Pre-Roman Britain
Though the scribes that accompanied the Roman invaders of Britain gave
the country its history of the land that came to be known as England,
its history had already been written in its ancient monuments and archeological
findings. Present-day Britain is filled with evidence of its long past,
of the past that the Roman writers did not record, but which is etched
in the landscape. Looking out on the green and cultivated land, where
it is not disfigured by the inevitable cities and towns and villages
of later civilizations --dark mills, strange bumps and mounds; remains
of terraced or plowed fields; irregular slopes that bespeak ancient
hill forts; strangely carved designs in the chalk; jagged teeth of upstanding
megaliths; stone circles of immense breadth and height and ancient,
mysterious wells and springs.
The Neolithic Age
The new age of settlement took place around 4,500 BC, in what we now
term the Neolithic Age. Though isolated farmhouses seem to be the norm,
the remarkable findings at Skara Brae and Rinyo in the Orkneys give
evidence of settled, village life. In both sites, local stone was used
extensively to make interior walls, beds, boxes, cupboards and hearths.
Roofs seem to have been supported by whale bone, more plentiful and
more durable than timber. Much farther south, at Carn Brea in Cornwall,
another Neolithic village attests to a lifestyle similar to that enjoyed
at Skara Brae, except in the more fertile south, agriculture played
a much larger part in the lives of the villagers.
The Celts
Before the arrival of the Celts in Britain, iron-working had begun in
the Hittite Empire, of Asia Minor. Those who practiced the trade kept
it a closely guarded secret, but shortly after 1200 BC, the Hittites
were overthrown and knowledge of metal began to arouse. In Central Europe,
a culture known as "Urnfield" developed and prospered. It
quickly adapted the iron-working culture known as "Hallstatt,"
after a site in Austria.
The arrival of people into the British Isles from the Continent probably
took place in small successive events. The Greeks called these people
Keltoi, the Romans Celtai. In present-day Yorkshire, "the Arras
Culture" with its La Tene chariot burials attests to the presence
of a wealthy and flourishing Celtic society in Northeast Britain. In
the southwest, cross-Channel influence is seen. Here, a culture developed
that was probably highly involved in the mining and trading of tin;
it is characterized by a certain type of hill fort that is also found
in Britanny.
Hill Forts from the Iron-Age, the age of the Celts, are found everywhere
in the British Isles. Spectacular relics from prehistoric times, hill
forts had as many purposes as sites. They varied from shelters for people
and livestock in times of danger, purely local settlements of important
leaders and their families, to small townships and administrative centers.
Long practiced in the art of warfare, the people of these isolated settlements
were responsible for some of the finest known artistic achievements.
Many of Britain's Celts came from Gaul, driven from their homelands
by the Roman armies and Germanic tribes. These were the Belgae, who
arrived in great numbers and settled in the southeast around 75 BC.
They brought with them a sophisticated plough that revolutionized agriculture
in the rich, heavy soils of their new lands. Their society was well-organized
in urban settlements, the capitals of the tribal chiefs.
The Roman Period
The first Roman invasion of the lands we now call the British Isles
took place in 55 B.C. under war leader Julius Caesar, who returned one
year later, but these probings did not lead to any significant or permanent
occupation. He had some interesting, if biased comments concerning the
natives: "All the Britons," he wrote, "paint themselves
with woad, which gives their skin a bluish color and makes them look
very dreadful in battle." It was not until a hundred years later
that permanent settlement of the grain-rich eastern territories began
in earnest.
In the year 43.A.D.an expedition was ordered against Britain by the
Emperor Claudius, who showed he meant business by sending his general,
Aulus Plautius, and an army of 40,000 men. Only three months after Plautius's
troops landed on Britain's shores, the Emperor Claudius felt it was
safe enough to visit his new province. Establishing their bases in what
is now Kent, through a series of battles involving greater discipline,
a great element of luck, and general lack of co-ordination between the
leaders of the various Celtic tribes, the Romans subdued much of Britain
in the short space of forty years. They were to remain for nearly 400
years. The great number of prosperous villas that have been excavated
in the southeast and southwest testify to the rapidity by which Britain
became Romanized, for they functioned as centers of a settled, peaceful
and urban life.
Further south, however, in what is now England, Roman life prospered.
Essentially urban, it was able to integrate the native tribes into a
town-based governmental system. Agricola succeeded greatly in his aims
to accustom the Britons "to a life of peace and quiet by the provision
of amenities. He consequently gave private encouragement and official
assistance to the building of temples, public squares and good houses."
