The Story of Britain

by Patrick Dillon

  All the same, politicians could see how angry people in the industrial towns were becoming. What if they start a revolution? they thought.

  So they agreed that, to placate them, they would pass a second Reform Act.

  “Change Is Inevitable”

  THE two most important politicians of the time were Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone. They couldn’t have been more different. Disraeli was a Conservative (as the Tories were now called), and Gladstone was a Liberal (the new name for the Whigs). Disraeli loved the empire, while Gladstone thought countries should rule themselves. Disraeli was funny and Gladstone solemn; Disraeli showed off, while Gladstone read books. Not surprisingly, they hated each other.

  For twenty years they took it in turns to be prime minister, and each day quarrelled in the House of Commons. Disraeli passed the second Reform Act, which gave more MPs to industrial towns, and allowed better-off workers to vote.

  “Change is inevitable,” he said. “In a progressive country change is constant.”

  But Gladstone thought Disraeli had set out to make sure the new voters would mostly be Conservatives, so at the next election he went around his constituency in Scotland making speeches to argue for a third Reform Act. Thousands came to listen, for the more people were allowed to vote, the more they took part in politics; and despite his seriousness, everyone admired Gladstone’s passion and love of freedom.

  Gladstone won the election and passed a new Reform Act that allowed more than half the men in Britain to vote. Poor men were still banned, and so were women, but from now on, Britain didn’t just belong to aristocrats – it belonged to everyone.

  In that case, people said, everyone should be allowed to become an MP. Politicians shouldn’t just be rich men; they should be like the families they represented. By now, far more men and women in Britain worked in factories than on farms, and towns like Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds had become great cities. James Keir Hardie, a Scottish miner, decided to stand for election. At first people laughed at him for thinking a coal miner could sit in Parliment with a lord, but Hardie didn’t care. He won in West Ham, and founded a new party called the Independent Labour Party to get more working men elected to the House of Commons. Then he moved to Wales and stood for election in Merthyr Tydfil. Welsh voters had never had the chance to elect an ordinary miner before. They all supported Keir Hardie and sent him to Westminster as their Labour MP.

  After that, more and more ordinary people were elected to Parliament. The most successful was a Welshman called David Lloyd George. In Wales a lot of people went to church at Methodist chapels, where preachers gave long sermons every Sunday. By listening to their sermons, Lloyd George learned how powerful words were, and became a great speaker himself. He joined the Liberal Party and was elected an MP, but never forgot the poor people he had grown up with. When he became chancellor of the Exchequer, he brought in pensions so that old people would have enough money to live on, free school meals for children, and National Insurance so that those who were sick or out of work wouldn’t starve. Thanks to Lloyd George, poor people in Britain no longer needed to fear old age and sickness.

  Some opposed him, of course, just as some had opposed the end of slavery. The House of Lords tried to stop Lloyd George’s changes, so a law was passed that from now on the House of Commons was the more important part of Parliament. That showed how lords were becoming weaker, and ordinary people more powerful. Britain was becoming fairer at last.

  In one way, however, Britain still wasn’t fair at all. Although most men could vote, women could hardly do anything.

  Suffragettes

  WOMEN couldn’t be MPs or judges, vicars, lawyers or journalists. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson qualified as a doctor and started a hospital, but she had to fight and argue for years to get her way. Most women who worked ended up in factories, or as servants to the rich – and they were always paid less than men who did the same jobs. And yet women were just as clever as men, just as hard-working, and just as able to come up with new ideas. Half of the country’s talent was going to waste.

  Millicent Fawcett, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson’s sister, started a campaign to have the law changed so that women could vote.

  “Women have to obey the law,” she said. “Why shouldn’t we help make the law?”

  Most people laughed at the idea of women’s suffrage (which meant the right to vote), but more and more women joined suffrage societies. In the north of England factory girls campaigned for the vote, attending meetings and singing suffragist songs – even though their husbands and bosses tried to stop them.

  Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, Christabel and Sylvia, joined a suffrage society in Manchester, but soon got frustrated at how little the meetings and rallies achieved.

  “None of the politicians listen to us!” they complained.

  Like the Irish, women wondered how they could change things when they didn’t have any rights. It was all very well to say they should obey the law, but the law was made by men. It was all very well to say they should work for change through Parliament, but Parliament didn’t have any women in it.

  “We need deeds, not words!” the Pankhursts said.

  So they started a new organization, the Women’s Social and Political Union. Women in the WSPU ignored the law. They smashed shop windows, disrupted politicians’ meetings, and chained themselves to railings so the police couldn’t take them away. Many suffragists hated the idea of breaking the law, but at least the newspapers noticed.

  “See what the suffragettes are doing now!” they exclaimed.

  The government arrested suffragettes, and sent Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst to jail. In prison, suffragettes went on hunger strike to protest against being treated like common criminals, but doctors tied them down and forced food down their throats. Once people had treated women’s suffrage as a joke; now they realized how serious women were about winning equal rights.

  “They will have to choose between giving us freedom or giving us death,” Emmeline Pankhurst declared.

