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English Monarch from1066 to today.

William I

1066-1087

William II

1087-1100

Henry I

1100-1135

Stephen

1135-1154

Henry II

1154-1189

Richard I

1189-1199

John

1199-1216

Henry III

1216-1272

Edward I

1272-1307

Edward II

1307-1327

Edward III

1327-1377

Richard II

1377-1399

Henry IV

1399-1413

Henry V

1413-1422

Henry VI

1422-1461, and 1470-71

Edward IV

1461-1483

Edward V

April-June 1483

Richard III

1483-1485

Henry VII

1485-1509

Henry VIII

1509-1547

Edward VI

1547-1553

Jane

July 1553

Mary I

1553-1554

Philip & Mary

1554-1558

Elizabeth I

1558-1603

James I of England and VI of Scotland

1603-1625

 Charles I

1625-1649

Text extracted from Brittania.com

At the death of James, the throne passed to Charles l, who had only himself to blame for the troubles that would later befall him. His support of Buckingham, who continued his disastrous attempts at making war against France and Spain, as well as his own marriage to a Catholic princess, did not stand him in good stead with Parliament, who refused to grant him money until he got rid of Buckingham. The king dismissed his Parliament to save his friend, using the Crown's emergency powers to raise his revenues until expenses grew too great and Parliament had to be recalled. Its members promptly drew up a Petition of Right to emphasize the ancient rights of the English people, to assert that no man could be imprisoned without trial and other clauses that later became the foundation of the United States Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

Charles despaired of enforcing his rule on Parliament and from 1629 until 1630, he tried to rule without it. He ended the wars with France and Spain. But as so often in history, politics were dominated by economics, and poor harvests in England, coupled with a serious decline in the cloth trade with the Netherlands, led to Charles's attempts to enforce the collection of Ship Money over the whole country. He won his case against Charles Hampton, who had refused to pay, but alienated many of the country gentry without the support of whom his later fight with Parliament was doomed. Charles also increased the power of the clergy, and when, under Archbishop Laud, they began to renew persecution of the ever-growing Puritan sect, including the torture of William Prynne and other divines, a further exodus to New England took place in the 1630's that became known as the Great Migration.

Attempts to bring the Scottish Presbyterians into line spelled the beginning of the end for Charles, ironically at the height of his powers in 1637 with an efficient administration, more-or-less financially secure and doing quite nicely without Parliament. Although born a Scot, the Stuart Charles had very little understanding of Scottish affairs and even less of prevailing Scottish opinion. Of the Highlands, he knew nothing at all: of the Lowlands, not enough. A devout Episcopalian, he distrusted the Kirk and Presbyterians and greatly mistrusted democratic assemblies, religious or not. He completely failed to try to understand his Scottish subjects; nor did he wish to. As one who ruled by Divine right, he believed he had the sacred duty to bring the Scottish Kirk in line with the Church of England. It was an obligation that eventually was to cost him dearly.

The Act of Revocation, decreed by Charles in 1625, restored the lands and titles to the Church which had been distributed among the Scottish nobles during the upheavals of the Reformation. It did nothing to endure the king to those who could have given him support in Scotland. Neither did his outright, and to the Scots, outrageous demand of 1629 that religious practice in Scotland conform to the English model. It was as if Charles were deliberately setting out to antagonize everyone north of the border. His elaborate coronation as King of Scotland at St. Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh in 1633 was sufficiently "high church" to smack of popery to the assembled congregation. It was the wrong time to raise the question of the liturgy. Charles and Archbishop Laud went ahead anyway.

In July, 1637, the first reading of the Revised Prayer Book for Scotland was met with nothing more than a riot. Even the Privy Council had to seek refuge from the angry mob in Holyroodhouse. The Bishop of Brechin was able to conduct only with the aid of a pair of loaded pistols aimed at the congregation. Charles' answer was simply to demand punishment for those who refused to obey his orders concerning the use of the new Prayer Book. All petitioners against the Book were to be dispersed, and all the nobles who had resisted its use were to submit to the King's Will. The unwise and ill-advised King of England and Scotland had not reckoned with the strength of his opposition.

In Edinburgh, the National Covenant was drawn up by a committee made up of representatives from the clergy, the nobles, the gentry and the Scottish burghs. It was known as the Tables. Briefly, the document, signed on what was called "the great marriage day of this nation with God," pledged to maintain the True religion." Copies of the Covenant were carried throughout the country; its theological implications often lost. Though it had been signed "with His Majesty's Authority," it served almost as a declaration of independence from English rule, and let it be known that it was not Charles' representative in Scotland who made decisions, but the Lords of the Tables.

In November 1638, Charles met with the General Assembly in Glasgow. He didn't know what he was in for. The Assembly deposed or excommunicated all bishops, abolished the Prayer Book as "heathenish, Popish, Jewish and Armenian." Completely unwilling to compromise his position on the Church, Charles once again showed his naivete by brusquely informing the Assembly that all their decisions were invalid. To enforce his commands, he decided on war. By this further example of rashness, he sealed his fate.

In contrast to the poorly prepared, poorly led and poorly motivated armies of the English king in the early summer of 1639, the Scots had great numbers of experienced soldiers returning from overseas campaigns. And they had a worthy general, Alexander Leslie, who had commanded the army of the Swedes after the death of Gustavus Adolphus. The First Bishop's War, as it was called, was settled, most unwillingly by Charles (who had no other choice), by the Pacification of Berwick, by which the King agreed to refer all disputed questions to the General Assembly or Parliament.

The Scottish Parliament wasted no time in abolishing episcopacy and freeing itself from the King's control. When it took measures to weaken the Committee of Articles by which Charles had tried to control it, the king again foolishly took up arms, and the Second Bishops' War began. Without an effective army, Charles was forced to summon the English Parliament to beg for funds. When it met, it did nothing to please the King: the famous Long Parliament impeached and executed two of his chief supporters, Strafford and Laud. It also guaranteed its own existence against periods of personal rule by the monarch, for it stated that no more than three years could pass between Parliaments. More important, however, it stated that the present Parliament could not be adjourned without its own consent. With this further whittling away of royal prerogative, civil war threatened in England.

Off to Scotland again went Charles to try to gain support against his own Parliament. In the land that he had hitherto so blatantly antagonized, he distributed titles freely and reluctantly agreed to accept the decisions of the General Assembly and the Scottish Parliament. He had no choice. In England, where he had more support from the landed gentry, his obstinacy in resisting the Long Parliament and his stubborn insistence on Divine Right created the conditions for the actual outbreak of war in 1642. The Grand Remonstrance presented by Parliament had contained a long list of political and religious grievances. Charles had the audacity to try to arrest five members of Parliament but his attempts to locate them, and the speaker of the Houses' refusal to disclose their hiding place marked the beginning of the Speaker's independence from the crown, another landmark in the growth of Parliament.

At first, Scotland had no wish to get involved. The desires of the Covenanters were theological, not political. There was also a split developing between the extremists, who viewed practically anything at all of piety as "popery," and the moderates, led by Montrose, who reaffirmed both his belief in the Covenant, but also his loyalty to the King. Meanwhile, Charles had gathered enough supporters to gain many early victories against the forces of Parliament, mainly untrained levies from the shires. Scotland was again seen as a source of aid, but this time, it was the English Parliament, and not the king, who made the request.

Because the Covenanters wanted to establish presbytery in Ireland and England, as well as in Scotland, the offer from the English Parliament was too good to refuse. The agreement known as the Solemn League and Covenant, was signed in the autumn of 1643, the Scottish army was to attack the forces of Charles in England. In return, they would receive not only 30,000 pounds a month, but also the agreement that there would be "a reformation of religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in doctrine, worship, and government." (Wales was considered as part of England). One term of the agreement was that popery and prelacy were to be completely extirpated from the whole realm.

The conditions of the agreement now had to be imposed upon the English Church. Accordingly, the Westminster Assembly was summoned to establish uniformity of worship in Scotland, England (and Wales) and Ireland. The task was much easier in Scotland, where even to this day, the Westminster Confession of Faith continues to serve as the basis for Presbyterian worship. It was not as easy to implement in England and almost impossible in Ireland. A good beginning, however, was the heavy defeat of the Royalist forces at Marston Moor by the Parliamentary army under an up-and-coming cavalry officer named Oliver Cromwell, that had been greatly augmented by a large force of disciplined and well-armed Scotsmen.

Then an about face took place. Montrose had been greatly disturbed by the forces of extremism. The ancient theory of Divine Right of Kings was being severely tested. And in the Highlands of Scotland, Presbytery did not run deep. The powerful Lord accordingly, aided by many in Ireland and a few loyalists from the Lowlands, raised an army of Highlanders to win Scotland for the King. The nationalist spirit was still beating in some Scottish hearts after all, and Montrose's army, without cavalry and with no artillery, managed to completely rout an army of Covenanters led by Lord Elcho at Tippermuir. He then occupied Glasgow.

The Royalists in England were not faring as well. Cromwell's rag-tag armies had now become the well-trained, well-armed New Model Army (nicknamed "the Roundheads). Following their success at Marston Moor, they won a second smashing victory over Charles at Naseby. They then turned towards Scotland and stopped the string of successes of Montrose and his Highlanders at Philiphaugh. Then, in May 1646, news came of the King's surrender to the Scottish forces at Newark. There was little left for Montrose but to take ship for Norway and his followers went back to their homes. The victorious Scots army, after having turned Charles over to the English Parliamentary Commissioners, also returned north of the border. Everything seemed settled.

Despite their military successes, the Covenanters were not happy with the situation. There was little likelihood that Cromwell would establish Presbytery in England. Perhaps Charles would have been their best chance after all. So at the end of 1647, an agreement was made between the Scottish Parliament and the king, whereby he would give Presbyterianism a three-year trial in England in return for an army to help him against the Parliamentarians. Charles' joy at this unexpected help soon turned to grief. The Scots army, led by the Duke of Hamilton duly came south. It was utterly defeated by Cromwell at Preston, its leader executed and its followers dispersed. Cromwell and his officers, even before the battle, had decided that it was their duty to call Charles Stuart to account for the blood he had shed and the mischief he had done against the Lord's cause. There was to be no room for the king in the post-war settlement.

After Preston, the Commons passed the final ordinance establishing Presbyterianism. A purge of the moderates in Parliament, however, left the radical elements in the so-called "Rump Parliament" that created a High Court of Justice to bring Charles to trial for high treason. His execution, held in public before a saddened crowd at Charles' own banqueting hall in Westminster, whose only reaction was a loud and mournful groan, was a foregone conclusion. The Rump then proclaimed a republican form of government. First called the "Commonwealth and Free-State," and later the "Protectorate," it lasted only eleven years.

Republican Government in England (1649-1660)

Charles I sincerely believed that he died in the cause of law and the Church. His death may have been thought of by Cromwell as a political necessity, but it created an atmosphere that was to haunt his own efforts to build a new godly society. When his Parliament, the Rump, abolished the monarchy, on the grounds that it was unnecessary, burdensome and dangerous, and then meted out the same fate to the House of Lords, for being useless as well as dangerous, it was destroying more than a thousand years of English history. Yet for many, even these measures had not gone far enough; the so-called Levellers wanted more, wishing for biennial parliaments with strictly limited powers, a vast increase in the electorate and no established church or doctrine.

The demands of the Levellers put them way ahead of their time. Cromwell was determined to crush them in a show of force. Determined to bring in an era of firm government, he quickly and forcibly suppressed any revolts and attempts at challenging his authority. He also had to deal with the Scots, seething with anger at the execution of their King whom he had promised to preserve and defend by the Solemn League and Covenant of 1644.

Cromwell had come to Edinburgh to receive a hero's welcome, but the news of the unprecedented execution of Charles, a few days later, sent a tidal wave of dismay over much of Scotland. After all, the unfortunate man had been king of their country, too. And regicide was still an act against God. Taking immediate action, Argyll continued the strange alliance of King and Convenanter and had the 18 year-old Prince Charles proclaimed King at Edinburgh.

In 1650, Charles II duly arrived in Scotland to claim his Kingdom. Eventhough, in an opportune "conversion," he had allowed himself to be crowned by the more powerful Presbyterian faction, this was totally unacceptable to Oliver Cromwell, who had assumed the title of Lord Protector. Cromwell invaded Scotland, defeated the Scots under General Leslie at Dunbar and marched on Edinburgh. The Covenanters, no doubt trusting that God would preserve their cause, would not admit defeat and on New Year's Day, 1651 they crowned Charles II at Scone and raised a sizeable army to defend him. Mainly composed of Highlanders, it was utterly defeated by the more disciplined, better trained Roundheads at Inverkeithing.

Cromwell now occupied all of Scotland south of the Firth of Forth. He then departed to deal with the Scottish army that had been looking for support in England, leaving General Monck in charge. Cromwell caught up with the Scottish army at Worcester on September 3, 1651. He destroyed it. A few days earlier, Monck had captured the Committee of the Estates (the remnant of the Scottish Parliament and had occupied Dundee). The continent now became a refuge for yet another Scottish monarch, as Charles II fled to France in the time-honored fashion of so many Scots rulers. He was to return after nine years in exile. It is interesting to note that General George Monck is on record as being "the first professional soldier of the unique school which believes that the military arm should be subordinate to the civil" a doctrine followed by non other than General Dwight D. Eisenhower during his presidency of the United States some three hundred years later.

While the king in exile "went on his travels," as he put it, Cromwell was busy setting up an efficient system of government in both kingdoms. He saw that a Treaty of Union in 1652 united Scotland with England and made it part of the Commonwealth. At the beginning of his "reign," sanctioned by the Rump Parliament, he had dealt severely with insurrection in Ireland, where his cruelty and butchery in reducing the towns of Drogheda and Wexford made his name so hated that it is spoken in a dreaded whisper even today.

Cromwell was determined to prevent any of the Stuarts from gaining a foothold in Ireland. Through his ruthless campaigning, he forced it to accept the authority of the rulers of England. Following the precedent set by James l's land grants at the expense of the native Irish, many more English landowners were able to take advantage of the confiscation and sale of sizable Irish properties, a situation that was later to lead to the blight known as "Absentee Landlordism." One result, however was that his military successes made it possible to integrate Scottish, Welsh, English and Irish MP's into a truly British Parliament, a remarkable achievement that lasted until the first quarter of the 20th century.

Under Cromwell, England was also able to strengthen its position abroad. As the signs of civil strife became apparent, Charles l had married his daughter Mary, to William, Prince of Orange, perhaps to show his commitment to Protestantism. Like the Scots, the Dutch people were horrified at the news of the king's execution. To propose a union between the two republics, the Rump Parliament sent envoys to Holland who were deliberately insulted and thus the opportunity and the excuse was presented for English commercial interests to engage in a trade war.

Consequently, the Rump passed a Navigation Act in 1654 designed to cripple Dutch trade. The resulting war brought forth one of England's great military leaders, Admiral Blake, who blockaded the Dutch ports and defeated and killed Admiral van Tromp in a sea battle before peace came in 1654. War with Spain a year later resulted in the British capture of Jamaica and the destruction of a large Spanish fleet at Tenerife.

In retrospect, Cromwell has been seen as an evil genius, at odds with the other impression that saw him as a godly man, interested in the establishment of a lasting democracy that practiced tolerance. He was certainly a man caught between opposing forces. He had gained his power through the army, yet he wished to rule through a much less radical parliament. He truly found himself "sitting on bayonets," as one historian has remarked. In 1653, unable to satisfy the demands of both factions, in true monarchical fashion, he even dissolved Parliament, but after the lack of progress of the interim "Barebones" Parliament, he resumed his power as head of the government of a nation that consisted of England and Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

On 12 December, 1653, after he had refused an offer of the Crown, "Old Noll" Cromwell, virtual dictator of England, received the title of Lord Protector. He instigated a period of government remarkable for its religious tolerance to all except Roman Catholics, still regarded as enemies of the realm. Under his protectorate, Jews were allowed back into England for the first time since their expulsion under Edward I. Many Jewish families were to do much to support later English governments financially. The Society of Friends or Quakers, began to flourish under the inspired leadership of George Fox. Perhaps more remarkable was the permission granted to congregations to choose their own form of worship, the Anglican Book of Common Prayer was replaced by the Directory of Worship.

Even these measures were not enough to satisfy everyone. In 1655, a Royalist uprising forced Cromwell to divide England into eleven military districts to keep down insurrection and to rigidly enforce the laws of the Commonwealth. Many of these leaders were responsible for the so-called "blue laws" creating a land of joyless conformity, where not only drinking, swearing and gambling became punishable offences, but in some districts, even going for a walk on Sundays. The unpopularity of these puritanical justices, mostly army colonels, led to their dismissal in 1657.

The same year saw Parliament nominate Cromwell's son Richard as his successor, an unfortunate choice, for the young man, nicknamed "Tumbledown Dick," didnÕt have the experience nor the desire to govern the nation. When he retired to his farm in the country, a period of great confusion between the various political factions and indecisive government resulted in the decision of General Monck to intervene. Always a Cavalier at heart "Old George" Monck brought his army from Scotland to London, where he quickly assembled a parliament and invited Charles ll to take over the reigns of the kingdom. The Republic of Great Britain and Ireland came to an abrupt end.

Charles ll (1660-1685)

Though a London mob had thrown down a statue of Charles l outside the Royal Exchange and placed the words "Exit Tyrannus" over the empty space, the same mob was to lustily cheer "God Bless King Charles ll" at the arrival of General Monck's army. The people had never been happy at the interregnum. The great diarist Samuel Pepys has adequately described the rejoicing when the monarchy, "laid aside at the expense of so much blood, returned without the shedding of one drop." Charles must have thought that the tumultuous welcome accorded him gave him carte blanche to govern as he thought fit; it did not. There was still Parliament.

The king got off to a good start. England was tired of being without a king, such an integral part of their history and a source of great national pride when things went well. Charles was crowned in April 1660 and within the same year married Catherine, the daughter of the King of Portugal, an act, nevertheless, which did nothing to diminish his reputation as a philanderer. Sadly enough, though he sired at least fourteen illegitimate children, but he was not able to produce a legitimate heir. A cynic in morals and a pragmatist in politics, he was shrewd enough to change his beliefs when he saw an advantage. In his earlier attempts at winning the throne, he had courted the Scots Presbyterians, but in later life, he reverted to his Catholic preferences.

Charles could not, of course, claim to rule by divine right. That era in English history had gone forever. The Crown could not enforce taxes without the consent of Parliament, nor could it arbitrarily arrest M.P.'s as Charles l had attempted. The two houses of Parliament, Lords and Commons were restored, as was the Church of England and the bishoprics. Many of those who had plotted against Charles l, known as "regicides" were executed, but there was no orgy of revenge and many prominent anti-Royalists, such as the poet John Milton, were allowed to escape punishment. The restoration of the supremacy of the Anglican Church, however, meant the upswelling of resistance from those outside its embrace.

Protestants were grouped together under many names. There were Baptists, Congregationalists and Quakers, all of who resisted strenuous efforts to get them to toe the line by conforming to the Act of Uniformity of 1662. Action against them came in the form of the Clarendon Code, a collection of different restrictive measures completed during 1664-5, that cut off the dissenters from professional advancement in all the professions, except business. Perhaps this may have led to the close alliance of Dissent and the world of Business that so characterized later England and has been seen as the foundation for its commercial success. In any case, it only strengthened the desire of the new and various Protestant sects to worship in the way they pleased.