Many of these were built in former military garrisons that became the
coloniae , the Roman chartered towns such as Colchester, Gloucester,
Lincoln, and York (where Constantine was declared Emperor by his troops
in 306 A.D.). Other towns, called municipia , included such foundations
as St. Albans (Verulamium).
Roman society in Britain was highly classified. At the top were those
people associated with the legions, the provincial administration, the
government of towns and the wealthy traders and commercial classes who
enjoyed legal privileges not generally accorded to the majority of the
population. In 2l2 AD, the Emperor Caracalla extended citizenship to
all free-born inhabitants of the empire, but social and legal distinctions
remained rigidly set between the upper rank of citizens known as honestiores
and the masses, known as humiliores. At the lowest end of the scale
were the slaves, many of whom were able to gain their freedom, and many
of whom might occupy important govermental posts. Women were also rigidly
circumscribed, not being allowed to hold any public office, and having
severely limited property rights.
The disintegration of Roman Britain began with the revolt of Magnus
Maximus in A.D. 383. After living in Britain as military commander for
twelve years, he had been hailed as Emperor by his troops. He began
his campaigns to dethrone Gratian as Emperor in the West, taking a large
part of the Roman garrison in Britain with him to the Continent, and
though he succeeded Gratian, he himself was killed by the Emperor Thedosius
in 388. Some Welsh historians, and modern political figures, see Magnus
Maximus as the father of the Welsh nation, for he opened the way for
independent political organizations to develop among the Welsh people
by his acknowledgement of the role of the leaders of the Britons in
383 (before departing on his military mission to the Continent) The
enigmatic figure has remained a hero to the Welsh as Macsen Wledig,
celebrated in poetry and song.
The Roman legions began to withdraw from Britain at the end of the fourth
century. Those who stayed behind were to become the Romanized Britons
who organized local defences against the onslaught of the Saxon hordes.
The famous letter of A.D.410 from the Emperor Honorius told the cities
of Britain to look to their own defences from that time on. As part
of the east coast defences, a command had been established under the
Count of the Saxon Shore, and a fleet had been organized to control
the Channel and the North Sea. All this showed a tremendous effort to
hold the outlying province of Britain, but eventually, it was decided
to abandon the whole project. In any case, the communication from Honorius
was a little late: the Saxon influence had already begun in earnest.
The dark ages
From the time that the Romans more or less abandoned Britain, to the
arrival of Augustine at Kent to convert the Saxons, the period has been
known as the Dark Ages. Written evidence concerning the period is scanty,
but we do know that the most significant events were the gradual division
of Britain into a Brythonic west, a Teutonic east and a Gaelic north;
the formation of the Welsh, English and Scottish nations; and the conversion
of much of the west to Christianity.
By 4l0, Britain had become self-governing in three parts, the North
(which already included people of mixed British and Angle stock); the
West (including Britons, Irish, and Angles); and the South East (mainly
Angles). With the departure of the Roman legions, the old enemies began
their onslaughts upon the native Britons once more. The Picts and Scots
to the north and west (the Scots coming in from Ireland had not yet
made their homes in what was to become later known as Scotland), and
the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes to the south and east.
The Anglo Saxon Period
Commonly ascribed to the monk Gildas, the "De Excidio Britanniae"
(the loss of Britain), was written about 540. As previously mentioned,
it is not a good history, for it is most mere polemic. Closely followed
by Bede, the account is the first to narrate what has traditionally
been regarded as the story of the coming of the Saxons to Britain. Their
success, regarded by Gildas as God's vengeance against the Britons for
their sins, was a theme repeated by Bede isolated in his monastery in
the north. We note, however, that Gildas made the statement that, in
his own day, the Saxons were not warring against the Britons. We can
be certain that the greater part of the pre-English inhabitants of England
survived, and that a great proportion of present-day England is made
up of their descendants.
So we see the rise and fall of successive English kingdoms during the
seventh and eighth centuries: Kent, Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex.
Before looking at political developments, however, it is important to
notice the religious conversion of the people we commonly call Anglo-Saxons.
It began in the late sixth century and created an institution that not
only transcended political boundaries, but created a new concept of
unity among the various tribal regions that overrode individual loyalties.
