservatives were voted out of office in 1945 and Clement Attlee became premier. He began some nationalizations (civil aviation company, Bank of England , coal mining, transportation, gas and electricity supply and - particularly controversial - iron and steel industry) and in 1946 introduced comprehensive social security legislation and the National Health Service .

In 1947 India left the Empire and the United Kingdom joined GATT at the urging of the USA . From 1948 it received help from the Marshall Plan . In the same year it gave up the administration of the mandated area of ​​Palestine and gave Ceylon and Burma, now Myanmar , independence. Also in 1948 the principle of one man, one vote was introduced and the double right to vote for owners and academics was abolished.

Conservative Governments (1951–1964)

When the Conservatives re-appointed Prime Minister Winston Churchill, they left social legislation untouched and only withdrew the nationalization of the iron and steel industry. Years of economic boom followed with high growth rates in residential construction. The coronation celebrations for Elizabeth II in 1953 stood for overcoming the restrictions of the post-war period, which had lasted longer on the island than in the losing state of (West) Germany, for example with food rationing .

In autumn 1956, Prime Minister Anthony Eden (1897–1977) embarked on the adventure of occupying the Suez Canal area together with France as in the old days of the Empire , but it became clear that no policy against the joint pressure of the Soviet Union and the USA was possible. So on January 9, 1957, Eden resigned. His successor Harold Macmillan (1894–1986) led the United Kingdom to EFTA in 1960 and released a number of colonies into independence ( Ghana , Nigeria , Somalia , Tanzania , Sierra Leone , Uganda , Kenya , Malaysia , Cyprus and Jamaica ). In 1961 he submitted an application to join the EC (now the EU ), which failed in 1963 due to a veto by Charles de Gaulle . MacMillan's successor, Alec Douglas-Home , was narrowly defeated by Labor Party leader Harold Wilson (1916-1995) in the October 1964 general election .

From Inflation to the Winter of Discontent (1964–1979)

Wilson was ultimately only able to end a weak phase of the pound sterling in 1967 by devaluing (14.3%) despite international support from the national banks. Even joining the EC (now the EU ) in 1973 under the conservative Edward Heath did not release inflationary pressures . In 1974 there were two general elections (one in February, one in October): the hung parliament after the British general election on February 28, 1974 elected Harold Wilson (1916–1995) Prime Minister. This subsidized basic food, issued a rent freeze and lowered the value added tax ("VAT" = Value added tax) by two percentage points ( Keynesianism - Deficit spending ). Wilson did not find a stable parliamentary majority; he called new elections in September. These took place on October 10, 1974 ; Wilson got a very slim majority of the House of Commons seats. Inflationary pressures were compounded by the high propensity to strike of the trade unions , particularly miners in 1974.

The Labor governments of Wilson and James Callaghan that followed Heath were unable to solve the problems even with price and wage controls. In addition, unemployment rose to 1.3 million in 1977, its highest level since 1939. In order to stimulate the economy, Callaghan wanted to curb the rise in wages. He was able to get his ideas through for four years, but for a fifth time the British trade unions refused to accept this measure. After a long series of strikes in the winter of 1978/79 (known as the Winter of Discontent ), the rule was reversed. On March 28, 1979, Callaghan lost a vote of no confidence . In the subsequent new elections on May 3, 1979 , the Conservative Party emerged victorious. Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister (and would remain so until 1990).

The Thatcher Era (1979–1990)

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher , the first female prime minister in the United Kingdom, based her economic policy on US President Ronald Reagan with a very business-friendly economic policy and consistently fought against the power of the trade unions. After the victory in the Falklands War in 1982, it had enough support in parliament and in the population to victoriously end a year-long miners' strike under the leader Arthur Scargill on March 3, 1985 and then to severely curtail the rights of the trade unions through harsh legislation. In 1984 she provided for them using the famous saying “What we are asking for is a very large amount of our own money back!” (German: “What we are demanding is a very large amount of our own money back!”) Creation of the so-called British discount , which guarantees the United Kingdom a discount on contributions to the EU. With the introduction of a new local tax system , the poll tax , Thatcher also overstrained the loyalty of her party members and had to resign on November 22, 1990. This ended the longest running term of prime minister of Great Britain since the Napoleonic Wars after eleven years.