Unlicensed preachers became a thorn in the side of government who regarded them as something akin to traitors. In 1660, John Bunyan, who preached, as he stated so emphatically, by invitation of God, and not of any bishop, went to prison for twelve years. The result was first, "Grace Abounding" and then "Pilgrim's Progress" completed in 1675. The pious, humble Quakers were particularly singled out for ridicule and harsh treatment. But the worst fears, and most severe recriminations were reserved for the Catholics.

During the period known as Carolingian England, after Charles had made his triumphant return from the Continent, it seems that there was no end to the anti-papal processions in London, the burning of the pope and cardinals in effigy, the hunting down of Catholic priests, the closing of their schools and search for their secret meeting places. Great Catholic families had been particularly loyal to Charles l; they had become anathema during the inter-regnum, and there was little that Charles II could do to restore their former dignity and favor. Catholic priests went into hiding, in constant peril of death or were forced to fall to the Continent.

After 1668, Charles began to turn more and more toward the Catholic religion. He concluded treaties with Louis XIV of France and agreed to reconcile himself with the "Church of Rome." In 1672, he issued a Declaration of Indulgence allowing freedom of religion for Catholics as well as non-conformists (Dissenters). He then joined the French king in a war against the Dutch, who flooded their lands successfully and resisted invasion. The failure caused a return of English resentment of Catholics and the passing of the Test Act of 1673 compelling public office holders to take the sacrament of the Church of England.

In 1678, when Protestant Clergyman Titus Oates, known as an habitual liar, heard rumors of the possible conversion of England to Catholicism by an invasion of French troops, he whipped up public feeling to frenzied heights by graphically embellishing the false tale. (Note: in World War II, the author as a small boy remembers the rumors being put about of an invasion of German paratroopers who had, it was said, already landed in Scotland: it was probably started when Nazi leader Hess parachuted into Scotland to give himself up to British authorities). Panic swept the land.

In the orgy created by rumors of plots to kill Charles and burn down Parliament, Catholics were hunted down and killed, and the legitimate heir, James Duke of York, was excluded from the throne by Parliament because he was a Catholic. Those who supported him were called "Tories" after Catholic outlaws in Ireland. Those who opposed James were the "Whigs" after Whiggamores, fiercely Protestant Scottish drovers. The Whigs supported the claim of The Protestant Duke of Monmouth, one of Charles' illegitimate sons. Another civil war seemed imminent before anti-Catholic feelings managed to die down in the absence of the "threatened" invasion. Yet even then, Charles continued his secret intrigues with the King of France.

Fortunately for the profligate, but Machiavellian English King, when a Whig plot to murder him and James, he had a reason to execute his opponents. Popular opinion then allowed him to bring back James to England where he regained his earlier position as Lord High Admiral. Charles was then able to live out the rest of his reign in peace mainly free from the political and religious struggles that had occupied so much of his reign.

These struggles, mostly involving the degree to which Protestantism had taken hold in Britain, had been particularly manifest in England's relations with Scotland. Alas, like his father, the new king had little interest in Scotland, preferring to govern it through a Privy Council situated in Edinburgh and a Secretary at London. Despite his early support by the Scots Presbyterians, he considered Presbytery as "not a religion for gentlemen." It is a constant source of astonishment to the modern reader how little Charles knew about how deep the roots of Presbyterianism had been planted in Scotland and how strongly the Covenanters would fight all attempts to return Scotland to episcopacy. His years in exile had taught him very little.

As King of Scotland, Charles had signed two Covenants in 1649 merely to secure his own coronation. When he restored James VI's method of choosing the Committee of Articles, he had the intention, not only of strengthening his position in relation to Parliament, but also of bringing back the bishops and restoring the system of patronage that chose ministers. All ministers chosen since 1649 were required to resign and to reapply for their posts from the bishops and lairds. One third of all Scottish ministers refused and held services in defiance of the law. Troops were sent to enforce the regulations but made the Calvinist Covenanters even more eager to serve God in their own way. In 1679, claiming to be obeying a command from on high, they murdered Archbishop Sharp.

The government decided to intervene to bring the rebels to heel. An army was sent to deal with them under the command of James, Duke of Monmouth. He defeated the Covenanters at Bothwell Brig and the survivors were dealt with severely. The reaction and counter-reactions that followed gave the period of the 1680's the title of "The Killing Time." The troubles continued when Charles died in 1685 to be succeeded by his brother James VIl (James ll of England) an openly-avowed Catholic who was welcomed in the Highlands, ever true to the legitimate monarch. And thus the seeds were sown for the Jacobite opposition that blossomed under the next king, the Dutchman, William of Orange.

Before the accession of James II, however, we have to mention the three great disasters that befell the England of Charles: plague, fire and war, all of which took place in three consecutive years, and all of which were recorded in graphic detail by diarist Pepys. The great outbreak of plague began in 1665, bringing London to a standstill and causing panic at the numbers of dead and the lack of any knowledge as to how to deal with the terrible scourge. Those who could afford to, simply packed up and went to live in the country.

The Great Fire of London, catastrophic as it was to the city, may have helped destroy the dwelling places of the brown rat, the carrier of the deadly fleas and thus brought the plague to an end. Though it destroyed the massive St. Paul's cathedral, it gave a chance for architects such as Christopher Wren to rebuild, transforming the old, unhealthy medieval, infested warrens into a city worthy of being a nation's capital, with fine, wide streets, memorable public buildings and above all, its magnificent new churches, including the present St. Paul's.

The third catastrophe was the continuation of the war against Holland. This time, with the Royal Navy mutinous over poor pay and atrocious conditions aboard its ships, the Dutch navy was able to sail with impunity into the Medway at the mouth of the Thames and burn many of the English ships moored at idle anchor. After the triumphs of Admiral Blake in the First Dutch War (1652-4), the Second Dutch War (1665-7) was a national disgrace.

Charles II died in February 1685 of a heart attack no doubt brought on by a life style that today' medical men (and religious leaders) would style nothing less than debauched. Of his reign, and that of his successor, more than one historian has seen all the political struggles, culminating in the Revolution of 1688 and the triumph of Parliament over the Crown, as springing partly from their attempts to grant to Catholics a greater degree of tolerance than would be countenanced by their other English subjects. They came to a head during the reign of James II.

James ll (1685-1688)

James was yet another of those who have only themselves to blame for their downfall. His reign lasted only three years. He too, had learned nothing from his predecessors, for his attempts to re-introduce Catholicism into a country that had become a bastion of Protestantism meant with disaster far worse than any plague or fire or minor skirmishes on the Continent. Unlike Charles II, who could modify his beliefs to suit the occasion and ride the swells of political change, James could not; his morality, some say his high-handedness, prevented him. In his own words, he admitted that had he kept his religion private, he could have been one of the most powerful kings ever to reign in England, but he would think of nothing "but the propagation of the Catholic religion."

Things went well at first. He was able to get Parliament to grant him adequate finances. He recognized the Church of England as the established church and defeated a rebellion led by James, the Duke of Monmouth who had foolishly landed on the southern coast of England and declared himself king. Though many of the people of the southwest came to his support, Monmouth's rag-tag army was defeated at Sedgemoor and soon came to suffer the reprisals handed out by the infamous "Bloody " Judge Jeffries who had hundreds executed and hundreds more transported overseas as convicts, mainly to the New World.

King James was misled by his early success. He began to implement policies that not only gave religious toleration to nonconformists, but also, and especially to, Catholics. Enlightened as this policy seems to us, James had chosen the wrong time and the wrong country. By replacing Protestants as heads of universities, military leaders and in important offices of state, the king dug his own grave. He ignored all Protestant pleas for concessions. One of the last straws was his 1687 Declaration of Indulgence which aimed at complete religious toleration. This too, was an act far ahead of its time; it only furthered the resentment of, and increased the fears of, the nation's Protestant majority. Non conformists and Anglicans reformed their alliance against the religious policies of the king. He had learned nothing from Charles II, who had done his best to keep this alliance alive; thus ensuring that his last years were peaceful ones.

James, on the other hand, was too anxious to foment change; he did not take into account the anti-Catholic sentiments of much of the British nation; constant wars with continental powers, i.e. Catholic, had built a strong, nationalistic British (and Protestant) state. James' plans for equal civil and religious rights for Catholics were out of the question; his efforts to win widespread support for his policies were totally unsuccessful.

On the continent, the Protestant ruler, the Dutch King William III of Orange was engaged in a duel with the French King Louis XIV for military success and diplomatic influence in Western Europe. Charles II of England had fought against the Dutch in a series of skirmishes for commercial hegemony, but a rapprochement followed the marriage of William and his first cousin Mary, James's eldest daughter in 1677. William made his decision to intervene in England in early 1688, hoping to be seen as a liberator, not as a conqueror; but his first invasion attempt in mid-October was easily defeated, mainly by the English weather which destroyed most of his ships and supplies.

Yet it was precisely this weather, and the strong northeasterly wind, that later prevented the British fleet from intercepting the Dutch armies of William landing at Brixham on 5 November, 1688. King James, despite having numerical strength in soldiers was forced on the defensive. His weak resolve, poor judgment, ill health and probably poor advice, caused him to retreat to London instead of attacking William's vulnerable army.

In the meantime, a series of provincial uprisings did nothing to bolster the morale of James' forces; Derby, Nottingham, York, Hull and Durham declared for William whose army marched towards London. Showing a complete failure of nerve, James fled to France in mid-December; his forces, twice the size of those of William, rapidly disintegrated. It was widely believed that William allowed James to escape, not wishing to make the King another English martyr. In what historians have called the "Glorious Revolution" William and Mary, in a joint monarchy, became rulers of Britain. James II and his baby son were debarred from the succession, as were all Catholics.

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."

Prior to the great electoral reforms of the later 19th century, the legislative in England was restricted to a very limited class. But it was a powerful class indeed that came to dominate the House of Commons, and it was the House of Commons that made the Empire, for it was an empire based on trade. While England's great rival, the kingdom of Spain may have had mixed motives in its overseas conquests, the lure of gold perhaps as equally important as the saving of souls, those who governed Britain did not disguise their motives.

The power of the Commons, and its control by the business and trade oriented middle-class, aided and abetted by a rapidly growing stratum of lawyers, had been building steadily; it looked for opportunities in whatever part of the world they could be found (and exploited). They were aided by the constitutional crisis that occurred when James II fled to France in 1688.

A Convention Parliament offered the throne to William and Mary (elder daughter of James II) as joint sovereigns; hereditary succession was replaced by parliamentary succession. A Bill of Rights was drawn up that guaranteed free speech, free elections and frequent meetings of Parliament, the consent of which was made necessary to raise taxes, keep a standing army and proscribe ecclesiastical commissions or courts, and royally suspend and dispense power. In short, the Bill re-affirmed the will of the English people (or at least of those who represented them in Parliament) against the arbitrary powers of the monarchy.

One of the most important milestones in English law had already taken place. The "Habeas Corpus Act" of 1679 had obliged judges to issue upon request a writ of habeas corpus directing a gaoler (jailer) to produce the body of any prisoner and to show cause for his imprisonment. The Act went on to state that a prisoner should be indicted in the first term of his commitment, be tried no later than the second term and once set free by order of the court, should not be imprisoned again for the same offense. Thus at a single stroke, hundreds of years of abuse of the prisoner by the authorities, often capricious and vengeful, came to an end. The Act remains an integral part of the Commonwealth's legal system today and has been widely copied in many other countries including the United States.

Also of considerable interest and lasting importance was the creation of a fixed Civil List for both the Crown's household and administrative expenditures, a novelty which the monarchs may have chafed at ever since, but which was made necessary to keep their expenditures under parliamentary control. Parliament had come a long way since the days of Henry VII. It is worth while to take a brief look at what had been taking place in the winning of the initiative by the House of Commons.

In the reign of Henry VIII Parliament had become increasingly important in the scheme of government for it gave confirmation and authority to the royal wishes when needed. If the King wished to go slow on his promises of treaties, it gave him a convenient way of retreat; in the struggle with foreign and domestic interests, it strengthened his hands. Much more than a formality of government and a mere income-generating body, Parliament began to be recognized as the voice of public opinion, a voice that the Tudors may not always have liked, but one which they wisely never wholly failed to heed.

The Tudors had encountered some opposition from the Commons, but during most Parliamentary sessions it had not been enough to cause any great anxiety to the Crown or the Council. There were simply too many members in the Lower House who regarded opposition to the Crown as disloyal. In any case, Henry VIII was ruthless in dealing with those who opposed him. Yet the Members in Commons could become vociferous, especially when the Crown asked for money. Privileges began to be exchanged for promises of ready cash: once granted, it was hard for future monarchs to refuse them.

The Upper House, as expected, was a firm ally of the Council. The leaders of the House of Lords were usually landed magnates who had often helped the Council in formulating Crown policy. The Lords seldom resisted the wishes of the Council, and much legislation was put first through the Upper House; then brought to the Commons, who dutifully followed along, for their seats often depended upon the support of local magnates. It was during the troublesome reign of Mary Tudor that the Commons became more contentious. Her determination to reverse the trend of events in religion brought her into conflict with her Parliaments, where something like a Protestant Party began to form to voice its opposition. Members began to speak out, and Mary had to go out of her way to dragoon them into acquiescence with her unpopular policies.

In Elizabeth's long reign, the House of Commons grew in leadership, though the whip hand remained firmly in the hands of the Queen and Council. It was in matters where the Queen expressed no opinion that the House was subtly, but surely, able to gain in power. The Puritan element in Parliament began to exert more and more influence; it was especially alarmed at Elizabeth's middle-of-the road religious policies. For the time being, however, under the strong hand of the Privy Council, and especially during the time of the Cecils, the Commons remained quiet, duly supportive of Royal legislation, kept firmly in control by the carefully groomed Speaker. Yet even his power had declined by the end of Elizabeth's reign with the dramatic increase in the use of the committee system.

By the time of the early Stuarts, essential changes had taken place in the growth of the English Constitution, changes in the day to day business and in the way of doing things. Between the time of Elizabeth I and the Long Parliament of Charles I, a great change had taken place in the relation of the Royal Council to the Commons. Almost unnoticed, Privy Councillors had ceased to guide the Lower House, in which there came into power a group of leaders who had no official connection with the government. It was this leadership that established the real initiative in legislation. The Commons had become a dominant force in government; its dynamic, forceful leaders had made the institution almost unrecognizable from the old, acquiescent body that had been afraid to cross the Tudors.

Parliament had further grown in strength when James I failed to keep a sufficient number of his own men in the Commons, which became increasingly vociferous in expressing its grievances. James himself was seen as a meddler; unlike Elizabeth, he was not content with staying in the background, and his constant interference meant that his words lost their weight, and royal prerogative began to be sneered at openly. Resentment led to opposition. The King's penchant for elevating his supporters to the House of Lords also left him with inexperienced, untried members to speak for him in the Commons.

The leadership exercised by Elizabeth's able Councillors was wholly absent during James' reign. The Commons could only benefit from the hiatus; its members were no longer subservient to the Royal Will; many were lawyers who brought new initiatives along with their legal skills into the committee system. Their presence ensured that the Commons no longer served as a recruiting ground for the service of the Crown, but was seen as a dignified profession for wealthy and powerful country gentlemen. Their allegiance was primarily to common law, not to the whims of their monarch.

A new interest in precedent also searched for ways to establish the privileges, rights and powers of the Commons on a firm basis, rapidly changing it from a mere ratifying body to one that formulated and passed laws. The Commons eventually showed that it not only could decide who could sit on the throne of England, it could even dispense with the monarchy altogether. It also had to deal with Scotland.

The Jacobites in Scotland and Ireland

It was all-too-soon apparent that William's success in England did nothing to ensure the compliance of Scotland and Ireland. The cause of the exiled Stuarts became known as Jacobitism, from the Latin for James, Jacobus. Though King James and his supporters controlled parts of Britain including most of Ireland, they failed miserably in their cause. In a series of strategically-sound campaigns, William succeeded in driving them from their bases in both Ireland and Scotland, thus forcing them to become reliant on foreign support. The campaigns against William's rule in overwhelmingly-Catholic Ireland began the period of close cooperation of that country with France, both military and political. It continued right up the '45 rebellion.

The first battle against the new King William of England was fought in Scotland. In July, 1689, at Killiecrankie, the most active of James' supporters, Viscount Dundee, defeated a much larger royal army led by General Mackay. "Bonnie Dundee" was killed in the battle, but the Highlanders' success led the hitherto hesitant clans to flock to James' standard. It was a success that gave them false hopes; without Dundee in command, they were unable to exploit their initial victory.

The decisive battles involving the Jacobite cause were not fought in Scotland, but in Ireland, more accessible to French naval power, and thus to troops and supplies. In a desperate attempt to regain his throne, James II left France for Ireland in March 1689. His armies soon won most of the country, but a prolonged resistance was put up by the people of Derry, where the Protestant apprentice boys had slammed the city gates shut against the Catholic army. Starving Derry (Londonderry) was eventually relieved by an English fleet in July 1689, a day still celebrated with much pomp and pageantry in Northern Ireland. In August, mainly as a consequence of the resistance of Derry and Enniskillen, William's army, mostly Danish and Dutch mercenaries, occupied Belfast.

In June 1690 William marched on Dublin. His way was blocked by the Jacobite forces on the banks of the River Boyne, which became the site of the battle so vividly remembered and celebrated by Ulster's Protestant majority. James' outnumbered forces were cast aside. Once more showing a failure of nerve, in time-honored fashion for a Scottish ruler, he fled to France, and William easily took Dublin. Other successes were enjoyed by John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough, aided by the Dutch General Ginkel with Hugh Mackay as his second-in-command. At Limerick, what was left of the Jacobite cause suffered another catastrophic defeat; all their forces in Ireland consequently surrendered, with about 11,000 Irishmen, the so-called Wild Geese, going to France to continue the fight for James.

James had not given up hope of regaining his kingdom. He still enjoyed the strong support of Louis XIV, and in June 1690, his hopes were raised when a large French naval force managed to defeat an Anglo-Dutch fleet. As so often in the past, however, the Jacobite victory was not followed up. French control of the Channel was not exploited and the initiative was soon lost. When Louis finally decided to invade England in May 1692, it was too late; his fleet was sent packing. One result of the hostilities was entirely unexpected but had an enormous result on subsequent world history.

In 1694, the costs of the war led to the formation of the Bank of England, a Whig joint-stock company that raised funds from the public and loaned it to the government in exchange for the right to issue bank notes and to discount bills. The loan did not have to be repaid as long as the interest was raised by imports duties. Thus a funded national debt came into being. The method of borrowing money at interest, instead of taking it by taxation for nothing was established as a normal practice. It took a while to catch on in other countries, but catch on it did, as soon as respective governments saw the advantages. The foundation of a society to write marine insurance formed by merchants and sea captains at Lloyd's Coffee House in 1688 was also of enormous importance; the practice of underwriting enormous expenditures in overseas ventures and shipping, dates from this time.