In 597, St. Augustine was sent to convert the pagan English by Pope
Gregory, who was anxious to spread the Gospel, and enhance papal prestige
by reclaiming former territories of Rome. Augustine received a favorable
reception in the kingdom of Ethelbert, who had married Bertha, daughter
of the Merovingian King and a practicing Christian. Again, it is to
Bede that we owe the story of the conversion of England to the new faith
(the older Roman Christian Church remained in parts of Britain, notably
Wales and Scotland as the Celtic Church). Augustine's success in converting
a large number of people led to his consecration as bishop by the end
of the year.
hus the first Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Britain was an Anglo-Celtic kingdom,
peopled by Anglo-Celts. The dynasty founded there by Hengist lasted
for three centuries. However, with the death of joint kings Aethelbert
and Eadberht, it was time for other kingdoms to rise to prominence.
Only thirty years after the arrival of Hengist to Britain, another chieftain
named Aelle came to settle. The leader of the South Saxons; Aella ruled
the kingdom that became Sussex. Other kingdoms were those of the East
Saxons (Essex); the Middle Saxons (Middlesex), and the West Saxons,
(Wessex) destined to become the most powerful of all and one that eventually
brought together all the diverse people of England (named for the Angles)
into one single nation.
By the early part of the 10th century, the government had begun to
regard the kin as legally responsible for the good behavior of its members,
though respect for the kin did not mean that the ties of kindred dominated
English law. There had been earlier passages which ignored or deliberately
weakened this primitive function of kin. For example, a ceorl who wished
to clear himself at the altar must produce not a group of his kinsmen,
but three men who are merely of his own class. Mere oaths from his own
family circle were looked upon with suspicion by the authorities, and
thus encroachments upon the power of the kin to protect its own members
constituted a rapid advancement of English law even before the end of
the seventh century.
Madieval times Kings:
Feudalism. The social structure of the Middle Ages was organized
round the system of Feudalism. Feudalism in practice meant that the
country was not governed by the king but by individual lords, or barons,
who administered their own estates, dispensed their own justice, minted
their own money, levied taxes and tolls, and demanded military service
from vassals. Usually the lords could field greater armies than the
king. In theory the king was the chief feudal lord, but in reality the
individual lords were supreme in their own territory. Many kings were
little more than figurehead rulers.
Feudal Ties. Feudalism was built upon a relationship of obligation and
mutual service between vassals and lords. A vassal held his land, or
fief, as a grant from a lord. When a vassal died, his heir was required
to publicly renew his oath of faithfulness (fealty) to his lord (suzerain).
This public oath was called "homage".
A Vassal's Obligations. The vassal was required to attend the lord at
his court, help administer justice, and contribute money if needed.
He must answer a summons to battle, bringing an agreed upon number of
fighting men. As well, he must feed and house the lord and his company
when they travelled across his land.
Manors. Manors, not villages, were the economic and social units
of life in the early Middle Ages. A manor consisted of a manor house,
one or more villages, and up to several thousand acres of land divided
into meadow, pasture, forest, and cultivated fields. The fields were
further divided into strips; 1/3 for the lord of the manor, less for
the church, and the remainder for the peasants and serfs. This land
was shared out so that each person had an equal share of good and poor.
At least half the work week was spent on the land belonging to the lord
and the church. Time might also be spent doing maintenance and on special
projects such as clearing land, cutting firewood, and building roads
and bridges. The rest of the time the villagers were free to work their
own land.
Reformation and restoration:
The victor at Bosworth Field was Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond. Though
his claim to the throne was tenuous and few in England could even hope
that stability had at last come to that troubled land, he was to begin
a dynasty that lasted 118 years. At the beginning of Henry VII's reign
the Wars of the Roses were still pitting the Houses of York and Lancaster
against each other for the throne. By the end of t Elizabeth IÕs
reign, the last of the Tudors, the kingdom of Britain had become a great
sea-power, enjoyed an unparalleled growth in literature and drama, experienced
vast economic and social change and suffered (and more or less settled)
the tumultuous problems of the great European Reformation. Little England
had become unrecognizable in its unswerving path toward world domination
in so many different areas.
Preparation for Empire Building: The Growth of the Commons
In 1690 John Locke published his highly influential "Two Treatises
of Civil Government;" its theory of limited monarchy had vast appeal
to the majority of Englishmen, but especially to Parliament, always
anxious to increase its own powers and give special favors to its members.
According to Locke, "The liberty of man in society is to be under
no other legislative power but that established by consent in the commonwealth,
nor under the domination of any will, or restraint of any law, but what
that legislative shall enact according to the trust put in it."
