From Postwar Dislocation to Depression

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From Postwar Dislocation to Depression

• England in the 1920s and 1930s

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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

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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 1920Catholic South Ireland to
  have home rule.
• 1922Irish Free State Created, but violence
  continued in Ulster

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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 rulesome also believed Lloyd-George
  was going to nationalize the mines.

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Chanak Crisis Turko-Greek dispute over Izmir
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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 dorecognizing Soviet
  Union--, and chicanerythe Zinoviev Letter.
• Economic woes did most to oust Labour in 1924
  election.

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Baldwin and Macdonald
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Baldwins Conservatives

• Churchill was Chancellor of Exchequerput 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 Strikefew real concessions to
  workers
• Neville Chamberlain (Minister of Health) did
  increase Old Age Pensions
• 1928 Representation of the People Actwomen vote
  on equal basis w/ men

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Labour in Power

• 1929 Election returns a slim Labour majority
• No significant contributions
• Depression came to Englandrun on Bank of England
  in 1931
• Macdonald proposed cutting government
  expenditures and the doleLabour 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

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National Government

• Followed conservative policyProtective Tariff
  did raise some revenue War Debt
  MoratoriumEngland would pay when Germany paid
• Ill health forced Macdonald to resign and Baldwin
  succeeded him.
• 1935 Election brough large Conservative Majority
• Georges Vs silver jubilee did boost spirits

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George V (1910-1936)
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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 couldnt and didnt Edward married and
  abdicated.
• George VI became king

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Wallis Warfield Simpson (1896-1986)
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Depression woes continue

• 25 unemployment across the nation as high as
  50 in some industrial areas.
• No means to generate economic growth