Another revolutionary idea was the granting of monopolies in trade by Parliament, and not by the time-honored system of royal dispensation to favorite courtiers. The 1698 Parliament showed its strength by announcing that such grants could no longer be granted as a general rule by royal charter but only though an act of Parliament. The new East India Company came about as one of the first results of these acts, seen by many as the greatest event in the organization of British foreign trade. This company, together with the newly-formed Bank of England, showed only too well the growing power of the British traders and financiers over the state government.

For many, the resolution of May 26, 1698 was as important as the "Magna Carta" of 1215, for it gave the granting of powers and privileges for carrying on the East India trade to Parliament. And if the trading classes could control Parliament, they could make their own terms, which is precisely what happened over and over again in subsequent British history. It became one of the ever-increasing problems for the country's government: the interference of trade with legislation and administration was to become an inevitable part of the future. Yet it was the desire for trade and overseas markets that led to the expansion of the Empire.

On the Continent, French King Louis, having enough of the war against the stubborn Dutch and their allies, made peace at Rijswijk in 1697, recognizing William as King of England and his sister-in-law Anne as heiress presumptive. A period of peace between France and England, however, came to an end with Louis's recognition of the prince born in 1688 as the future King James III, an act regarded by historian Arthur Bryant as one of "megalomaniac folly." Prospects for the Jacobites, however, were not helped by the War of the Spanish Succession which tied up Catholic forces in the Netherlands and forced France to withdraw to its own borders.

As important as William's victories were in Scotland and Ireland, he was more concerned with the fate of the Spanish Netherlands that looked likely to fall to France upon the death of the childless Charles II of Spain. After Louis agreed that his grandson Phillip V would rule the Spanish Empire, William formed his Grand Alliance against France in 1701. We have to remember that William's main purpose in taking on the throne of England was to utilize its resources and military forces to defend his beloved Netherlands against the French King. When William died in 1702 after falling from his horse (young Queen Mary had died of small pox in 1694), Princess Anne succeeded him; the war in France continued.

Queen Anne (1702-14) The Foundations of Empire

It was evident during the reign of dull, gouty Anne that Britain was also fast becoming a nation thoroughly Protestant, though the inevitable differences in worship continued. Anne was an Anglican, a member of the Established Church of England. King James had been forced to make a number of concessions to the Nonconformists (or Dissenters) in order to win political support. Though the times were not yet ripe for complete religious toleration, the Toleration Act of 1689 had broken the monopoly of English Protestantism hitherto enjoyed by the Established Church.

The rise of the Dissenters and the spread of Unitarianism accompanied the so-called Scientific Revolution in England associated with the upsetting (to Churchmen) discoveries of such men as Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle. The Established Church no longer played a major role in national politics. The accession of William, a Dutch Calvinist, had been instrumental in helping sever that special relationship long enjoyed between Church and Crown.

Though the quarrels within and without the Church continued, in an age noted for the prolific rise in pamphleteering and electioneering chicanery, the time of Daniel Defoe and Dean Swift and the intense and bitter political between Whigs and Tories, it was the war with France that dominated Queen Anne's reign. William's accession had meant that the island nation of England had become inextricably part of the Continent. The war brought forth one of England's great military leaders, John Churchill, the husband of Queen Anne's close friend Sarah.

Churchill succeeded King William as leader of the English and Dutch forces in the Grand Alliance. Under his leadership as the Duke of Marlborough, England became the leading military power in Europe for the first time since the Hundred Years' War. Though the Dutch feared an invasion by France, Marlborough went ahead and attacked the French army at Blenheim, a name that is remembered in England as one of the greatest victories in its long history.

The annihilation of the French army at Blenheim was followed by the English capture of Gibralter in 1704; another smashing victory at Ramillies was then followed by additional successes at Oudenarde and Malplaquet. A grateful nation built Blenheim Palace for the Duke (a sumptuous residence in which Winston Churchill, a direct descendant of John Churchill, was born in 1874). The victorious Wellington was satirized by Scot John Arbuthnot in his "The History of John Bull" (1712) that introduced the name John Bull as a symbol of England.

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.

Success in colonizing North America had not come without its terrible costs, yet in retrospect it seemed extremely rapid. It is a sobering fact that the first voyage of Christopher Columbus took place only 20 years after Scotland had finally acquired the Orkneys and Shetlands from Norway. Columbus had visited England in 1477 to try to obtain backing for a voyage to discover a new route to the Indies but had been turned down (his brother Bartholomew was also rejected by the English Court in 1485). Yet only five years after Columbus had landed in the Bahamas, John Cabot reached Labrador aboard the Matthew. His 35 day voyage marks the beginning of British domination of North America.

In 1496, John and Sebastian Cabot, sailing from Bristol, took their little fleet along the coasts of what were later called Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Some English scholars maintain that the name America comes from Richard Amerik, a Bristol merchant and Customs officer, who helped finance the Cabot voyages. The elder Cabot recorded the vast fishing grounds later known as the Grand Banks.

Interest in finding new lands may have been initiated by the publication of "Utopia" by Thomas More in 1515, that described the benefits of a new land. It must certainly have been influenced by the Spanish discoveries of maize, tobacco and the potato, all of which they introduced in Europe, along with oranges from the Orient. Another deciding factor was the planting of the French flag in the Gaspe Peninsular, Canada and on lands along the St. Lawrence River, by Jacques Cartier in 1534. Much of Britain's investment in North America may have been simply to prevent French influence.

Further interest in the New World was surely sparked by the explorations of Franciscan missionary de Niza who returned to Spain in 1539 with glowing accounts of the "seven cities of Cibola." One year later, Dutchman Jo Greenlander discovered that early settlers had been in what was later named Greenland. Hernando de Soto landed at Tampa Bay and Coronado explored the American southwest. In 1541 Pizarro completed his conquest of Peru and de Soto discovered the Mississippi. Perhaps the most consequential discovery of the century was that of the silver mine at Potosi by the Spanish in 1545 that fueled the commercial activity of Europe during the following century.

The efforts of Spain and Portugal in the same area also spurred further English interest in the Americas. It was especially so since the writings of Welshman John Dee had claimed the New World for Elizabeth I as Queen of an Atlantic Empire, and successor to Madoc, a Welsh prince purported to have landed in what later became known as Mobile Bay in the 12th century and whose followers, it was claimed, intermingled with the Mandans in the upper Mississippi Valley.

England's own era of exploration, initiated by the Cabots, was expanded by the journeys of Hugh Willoughby to seek a Northeast Passage to China and the spice trade. He reached Moscow by way of the White Sea and Archangel in 1553. As a result, the Muscovy Company was founded by Richard Chancellor to trade with Russia in 1555. One year later, in what many non-smokers now consider "a year of infamy," tobacco seeds reached Europe, brought from Brazil by a Franciscan monk.

In 1561, Jean Nicot (who gave his name to nicotine) sent seeds and powdered leaves of the tobacco plant to France. Such imports to Europe seized the imagination of John Hawkins who began his career of high-jacking Portuguese and Spanish ships in 1562. Hawkins' exploits, along with similar exploits of his fellow mariners, led to England's entering the Slave Trade despite Queen Elizabeth's dramatic speech against it (she later took shares in his company and even lent him a ship).

Tobacco found its way to England when John Hawkins brought some home from Florida in 1565. Three years later, David Ingram explored from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada and reported finding vines with grapes as large as a man's thumbs. A great boost to exploration then came from the publication, in 1569, of the Flemish geographer Mercator's projection map of the world which represented the meridians of longitude by equally spaced parallel lines and which greatly increased the accuracy of navigational maps. English mariner Francis Drake then undertook his daring voyage of 1572 to capture the Spanish treasure fleet returning from Peru, a feat surpassed by his even greater haul one year later.

English exploration of North America continued in 1576 when Martin Frobisher discovered Baffin's Land and Frobisher's Bay on his search for a Northwest Passage to China. Two years later Queen Elizabeth gave a patent to Sir Humphrey Gilbert to "inhabit and possess at his choice all remote and heathen lands not in the actual possession of any Christian prince." The search for the famed Northwest Passage continued unabated.

In 1580, Drake arrived back in Plymouth having circumnavigated the globe in the Pelican, renamed the Golden Hinde after the gallant ship had passed through the Straits of Magellan. Drake was then knighted by the Queen after capturing the richest prize ever taken at sea. Gilbert then tried unsuccessfully to create the first English settlement in the New World at Newfoundland. The Virginia colony was established in 1584 at Roanoke by Sir Walter Raleigh. One year later, Chesapeake Bay was discovered by Ralph Lane and Davis Strait by John Davis.

In 1585, the first oriental spice to be grown in the New World, Jamaican ginger, arrived in Europe. In 1586, Sir Richard Cavendish became the third man to circumnavigate the globe when his ship the Desire reached England after a voyage of over two years. During the same year, Raleigh planted potatoes on his estate near Cork, Ireland; and Virginia Dare was born on Roanoke Island, the first English child to be born in North America.

In 1594, after deaths from scurvy in the Royal Navy had become epidemic, Sir Richard Hawkins recommended orange and lemon juice as antiscorbutics. It eventually became standard practice in the Royal Navy to add citrus juice to the diet (conquest of scurvy played a big part in England's later domination of the seas). When the Portuguese closed its spice market in Lisbon to Dutch and English traders, the Dutch East India Company was created to obtain spices directly from the Orient.

English exploration of the New World continued, receiving a bonus when Richard Hakluyt produced a recognizable map in 1599. In 1600, the Honourable East India Company was chartered to make annual voyages to the Indies and to challenge Dutch control of the spice trade. The smoking of tobacco became fashionable in London this year. When the first spice fleet leaving for the Orient arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, James Lancaster dosed his sailors with lemon juice to make them the only crew in the entire fleet not decimated by scurvy. Coffee joined tobacco as a London fad.

In 1602, English sailor Bartholomew Gosnold explored what was later to be called "New England." He brought sassafras back, but left smallpox behind to decimate many of the native peoples, mistakenly called "Indians." After James I had made peace with Spain in 1604, he re-directed England's efforts at colonizing North America, and the Plymouth and London Companies sent ships and colonists. Jamestown, Virginia was founded in 1607. During the same year, Henry Hudson sought a route to China and sailed round the Eastern Shore of Greenland to reach Spitzbergen. In 1610, Hudson's ship Discovery reached the strait later to be known as Hudson Bay, Canada.

In 1612, John Smith published his "Map of Virginia" describing the colony, which eventually managed to produce an extremely profitable export commodity in tobacco. In 1614, Smith also explored the New England coast and renamed a native village, calling it Plymouth. Next, when he ventured to a latitude of over 77 degrees north to seek the Northwest Passage, William Baffin sailed farther north than any other explorer for the next 236 years. In 1616, John Smith published his "Description of New England", providing a further impetus to would-be settlers.

In 1618, the first legislative body in the New World convened at Jamestown, the Virginia House of Burgesses. This was also a year in which small pox ravaged the native population of the English North American colonies, including Chief Powhatan. One year later, the first black slaves arrived in Virginia, and the first American day of Thanksgiving was celebrated on the English ship Margaret at the mouth of the James River.

In 1620, the Mayflower arrived off Cape Cod with 100 Pilgrims and two children born at sea. The Plymouth Colony celebrated its first Thanksgiving Day, but the colonists did not entertain their Indian guests at the dinner until the following year. In 1628 John Endicott arrived as the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Thousands more English settlers went to the American colonies during the reign of Charles l. In 1632, Maryland received its charter by a grant from King Charles to Cecil Calvert. Four years later, Providence was founded as a Rhode Island settlement by Roger Williams, and Harvard College came into existence.

In 1639 the first Smithfield hams arrived in England from Virginia, now starting to thrive, and the following year, Massachusetts Bay Colony began to export codfish. In the West Indies, sugar cane was grown for profit, supplying Britain with a substitute for honey, now rare after the dissolution of the monasteries, which had produced most of British honey for centuries. The manufacture of Rum from sugar cane was established in Barbados. Britain began to concentrate on the West Indies and the Americas, leaving the East Indies to the Dutch, but competing with France (and to some extent the Dutch) for North America.

In 1649, after the defeat of the armies of King Charles l, many Royalists emigrated to Virginia. In 1655, Admiral Penn captured Jamaica from the Spanish. In 1664, Nieuw Amsterdam was renamed New York after its capture from the Dutch. A year later, the New Jersey Colony was founded by English colonists. The Treaty of Westminster of 1674 returned New York and Delaware to England, freeing the English to expand their trade and grow prosperous on it.

In 1681, Pennsylvania had its beginning in the land grant given to Admiral Penn's son, the Quaker William, who wished to call it New Wales, but settled for the Welsh word for head (Pen) and the Latin for woods (Sylvania). The Frame of Government for the new colony contained an explicit clause that permitted amendments, an innovation that made it a self-adjusting constitution, as the US Constitution itself later came to be.

In a move that has been ignored by many historians, England readmitted Roman Catholics to the army in 1686, thus allowing many thousands of Irish peasants and Scots Highlanders to join the forces that would be needed to expand and control England's ever-growing empire. In 1696, William Dampier published his general survey of the Pacific, "Voyage Round the World." One year later, Parliament opened the slave trade to British merchants who began their triangular trade from taking rum from New England to Africa, slaves to the Caribbean and sugar and molasses to New England. In 1698, Dampier sailed on his Pacific expedition to explore the West Coast of Australia.

Further emigration from England to the American Colonies was encouraged during Queen Anne's reign by the 1702 publication of Cotton Mather's "Magnalia Christi Americana," a history of New England designed to show that God was at work in the colonies. A French-Indian attack on Deerfield, Massachusetts, however, was a precursor of the later war to come. Queen Anne, of a most "ordinary" character, and the last monarch of the ill-fortuned House of Stuart, died in 1714. She was succeeded by Hanover's Prince George Louis, a great-grandson of James I. During her reign, developments had taken place in England that were to shortly make it the world's leading industrial power. But first came political union with Scotland.

The Act of Union with Scotland: May 1, 1707

James II's youngest daughter Anne, whose last surviving child, Princess Anne did not survive; thus there was no direct successor to the throne. London was afraid that unless a formal, political union with Scotland was firmly in place, as distinct from the existing dynastic union (which had been established with the accession of the Stuart James VI of Scotland as James I of England in 1603), the country might choose James Edward Stuart, Anne's exiled Catholic half-brother.

The English Parliament passed the Act of Settlement in 1701 to ensure that Anne's heir was to be the Electress Sophia of Hanover, granddaughter of James l. Consequently, when William died in 1702, he was succeeded by Queen Anne, a true daughter of the last legitimate monarch, James II. On William's deathbed he had recommended union with Scotland. In 1703, the Scottish Parliament passed the Act of Security that provided for a Protestant Stuart succession upon Anne's death, unless the Scottish government was freed from "English or any foreign influence."

The English Parliament responded with an Alien's Act that prohibited all Scottish imports to England unless the Scots accepted the Hanoverian succession. When union was strongly urged by Lord Godolphin, the Scots reluctantly acquiesced in order to gain the advantage of free trade with the new British common market; the Act of Union merely cemented what had been a growing interdependence between the two countries. Union with Scotland became official on May 1, 1707 by act of Parliament. There were advantages for both countries in the Union, seen in retrospect as an act of policy, not of affection.

Sometimes overlooked while discussing the reasons for Scotland's agreeing to the union is the terrible beating taken by that unfortunate nation in the Darien affair. The Scottish Parliament's grandiose scheme to finance a rival to the East India Company and its attempt to found a colony on the isthmus of Darien, or Panama, met with hostility from the English Parliament. Disease and Spanish interference brought a quick and sad end to the scheme, in which practically the whole Scottish nation had shown interest. Much of the blame was cast upon "Dutch William" and his English advisors, but Scottish mercantile interests were forced by the experience to find a workable solution. Perhaps it would be better, they reasoned, to give up a separate and divergent economic policy in favor of a merger that would be of equal benefit to both Parliaments. Not all on either side were happy with the Union that many historians see as a result of "judicious bribery". The mercantile interests in Edinburgh did not represent the whole nation. The people of the Highlands certainly were not consulted in the matter. In particular, the nation had to balance the loss of its ancient independence against the need to open itself up to a wider world and greater opportunities than it could provide by itself. For its part, England gained a much-needed security, for no longer could European powers use Scotland as a base for an attack on its southern neighbor.

Scotland kept its legal system and the Presbyterian Kirk, but gave up its Parliament in exchange for 45 seats in the House of Commons and 16 seats in the House of Lords. The Act proclaimed that there would be "one United Kingdom by the name of Great Britain" with one Protestant ruler, one legislature and one system of free trade. The Act of Union settled the boundaries of a state known as Great Britain whose people, despite their differences in traditions, cultures and languages, were held together simply because they felt different from people in other countries.

The people of Britain also felt superior; they were constantly being compared with those of other countries in Europe as being better fed, better housed and better governed. Part of the feeling of superiority came from the acquisition of so much overseas territory; part came from government propaganda and the need to suppress dissent, part came from technical advances that already heralded the coming of both the agricultural and industrial revolutions.

Eighteenth Century England

The Electress of Hanover, Sophia, died the same year as Anne. When her son George left Hanover to come to England, knowing but a few words of the English language, there were many who wished a restoration of the Stuart monarchy. In this period of rapid Anglicization of Scotland and the acceptance, through the Union, of the political and economic situation that prevailed in Protestant England, the Stuarts were not yet finished. In 1708, their hopes were raised once again when an invasion of Scotland, launched from France managed to avoid the British fleet. Unfortunately, and by now predictably, the opportunity was lost; the troops landed too far north to be effective in taking Edinburgh. Then, in 1715, James II's son, James Edward Stuart, who was James III to his supporters was persuaded to undertake an invasion of England, "the fifteen."

It had been highly apparent that attempts at restoring the Stuarts would have meant the replacement of a Protestant monarchy, however foreign and dull it appeared, with a Roman Catholic dynasty, for one thing, and it was far too late for that. For another, the restoration would have to be accomplished by a foreign (and Catholic) army of occupation. The Stuarts were backed by France, Britain's most obvious and strongest enemy, a Popish enemy at that. The British press was full of the horrors of life in the Catholic states of Europe and the blessings that the island nation enjoyed under its Protestant rulers. Despite the nostalgia and the romanticism attached to the exiled Stuarts, and their wide support in Scotland, it was unthinkable for most Britons to contemplate their return. The majority of people in the nation were not in the mood for what surely would be a bloody and prolonged civil war. They certainly did not welcome the idea of a Jacobite army that would be mainly composed of French troops marauding through their land. In addition, it seemed as if the struggle of Whig against Tory that had brought the country to the verge of civil war had exhausted everyone. The attempt of the Pretender to regain the throne for the Stuarts in 1715 thus fizzled out like a damp squib.

George I (1714-1727)

The first great crisis of the reign of George I, that fool of a king (who was ridiculed for his eccentric behavior and poor English), was the Jacobite Rebellion. He was lucky that his nation was in no mood for another civil war. James Stuart was sent back to France after failing to rally Scotland behind him. It was left to the Young Pretender, Charles Edward to try again during the reign of George II. The other crisis that affected the reign of the first Hanoverian monarch of England was known as the South Sea Bubble.