England and the New World: An Expanding Empire
In 1713 the Treaty of Utrecht firmly established England's commercial
and colonial supremacy, for it gave her new possessions in Nova Scotia,
Newfoundland and Minorca as well as Gibralter and the sole right to
supply slaves to Spanish colonies. Britain's interests in the New World
had begun early. An indication of its eventual triumph in Virginia had
been the founding of the College of William and Mary in 1693.
The American War of Independence
The final revolt of Britain's American colonies was a long time coming:
it certainly could have been foreseen and better prepared for by the
intransigent London government. The enormous expense of the Seven Years
War, and the protection of the Colonies from the designs of France,
led Parliament to insist that Americans should pay for their own defence.
It therefore could justify the infamous sugar tax of 1764 and the stamp
duty one year later. But these taxes were only the latest in a long
history of repressive measures that were designed solely to benefit
England's mercantile, industrial and agricultural interests.
The Growth of Empire
The long struggle between Britain and France for world supremacy continued
to be fought all over the globe. For 23 years, Britain was at war with
the greatest military power on earth, led by its great military genius
Napoleon. Its results were to destroy the ambitions of the French dictator,
to impose a New Order on the whole of Europe by force and to vindicate
Britain's equally firm resolve to not only resist, but to uphold the
imposition of order only through international law.
United in their Protestantism more than anything else, the Welsh and
Scots and English thought of themselves as British; it was their Protestantism
(and perhaps their representatives in Parliament) that held them together;
they thought of themselves as a united, religious and moral people.
Thus it was only right for them to go out as bringers of enlightenment,
mainly through the conflicting aims of trade and religious conversion
(the latter always second to the former) to the far corners of the earth.
The anarchy and confusion that prevailed in France during its Revolution
were looked on with revulsion in England, now having come to terms with
the loss of its American colonies and having become more of a united
kingdom in the painful process.
The Industrial Revolution
The progress of the industrial revolution is a long catalog of mechanical
inventions by which the labor and skill of the human worker was replaced
by machines. It had its beginnings in the depletion of England's forests
in Elizabethan times to provide timber to build its great navies. Coal
was a ready substitute as fuel and it was abundant. The early part of
the 17th century brought a new emphasis on coal mining though effective
methods of extracting it had to wait until developments in the steam
engine took place and mines could be drained of their ever-present water.
The enormous increase in the price of firewood fueled a rush to find
and extract more coal. By 1655, even under the most primitive mining
conditions, Newcastle was producing half a million tons a year.
England's Role in the Slave Trade
Only two years after Columbus discovered the New World, he brought back
more than 500 Caribbean's to Spain to be sold as slaves. In 1501, African
slaves were first introduced into Hispaniola by Spanish settlers; the
natives had already been severely decimated, resulting in a labor shortage
in the plantations. In 1511, African slaves were taken to Cuba. The
nasty business had begun in earnest.
By 1518 huge numbers of African slaves were arriving at Santo Domingo
to harvest sugar cane. The 1545 discovery of the Potosi silver mines
as well as epidemics of typhus and smallpox hastened the decline of
the natives, used as slave labor and increased the importation of African
slaves to replace them. In 1560, Portugal also imported slaves into
Brazil to replace native labor in the sugar plantations.
English participation in the lucrative slave trade seems to have begun
when John Hawkins hijacked a Portuguese ship carrying Africans to Brazil
in 1562. Hawkins traded the slaves at Hispaniola for ginger, pearls
and sugar, making a huge profit which could not be ignored by his countrymen.
One year later, Hawking sold a cargo of Black slaves in Hispaniola and
the floodgates were opened. Though Queen Elizabeth spoke out against
the dark business, she later took shares in Hawkins'' ventures, even
lending him one of her ships in the enterprise that pitted her adventurous
navigators against those of Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands (It
was Hawkins who introduced tobacco into England in 1565).
Expansion of Empire: Australia
One result of the separation of the American colonies was that the British
legal system lost one of the places to which convicts could be transported
(Canada's climate was too severe for plantations and thus slave or convict
labor). After considering the coasts of Africa, the British government
decided that the lands called Botany Bay would be suitable and in 1788,
the first shipload of 750 convicts arrived in that most inhospitable
area of Australia.
Dutch sailors had landed on the coast of Australia in 1606, but they
were driven off by natives. It wasn't until 1770 that Captain James
Cook explored the eastern coast of what was then called "New Holland."