Your Conservative successor John Major was in spite of solid work in its shadow, was at times due to inflation and unemployment the most unpopular prime minister of the post-war period (14% in survey results) and was based on a revision Development of the Labor Party - under Neil Kinnock , John Smith and Tony Blair - to New Labor suffered a heavy electoral defeat on May 1, 1997.

New Labor (1997-2010)

Tony Blair

Tony Blair introduced job creation programs and minimum wages on the one hand , but he also pursued industry- friendly deregulation , including greater independence for the Bank of England. He also made himself popular through his quick reaction to the death of the popular Princess Diana , the queen of hearts , especially since the royal family exercised disconcerting restraint among the people.

Successes were also his introduction of regional parliaments in Scotland and Wales in 1999 and the Northern Ireland Agreement of April 10, 1998. The fact that this was not a lasting success, but had to be reinstated by the direct rule of the London government on February 11, 2000, did less to his popularity Termination as his unconditional approval of the third Gulf War , which was proclaimed by US President George W. Bush as an anti-terror war . Because the majority of the population was clearly against the war. Nevertheless, he was able to prevail both in national elections and against his internal party competitors. In the general election of 2005 Labor won an absolute majority again despite considerable losses and thus continued to provide Prime Minister Tony Blair. In 2007, however, there was a change at the top of Labor, as Blair was coming under increasing pressure in foreign and domestic politics due to the Iraq war, he handed over the chairmanship of the party to the previous Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown , who succeeded him as Prime Minister on June 27.

Conservative victory and EU referendum (from 2010)

David Cameron

After the 2010 general election , Labor lost a majority to the opposition Tories, which, however, could not achieve an absolute majority of seats. Thereupon, the chairman of the Tories, David Cameron, entered into a coalition with the Liberal Democrats under Nick Clegg, which is unusual for British standards , and on May 11, 2010 finally became the new British Prime Minister, Clegg Deputy Prime Minister. In the general election on May 7, 2015 , the Conservatives, led by Cameron, almost won an absolute majority of the parliamentary seats (with a 36.9% share of the vote), contrary to all prognoses and opinion polls before the election. Cameron was able to form an all-conservative government after the election.

Former British Prime Minister Theresa May

On September 18, 2014, a referendum was held on whether Scotland would remain in the United Kingdom and its membership in the United Kingdom was confirmed. In a referendum on whether the United Kingdom should remain in the European Union on June 23, 2016, 51.9 percent of those who voted voted in favor of leaving the European Union . David Cameron announced his resignation until October. After all, on July 13, his party colleague Theresa May took over government affairs with her first cabinet .

Modern states

literature

  • Davies, Norman: The Isles , Oxford University Press 1999, ISBN 0-19-513442-7
  • Simon Schama : A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World, 3500 BC – 1603 AD , BBC / Miramax, 2000 ISBN 0-7868-6675-6
  • Simon Schama: A History of Britain, Volume 2: The Wars of the British 1603–1776 , BBC / Miramax, 2001 ISBN 0-7868-6675-6
  • Simon Schama: A History of Britain - The Complete Collection on DVD , BBC 2002

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b BBC History: Jim Donelly; The Irish Famine
  2. ↑ Edward J. O'Boyle: CLASSICAL ECONOMICS AND THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE: A STUDY IN LIMITS Forum for Social Economics, Vol 35, No. 2, of 2006.. (PDF, 114 kB) .
  3. ↑ Ángel Viñas (1987): The international context , In: Tuñón de Lara, Manuel et al (ed.): The Spanish Civil War. An inventory , Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, ​​pp. 187–295.
  4. ↑ spiegel.de September 30, 1974: England: The next crisis? - With the elections to the House of Commons on October 10th, Harold Wilson wants at least to end the parliamentary stalemate. But these elections, the second of this year, could just as easily lead to a new draw and prolong Britain's perennial crisis even further: England's voters, plagued by apathy, despair and self-pity, no longer trust the parties and their leaders with anything.
  5. ↑ Brexit - but without Cameron. Referendum result. In: tagesschau.de. Tagesschau (ARD) , June 24, 2016, accessed on June 24, 2016 .