Briefly, the South Sea Company, founded in 1711, had acquired a monopoly in the lucrative Spanish slave trade and other trading ventures in South America. Prices of its shares increased dramatically when the government announced that the company, and not the Bank of England, should finance the National Debt. Dozens of irrational schemes came into being as the result of the ridiculously high prices of company shares. They all crashed in October of 1720 when shares began to tumble; many investors were ruined.

The fiasco, involving many government ministers, needed someone to straighten things out, and the right person appeared in Robert Walpole, who defended the ministers and the Crown, being rewarded with the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer and leading the House of Commons for 20 years. Walpole straightaway reduced import and export duties to encourage trade and took care of the financial crisis by amalgamating the South Sea Company stock with that of the Bank of England and the East India Company. An astute business man, he kept England at peace and he increased the powers and privileges of Parliament.

At the Act of Settlement of 1701, Parliament had insisted that there should be a Privy Council of 80 members. King George reduced it to 30, and from these, a smaller group formed the cabinet, and an even smaller group, the inner cabinet. And it was here that the important decisions were made. As "German George" knew little English, understood practically nothing of the English constitution and stayed away from cabinet meetings, Walpole rose to a position of chief minister. He continued his leading role after the death of George I in 1727. Walpole's day-to-day supervision of the administration of the country, unhampered by royal interference, gave him such influence that he is remembered as England's first Prime Minister (The title originated as a term of abuse when his opponents mockingly used it to describe his extraordinary power).

George II (1727-1760)

Among the many events that took place during the reign of George II, there were two that were to have a profound influence, not only upon his kingdom of Britain, but upon much of the world outside its borders. The first of these events began in 1728 when Yorkshire carpenter John Harrison created a working model of a practical, spring-driven timekeeper that would win the prize offered by the London's Board of Longitude to solve a centuries-old puzzle; how to make the accurate determining of longitude possible. (In 1676, the Greenwich Observatory had been established to study the position of the moon among the fixed stars and to set a standard time to help sailors fix their longitude). In 1730, John Hadley invented the reflecting quadrant that made it possible to determine latitude at noon or by night. Extremely accurate, it was quickly adopted by the admiralty.

In 1736, Harrison presented his ship's chronometer to London's Board of Longitude; accurate to with one-tenth of a second per day. Made weatherproof and placed aboard ships, along with the observations of astronomer Nevil Maskelyne, published in 1763 that calculated longitude at sea from lunar distances, the chronometer was to revolutionize the world's shipping. It was to prove of particular importance to English navigators in their constant, unending search for new markets for English products, new trading centers and eventually, new lands to settle her surplus criminals and poor, unemployed citizens. (The chronometer was proved to be a success aboard HMS Deptford in 1761).

The second major event began at Oxford University, also in 1728, when a group of students began to call divinity student Charles Wesly a "Methodist," because of his methodical study habits. Charles was to help found a holy club with his brother John and others for strict observance of sacrament and the Sabbath, along with reading the New Testament and undergoing fasting. Brother John was to begin preaching Methodism at Bristol in 1739.

The first conference of Methodists was held in 1744. From then on, the movement, aided by his indefatigable preaching and wide spread travels in the British Isles, spread rapidly. The new religious ideas were to take root in North America where ideas of political independence from Britain were to merge with ideas of religious independence from the Church of England.

At home, as strong-willed as George II seemed to be, he could be controlled by his wife, Caroline of Anspach, whose influence ensured that Walpole keep his position as prime minister in the new regime. When Caroline died in 1737, it was increasingly difficult for Walpole to keep England out of war with Spain, brought about by the continual harassment of British trading ships by the Spanish. When a certain Captain Jenkins presented the sight of his sun-dried (or pickled) ear, supposedly cut off by the Spanish in 1731, Parliament was enraged and demanded action. Walpole was unable to effect a compromise and England went to war in 1739. At the same time, the War of the Austrian Succession had broken out on the Continent.

Because George II feared a French invasion of his beloved Duchy of Hanover, England was forced to involve itself in the war that primarily involved the coalition of Central European powers, supported by France, to despoil Maria Theresa, the new Arch Duchess of Austria, of her possessions. To the dismay of the jingoistic Parliament, George signed a treaty with France to protect Hanover, Walpole was held responsible and defeated in Parliament after losing support of the Commons. Walpole had coined the term "balance of power" in a speech in Parliament in June 1741; it gave expression to the principle that was to guide British foreign policy for decades to come.

Despite King George's attempts to stay neutral in the European conflict, he had to fight. At Dettingen, he personally led his forces, and won a great victory over the French. When France declared war on England in 1744, believing that she was the cause of most of her troubles, Parliament was forced on the defensive. As so many times before in the island nation's history, however, the notorious British weather helped destroy a French invasion fleet in 1744. It was now time for the Jacobite Cause to resurrect itself.

The Last Gasp of the Jacobites

Incredibly enough, after the farce of the last attempt to regain the throne, the Stuarts were to try again. Despite having endured so many years of ill-fortune, the Jacobite cause was still powerful enough to be considered the greatest threat to Britain in mid-century. In 1718, the Spanish government, in the conflict with Britain for control of trade, had sponsored an abortive raid on Scotland. Though the attempt ended in a defeat for the Highlanders at Glenshiel, an English newspaper argued in 1723 that the people of the Scottish Highlands "will never fail to join with foreign Popish powers..."

As if to fulfill this prophecy, 22 years later, Charles Edward seized his opportunity. At a time when George II was away in his beloved Hanover and the bulk of the British Army fighting in Flanders and Germany, the Stuart prince landed in the Hebrides in July 1745. He was encouraged by promise of support from France, and indeed some ships did reach Scotland with supplies and artillery. By September, Charles had rallied thousands of Highlanders, was aided by the Provost's who had secretly left a gate open and had taken the city of Edinburgh (where he assured the Presbyterian clergy of religious toleration), captured Carlisle, and defeated a small British force at Prestonpans where his soldiers employed their broadswords in the famous Highland charge.

Flushed with victory over the obviously ill-trained and ill-prepared British force of General Cope, the Scottish army marched south to England, hoping to rally support all along the way. Yet, it soon became apparent that Charles Edward was not going to be successful in raising the men and money necessary to sustain the invasion. Even in the Scottish Lowlands, support had not been forthcoming. Interests of commerce overrode those of patriotism. Despite Charles Edward's bold plans to advance on London, Lord Murray argued for a return to Scotland. The Prince reluctantly admitted the lack of support from English Jacobites. In addition, misleading reports about the strength of the English forces convinced the majority of the Council to return to Scotland.

An English force that caught up with the retreating Scottish army was soundly defeated at Clifton, the last battle to be fought on English soil. Once again, a concentrated Highland charge managed to dislodge British dragoons. Scottish success, however, only strengthened the resolve of the pursuing troops under Cumberland, who was determined to use his superior fire power and strength of numbers to his advantage the next time. The battle also led to a feeling among the Highlanders that they were invincible in a charge involving hand-to-hand fighting. They were almost correct. On the bumpy, uneven pasture lands of Culloden in April 1745 with a considerable distance to cover under fire before they could reach the ranks of the English troops, the bravery of the charging Highlanders would not be enough.

The enormous casualties suffered by the Highlanders in their futile charges against the entrenched infantry, and the slaughter of their wounded was followed by a brutal aftermath. "Bliadna Thearlaich," Charlie's Year to the Gaelic-speaking Highlanders, was finished. The Jacobites were left without any hope of reorganizing, though they still hoped for support from the Bourbons in Spain and France. This was not forthcoming, for struggles in Europe were shifting to those for control of North America.

After Culloden, Scotland was ready to play a major role in the expansion of the British Empire. In particular, the fighting qualities and heroic traditions of the Highlanders were put to good use in British armies sent to fight in Europe and further afield. The Seven Years War (1756-63) that closely followed the failure of the Jacobite Rebellion was the most dramatically successful war ever fought by Britain. Success followed success (mostly at the expense of France) in Canada, India, West Africa and the West Indies, and the tiny North Atlantic island of Britain found itself at the head of a vast, world empire in which the Scots played a leading part.

An New Role for the Island Kingdom

The War of the Austrian Succession was ended by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. But Britain was still anxious to fight for possession of new lands and trade routes. After Walpole's resignation, the country was led by William Pitt ("the elder"), a man who believed that the strength of the nation's economy depended upon overseas expansion as well as the defence of its trading outposts. Thus Britain found itself at war with France again, only the theatres of war were now primarily in North America and India. In the Seven Years War, England's ally Prussia was relied upon to conduct operations against France and Austria in Europe. In the sub-continent of India, Robert Clive won important victories to establish British presence at the expense of the French.

In other areas, at first, the wars went badly. Admiral Byng was disgraced when he lost Minorca to the French in 1757. In North America, the British colonists suffered defeats at the hands of the French, who began Fort Duquesne; in Europe, the French occupied Hanover. Then William Pitt took over, the person described by Frederick the Great as having been "a man brought forth by England's labor," and under his direction of Parliament, his countries' armed forces began a string of victories that made them seem invincible.

In 1747 James Lind had reported on the success of citrus juice in combating scurvy, and ten years later The Royal Navy received the new sextant created by John Campbell. (In 1775, upon his return from the Pacific, Captain James Cook received a medal from the Royal Society for finally conquering scurvy; he had brought 118 men "through all climates for three years and 18 days with the loss of only one man.) He had succeeded with sauerkraut: the Royal Navy ordered all its ships to give out lime juice as a daily ration in 1795.

In North America, British troops captured Fort Duquesne and renamed it Fort Pitt (later Pittsburgh); other victories occurred at Senegal, the centre of the French West African slave trade and at Guadeloupe in the West Indies. In Canada, General Wolfe captured Louisburg and then Quebec, in 1759, a victory that was followed up by General Amherst to complete the surrender of Canada to Britain.

At the time of King George II's death in 1760, England was growing rich from profits made in sugar, tobacco, sea-island cotton and other products produced by slave labor. A new leisured class was rapidly developing that would eventually demand its say in government. Britain's prosperity had come about despite the favoring of Hanover by King George; it reflected the growing influence of the mercantile classes in Parliament. It also reflected the indomitable energy and initiative of William Pitt.

Pitt gathered all power into his own hands; he controlled finance, administration and the military. He understood fully the threat from France for hegemony in North America, and he took the vital steps to counter it. His war with France has been seen by many historians as the First World War; it certainly involved more than a mere redistribution of strategic forts and a re-shuffling of frontiers. It also took considerable toll on England's resources and a general war-weariness gave fodder to those enemies of Pitt who worked for his downfall.

George III (1760-1820)

The new king saw himself as a kind of savior; freeing the country from the tyranny of a corrupt Parliament and restoring it into the hands of a virtuous, honorable, "thoroughly English" monarch, one who was perfectly capable of choosing his own ministers. Lord Bute was more to his liking than William Pitt. When peace negotiations began with France, Pitt refused to desert Prussia. France then turned to Spain for an alliance to help her regain her North American possessions. Pitt's urging of war with Spain met with fierce resistance in the Commons and he was forced to resign.

Seen by historian Carlyle, as "King of England for four years," William Pitt undoubtedly was one of England's great leaders, a true statesman with a vision expanding far beyond the political boundaries of England. His successor in Parliament, Lord Bute, had nothing of Pitt's political acumen, wide-ranging vision or experience. Only months after Pitt's resignation, England was forced to declare war on Spain, but despite a series of overwhelming victories, including those by Admiral Rodney in the Caribbean, that made her mistress of the world and master of the seas, Bute did not wish to further antagonize a severely weakened France and Spain. Besides, the king wished to end what he called " a bloody and expensive war."

Britain gained handsomely at the Treaty of Paris of 1763, yet France and Spain came off rather well. It took a considerable amount of political chicanery and bribery to ensure the ratification of the treaty by Parliament, for it was denounced by Pitt as giving too much away and for containing the seeds of future war. Britain did gain Canada, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton; the right to navigate the Mississippi; the West Indian Islands of Grenada, St. Vincent, Dominica and Tobago in the West Indies; Florida (from Spain); Senegal in Africa; and the preservation in India of the East India Company's monopoly; and in Europe, Minorca.

To Pitt's dismay and fears for the future, France was appeased with the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, fishing rights off Newfoundland (the nursery of the French navy, later to play such a decisive role in the American War of Independence) and the rich sugar islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Spain, in turn, received Havana, which controlled the sea-going trade in the Caribbean and Manila, a center of the trade with China. Thus France's naval power had been left untouched. Britain was later to pay dearly in the loss of its American colonies.

As George insisted on picking his own ministers, he appointed four different men to lead the country in the 1760's: the Earl of Bute, George Grenville, the Marquee of Rockingham, and the Elder Pitt. His last choice, his personal favorite, was Lord North. Between them, they lost America.

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.

In 1651, the Navigation Act forbade importation of goods into England or her colonies except by English vessels or by vessels of the countries producing the goods. This was passed to help the nation's merchant navy in their struggle against the Dutch. It was still too early to be a bone of contention with the Colonies. In 1660, Charles I sought to strengthen the Navigation Acts in that certain "enumerated articles" from the American colonies may be exported only to the British Isles. These articles include tobacco, sugar, wool, molasses and many other essential items of American livelihood; the result was widespread economic distress and political unrest, especially in Virginia.

In 1663, a Second Navigation Act forbade English colonists to trade with other European countries. In addition, European goods bound for America had to be unloaded at English ports and reshipped. Export duties and profits to middlemen then made prices of the goods prohibitive in the Colonies. In 1672, Parliament imposed customs duties on goods carried from one American colony to another. Even though not many colonists were engaged in the woolen industry, it was mostly restricted to their individual homes, further resentment came with the Woolens Act of 1699 that prevented any American colony from exporting wool, wool yarn, or wool cloth to any place whatsoever."

Trading restrictions continued in 1733 when the Molasses Act taxed British colonists on the molasses, rum and sugar imported from non-British West Indian islands. The price of rum, a drink heavily favored because of its supposed therapeutic properties increased dramatically in the Colonies. A hint of later rebellion was provided in 1741 when Salem sea captain Richard Derby avoided the British Navigation Acts by sailing his schooner Volante under Dutch colors. Six years later, London marine insurance companies began to charge exorbitant rates on ship and cargo from New England to Caribbean ports, but large profits were made by American merchantmen carrying cod from the Newfoundland banks.

In 1750, the Cumberland Gap through the Appalachians was discovered by English physician Thomas Walker. Colonists could now break out of their relatively narrow coastal areas and move westward; ideas of breaking away from the Mother Country were sure to follow the pioneers as they moved over the mountains in search of new lands to settle, farther away from English interests. By 1763, the Mississippi River was recognized as the boundary between the British colonies and the Louisiana Territory. Meanwhile, the raising of the bounty on whales by the English government in 1750 did much to encourage the New England fishing industry, not to be overlooked in the growing aspirations for independence.

In the meantime, the population of the American Colonies was enjoying a rapid population increase, due to the high birth rate and high rates of immigration, especially from Germany, Ireland and other countries not disposed to favor keeping ties with Britain. A rolling iron mill established in New Hampshire also gave notice that the colonists could engage in an industry that had hitherto been an English monopoly.

In 1757, after a visit to England, Benjamin Franklin was able to report to the Colonies just how far American importers could safely go in flouting London's mercantile acts. In 1763, there was an angry reaction to George III's decree that Colonists must remain east of the sources of rivers that flow into the Atlantic. The decree was honored only in the breach and further intensified the Colonists' growing desires for independence from the dictates of London. The king had not wished to antagonize Spain and France; the land-hungry Colonists were indifferent.

In April 1763, Parliament passed the Sugar Act and sent customs officials to order colonial governors to enforce it. In May, the Currency Act then forbade the Colonies from printing paper money. Also in May, Boston lawyer James Otis denounced "taxation without representation," and urged the colonies to unite to oppose Britain's new tax laws. During the same month, Boston merchants organized a boycott of British luxury goods and initiated a policy of non-importation. As the colonists had contributed little tax support to England, the government decided at this juncture to take a harder line American industry, in the meanwhile, received a great boost by the invention of Pennsylvania mechanic James Davenport that could spin and card wool.

Events started moving to a head in 1765. First, Parliament passed the Quartering Act ordering colonists to provide barracks and supplies to British troops (quite fair considering the expense of maintaining the defence of the Colonies). The Stamp Act, passed in March, was particularly resisted: it was the first measure to impose direct taxes in the Colonies. It required revenue stamps on all newspapers, pamphlets, playing cards, dice, almanacs and legal documents. In May, in the Virginia House of Burgesses, Patrick Henry stood up to denounce the Act, despite cries of "Treason" from other delegates. The Act was also denounced in Boston, where the Sons of Liberty formed clubs to show their resistance. In October a Stamp Act Congress convened in New York to protest taxation without representation and resolved to import no goods that required payment of duty. Ironically, the greatest protest against the Act came, not in the Colonies, but in England, where merchants complained that it was contrary to the true commercial interests of the Empire.

Self-confident American colonials were beginning to flex their muscles. In Philadelphia the opening of the first American medical school, later to become the College of Physicians and Surgeons, showed only too well that the fledgling nation could develop its own institutions. In commerce, shipping interests were booming. Exports of tobacco, bread and flour, fish, rice, indigo and wheat were streaming out of the ports of Boston, New York and Providence. Philadelphia, with over 25,000 inhabitants, had become the second largest city in the British Empire.

Early in 1766, it seemed that reconciliation was in the offing when Parliament, partly in response to the persuasive powers of visiting Benjamin Franklin, repealed the Stamp Act. However in March, the Declaratory Act rekindled the flames of colonial resentment, for it declared that the King, by and with the consent of Parliament, had the authority to make laws and to bind the British colonies in all respects.

Though William Pitt had returned as Prime Minister, his powers were no longer as effectual, and the arrogant Lord Townsend introduced the infamous Townsend Act, a Bill that imposed duties on American imports of paper, glass, lead and tea. Rebellion may not have been immediately on the minds of the Colonists and John Dickinson's "Letters from a Farmer" advised caution and loyalty to King and Empire, but the Townsend Act would be on the minds of the merchant classes. They were now beginning to despair of bringing the British Government to reason through limited resistance.

In 1767, Daniel Boone took his party through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky, thus defying the 1763 decree of King George, completely out of touch with the aspirations of the American Colonists. Two years later he was emulated by a party of Virginians moving into what later became Tennessee (10 years later, Boone led a party to break the Wilderness Road to be used by more than 10,000 pioneers pouring into the new territories of Western Tennessee and Kentucky).

When delegates from 28 towns in Massachusetts met at Faneuil Hall, Boston in September to draw up a statement of grievances, following anti-British riots, infantry regiments were brought in from Canada. More riots broke out in Boston the following June when Customs officials seized a sloop belonging to John Hancock. In the meantime, Cherokee lands were ceded to the Crown in the Carolina and Virginia Colonies, as were lands of the Iroquois between the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers. Another pioneering journey was that of a fleet of American whalers into the Antarctic Ocean to begin a new and most profitable industry.

In 1769, a huge step towards independence was taken by the Virginia House of Burgesses that issued its resolutions rejecting Parliament's right to tax British colonists. When the governor dissolved the assembly, its members met in private and agreed not to import any duty-liable goods. In January, 1770, at the Battle of Golden Hill, New York, the first blood was shed between British troops and the colonists.

