From Postwar Dislocation to Depression

England in the 1920s and 1930s

Postwar dislocation

• 23% unemployment• Strikes• Lack of $s to modernize aging industry• Sankey Commission Report recommended

nationalization of the mines (there was actually conservative support for this!) but not the will and money to carry it out.

• Emergence of the Dole

Ireland• Third Home Rule Bill of 1914 was not

implemented due to war.• Easter Rebellion of 1916• Irish M. P.s abandon Westminster and meet in

Dublin• Renewed fighting between “black and tans” and

the Irish Republican Army• Home rule bill in 1920—Catholic South Ireland to

have home rule.• 1922—Irish Free State Created, but violence

continued in Ulster

Foreign Policy• Difficulty between Greeks and Kemalists in

Middle East• Navy sent to police area• 1922 Chanak Crisis forced Lloyd George from

power.• Illustrated problem of having a Liberal P. M.

relying on conservatives for support.• Conservatives opposed both war with Turkey and

Irish Home rule—some also believed Lloyd-George was going to nationalize the mines.

Chanak Crisis: Turko-Greek dispute over Izmir

Political Infighting

• Arthur Bonar Law and conservatives take power in 1922; he dies and Stanley Baldwin is P. M.

• Economic unrest brings J. Ramsay Macdonald and Labour to power.

• Labor government fell victim to fears of what it might do, what it did do—recognizing Soviet Union--, and chicanery—the Zinoviev Letter.

• Economic woes did most to oust Labour in 1924 election.

Baldwin and Macdonald

Baldwin’s Conservatives• Churchill was Chancellor of Exchequer—put

England back on gold standard.• Coal industry crippled and unemployment rose• Samuel Commission recommended reforms for

laboring people; Conservatives wanted longer hours and less pay; TUC said: “not a second on the day; not a penny off the pay.”

• 1926 General Strike—few real concessions to workers

• Neville Chamberlain (Minister of Health) did increase Old Age Pensions

• 1928 Representation of the People Act—women vote on equal basis w/ men

Labour in Power• 1929 Election returns a slim Labour majority• No significant contributions• Depression came to England—run on Bank of

England in 1931• Macdonald proposed cutting government

expenditures and the dole—Labour revolted, but Macdonald did not resign and formed a NATIONAL government w/ Conservatives in 1931

• Macdonald was read out of Labour Party; Stanley Baldwin was defacto head of National Government

National Government• Followed conservative policy—Protective

Tariff did raise some revenue; War Debt Moratorium—England would pay when Germany paid

• Ill health forced Macdonald to resign and Baldwin succeeded him.

• 1935 Election brough large Conservative Majority

• George’s V’s silver jubilee did boost spirits

George V (1910-1936)

Abdication Crisis

• George V died in 1936 and throne passed to Edward VIII.

• He decided to marry an American divorcee: Wallis Warfield Simpson

• Edward asked Baldwin to fix things with Church of England and politicians.

• Baldwin couldn’t and didn’t; Edward married and abdicated.

• George VI became king

Wallis Warfield Simpson (1896-1986)

Depression woes continue

• 25% unemployment across the nation; as high as 50% in some industrial areas.

• No means to generate economic growth