Cook took possession of the island continent in the name of George III;
he named his landfall Botany Bay on account of the great variety of
plants he found there. The whole of Australia may have had no more than
250,000 natives at that time. There was lots of room to accommodate
British convicts, further shiploads of which caused the early settlement
to move to an area to be named Sydney, in the colony now named New South
Wales.
Canada
Captain James Cook had made three exploratory voyages to the West Coast
of Canada between 1768 and 178l. Because the Chinese were very interested
receiving fur in exchange for the tea, silks and porcelain in so much
demand in Europe, the lucrative fur trade beckoned further English interest.
In 1788, a group of English traders settled on Vancouver Island (discovered
by Cook 10 years before). Spain still claimed the whole West Coast of
America up to the boundary of what is now Alaska, but after a confrontation
at Vancouver between the two countries, England presented an ultimatum
to the Spanish whose lack of allies, and an effective navy, forced them
to accept its terms. The Spanish recognition of British trading and
fishing rights in the area opened the way for the establishment of British
Columbia and the creation of a British North America stretching from
ocean to ocean. There still remained the thorny question of the borders
with the United States.
British India
In India, Robert Clive had defeated pro-French forces at Arcot in 1751
thus helping his East India Company to monopolize appointments, finances,
land and power. The British victory led to the withdrawal of the French
East India Company. Then, six years later, faced with native opposition,
opportunist Clive defeated the local Nabob at Plassey to become virtual
ruler of Bengal and opened up much of the country to further exploitation
and control by the East India Company. When Clive was recalled to England,
Warren Hastings took over to strengthen British interests in India and
to establish a basic pattern of government that remained virtually unchanged
for 100 years. Hastings was impeached by Parliament for enriching himself
unduly in India. His trial, in which he refused to admit his mistakes,
was closely studied in January 1999 by members of the US Senate in their
own impeachment proceedings against President Clinton.
India was regarded as the "jewel in the crown" of the British
Empire; over two thirds of the vast sub-continent was ruled by the East
India Company. Its finances and its troops were used to protect British
interests, even overthrowing native Indian princes. Much of the country,
however, was chafed under English practices, there were simply too many
differences in social and religious customs between the two countries.
In 1857, simmering discontent flared into a great mutiny, when sections
of the army of Bengal attacked British settlers.
South Africa
South Africa came to the attention of Europeans when a Dutch ship, Haarlem,
broke up at Table Bay in 1648 and the survivors, back in Holland, urged
authorities to establish a settlement for provisioning their East India
fleets. In 1652, a small group of Dutch settlers founded Cape Town.
In 1815, Britain gained its long-desired "half-way house"
on the sea route to India when the Dutch ceded the Cape of Good Hope.
The British arrived in 1820 when the Albany settlers founded Grahamstown
in the eastern coastal region. By 1826, Britain's Cape Colony had extended
its borders to the Orange River. In 1834, Xhosa tribesmen revolted against
Dutch encroachments on their lands but were defeated. The seeds of later
conflict, however, involving British, Dutch and native Africans were
sown.
Soon after Britain abolished slavery in its Empire in 1834, Dutch cattlemen
in South Africa began their great Trek north and east of the Orange
Rivers. In the next two years, some 10,000 Boers (Dutch colonists) moved
to new lands beyond the Vaal River. They were to found Natal, Transvaal
and the Orange Free State. In 1838, they were forced to defeat the Zulu
at the Battle of Blood River in Natal. Britain then repulsed the Boers
and made Natal a British colony in the pretense of protecting the natives.
In 1854, the British withdrew from lands north of the Orange River and
the Boers seized the Orange Free State. In 1856, Britain made Natal
a Crown colony; and the Boers established the South African Republic
(Transvaal) with Pretoria as its capital.
Changes in Empire and at Home
The popular,aged Victoria was succeeded by Edward VII, who reigned for
nine years (1901-10). The jovial, popular, avuncular Prince of Wales
had waited a long time to accede to the throne. Known as Edward the
Peacemaker for his diplomacy in Europe, he used his knowledge of French,
Spanish, Italian and German to good advantage. Matters seemed fine in
the island kingdom of Britain, feeling secure as the head of the largest
empire the world had ever known. Yet the image of splendid and carefree
easy living portrayed by the King was in direct contrast to the growing
forces of discontent and resentment felt by too many members of British
society.