In March, the so-called "Boston Massacre" further inflamed passions, already being incited to rebellion by radicals in many of the Colonial governments (aided by such Whig newspapers as "The Massachusetts Spy"). The repeal of the Townsend Acts by newly-appointed Prime Minister Lord North, came too late to assuage those who had already made up their minds that the future of their country was as an independent nation, completely freed from its political links with Britain.

Events moved fitfully towards an inevitable conclusion. The so-called Boston "Tea-Party" in December 1773 had protested British taxes on American imports and in September 1774, the first Continental Congress of twelve colonies met in Philadelphia. It is interesting to note that the protest was organized by Samuel Adams, supported by John Hancock, whose smuggling of contraband tea had been made unprofitable by the measures passed in Parliament. "Men of Sense and property" such as George Washington, however, deplored the actions of those who staged the "Boston Tea-Party" and it is safe to say, at this juncture, that the majority of the colonists opposed independence, or at least, were not willing to fight Britain to gain it.

The first Continental Congress quickly adopted a Declaration of Rights and Grievances, but no less than George Washington himself wrote that "... no thinking man in all of North America desires independence." Benjamin Franklin also cautioned against a break with the mother country, for despite its unkindness "of late," the link was worth preserving. The radicals were still few in number and all measures taken by the Colonies were undertaken to pressure the British Government to listen to their grievances, not to force its hand. However, when news of the Bostonian's "tea-party" reached Parliament, outrage by many of its members produced its coercive acts in a failed attempt to bring the colonists to heel. Boston Harbor was closed until the East India Company was reimbursed for its lost tea and until trade could be resumed and duties collected. The acts were a fatal blunder by the Prime Minister, Lord North. As nothing else, they united the colonies against the government.

Other "tea-parties" followed Boston's example, and many colonies sent supplies to help the Bostonians survive the closing of its port. 1774 can be called the year of the pamphlets, with huge amounts of tracts being written and distributed throughout the American Colonies, arguing the pro's and con's of independence. In March, 1775, Patrick Henry made his "Give me liberty or give me death" speech, and the dye had been cast. The war began in April 1775 when a force of redcoats, sent to seize war material stored at Concord, were met by a force of patriots. The resulting skirmishes of Lexington and Concord meant that there would be no turning back for either side.

The War of Independence can be summarized briefly. The strong determination of the colonists to make themselves completely independent would surely have succeeded in the long run, but they were aided enormously by incompetent English generals. One George Washington in charge of English redcoats would have quickly ended the rebellion. In addition, without the notoriously corrupt Earl of Sandwich in charge at the Admiralty, the Royal Navy would have surely held the seas against the French relief forces. Yet even with these crippling burdens, the war started well for the government.

In June, the Second Continental Congress had followed after the urging of Richard Henry Lee of Virginia to make foreign alliances and form a confederation. The resolutions were adopted on July 2, 1776. Efforts to end the war by negotiation broke off. At first, the colonists were no match for the better trained, better armed and better disciplined regulars of the British army, augmented by King George's Hessians, despite the incompetence of its generals.

The publication of The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson which was signed by 56 delegates was no doubt influenced by the publication of Thomas Paine's Common Sense written in July 1776. It created a major shift in political emphasis. One of its immediate effects was to create a will and strength to see the thing through. Before the Declaration, the revolutionaries had seen their cause as mainly fighting for their rights as British subjects against a stubborn English Parliament; after the Declaration, they saw their fight as necessary to protect their natural rights as free men against a tyrannical and out-of-touch king. This indeed was a cause worth fighting for.

To aid in the fight, General Washington appointed Polish military expert Kosciusco to help train the volunteers, "the citizen-soldiers" who made up the bulk of the American armies. Following many early defeats, it was a surprising victory over the Hessians at Trenton on Christmas Day, 1776 which provided a stirring impetus to continue. In January, Washington followed up his victory at Trenton by defeating Cornwallis at Princeton. Later in the year, however, when he lost the Battle of Brandywine and retreated to Valley Forge, General Howe failed to consolidate his victory, preferring to sit out the winter in Philadelphia, and the American army was miraculously able to recover.

In Parliament, Lord North expressed his dismay at the poor leadership shown by the British commanders in America. When the British forces, surrendered one of its armies under Burgoyne at Saratoga, who returned to England, it was the beginning of the end for the valiant redcoat armies. Poorly led, forced to march and counter-march through untracked wildernesses, dispersed over hundreds of miles of unknown territory and harassed every step of the way, they had been betrayed by the incompetence of their officers as much as by the determination of the Colonists under Washington's inspired leadership. The victory at Saratoga galvanized into action the French government, who followed up its policy of aiding the Colonists with money and supplies by recognizing American independence and forming an alliance with the fledgling nation. The French fleet was to prove decisive in the struggle and ultimate victory of the Americans. In 1779, Spain and Holland, for reasons of their own, also provided aid in the form of money, supplies and military hardware. Not only that, but sympathetic (and profit-hungry) British merchants, including Robert Walpole, were engaged in smuggling arms and provisions to the Americans through the West Indies.

When Cornwallis surrendered his troops at Yorktown, after foolishly digging in where he had no natural defences except the sea, which was blocked the French fleet, no further military operations of any consequence took place. The British armies in North America were exhausted. The War was over. Signed on September 3rd, 1783, the Treaty of Paris recognized the independence of the American Colonies. Britain's great age of Empire, paradoxically was just about to begin.

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.

On the Continent, the armies of France crushed those of Austria, repelled those of Prussia and helped establish a French Republic. (The monarchy was abolished by the National Convention in September, 1791: King Louis XVI was executed in January, 1793.) When France invaded the Netherlands, England was asked to help protect the navigation rights to the Dutch. The French Republic then declared war on Britain, Holland and Spain who formed an alliance. Napoleon Bonaparte occupied Rome in 1796, made the Pope a prisoner and the same year assembled an army to invade England. He went to Egypt instead, where his forces captured Alexandria and Cairo from the Mamelukes. Two years later, he defeated the Turks, with their British allies at Abukir. He then left to take command of his armies in Europe as first consul and dictator of France.

Napoleon continued his victories in Europe, defeating the Austrians at Marengo, 1800, but a temporary peace signed at Amiens in March, during the following year gave Britain control of Trinidad and Ceylon in exchange for its other maritime conquests. A renewal of hostilities and the need for France to find adequate finances led to the doubling of the United States by its "Louisiana Purchase" in 1802.

Napoleon once more contemplated invading England by assembling a fleet at Boulogne and negotiating with Robert Emmet to lead a rebellion in Ireland. In India, another British victory was achieved by Arthur Wellesly over native forces. In France, in May 1804, Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor. Spain then declared war on Britain. Early in 1805, Viscount Nelson blockaded a French fleet intent on invading England.

On October 21, 1805 one of the greatest sea victories in England's long history took place at Trafalgar, when Admiral Nelson defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet near Gibralter. All French pretensions as a great sea power were effectively ended by this decisive battle during which Nelson was mortally wounded. (It is to be noted that the British crews were now free of scurvy which continued its deadly toll on enemy ships).

On land, however, the French armies continued their string of victories, with Napoleon defeating the Austrians and Russians at the Battle of Austerlitz in December. Early in 1806, the Holy Roman Empire came to an end after a thousand years when the Confederation of the Rhine was set up under French control. Prussia now joined the fight against Napoleon's grandiose ambitions. Napoleon's Berlin Declaration inaugurated the Continental system designed to cut off food and supplies reaching Britain from the Continent. When British ships bombarded Copenhagen in September for joining the Continental system, Denmark allied with France and Russia declared war on Britain.

French troops then marched into Spain to prevent occupation by Britain, who invaded Portugal under Sir Arthur Wellesly, soon to succeed Sir John Moore as British Commander. It was the beginning of the end for the armies of Napoleon despite a costly victory over the Austrians at Wagram, leading to the Treaty of Schonbrunn that ended hostilities between the two countries. In March 1810, Napoleon married the Austrian Archduchess Maria Luisa. No-one in Paris witnessing the construction of the Arc de Triomphe could have guessed the fate soon to overtake their triumphant Emperor.

In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia, the same year that Britain and the United States began a 30 month war over issues that included the impressment of US seamen. Wellesly continued his success in Spain against the French armies, and when Napoleon reached Moscow, he found the Russian armies had prudently withdrawn and the city almost empty. The European war then seesawed back and forth; Austria renewed its enmity with France; Napoleon won at Dresden, was utterly defeated at Leipzig, and Wellesly continued his successes in Spain to cross the borders into France.

An alternating series of defeats and victories then followed for the French armies, now opposed by the formidable Prussian leader Marshall von Blucher as well as Wellesly, promoted to Duke of Wellington. Napoleon's abdication was followed by his internment at Elba. His escape from Elba and consequent defeat at Waterloo in June, 1815 at the hands of Blucher and Wellington finally ended his European dreams. The war came to an end during the same year when the Congress of Vienna rewrote the map of Europe. Similarly, the Treaty of Ghent ended the ''War of 1812' between Britain and the United States. With her armies victorious in Europe, England was now poised to assume the mantle of world leadership in many areas.

Leadership implied responsibility and created a dilemma as to which side England should support in the conflicts of Europe. Was France, the known, or Russia, the unknown, the more dangerous rival? In 1854, however, common interests brought Britain and France together in defense of the crumbling Empire of Turkey against the ever-increasing aggressiveness of Russia. Britain, in particular, wanted to keep Russia out of the Straits and away from the Mediterranean. The result was the costly muddle known as the Crimean War that began in 1854 and that solved nothing.

The horrors of the War have been well documented. The refusal of the Duke of Wellington to initiate reforms in the army, the general incompetence of the military leaders such as Lord Cardigan of the Light Brigade fame, the lack of an efficient central authority to manage supplies, send reinforcements and ensure adequate training created disaster after disaster in the field. The main enemy proved to not be the incompetent Russian armies, but the numbing cold aided by cholera, dysentery, typhus and scurvy as well as the lack of adequate food, clothing and shelter. Florence Nightingale and her gallant nurses did their best to remedy the appalling hospital conditions and the army's resentment at their "interference." The war ended when the allies took Sebastopol after a costly siege and Russia, to prevent Austria from joining the allies, agreed to the peace terms.

Other areas in which English soldiers were involved included India, where they had to deal with the great mutiny; but a war with China over British export of opium from India in exchange for silks and tea. The Chinese forbade the opium trade, rashly fired on a British warship and were bombarded by a Royal Navy squadron. The Opium War ended with the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 that opened up five "Treaty Ports" for trade and gave Hong Kong to Britain. The second war with China came in 1857 out of an incident involving the Arrow, a Hong Kong schooner sailing under a British flag. Palmerston won an election on the issue, vowing to punish the insolent Chinese for arresting the ship on a piracy charge. An Anglo-French force captured forts leading to Tientsin and Peking, won concessions from the Chinese, including more "treaty ports," gained diplomatic representation and the right for Christian missionaries to practice their trade in China. Palmerston continued his "gun-boat" policy by later aiding Garibaldi's invasion of Sicily and the Neapolitan mainland by sending warships. His government also compensated the United States for the mischief caused by the Confederate raider Alabama built on Merseyside.

The Agricultural Revolution

King George III had shown such a great interest in the agricultural improvements taking place in England that he was known as "Farmer George." He had much to be proud of; his countrymen were at the forefront of creating changes in the way the land was farmed and livestock raised that would dramatically change the face of agriculture, an undertaking that had for so long been traditionally conservative and opposed to change.

In 1600 "Theatre d'agriculture des champs" had been published in France by Huguento Ollver de Serres recommending revolutionary changes in crop growing methods. It had been mainly ignored by all, but there were some in England who took notice. There, land enclosures had been taking place steadily since the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, with the great barons amassing huge swathes of the best agricultural lands when the king sold them off. Massive numbers of peasants and small landowners were displaced.

A riot against the enclosures in Elizabeth's reign was severely dealt with, and the enclosures continued apace. Notorious winter weather continued to plague a system that was reluctant to introduce major changes except to increase the amount of land available for the raising of sheep and cattle. Potatoes had been planted in the German states as early as 1621 though much of Europe remained in fear of the tubers' spreading leprosy but their food value was too great to be ignored.

By 1631, potato production in Europe was so great that a population explosion ensued. In England, population growth had been more or less increasing at the same slow rate for hundreds of years, but began a rapid rise in the 18th century. It was simply a matter of the nation being better fed. Land enclosures may have been protested vigorously by the peasantry, but they did result in better management, allowed for selective breeding of stock and experiments with fertilization and machinery that produced better crops.

In 1701 Jethro Tull's seed-planting drill had enormously increased crop production and lessened waste. Tull had studied farming methods on the continent and was not reluctant to introduce them into England. In 1733 he invented the two-wheeled plough and the four-coulter plough, both of which, strenuously resisted at first by his labourers, had a great impact on future methods of cultivation.

Another great pioneer was "Turnip" Townsend, Secretary of State under George II and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Townsend also studied foreign methods of land use and introduced the practice of crop rotation into England, using turnips and clover to revitalize land left fallow and to provide winter feed for livestock, whose manure in turn fertilized his fields. Townsend was followed by Thomas Coke who worked on the principle "No fodder, no beasts: no beasts, no manure; no manure, no crops." At Holkham, Coke continually worked on ways to improve crop yield, contributing greatly to better breeds of both cattle and sheep.

It is to Robert Bakewell, however, that most of England's outstanding success in producing better breeds of sheep and cattle is to be attributed. Bakewell pioneered methods of selection and the secret of breeding, including breeding the new Leicester sheep. Farm animals became fatter, hardier and healthier. Britain became a meat-eating nation, but it also enjoyed better and more reliable supplies of bread and vegetables.

Even as early as 1707, England was enjoying the fruits of its explorations and settlements in India. The opening of Fortnum and Mason's in London in that year attests to the increased demand for foreign delicacies, English farmers having produced sufficient basic necessities. In particular, farmers had realized that beef and mutton would be more profitable than powers of draught and quantities of wool. In the latter part of the century, Arthur Young's tenure as Secretary of the Board of Agriculture ensured that the new farming methods were accepted throughout the nation (though it took many years for English farmers to utilize the iron plow, developed in 1784 by James Small).

In 1786, Scotsman Andrew Meilde developed the first successful threshing machine. In addition, following the publication of Lady Montagu's "Inoculation Against Smallpox" in 1718, and after the work of Edward Jenner in the 1790's, the killing disease began to be eliminated in England. Hand in hand with the vast improvements in agriculture and medicine, an industrial revolution was taking place that would also change the world forever. Progress in agriculture was to be dwarfed by what took place in industry.

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.

But coal was expensive and dangerous to mine. In 1627, Edward Somerset had invented a crude steam engine. This was of little use, but in 1698, English engineer Thomas Savery improved matters with his crude steam-powered "miner's friend" to pump water out of coal mines. A further advance came in 1705, when Cornish blacksmith Thomas Newcomen produced his steam engine to pump water out of mines. In 1709 a major breakthrough occurred when Abraham Darby, who made iron boilers for the Newcomen engine, discovered that coke, made from coal, could substitute for wood in a smelting furnace to make pig and cast iron. The industrial revolution was on its way, the whole process being geared to producing for profit and ushering in a totally new economic system.

In 1739, Benjamin Huntsman rediscovered the ancient method of making crucible steel at Sheffield, soon to become a major British steel producer. In 1754, the first iron rolling mill was established in Hampshire, the same year that the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufacture was formed. In the 1760's the Bridgewater Canal was opened to link Liverpool, England's major port (which had profited enormously from the slave trade) with Leeds, a centre of manufacturing. It heralded an era of rapid canal building, joining cities and towns all over the nation and enabling manufactured goods and raw supplies to be shipped anywhere they were needed.

In 1765, James Watt produced his steam engine, a far more efficient source of power than that of Newcomen. During the same year, Brindley's Grand Truck Canal began construction to link the western and eastern coastal ports of Britain. In 1769, Watt entered into partnership with Mathew Boulton to produce his steam engines which would revolutionize industry and the world. In 1782, English ironmaster Henry Cort perfected his process of puddling iron, completely changing the way wrought iron is produced, totally freeing it from its dependence upon charcoal for fuel, and giving further impetus to the search for coal. The mining industry benefited greatly from Humphrey Davy's invention of a safety lamp for miners in 1815.

At the same time that coal mining and iron manufacturing were making such rapid progress, the textile industry was also changing English society. Labor costs had been halved by the invention of Kay's flying shuttle in 1733, the first of the inventions by which the textile industry was transformed. The same year saw the invention of a spinning machine by Wyatte and Paul that redressed the gap between spinning and weaving. In 1765, Hargreave's spinning jenny completed the balance, for it allowed enough thread to be produced for the weavers. A single worker could now operate a number of spindles to produce several threads at once.

The move away from cottage industry to the factory system was further hastened in 1769 with Arkwright's invention of a frame that could produce cotton thread hard and firm enough to produce woven fabric. English cotton mills began to proliferate in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Both English and US economies were to benefit from Eli Whitney's cotton gin of 1792. In 1805, Scotsman Patrick Clark developed a cotton thread that was to replace linen thread on Britain's looms. The woolen industry was also to benefit enormously from the new machinery, especially in Yorkshire. In 1779, Samuel Crompton devised his spinning mule, a landmark in the industrial revolution.

With the steam engine replacing animal, wind, or water power, the Golden Age of domestic industry was now over, and the lines of the factory system laid down. Sporadic riots against the employment of the new machinery did nothing to halt their proliferation and with the increase came a shift in the way industry was financed. (The Luddites began their activities in earnest in 1811 to no avail; quick execution of their leaders brought the movement to an end with only sporadic outbreaks). The factory system was responsible for the development of the joint capitalist enterprise that became such a powerful force in the nation's economic affairs. The steam engine also affected and completely transformed transportation and though the canals had their glorious years, they were soon to be eclipsed by the railroad.

James Watt patented his double-acting rotary steam engine in 1782, a great improvement on his earlier invention. It was used to drive machinery of all kinds, beginning two years later at a textile factory in Nottinghamshire. Women and children now left their homes and their spinning wheels and looms to work in the mills, at first furnished by the rapidly flowing streams of the North, but more and more powered by steam.

The 1780's saw the introduction of steam to power riverboats, in which the work US inventors John Fitch, James Rumsey and Robert Fulton and the Scot William Syminton led the way. The adaptation of Richard Trevithick's high pressure steam engine to propel a road vehicle in 1800 is a major milestone in the development of the railroad. In 1804, in a trial run, Trevithick carried 10 tons of iron and 70 men by steam engine run on rails at Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. The locomotive had arrived on the world's scene.

Only three years later the first paying passengers were taken on the mineral railroad world linking Mumbles with Swansea, South Wales, using horses for power (It lasted until 1960 when its electric trams were discontinued). English inventor George Stephenson ran his steam locomotive on the Killingworth colliery railway in 1814, the first to go into regular service. In September 1825, the world's first steam locomotive passenger service began as the Stockton and Darlington Railway. (Ironically, this was the same year that the Erie Canal opened in the US to link the Great Lakes with the Hudson and the Atlantic: only two years later, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, using rolling stock and rails imported mainly from Wales, began its challenge to the Erie Canal).

The S.S. Aaron Manby, the world's first iron steamship was launched in April, 1822 but it took many years for iron to displace wood in the world's navies. During the same year, the first iron railroad bridge was completed by George Stephenson for the pioneering Stockton-Darlington line.