  And one of the suffragettes, Emily Davison, proved she meant it. One morning, she joined the crowds to watch the most important horse race of the year, the Derby. She pushed her way through the spectators until she reached the railing at the edge of the racecourse, just by the winning post. That year, everyone expected the king’s horse to win. People started to cheer as the thunder of horses’ hooves came closer. And then the cheers turned to gasps and screams when Emily Davison, wrapped in the flag of the WSPU, ducked under the railing and ran right into the path of the king’s horse.

  She died that night in hospital.

  To suffragettes Emily was a heroine. Others said her death didn’t help women, for many were so shocked they stopped supporting the WSPU. But one thing was certain. From now on, everyone realized women were deadly serious about getting the vote.

  The Edwardians

  BY then Queen Victoria had died, after reigning for sixty-three years – longer than any king or queen before. You had to be very old to remember singing “God Save the King” instead of “God Save the Queen”, and to younger people it seemed as if Victoria had been queen for ever.

  Her son was crowned King Edward VII of Britain and emperor of India, and his coronation was celebrated all over the empire. In London flags were hung along Whitehall, there was a grand parade of soldiers and horsemen, and the archbishop of Canterbury led a service in Westminster Abbey. In other towns people put out bunting, set tables down the middle of the street and prepared feasts. In Trenchtown, Jamaica, there was a cricket match and all the children were given new school uniforms. In Johannesburg, South Africa, there were speeches in English and Zulu; and in Australia and Canada the governors general addressed Parliament.

  But the greatest festivities of all took place in India, at the grand durbar (or festival) to celebrate the new emperor’s reign. Outside Delhi, workmen built a city of tents with its own railway to carry visitors, its own police force, and strin
gs of electric lights. Indian princes came to the durbar dressed in their finest jewels. The British viceroy, Lord Curzon, arrived on an elephant; the Indian army paraded with bands and flags; and the celebrations ended with sports, fireworks and a special ball.

  To everyone who read about the durbar, it seemed as if the British Empire was as strong as always. “It will last for ever!” the British said.

  But though it seemed as if nothing could possibly go wrong, the empire was already near its end.

  Two years after Edward VII’s son became King George V, the shipyard of Harland and Wolff, in Belfast, launched the largest passenger ship in the world. It could carry more than two thousand people, cross from England to America faster than any other ship, and the shipyard claimed it was unsinkable. They called it Titanic.

  People rushed to buy tickets for Titanic’s first voyage. The kitchens were stocked with oysters and champagne, an orchestra played in the ballroom, and passengers held parties in the cabins. When Titanic was halfway across the Atlantic Ocean, fog descended. The captain received a warning there were icebergs near by, but kept steaming at full speed, while Titanic’s lights blazed from a thousand portholes. What could go wrong with a ship so big?

  “Iceberg!” screamed the lookout.

  A horrible scraping sound came from one side, and the ship shuddered. To start with, no one realized anything was wrong. The engines were still throbbing, the lights were on, and passengers were still dancing in the ballroom. But tons of freezing water were pouring through great holes in Titanic’s side, and gradually the decks began to tilt.

  No ship is unsinkable; things can always go wrong. Seven hundred passengers crammed into the lifeboats, and watched as the great liner tipped up into the sky and dived under the waters of the Atlantic, drowning everyone left on board.

  In the first years of the twentieth century, Great Britain was a bit like Titanic. It was the greatest nation on earth, with the biggest empire the world had ever seen. It was more elegant and modern than any other country. Surely it was unsinkable!

  But things can always go wrong. Had the British not noticed they were no longer the only country with factories and machines? The United States of America had suffered a terrible civil war, but since then had become even richer than Britain. Germany, which had once been a collection of smaller countries, had united, and was having its own industrial revolution. The things the British made were no longer better than anyone else’s.

  Hadn’t they noticed that the empire cost more than they could afford? In the old days, merchants started it to import tea, silk, copper, sugar and diamonds. Yet when the British fell in love with the idea of empire for its own sake, they invaded countries that made them no money, yet still had to pay for armies and officials to run them.

  Besides, didn’t they realize there was something wrong with the whole idea of the empire? They kept telling the Indians that British rule meant freedom and equality. How long could it be before the Indians demanded the same freedom and equality for themselves?

  Didn’t the British see they couldn’t go on treating Ireland so badly?

  Didn’t they realize how many arguments in their own country were still undecided, from women’s votes to decent pay for workers in factories?

  Didn’t they worry about the new ideas of the communists?

  The British were enjoying themselves too much to notice anything was wrong. They were unsinkable! Nothing could possibly happen!

  “News! Important news!”

  “Let me see your paper – what’s the headline?”

  GREAT WAR BEGINS IN EUROPE!

  GREAT BRITAIN DECLARES WAR ON GERMANY!

  TIMELINE

  1812–1827 Lord Liverpool, the Tory prime minister, refuses all demands for reform.

  1819 Soldiers attack a crowd calling for reform in the Peterloo Massacre.

  1825 George Stephenson opens the Stockton to Darlington railway.

  1829 Daniel O’Connell forces the duke of Wellington to allow Catholic Emancipation, letting Catholics vote and worship freely. In the same year, Robert Peel founds the Metropolitan Police.