England in the Edwardian Age existed in a twilight zone; the balance
of power in so many areas was shifting in a Europe in which the decisive
factor was the rise of a united Germany, and in a world in which the
United States would soon dominate. To prepare for the future, one politician,
Arthur Balfour, Prime Minister 1902-5, saw that Britain needed to advance
its educational system and to strengthen its defenses. His Education
Bill of 1902 abolished the School Boards and placed primary, technical
and secondary education under the control of local authorities. This
helped to create an "education ladder" by which abler children
were able to win scholarships to enter the secondary grammar schools
(the mis-named Public Schools continued as private enclaves for the
rich and very rich). The Civil Service was thus able to find itself
enriched by a steady stream of educated, qualified young men (and later
young women).
World War I (1914-1918)
By the turn of the century, it had become increasingly apparent to many,
both in and out of government, that the possession of an Empire would
not be enough to cure Britain's domestic problems. Gladstone, in particular,
had the wisdom (and the courage) to admit that though the Empire was
a duty and responsibility that could not be shrugged off, there could
be little advantage, and possibly only future problems, in expanding
it. For him, in contrast to the imperialist Disraeli, and later, the
Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain, Britain's strength lay in its
own people, in their own land. Foreign adventures could only waste the
nation's resources, sorely needed to aid its own people. He had been
proved right in the costly adventures in Afghanistan, the Sudan and
South Africa. (As a sideline, the poor physical condition of the British
soldiers in South Africa during the fight against the Boer farmers,
led Baden-Powell, who had successfully defended Mafeking, to found the
Boy Scout Movement in 1908.)
Between the Two World Wars
Following the Armistice of 1918, the first order of the day for the
victorious allies (Britain, France, the USA, Italy, Japan and to a lesser
extent Russia) was to hammer out the peace terms to be presented to
the defeated powers (Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey and Hungary).
At Versailles, Lloyd George represented Britain; pressing for severe
penalties against the Germans, he came up against the idealism of US
President Wilson, anxious to have his plans for a League of Nations
implemented; and Clemenceau of France, who wished for even more severe
recriminations against Germany.
The final treaty came in June, 1919. The reparations and "war-guilt"
clauses were later seen by English economist John Maynard Keynes as
a future cause of discontent; they later became an excuse for Herr Hitler
to begin his efforts to countermand them. The US did not ratify the
treaty, and the disunity that prevailed after its signing did not bode
well for the future of Europe. In addition, the United States and Russia
did not join the League of Nations that met for the first time in Geneva
in November, 1920.
The Great Depression
In the meantime, there had been a major downturn in the British economy
since the end of the World War. Government promises of a better society
in which there would be a higher standard of living and security of
employment had not been fulfilled. The productivity rate was falling
rapidly behind that of other nations; there was simply too much reliance
on the traditional industries of cotton, coal mining and shipbuilding,
all of which were finding it difficult to compete in world markets and
all of which were managed by those who could not adapt to more modern
methods. Many countries which had been dependent upon British manufactured
goods were now making their own. A great slump in which millions were
unemployed was left to work itself out when planned government expenditure
would have helped mobilize the unused resources of the economy.
World War II
In the late 1930's Britain's foreign policy stagnated; there were too
many problems to worry about at home. While domestic policies still
had to find a way out of the unemployment mess, it was vainly hoped
that the League of Nations would keep the peace. While the aggressive
moves by Germany, Italy and Japan may not have been totally ignored
in Westminster; their implications were not fully grasped. It seems
incredible, in retrospect, how all the signs of a forthcoming major
war were conveniently ignored.
The Post-War Years
The great social-leveling influence of the War meant that Britains were
anxious for change. Countless thousands of returning soldiers and sailors
wanted a turn-around in the status quo. Members of British armed forces
were considerably better educated than they had been in World War I.
The soldier returning from the war was no longer in awe of his leaders;
he had mixed loyalties. He was resentful of unemployment, wishing for
a greater share in the nation's post-war restructuring, and he did not
trust a Conservative government to tackle the enormous social economic
and political problems, that they had done very little to solve between
the wars. He wished for a change.
As a consequence, Winston Churchill, who led Britain to victory during
the war, found himself as a member of the opposition when the election
of 1945 returned the Labour Party to power with a huge majority. Under
the Parliament of Clement Attlee, the new government began some of the
greatest changes in Britain's long history---nothing less than a reconstruction
of the nation.
England has a strong history, in it prgression from ancients times,
it has been under the leadership of vigilant monarchies and leaders.
With it's vast history, there are still some things that are left out
of englan's history books, and even then...it's history can never be
cut short.