The introduction of the hot blast by Scot James Neilson in 1828 made it possible not only to use coal without having it coked first, but also to use anthracite to smelt iron. Huge coal fields were thus made available in Scotland and Wales, though the biggest gains came in Pennsylvania when Welsh iron master David Thomas built his first furnace on the Lehigh in 1839. In 1830, the invention of the flanged T-rail by Robert Stevens in New Jersey laid the foundations of all future railroad track developments. In the meantime, road transportation began to benefit enormously through the improvement of highways brought about by the experiments of Scot MacAdam after 1815.

The snowball effect of all these inventions continued throughout the century. In 1856 Bessemer introduced his revolutionary steel-making process, and a new industry was given to England and the world. In 1864, Siemens invented the regenerative furnace, improving the strength and durability of steel, needed for the vast networks of railroads sprouting up all over England. In 1879, an important advance came when Gilchrist-Thomas was able to remove phosphorous from the ores used in smelting (Germany and the US with great deposits of iron ore were particularly grateful for this invention).

During Britain's rise to world supremacy in so many areas, it is sad to relate that so many of its leading citizens made their fortunes from the slave trade. The nefarious business played a crucial role in the development of Britain's mercantile interests.

 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).

In 1570 large scale exports of slaves to the Americas began. Ironically it was maize, introduced into Africa from Brazil that ensured a steady food crop that fueled the population growth to furnish a steady supply of slaves. In Europe a growing appetite for sugar as a sweetener for the newly introduced beverage, tea (begun to be drunk in earnest in England in the mid-1600's), and as a preservative for fruit, meant a great increase in sugar plantations in the Caribbean and thus the need for more slaves. The Virginia colony received its first Black slaves in 1619. From this time on they began to play a role in the North American economy. In 1627 English settlers colonized Barbados and soon began to transform into the largest sugar grower in the islands.

In 1672, English privateers in the slave trade gave way to the Royal company, formed expressly to take slaves from Africa to the Americas. In the North American Colonies, especially after "King Philip's War" of 1676, the fast-swindling supply of native slaves was augmented by Africans who were bought and sold at enormous profits. In 1698, Parliament opened the slave trade to British merchants who began the triangular trade, taking rum from New England to Africa, and from there, slaves to the Caribbean, from there West Indian sugar and molasses was shipped to New England to produce more rum. By 1709, Britain was taking as many as 20,000 Black slaves a year to the Caribbean. However, the most active period in its participation in the trade began when the South Sea Company received a grant to import 4,500 slaves a year into Spain's New World colonies for the next thirty years.

As the industrial and agricultural revolutions in England began to show enormous profits for many individuals, more and more investment took place in the slave trade. A new triangular trade began, mainly centered in Liverpool, in which cotton was sent to West Africa, where it was sold for slave. The slaves were then taken to the American South, where they were sold for raw cotton which was taken back to Liverpool to be processed in the mills of Lancashire. The business of cotton helped create hundreds of banks in England, including the giants Barclays and Lloyds, and, after 1773, a booming stock exchange appeared. British slavers began taking Xhosa (Bantu) slaves to Virginia plantations in 1719. By the 1750's, a whole new leisured class had been created in England from profits gained mainly from island cotton, sugar and tobacco grown with slave labor. At this time, English Quakers did not follow the practices of their Friends in the American Colonies who excluded slave traders from their Society.

Perhaps the beginnings of public protest against the slave trade in England began in 1763 when the badly beaten slave that Granville Sharp nursed back to health was kidnapped and sold (three years later, none other than George Washington exchanged an unruly slave for rum). A turning point in British toleration of slavery occurred in 1772 when James Somerset escaped from his master. Britain's Lord Chief Justice William Murray ruled that "as soon as any slave sets foot in England he becomes free."

The first motion to outlaw slavery in Britain and her colonies was heard in the Commons in 1776; it failed, perhaps due to pre-occupation of the House with the American War of Independence. English Quakers were also very active in their denunciation of the trade. A speech in the Commons by William Wilberforce in 1789 strongly condemned the practice of shipping Africans to the West Indies, but insurrections in some of the islands prevented a motion from being passed in 1781 that forbade the practice.

British cotton manufactures were also profiting greatly from slave labor in the American South that gained enormous benefits from the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1792. Though the US and Britain had agreed to cooperate in suppressing the slave trade in the Treaty of Ghent (that ended the War of 1812), the new, speedy Baltimore clipper ships continued to deliver cargoes of slaves.

In 1823, all the elements of the anti-slavery movement in England coalesced when William Wilbeforce and Thomas Buxton formed an antislavery society in London. Prominent Welsh reformer and factory owner Robert Owen also publicly advocated the abolition of slavery. In 1830, British authorities in the Bahamas declared that slaves from the wrecked schooner Comet were free, despite American protests.

Sharp's rebellion in Jamaica took place in 1831, but a drop in sugar prices had made slavery unprofitable on the island and news of the savage reprisals shocked British consciences. Parliament finally ordered the abolition of slavery in the British colonies to take effect by August 1, 1834 (three days after the death of Wilberforce). England and its empire was at last free from its terrible curse, During the same year, the Factory Act forbade the employment of children under 9 and proscribed the number of hours children were to work in the textile mills.

Political Reform

Between the death of George III in 1820 and the accession of Victoria to the throne in 1837, England was ruled first by the Prince Regent, during the dotage George of then under his own rule as George IV ending in 1830 and by his Uncle, William IV from 1830 to 1837. There is not much to say about George IV except that he suffered from a disastrous marriage and that he exercised a fine artistic taste. During his reign, Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace were renovated and extended and under the architect John Nash, St. James' Park and Regent's Park laid out, and the extravagant Royal Pavilion built at Brighton. When the Catholic Emancipation Bill became law, George threatened to abdicate, only reluctantly agreeing to prevent civil war in Ireland. George had no male children; his daughter had died in 1817, and his second brother was childless. The throne thus went to his third brother, who became William IV who ruled from 1830-1837.

Progress in the Arts

The first half of the 18th century had given us the "Augustans," following the ideals of classical Rome. Alexander Pope led the school that included Jonathan Swift, John Gay, Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne and James Boswell; and the "common sense" philosophy of Dr. Samuel Johnson. England produced the painters Gainsborough and Reynolds and crrated a climate for musicians such as Handel to receive Royal patronage.

The transition was most apparent in the writings of philosopher David Hume "Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding," 1748; the historian Edward Gibbon "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," 1776; and politician Edmund Burke "Reflections on the Revolution in Francem" 1791. The new class of poets included William Cowper and Robert Burns. English poets and painters, in their revolt against "common sense," began to follow the brilliant explorations of poet and artist William Blake (1757-1827).

The brilliant landscape artist John Constable died the same year that Victoria became queen. J.M.W. Turner was still alive. As members of the so-called Romantic Movement, they had been part of an astonishing artistic revolution that accompanied the topsy-turvy develpments in politics and the gradual displacement of the aristocracy by the middle class trading interests in the seat of power. Wordsworth and Coleridge, Keats, Shelley and Byron all followed in rapid succession bringing a new depth to English literature, changing it from one concerned primarily with "reason" to one that we now call "romantic." Instinct and emotion took the place of the old rationalism. The idealization of the "noble savage," could only have come about however, when England's explorers and missionaries journeyed to new, and hitherto unknown lands.

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.

It wasn't just land to resettle criminals that Britain needed. Both the agricultural and industrial revolutions had contributed to an enormous growth in population. There just were not enough jobs to go around, and as one historian has pointed out, in Ireland "there were neither enough tenements nor enough potatoes." Following the peace of 1815 at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, there was a great increase in the population of the British Isles, so much so that a feeling of alarm spread through government ranks.

A growing population which had hitherto been regarded as one of the strengths of the nation now found itself looked on as something of a curse. There simply were too many people to feed (and control). Increasing pauperism and distress, along with monstrously bad harvests, massive unemployment and public debt, severely strained the limited resources available, and drastic remedies were sought by the folks in Westminster.

Perhaps the easiest solution was emigration. In 1822, an article by James Mill on "Colonization" in the "Encyclopedia Britannica" offered emigration as a remedy for over-population. It was eagerly read and avidly discussed by M.P.'s such as Robert Horton, who spent quite a few years of his time in the House of Commons trying to convince his colleagues of the merits of his emigration schemes. In the years 1823- 25, attempts were made to put his plans into practice, especially because the Government wished to settle British people in new lands that could be contested by other nationalities. Though most of the emigrants chosen for government-assisted passages in these early years were Irish (one way to get rid of those troublesome Catholics) many Scots were attracted by the offers of free land overseas.

Despite its reputation as a penal colony, in the very early years of the 19th century, the island continent of Australia had more and more begun to appear as a practical proposition for settlement. Australia offered an alternative to the vast wildernesses of loyalist Canada. Attitudes in Parliament began to shift with the publication of Captain Alexander McConochie who recommended that Britain look to the Pacific Ocean to expand its commerce. He particularly advocated a settlement of New South Wales that would open up new markets as well as absorb what he termed Scotland's "superabundant population." McConochie's "A Summary View" of 1818 gave the people of power in Scotland, especially the commercial interests, an awareness of the potential awaiting them in Australia.

By 1815, the Blue Mountains had been crossed and the vast interior revealed, an interior suited to sheep farming. The introduction of the merino sheep was to lay the foundation for the great Australian wool industry. The native Aborigines were ignored, especially in Tasmania, where they were hunted down and killed off for possession of their lands.

Thousands of convicts continued to arrive each year, and from 1820-60 new colonies were established. These new colonies included : South Australia, Van Diemen's Land (later named Tasmania); the Swan River Colony (later part of Western Australia); Victoria, transformed by the discovery of gold at Ballarat and Bendigo and Queensland, created in 1859 out of New South Wales. The rapid increase in the number of free settlers led to demands for some kind of self-government as had been granted to Canada. A Parliamentary Committee condemned the convict system and gradually each Australian colony banned their importation. In 1856 all four colonies were granted constitutions which gave them responsible self-government; Queensland and Western Australia soon followed suit.

New Zealand

In 1642 Dutch captain Abel Tasman discovered what he named Van Diemen's Land after the governor general of the Dutch East Indies. Four months later, Tasman discovered the islands of New Zealand. In 1769, Captain Cook arrived to charter the coasts and to discover that the country consisted of two main islands. He reported that they were fertile and well-suited for colonization. Gradual penetration by settlers, whalers, convicts and missionaries followed, and in 1813 the islands were proclaimed as dependencies of New South Wales under British protection. Mainly due to missionary activity anxious to protect the native Maori population from exploitation, in 1840 Captain William Hobson was sent out from London to negotiate with the Maori chiefs for the cessation of sovereignty to the Crown.

There were many land disputes between the Maori and the white settlers, but under the leadership of Sir George Grey, 1845-53, native lands and possessions received some kind of protection. The Maori had banded together in the face of increasing immigration from Britain and elsewhere, and for almost twelve years, a military police action against them eventually led to their being granted full citizenship rights, including fair prices for their land and equal treatment under the law. The Treaty of Waitingo was signed by many Maori chiefs, and though some resentments linger among the Maori people, who number about 12 percent of the country's population, it remains an important symbol for the equal partnership between the races that is the foundation of New Zealand's national identity.

New Zealand particularly owes a great debt to John Mackenzie, who had left Ardross, Ross-shire in 1860 to become a farmer in his new country. In Scotland he had developed a deep antagonism towards the power of the landlords to dispossess small farmers, a phenomenon that was destroying much of the traditional life of the Highlands. Witnessing the same kind of activity in New Zealand, Mackenzie entered politics to prevent it from happening in his adopted land. He was elected to Parliament in 1881 as a Liberal, becoming Minister of Lands and Immigration in 1891 under Prime Minister John Ballance, equally committed to protecting the small farmers against encroachment by the large landowners.

In 1892, Mackenzie won passage of the Lands for Settlement Act, opening up Crown land for leasing. An amendment in 1894 compelled the owners of large estates to sell parts of their lands. The same year, the Advances to Settlers Act greatly expanded the supply of credit available for small farmers. He also sponsored a plan to use the unemployed to clear and then lease land holdings. In addition to his sponsorship of legislation to aid the small farmers and break up the large estates (something that had never been achieved in his native Scotland), Mackenzie used his political clout to promote scientific methods of agriculture. Also to his credit was the laying of the foundation of the New Zealand ministry of agriculture. There were many more Scots of influence in the islands; they did much to make the country prosperous, as well as keeping it closely tied with and proud of its association with, Great Britain.

In l880, New Zealand began to export huge quantities of frozen mutton and lamb to Britain. By l902, this process began to flood the English market. Alas, Scots settlers stripped millions of acres of lush, sub-tropical forests to create their sheep pastures, and the ruinous effects of the subsequent soil erosion are still very much in evidence.

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.

Many thousands of Empire loyalists left the United States after its independence to settle in Canada, mainly in the eastern Maritime Provinces. Many of the kilted soldiers who conquered Quebec for Britain had been Jacobites and followers of Prince Charles Edward. It has been suggested that their victory at Quebec was sweet revenge for France's general indifference to and failure to help the Jacobite cause.

Perhaps the Canadian province most closely connected with Scotland is Nova Scotia New Scotland. The land had been discovered by John Cabot in 1497 and claimed for Britain. The vast territory of Acadia was seized by Captain Argall in the name of James VI of Scotland (James I of England), in 1613. Part of this lovely land became the first permanent North American settlement north of Florida when Scotsman Sir William Alexander, friend of the king, was granted a charter in 1621. In his book describing the colony, Sir William deplored the ancient proclivity of Scotsmen to expend their energies in foreign wars and encouraged them instead, to send swarms of emigrants "like bees" to New Scotland. Over 300 years later, seven eighths of its people acknowledge British ancestry, mainly Scottish.

The West was still unknown territory. In 1809, Welsh-born fur trader David Thompson surveyed and mapped more than 1 million square miles of territory between Lake Superior and the Pacific. The War of 1812 seems to have begun over the impressment of US seamen, but frontiersmen on both sides were intent on territorial gains in many disputed areas.

The naval battles on Lake Erie showed only too well US interest north of the established borders. The Rush-Bagot Treaty of 1817 limited US and British naval forces on the Great Lakes. One year later, the US-Canadian border was established by a convention, making the 49th parallel the boundary to the Rockies while Thompson continued his survey. The two countries agreed to a joint occupation of the Northwest Territories for a 10-year period. The treaty was extended in 1828 for an indefinite period.

Back east however, a French Canadian rebellion against British rule, led by Papineau and Mackenzie took place in 1837. It was crushed after some desultory skirmishes. In 1839, in his Report on the Affairs of British North America, the Earl of Durham proposed a union of Upper and Lower Canada and the granting of self-government. Durham argued for putting the government of Canada into the hands of the Canadians. The Union Act was passed in July, 1840. Two years later, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty finalized the Maine-Canadian border.

Still in dispute was the boundary of the Oregon Territory, which received thousands of American immigrants after John Fremont mapped the Oregon Trail guided by Kit Carson. Other settlers from the US arrived in the Columbia River Valley, claimed by Britain. In 1846, the Oregon Treaty granted land south of the 49th parallel to the US, thus extending the frontier to the Pacific and granting British Columbia and Vancouver to Britain.

In 1847, Lord Elgin was made Governor of the newly united colony of Canada. By the 1860's, the fear of economic and political subordination to the US stimulated the movement to combine the eastern Maritime Provinces to the rest of Canada. In 1867 the British North America Act united Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the Dominion of Canada with its capital at Ottawa, first settled in 1827.

A Scots-Canadian, John Alexander Macdonald, who had led the federation movement became the first premier. Within six years, the Dominion was joined by Manitoba, British Columbia and Prince Edward Island (Newfoundland joined in 1949). The Canadian Pacific Railway begun in 1880 then became a crucial link in the chain of confederation, making it possible for the addition of the two prairie provinces to join in 1905, Alberta and Saskatchewan. In June, 1880, the anthem "Oh Canada" was sung for the first time in Quebec; it received official English lyrics in 1908.

Other Maritime Provinces were also heavily influenced by Scottish settlers. Prince Edward Island was captured from the French by Lord Rollo, a Scottish Peer, in 1758 and parceled out among a number of landed proprietors, including many Scots. One was John Macdonald of Glenaladale, who conceived the idea of sending Highlanders out to Nova Scotia on a grand scale after Culloden.

New Brunswick also became the home for many Scots. In 1761, Fort Frederick was garrisoned by a Highland regiment. The surrounding lands surveyed by Captain Bruce in 1762 attracted many Scotch traders when William Davidson of Caithness arrived to settle two years later. Their numbers were swelled by the arrival of thousands of loyalists of Scottish origin, both during and after the American Revolution. A continual influx of immigrants from Scotland and Ulster meant that by 1843, there were over 30,000 Scots in New Brunswick.

A large group of Scots chiefly from Ross-shire arrived in 1802 on the Nephton to settle in the Quebec province. Many of their descendents have become prominent in the business, financial and religious activities of Montreal ever since. The great centre of the Scottish Loyalists, however, was not in Quebec, but in Upper Canada, the Glengarry Settlement in what is now Ontario. Here, in what was then wilderness, many of the early settlers had come from Tryon County in New York State. They were joined by many Highlanders during the Revolution, and after the War had ended, by a whole regiment of the "King's Royals."

Unemployment and suffering that followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars caused the British government to reverse its former policies and to actively encourage emigration. In 1815, three loaded transports thus set sail from Greenock for Upper Canada: the Atlas, the Baptiste Merchant and the Borothy. After the end of the War of 1812, they were joined by many soldiers from the disbanded regiments. In 1816, further arrivals from Ulster helped swell the Scottish element in what was at first a military settlement. Many Perth families became prominent in both state and national governments.

The list of Scots who influenced Canada's history is indeed a long one. We can only mention a few more who contributed in so many different areas. Explorer Alexander Mackenzie completed the first known transcontinental crossing of America north of Mexico. John Sandfield Macdonald (1812-72) became Prime Minister of the province of Canada in 1862 and the first Prime Minister of Canada in 1867. Sir John Macdonald (1815-91), who emigrated in 1820, became the first Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada, leading the country through its period of early growth. Under his leadership, the dominion expanded to include Manitoba, British Columbia and Prince Edward Island. Sir Richard McBride (1870-1917) was Premier of British Columbia from 1903 to 1915, where he introduced the two-party system of government and worked tirelessly on behalf of the extension of the railroad.

The list seems endless. Immigrant Alexander Mackenzie was the first Liberal Prime Minister of Canada (1873-78). Another Scot, William Lyon Mackenzie, who led the revolt in Upper Canada against the Canadian government in 1858, became a symbol of Canadian radicalism. His rebellion dramatized the need for a reform of the country's outmoded constitution and led to the 1841 Confederation of Canadian provinces.

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.

After atrocities on both sides, the revolt was finally crushed by November 1858, the majority of Indians, having remained loyal. The British government then took over the administration of India from the East India Company and the British Governor General became the Viceroy of India to represent the Crown. A proclamation from the Queen then ensured the Indian people that their religious practices and customs would not be interfered with, that the titles of their Indian princes would be recognized and that in the future they would be able to participate in the government of their country.