  1832 The Great Reform Act is passed.

  1834 The Tolpuddle Martyrs, who try to form a union, are transported to Australia.

  1837 Victoria becomes queen.

  1845–1850 The potato famine in Ireland kills a million people. A million more emigrate to America.

  1846 Parliament gets rid of the Corn Laws to allow food to become cheaper.

  1848 The Chartists present their final petition to Parliament after two previous Charters, in 1838 and 1842. It is rejected. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.

  1851 Prince Albert holds the Great Exhibition in Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace in Hyde Park.

  1853–1856 Britain and France attack Russia in the Crimean War. They suffer disasters like the Charge of the Light Brigade, but Florence Nightingale helps by improving hospitals for soldiers.

  1854 Dr John Snow discovers cholera is caused by bad drinking water.

  1857–1858 Indians rebel against British rule in the Indian Mutiny, which Indians call the First War of Independence.

  1867 Disraeli passes the second Reform Act.

  1870 The Education Act introduces free schools. Ten years later, school is made compulsory.

  1879 The Zulus beat a British army at the Battle of Isandlhwana, but are soon afterwards defeated.

  1882 Irish terrorists kill two British officials in Phoenix Park, Dublin.

  1884 William Gladstone passes the third Reform Act.

  1889–1896 Cecil Rhodes seizes part of Southern Africa, which he calls Rhodesia. Today it is called Zimbabwe.

  1893 Keir Hardie starts the Labour Party and becomes the first Labour MP.

  1897 Women who want the vote form the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies.

  1901 Queen Victoria dies and her son becomes King Edward VII.

  1903 Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters start the Women’s Social and Political Union, the “suffragettes”, who campaign for the next ten years.

  1908–1915 Lloyd George, as chancellor of the Exchequer, introduces pensions and National Insurance to help the poor, old and sick.

  1912 Titanic sinks on her maiden voyage.

  1914 The Great War begins between Britain, France, Russia, Austria and Germany.

  Germany

  GERMANY had once been divided into small, peaceful countries, but towards the end of Victoria’s reign a politician called Otto von Bismarck united it under an emperor or “kaiser”, and the Germans turned to war. They attacked the French and beat them. The French emperor resigned, and Paris, the French capital, was taken over by working people who turned it into a commune, just as communists had always dreamed. Although the Paris Commune didn’t last long, it took years for the French to recover.

  After that victory, the Germans grew even more warlike. “France and Britain are finished!” they crowed. “It’s our turn to have an empire!”

  And the countries of Europe got ready for war.

  The British didn’t need to become involved, for they had an empire of their own, and didn’t much care what happened in the rest of Europe. But when Germany started building a navy to rival their Royal Navy, they were furious.

  “No one challenges us at sea!” they said.

  The Royal Navy had ruled the oceans ever since the Battle of Trafalgar, and British ships could sail into any harbour in the world. “Rule, Britannia!” their sailors sang. “Britannia rules the waves!”

  By this time, battleships were nothing like Nelson’s sailing ships. They were made of steel, driven by huge steam engines, and instead of rows of cannon had guns that could blow up enemy ships fifteen miles away. When he saw the German navy growing, the head of the Royal Navy, Jacky Fisher, designed a new battleship called HMS Dreadnought, which was faster and more powerful than any other afloat. Then the Germans started building Dreadnoughts of their own, and a race began to see who could
build ships fastest.

  The other countries watched Germany and Britain arguing like two children in the playground who everyone knows are going to have a fight. France and Russia took Britain’s side; Austria took Germany’s.

  “It’s time the British were cut down to size!” growled the Germans.

  “It’s time the Germans were taught a lesson!” spluttered the British.

  Often the quarrel that starts a fight doesn’t itself seem very important. It was like that in 1914. That summer, in the town of Sarajevo, in Serbia, a terrorist shot the heir to the Austrian throne. The Austrians blamed the Serbs, the Serbs asked Russia for help, and Russia called on Britain and France. One shot by a terrorist was enough to start the whole of Europe fighting.

  “War!” shouted newspaper sellers in London, Dublin, Cardiff and Edinburgh.

  “War!” they shouted in Berlin, the German capital.

  To start with, many actually welcomed the idea of a war. “Hurrah!” they yelled, and hurried to join their armies.

  Only a few understood that this war would be more terrible than any before, that it would last for years, and that after it nothing would ever be the same again. One of them was the British foreign minister, Edward Grey.

  “The lamps are going out all over Europe,” he sighed as the soldiers marched off to France. “We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”

  The Great War

  GERMAN soldiers marched west to invade France and east to invade Russia. German guns bellowed, and little towns shook as shells crashed onto their roofs.

  Britain sent its army to help the French, and fought a battle against the Germans near the town of Ypres. They stopped the Germans advancing, but couldn’t drive them back. The Germans marched north to get round them, so the British headed north as well, until both armies reached the sea. Then the Germans tried attacking in the south, but the French army was waiting to stop them. For hundreds of miles, from the North Sea to the Alps, huge armies faced each other. Neither could win, so they stayed where they were and began digging fortifications.