At the same time, a network of roads, railroads and telegraphs (in addition to the ubiquitous civil servant) helped unite the sprawling subcontinent, and an educated, English speaking elite emerged to further westernize its peoples. Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India in 1877 by Prime Minister Disraeli. India did not gain its independence until after the Second World War when it fought alongside other countries of the British Empire.

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.

Events came to a head between Boers and Brits when diamonds were discovered in the Orange Free State. The British disregarded Boer claims to the territory, annexing the district to Cape Colony in 1871. Six years later, Britain annexed the South African Republic in violation of the Sand River Convention of 1852 that recognized the independence of the Transvaal. The Boers demanded a restoration of their independence and fully expected it from British Prime Minister Gladstone, always concerned with doing what was right and moral. His slowness, however, in getting a reluctant Parliament to act led to the Boers taking up arms. In December 1880 a Boer Republic independent of Britain's Cape Colony was proclaimed by Paul Kruger. After a British defeat at Majuba Hill a year later, the Treaty of Pretoria gave independence to the Boer Republic but under British suzerainty.

When gold was discovered in the Transvaal in 1886, the drive to annex the Boer republics began in earnest. Cecil Rhodes (who had founded the De Beers Mining Corporation in 1880) was determined that the riches being discovered in South Africa were not going to the Boer farmers. Rhodes dreamed of extending British rule in Africa, building a railroad from the Cape to Cairo but the Boers were in the way, controlling the key areas of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Using his great wealth, amassed in the diamond and gold fields, Rhodes with other imperialists established British colonies to the north of the Boer territories. Both Northern and Southern Rhodesia (settled by English workers for Rhodes's British South Africa Company who founded Salisbury in 1890) were granted charters by London.

The Outsiders (Uitlanders, who flocked to the gold fields soon began to outnumber the Boers (sometimes called Afrikaners), who took retaliatory measures which included excessive laws against the newcomers that led to Rhodes intervening in the abortive "Jameson Raid," late in 1895. When Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain tried to get Kruger to accept British supremacy, the attempt ended in yet another humiliation for his government. War began in 1899 as a result of British diplomatic pressure and a military build up on the borders of the Transvaal.

The highly mobile guerrilla units of the Boers were immediately successful in defeating much larger units of the British Army. Their big error, and one that may have cost them the war, was not to invade Natal, but to lay siege to a large British force penned up in Ladysmith, an error they repeated in the sieges of Kimberley and Mafeking (of Baden-Powell fame). Yet overwhelming Boer victories occurred when British commander Redvers Buller split up his forces.

Victory for Britain only came when Buller's replacement, Lord Roberts took the war into the enemy heartland, putting the Boers on the defensive. The capture of Bloemfontein and Pretoria effectively ended the gallant efforts of the Transvaal Field Army of the Boers, so successful in small engagements but heavily outgunned an out numbered in larger battles. Kruger went into exile and the two Boer republics were annexed to the British crown in 1900.

Yet the war dragged on. Under skilful leaders such as de Wet, Botha and Smuts, the Boers utilized commandos to strike at British lines of communication in determined efforts to fight to the last for their independence. The British resorted to a scorched earth policy to deny the Afrikaners food and supplies, burning their farms and crops and removing masses of farming families to concentration camps. Losses to attrition and demands from Liberals in the government at Westminster to stop the barbarism led to negotiations and the Peace of Vereenigning in May 1902. The Boers accepted British sovereignty with a promise of future self-government.

The war was costly for both sides, but especially the British. Deaths from disease greatly outnumbered those from bullets, and a series of defeats showed only too clearly the deficiencies in leadership, operational planning, training, equipping and supplying of troops that had been so evident in the Crimean War. The red jackets of English soldiers had made them easy targets for Boer marksmen on the high Veldt, and their lack of knowledge of how to survive on the land was to lead Baden-Powell to found the Boy Scout movement primarily as a form of early outdoor military training for youths born and bred in the unhealthy cities spawned by the industrial revolution.

Further Expansion of Empire

Britain's rise to a world power meant that she found interests everywhere. Not only was she now head of the self-governing colonies, such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand (mostly settled by British newcomers in addition to the relatively tiny native populations); but also the vast Empire of India and a veritable host of dependent territories all over the world's oceans. Most of these had been acquired somehow to protect the merchants and traders of England, or areas in which their missionaries and explorers (mostly Scots such as self-promoting David Livingstone or English brave hearts such as Richard Burton and John Speke) had established their outposts.

Benjamin Disraeli became Prime Minister in 1874 with the idea of expanding the Empire and taking up the "White Man's Burden" (as Rudyard Kipling described it) to not only create trade and bring profit, but also to spread British ideas of democracy and law, as well as the Christian (and Protestant) religion. The Suez Canal, opened in 1869, offered a 5,000 mile shortcut from Britain to India and the east, to Australia and New Zealand and Disraeli persuaded his government to buy the khedive of Egypt's majority shares with a loan from the Rothschild banking house.

Because of Britain's control of Egypt it got involved in the war against the Mahdi, preaching a holy war in the Sudan (a dependency of Egypt), and the defeat of General Gordon at Khartoum. It was also Disraeli who backed British military intervention in the Transvaal in 1877, in the Zulu War two years later and in the ill-fated attempt to support the ruler of Afghanistan against Russia in 1878.

Britain had become involved in Afghanistan, that graveyard of so many foreign troops, when the expansion of Russian power in the Near and Middle East in the 1820's and 30's alarmed the East India Company. An attempt by the British government to control the mountainous land in 1839 by placing a pretender on the Afghan throne proved a complete disaster. A whole British army was destroyed, the puppet ruler assassinated and the British envoys murdered. Not much was learned from the experience.

In a further attempt to control the northwest approaches to India, another British invasion against the legitimate ruler (considered too friendly to Russia) took place in 1880 under Gladstone's government. The murder of the British Resident in Kabul brought another British force to remedy the situation under General Roberts. It managed to extricate itself after dealing with rival claimants to the throne. The Northwest frontier between the Punjab and Afghanistan was finally drawn up in 1901 under the British viceroy in India, Lord Curzon.

1901: The End of an Era

In 1897, Queen Victoria celebrated her diamond jubilee. She died in 1901. Britain had undergone enormous changes in the 60 years of her reign. It had become the workshop of the world, yet, to many of its inhabitants, the days of prosperity and optimism were over, the future was uncertain. Commerce was flourishing, industrial productivity was booming, exports were soaring, the nation led the world in manufacturing, the Empire had expanded across the globe. Yet there were many cracks in the wall and skeletons in the closet.

The great movement in population from the countryside to the towns and the urban squalor and poverty it created has been well-documented by such writers as Charles Dickens. Not even the Royal family could escape the dreaded cholera, rampant in London due to its tainted water supplies. Victoria's uncle, William IV's had two daughters die in infancy and disease was rampant in the squalid slums of the rapidly growing cities and manufacturing towns.

The constant refusal of landlords to improve their properties, install proper sanitary facilities and relieve the burden of high rents was matched by the indifference of the factory and mine owners to the terrible working conditions of those they employed. Those who did care about their workers, such as Robert Owen, were few and far between. The government was forced to step in; only law could change the intolerable conditions.

Reforms had tentatively begun under the Tory Party, which dominated in Parliament from 1812 to 1827 and under the dynamic Robert Peel as Home Office Minister. Peel reformed the criminal code, abolished the death penalty for over 100 offences, improved prison conditions and created the London Police force, the so-called "Bobbies."

It was only a beginning. Reforms were greatly needed in every sector of British society. Not everyone had benefited from the improvements in agriculture and industry. Increasing enclosures of land had thrown hundreds of thousands of small landowners onto the mercy of the Parish or drawn them into the fast-growing cities to replenish the stock of poor and unemployed. Lord Byron, a hereditary peer in the House of Lords was not the only one to speak out against the evils of industrialization. The poor had no representation in Parliament, for the system had long ago failed to represent anyone except a small privileged class. It was time for major changes.

In 1832, the Duke also had to acquiesce in the passing of the great Reform Bill of 1832 that, while doing nothing for the poorer classes, at long last recognized the right of the new manufacturing magnates and the middle-classes to govern England. It was a right long overdue, for the manufacturers and merchants had long been the chief factors in the economic life (and success) of England. Their agitation was their demand to be admitted into the elite of the ruling set. As the first formal change in electoral law, however, since an Act of 1430, it heralded further inevitable changes in the relationship between the old aristocratic oligarchy and the new men from the boroughs and manufacturing towns.

The British working classes were still without representation in Parliament: they turned to Chartism to redress their grievances. Early attempts at forming workers' unions had failed miserably, their leaders denounced as "gin-swilling degenerates" and their members expelled from their work places. The workers then turned to violence, forming groups such as the "Scotch Cattle" that destroyed property and threatened workers. The great depression of 1829, with its massive unemployment and wage cuts led to the great Merthyr Rising in South Wales, now heavily industrialized and influenced by many of its Irish immigrants. Order was brought into the area by the military and punishment was severe. Dic Penderyn was hanged for wounding a soldier, becoming a martyr for the Welsh workers.

The Chartists now began to recruit in earnest. The movement was named after the radical London reformer William Levett, who drafted a bill known as "The People's Charter" in May 1838. The Chartists hoped to bring about a democratic parliament and an enfranchised working class. They staged demonstrations in many towns and when the government refused to consider the six points of the Charter presented in June 1839 took to arms. The biggest demonstration took place in South Wales, at Newport, where thousands of marchers, coming into the town in columns from the coal-mining valleys, were shattered by well-directed volleys from a body of troops (chiefly recruited in Ireland) stationed in the Westgate Hotel.

The repeal of the infamous Corn Laws in 1846 and the consequent availability of cheap bread meant that people were less inclined to revolution. The Chartist Movement, faced with the might of the British military and a recalcitrant government, was fading by the late 1850's. In 1857 an Act declared that property qualifications were no longer necessary for a seat in Parliament, and the first great democratizing point of the Charter had been conceded by the government.

Not to be overlooked, was the introduction of canned foods, created for the Royal Navy, but sold commercially by the London firm of Donkin-Hall in 1814 that eventually helped alleviate shortages caused by bad harvests (the industry took advantage of the vacuum pan recently invented by Edward Howard). In 1867, the Great Reform Bill finally ended the Chartist Movement, for in that year, nearly one million voters were added to the register, nearly doubling the electorate. Forty-five new seats were created, and the vote given to many working men as well as tenants of small farms. From henceforth, governments had to heed the voice of the middle and lower classes; its resources had to be used to benefit all of society, not just the privileged few, and the State came to play a leading part in the lives of Britain's citizens.

The Continuing Problem of Ireland

One of the major cracks in Britain's armor was Ireland, a country so near and yet so far. A country that remained an enigma to most Britons, unable to understand the depth of nationalist (and Catholic) feeling that kept their neighboring island out of the mainstream of the Empire in so many ways. Even the revolutionary effects of the coming of industry to Britain had little effect upon Ireland, which remained rural and agricultural. Anglo-Irish relations had been bitter ever since the ruthless policies of Cromwell. The Ulster Plantations of James I, and the failure of the Jacobite rebellions had not helped matters. In 1791 Wolfe Tone and others established The Society of United Irishmen to follow the lead of the Americans to agitate for independence from Britain. A French fleet set sail for Ireland in December, 1793 to aid the Irish rebels. A mighty storm dispersed the ships and no invasion took place, but the French tried again in 1795, after the Battle of Vinegar Hill had broken Irish resistance to British rule. Once again, however, they were defeated; this time by troops under Cornwallis.

On January 1, 1801, the Act of Union of 1801 created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, establishing one single Parliament. Primarily due to the obstinacy of George III, who did not wish to give full emancipation to Irish Catholics, the union had little chance of success. Catholics could vote in elections, but only for Protestant candidates, no Catholic could be a Member of Parliament, nor become a minister or servant of the Crown. The problem could not be continually put on the back burner by the Parliament in London; the work of Daniel O'Connell saw to that.

O'Connell gave voice to the political aspirations of the Irish people. In 1823, he founded the Catholic Association, to provide the funds for a national movement, and in 1823 a Catholic Relief Bill was passed by the Commons. Its rejection by the Lords, however, meant further agitation by O'Connell who returned unopposed from County Clare, and in 1829, the Catholic Emancipation Bill was pushed through Parliament by the Duke of Wellington over strong Tory opposition. The Bill opened up the right to sit in Parliament and to hold any public office (with few exceptions) to Catholics.

The Act settled one grievance, but it did nothing to settle the major one: that of the unpopular Union of 1801. O'Connell wanted nothing less than the restoration of an Irish Parliament. Despite the Irishman's eloquent oratory and strong support in Parliament, however, Robert Peel refused to budge on the question, and in time-honored fashion, sent troops to Ireland to quell disturbances. O'Connell's activities had him convicted for conspiracy, but the verdict was reversed on appeal. His influence waning, he died in 1847. Meanwhile, Peel's proposals to alleviate the problems in Ireland, were met with hostility from both Protestants and Catholics alike. A Bill introduced in 1845 to give Irish tenants the right to compensation for improvements to their holdings was opposed in Parliament. The Great Famine prevented its implementation for over thirty years.

There had been many warnings of the problems that could result for the Irish from their reliance on a single food crop. Potatoes had come to their country in 1586, planted on his estate near Cork by Sir Walter Raleigh. They seemed to be an admirable food to supplant wheat, so dependent upon the weather. They were easily grown, easily stored, easily cooked. In 1770, they were sold publicly in London. In less than one hundred years, their value as a food source had helped fuel a population increase in many parts of Europe but especially in Ireland, an increase that was most dramatic after 1800. By 1841, there were almost eight and a half million people in Ireland depending upon potatoes, but as early as 1830 William Cobbett had warned of over reliance on the crop.

In 1845, over one half the Irish potato crop, mostly grown on nearly 2 million acres in spade-cultivated plots of less than one acre, was lost to a fungus. The harvest failed, and the peasants saw their winter food supplies go to rot. A greater tragedy came with the second failure a year later. The British government did very little; it believed that economic forces must work themselves out with as little interference as possible and threw the burden of relief onto the local Irish Poor Law authorities. The repeal of the Corn Laws (passed to aid the British farmer) in 1846 did practically nothing to solve the problem.

For the majority of the Irish, the answer was starvation or emigration, and between 1848 and 1851 over a million left for the United States, taking with them their resentment of the British government and its feeble attempts to solve the mass starvation in Ireland. Unlike the Scots, bereft of their lands in the Great Clearances, they did not remain loyal to the Empire. Meanwhile, the "Problem of Ireland" intensified for successive British governments during the second half of the century.

In the 1860's a new force entered Irish politics, the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, founded in the USA, that became known as the Fenians. Its aims went a lot further than those of O'Connell, for it sought nothing less than complete separation from Britain and the setting up of an independent republic. It also promoted violence as a means to achieve its aims. In 1868, Gladstone promised to "pacify Ireland," and began a program of moderate reforms including the disestablishment of the Protestant Church of Ireland. In 1870, Gladstone enacted a Land Act to prevent eviction of tenants (except for non-payment of rent), and to give compensation for the improvements made to land or property. The only problem was that landlords consequently raised their rents (and could thus have an excuse for evictions). The Prime Minister responded to the resulting violence by the Coercion Acts that further antagonized the poor Irish. Gladstone's desire to give the Irish Catholics their own university was defeated by a narrow margin in Parliament.

Disraeli was not married to a Welsh girl as was Gladstone; he had less sympathy to the people of Ireland. During his 1874-80 ministry, the Irish Home Rule League was founded, to demand repeal of the Union of 1801 and the restoration of an Irish Parliament at Dublin. It was supported by 59 Home-Rulers elected to the Commons in 1874. When Parnell took over the reigns, the League became a powerful political force. In 1879, another movement began: the Irish National Land League was founded by Michael Davin to boycott landlords and to work for ownership of all Irish land by Irish peasant farmers. Like the Home Rule League, the INLL was backed by huge sums of money raised in the US by Fenian societies.

Between 1880 and 1895, at the height of its imperial powers, Britain suffered the humiliation of having four out of six governments being defeated as a direct result of Irish affairs. Parnells' power block of 80 or so Irish M.P.'s was a crucial factor. Determined to press for Home Rule for Ireland, their constant side switching in an attempt gain their aims led to the Irish Home Rule Crisis of 1886 which split the Liberal Party in two and kept the Conservatives in power. Unfortunately, despite their passage of a Land Purchase Act in 1891, the government implemented strict measures to try to improve law and order in Ireland, all of which were vigorously opposed by Parnell. After Parnell's disgrace in 1891 (over an affair with a divorcee), Gladstone continued to press for a Home Rule Bill. His final attempt passed the Commons in 1893 but was rejected by the stubborn, myopic House of Lords. Ireland's problems, and the inability of the English government to deal with them continued well into the next century, one in which the accomplishments of Britain began to be matched by other countries, and one in which its mighty empire disintegrated.

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).

Balfour made effective the Committee of Imperial Defence to carry out the reforms made necessary after the humiliations of the Boer War. The Committee also improved Britain's naval defenses; and under John Fisher, the Admiralty began building the Dreadnought a new type of heavily-armed warship. To further meet the threat from the new German fleet, he also concentrated the Royal Navy in home waters instead of having it dispersed all over the world. Balfour, however, was completely unable to prevent the inevitable. Though many historians see the death of King Edward as marking the dividing line between the security and stability of the 19th century and the uncertainties of the twentieth, there had been ominous warnings before 1910.

In Wales, conditions in the tin plate industry had been severely depressed by the 1891 McKinley Tariff of the United States; the deplorable conditions endured by coal miners led to the creation of a new force in British politics: the trade union. There had been many earlier attempts to form unions, mostly unsuccessful because of determined resistance from the mine and factory owners. Workers had been fired for trying to form unions; their leaders were once denounced by the leading Welsh newspaper as "gin-swilling degenerates." In 1834, when Robert Owen had attempted to improve factory conditions and the lives of the workers through his Grand National Consolidated Trade Union, six English farm laborers were sentenced to deportation for secretly forming a branch of the GNCTU (they were the famous Tolpuddle Martyrs).

In Lancashire, in 1869, the formation of the Amalgamated Association of Miners led to fierce resistance from the coal owners and was forced to disband. A united front against the unionists was then forged by the formation of the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coal Owners Association in which 85 companies owned over 200 mines. The workers persisted in their attempts to form unions, however, and in 1877 the Cambrian Miners Association began in the Rhondda Valley under the inspired leadership of William Abraham (Mabon). Abraham was elected Lib-Lab M.P. for Rhondda in 1885 and kept the peace between owners and miners for twenty years. (The Lib-Labs represented an informal agreement with local Liberal organizations to run a number of trade union candidates, rather than a party of organized labor.)

In 1888, a successful strike of girls in the sweated trade of match-box making occurred. One year later the Gas Workers Union secured a reduction from twelve to eight hours in their working day. A strike by London Dock workers the same year was equally successful. Their disciplined behavior won them widespread support When their demands were finally conceded, the Dockers Union gave considerable stimulus to recruiting for other trade unions, who were quick to see the strike as a means to solve their grievances.

The Fabian Movement began in 1884, its composition of middle-class intellectuals (including dramatist and critic George Bernard Shaw) giving it considerable weight as an instrument in bringing forth political and social reform. As a response to poor working conditions, the Independent Labour Party was formed in 1893. Six years later the Miner's Federation of Great Britain began at Newport, South Wales. The Federation argued for the creation of a Board of Arbitration to replace the infamous sliding scale and the restriction of the work day to eight hours (also that year the Women's Social and Political Union was formed by Emmeline Pankhurst with the goal of achieving voting rights for women. In 1918, women over thirty were granted the right to vote, following their efforts as factory workers taking the places of men called up for the military).

When judgement was given in favor of the owners and against the striking workers in the Taff Vale Railway Company dispute of 1900, the huge costs levied against the union practically ensured the creation of a new party in British politics. The unions saw clearly that they had to have legislation to guarantee their rights, and thus they needed representation in Parliament. The Labour Representative Committee answered their needs: in 1906, it became known as the Labour Party, but it took many years before it could muster enough strength to offer a worthy challenge to the Liberal and the Conservative Parties.

George V (1910-1936)

The new King, George was the second son of Edward VII and Queen Alexander, Prince Albert Victor had died in 1892. It was George who changed his family name from the German Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to that of the English Windsor. With his wife Mary, he did much to continue the popularity of the monarchy. They were helped enormously by the advent of the BBC in 1922 which probably did more to perpetuate the national sense of common identity than any other factor save war. In 1934, George began his broadcasts to Britain and the Empire. Radio, newspapers (and later television) all added to the mystique and prestige of the royal family when so much more was in a state of flux, and old traditions were being challenged everywhere.

The pre-War years saw major changes in England's domestic policies. The question of tariff reform divided the Conservatives. One group wished to use the tariff to protect British industries and boost inter-imperial trade and co-operation; the other, fearing the social and political consequences that higher food prices would bring as a result of the tariff, was in favor of Free Trade. A crisis occurred in 1906.

In that year, left-wing Liberal, Welshman David Lloyd George became Chancellor of the Exchequer and pushed through Parliament his "People's Budget" that proposed a tax on the rich to pay for reforms and the rebuilding of the Royal Navy. The rapid rise of such men as Lloyd George from humble origins to high positions in the government showed only too clearly the changing nature of political life in the country, a change that the House of Lords was slow to accept. The Upper House, packed with its hereditary peers, was particularly upset by what it considered the socialistic and confiscatory nature of the budget and rejected it.

Two general elections were held to resolve the deadlock. The Liberals were able to win a landslide victory and remained in power until the wartime coalition government was formed in 1915. In the interim, the Lords continued to reject the Budget, which finally passed in 1911 when the Commons approved the Parliament Bill to limit the delaying power of the House of Lords. From now on, the Lords could no longer reject bills outright and there was to be a general election every five years (instead of seven).

The year 1911 saw the greatest industrial unrest in Britain's history. Nationwide strikes of dock workers, railway men and miners brought the country to a standstill. The government was forced to respond. The National Insurance Act was passed to ensure that the worker, the employer and the government all contributed to a general fund to pay for free medical treatment, sick pay, disability and maternity benefits. It also introduced a measure of unemployment benefits, free meals for school children as well as periodic medical exams. Through the efforts of Winston Churchill there had been the setting up of Labour Exchanges where the unemployed worker could sign on for vacant jobs. Foundations were being laid for a veritable sea of change in the way the state was to assume responsibility for the welfare of its citizens.

Many reforms took place in a veritable flood of "socialist experiment." The introduction of a salary for M.P.'s allowed the entry of working class members to Parliament; the trade unions were freed from the liability for strike damage and allowed to use their funds in politics. Hours and conditions of labor were regulated, slum -clearances effected, eighty-three labor exchanges set up, and old-age pensions inaugurated as the first installment of social security. All this cost a great deal of money. it came from the pockets of the rich. They were further incensed by the Home Rule Bill of 1912.

Irish M.P.'s had helped the Liberals gain power; they wanted their reward in Home Rule. To the Conservatives, however, the idea of Britain splitting up (in the face of increasing German hostility) seemed ludicrous, to be avoided at all costs. They were aided by the Protestant forces of Ulster (most of Northern Ireland), equally alarmed at the prospect of being ruled from Dublin. A major civil war loomed in Ireland, and the British Army regulars made it clear in the so-called "mutiny" at the Curragh, that they would not fight against their brothers in Ulster. In 1914, the Home Rule Bill was finally pushed through, but the outbreak of the Great War pushed everything else aside; it was said that "the public had forgotten the Irish for the Belgians."

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.)

In the heady day of Empire, William Ewart Gladstone had believed in peace with justice. He respected the rights of small nations to seek their own forms of government; hence his support of Home Rule for Ireland. He died in 1898, four years after being defeated in Parliament. He had relentlessly condemned the Conservative government's overseas policies. Sadly, though he recognised what was going on in Ireland, he had failed to see that a genuine nationalist movement had surfaced in Egypt, where Britain was forced to stay, once involved, until the middle of the next century. He had noticed, however, that Germany's support of the Boer farmers, in the way of arms and guns, boded ill for future relations between the two countries. A new rivalry developed over their respective navies. More than one historian has pointed out that the German navy was floated on a tide of Anglophobia.

It was thus that Britain's foreign policy, during the first few years of the new century, changed drastically. Instead of the old cordiality towards Germany and fear of a combined France and Russia, she now became friendly towards France and Russia and hostile to Germany. An Anglo-French agreement in 1904, mainly over their respective interests in Egypt and Morocco, alarmed the Germans. The new Liberal government's Foreign Secretary, Lord Grey, had no intention of dissolving its association with France (and with Japan and Russia, who were at war with one another in 1905).

The question now arose of what would be Britain's response should Germany attack France over a dispute concerning Morocco. The answer can be found in the summer maneuvers of the English army that assumed Germany, not France, would be the enemy. Germany also felt humiliated by the Treaty of Algeciras that temporarily settled the Morocco question, and felt surrounded by hostile powers, a feeling that grew alarmingly after the 1906 Anglo-Russian Entente. Its reply was to build up its navy, including the Dreadnought, a threat to England's long-held supremacy at sea. World War I broke out in August 1914, when Germany declared war on Russia. Trouble in the Balkans precipitated the outbreak of hostilities, but they had been stewing for a long time.

Perhaps the War came about as the result of a breakdown in the European diplomatic system -- the bad judgment of a number of individual politicians. Perhaps it was inevitable -- the result of the profound economic changes that had been at work that had caused a "structural failure" of European society. In England, domestic problems, as much as the crisis in the Ottoman Empire, had dictated foreign policy decisions. In any case, Britain was not willing to see Germany defeat France again; nor did she want to lose her position as the world's leading power. The troubles began in Bosnia.

Austria seized Bosnia in 1908; Italy then took Tripoli, Cyrenaicia and some islands to show that Turkey could no longer defend what was left of her empire in Europe. Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Germany were all hungry for spoils in the area. When Greece allied with Serbia and Bulgaria (all satellites of Russia), to defeat the Turks, Austria became alarmed; her own empire contained many Slavic peoples. Germany, too, feared Russian expansion in the Balkans. A conference in London in 1913 failed to pacify the region, in which the late victorious Balkan states were now quarrelling among themselves. Serbia's successes further alarmed empire of Austria-Hungary.

With the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June, 1914, all hell broke loose. The military chiefs of many nations were all ready to go to war. Historians have succinctly pointed out that an inexorable military machine quickly overwhelmed the improvisations of diplomacy. With the Kaiser's support, Austria declared war on Serbia. Germany declared war on Russia and on France, creating a huge dilemma for Britain: should she give full military support to France and her allies or to stay out of Europe altogether in a policy of complete neutrality. The latter policy would have opened the door for Germany, however, and when that country violated the neutrality of Belgium in August, Britain went to war on the side of France. The decision to aid Belgium, one of small-statured Lloyd George's "little 5-foot-5 nations," marked the beginning of the end for his country's world dominance.

The length of the war, and its enormous toll on life and resources, was completely unpredicted. A German plan for a rapid victory in the West was thwarted by the combined French-British armies at the Marne. When the German offensive began down the North Sea coast of Belgium, the battles at Ypres managed to stem their advance, but at heavy cost. The years of trench warfare then began in a costly war of attrition with neither side gaining any real advantage.

At sea, the war produced one large-scale battle and a few smaller engagements. The action at Jutland, despite British losses, resulted in the German fleet heading for home, allowing the Royal Navy to continue to dominate the sea routes, to supply new fronts in the Eastern Mediterranean (with limited successes), and to impose an economic blockade upon Germany and her allies. In reply, the consequent German submarine campaign showed only too well the strengths of this new kind of weapon. The sinking of the Lusitania off Kinsale Head, Ireland in May 1915, however, had enormous consequences for the later stages of the war. In the meantime, in order to aid rapidly weakening Russia, the allies decided to strike at Turkey and the rear of Austria-Hungary by way of the Balkans.

Both Lloyd George and Winston Churchill argued for the Gallipoli campaign of 1915. The campaign was designed to attack weaker spots of the enemy's front by combining military and naval forces; to force Turkey to abandon her support of Germany, circumvent Bulgaria's entry into the war, and bring Greece into the side of the allies. In the campaign, failure to co-ordinate their activities, however, left great numbers of British, New Zealand and Australian troops stranded on the Gallipoli Peninsular unable to break through the Turkish defenses. All the objectives of the bold but totally mismanaged campaign were lost (much hostility resulted in the attitude of Australia and New Zealand that is still evident today in their progress towards republican status, despite lingering affection for the mother country). On the Western front, allied losses also caused great concern.

The German attack at Ypres, where gas was used for the first time, and the failure of the British counter-offensive, brought a government crisis in Britain. Lloyd George became minister of Munitions and Arthur Henderson, Secretary of the Labour Party was admitted to the Cabinet, a decision that clearly showed the growing importance of organized labour. A German offensive at Verdun then blunted the allied plans for a simultaneous attack; and the Battle of the Somme ended in disaster for the allies, who lost around 600,000 men in futile attacks against a firmly entrenched enemy. At the same time, the Russian state began to show signs of collapse.

In late December, 1916, Lloyd George took charge of a coalition ministry in which he showed the energy and capacity for getting things done in a time of great crisis. The conduct of the war, the losses incurred, and the difficulties in Ireland (where the brutal suppression of the Easter Rising almost certainly turned that nation against Britain when a more just solution may have kept the nation loyal to the Crown), needed drastic measures. Military deadlock, the successful U-boat offensive, as well as the onset of revolution in Russia, provided a new test of character of the British people.

The introduction of an organized convoy system put a huge dent in the success rate of the German submarines in sinking allied supply ships. British efforts were rewarded by the entry of the United States into the War in April, 1917. The great French offensive early 1917 failed hopelessly. It was followed by an equal failure of Haig's offensive in Flanders and the misery of the mud at Passchendaele Ridge. The Italians were then overwhelmed by the German-Austrian army at Caporetto before stabilizing their line with help from British and French troops. To make matter worse for the allies, the new Russian revolutionary government made peace with Germany, freeing nearly fifty German divisions for service on the Western front.

Things then began to change. German intrigue with Mexico (still simmering over the loss of much of its territory to its powerful northern neighbor) along with the unrestricted submarine warfare of 1917 brought the USA into the war. President Wilson's "Fourteen Points," set forth in an address to Congress, had a great impact on world opinion at the time when all belligerents except the US were exhausted by the war effort. In the spring of 1918, the Germans planned their great offensive to capture the Channel ports. In spite of early successes, however, attrition had taken its heavy toll. Aided by their new weapon the tank, British forces turned the tide at Amiens, a battle that German Commander Ludendorf decided was critical.

Britain's seizure of Palestine from the Ottoman Turks (aided by the successes of the famed Lawrence of Arabia), was followed by the Balfour Declaration of November 11, 1917 that favored the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. Further allied successes on the Eastern front, the defeat of the Bulgarians, the capitulation of Turkey, a victory by the Italians at Vitoria Veneto, a mutiny of the German fleet at Kieland a revolt by the German people against their military leaders, all convinced the German high command to enter into peace negotiations. The abdication of the Kaiser was followed by the imposition of severe armistice terms by the allies at Compiegne. They were accepted on November 11, 1918; what had been the costliest war in human history was over.

The cost to Britain was the loss of an entire generation, one whose contribution to national life was to be sadly missed during the political mismanagement of the postwar years. The blood baths of the Somme and Passchendaele could never be adequately described by the nation's poets and prose writers, most of whom had been conscripted into the army when the regulars, as a fighting force, had ceased to exist. So many of Britain's physical and intellectual best were killed off in the endless fighting to gain a few yards of muddy ground.

During the War, there was also unrest at home, particularly in the industrial belt of Scotland where Intense labor conflict gave the name "Red Clyde" to its shipbuilding region. A series of episodes took place there that have since assumed legendary proportions, almost on the scale of the Jacobite rebellion. The conflicts, pitting management's use of semi- or unskilled labor against the militant unions, produced such well-known activists as James Maxton, John Wheatley, John Maclean and Emmanual Shinwell. The troubles culminated in the George Square riot in Edinburgh of 1919 that practically ensured the Labour Party's national victory in the General Election of 1922. They have been regarded by many in the Labour Movement as forming part of the "glad, confident morning" of Scottish socialism.

As noted earlier, however, it was the Liberal Party under Lloyd George that was most effective in bringing needed changes to Britain. The introduction of salaries for M.P.'s in 1911l meant that the Labour Party could now field many candidates from the ranks of the trade unions. Scotsman Keir Hardie, the socialist ex-miner, had been elected to Parliament by the Merthyr constituency (South Wales) in 1891. In the hallowed halls of Westminster, he defiantly chose to wear his cloth deer-stalker hat (transmogrified by legend into a working man's cloth cap) in place of the usual top hat.

It wasn't only conditions in industry that were being transformed by the growth of Labour. There were also many changes taking place in British agriculture during the early years of the century. A rapid increase in population due to a declining death rate meant that farmers were unable to meet the increasing demand for butter, cheese, margarine and lard (used for cooking until the switch to vegetable oil right up until the 1960's), and a reliance grew upon Denmark for these products. English farmers turning to market gardening and fruit growing. Fuel shortages in 1916 motivated Parliament to pass a "summer time" act, advancing clocks one hour to make the most of available light. Farmers protested in vain.

To meet domestic demand, imports of US pork, Argentine beef and New Zealand lamb continued to rise, but a significant contribution to raising protein levels of urban English diets came with the introduction of the fish and chip shop. It utilized the product of fast, deep-sea trawlers that packed their catch in ice and rapidly shipped it to British markets. A new addition to the British diet was baked beans, first test marketed in Northern England by the American Heinz Company in 1905, but which became a staple of British diets beginning in 1928 when the first canning factory began at Harlesden, near London.

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 matter of Ireland then became a serious source of hemorrhage to the confidence of a seemingly-united Great Britain. The war had presented the opportunity the Irish nationalists had been waiting for since the postponement of the Home Rule Act of 1914. When they seized their opportunity to attack British rule in Ireland, the execution of many of their leaders following the Easter Monday Rising in Dublin, made reconciliation between the two countries impossible.

The British government failed to separate its important Irish prisoners. An internment camp at Frongoch, in North Wales, later known as "Sinn Fein " University, brought together many who would later become key figures in the fight for independence, including Michael Collins (later to become Director of Intelligence as well as chief organizer) and Richard Mulcahy (later to become Chief of Staff). Prisoners were inspired by hearing the Welsh language all around the camp declare a republic in which Gaelic would be the national language. In 1918, following the General Election, the successful Sinn Feiners refused their seats at Westminster and formed the Dail Eireann that proclaimed the Irish Republic on January 21, 1919.

The war against British rule then began, lasting until December 1920 when atrocities and counter atrocities by both sides (not only those committed by the infamous "Black and Tans.") finally led to the Government of Ireland Act. The Act divided Ireland into Northern Ireland (containing the largest part of Ulster) and Southern Ireland, giving both parts Home Rule, but reserving taxation powers for the Westminster Parliament. It seemed that no one in Ireland was satisfied and guerrilla warfare intensified. The coalition government in London was finally convinced that a policy of reconciliation was needed and a truce in July, 1921 was followed by the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December.

Mainly through a threat of an all-out war, Lloyd George somehow managed to persuade the Irish delegation, led by Michael Collins, to accept the offer of Dominion status within the Commonwealth rather than hold out for an independent republic, and the Irish Free State came into being. A basic British condition was that the six counties of Northern Ireland, mainly Protestant (who equated Home Rule with Rome Rule) should not be coerced into a united Ireland, the other 32 counties, mainly Catholic.

Eamon De Valera (one of the participants in the Easter Rising, but who had escaped from Lincoln Gaol) objected to the oath of allegiance to the Crown and formed a new party, the Republican Party against the government of Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins. It began a bitter civil war in which Collins, leader of the Dail's military forces and a much revered Irish patriot lost his life leading the Free-State forces against the Republicans. The bloody civil war ended in April 1923 when De Valera, who had been elected President of the Irish Free State in 1919, ordered a cease fire. Eire was finally declared a republic in April 1948, with Northern Ireland remaining as part of the United Kingdom.

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.

The Liberal Party, which had done so much to alleviate conditions of poverty and had made so many significant strides in improving social conditions in general, began to lose its standing in the polls after 1922. The political program of the Labour Party advocated increased social security measures, including a national minimum wage, the nationalization of basic industries such as coal, railways and electricity; and the imposition of higher taxation to pay for social welfare and to reduce the burden of the National Debt. The "dole" (unemployment benefit) allowed workers to survive while unemployed (it was probably the reason why there was not greater social unrest or even revolution).

Labour had become the chief challenger to the Conservative Party, and formed its first government in 1924 under James Ramsey MacDonald. In October of that year, however, Britain once more turned to the Conservatives under Stanley Baldwin. As had Labour, however, it proved ineffective to handle the nation's industrial problems.

Further mass unemployment resulted when Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill returned Britain to the gold standard in 1925. The return was made at the old pre-war gold and dollar value of the pound. As a result, the pound was devalued; British goods (coal, steel, machinery, textiles, ships, cargo rates and other goods and services) became over-priced, and Britain's share of the world export market declined rapidly. The resulting unemployment and wage cuts caused serious repercussions in the industrial areas, where strikes became common. Iron, steel, coal, cotton and ship building suffered the most, the very industries that Britain's free trade economy relied upon to provide the bulk of the consumer and capital goods exported to provide for the large imports of food and raw materials. A general strike took place in 1926.

A huge drop in coal exports, the government's refusal to nationalize the coal industry and the setting of wages by the pit-owners triggered the unrest. In April of that year, the miners' leader, A.J. Cook coined the phrase "not a penny off the pay, not a minute on the day." The mine owners refused to compromise. A showdown came about when the government indicated that it would not continue negotiations under the threat of a general strike. On May 4, 1926 the great strike went into effect, but lack of support for the unions, the use of volunteers to keep essential services going, the intransigence of the government, and the gradual wearing away of the resistance of the miners by the coal owners eventually ended the stoppage. But grievous harm had been done to the miners, who came out of the business with longer hours and less pay.

Under the Conservative government of Stanley Baldwin, only a modest program of social reform took place, mainly to appease working class opinion. The Widows, Orphans and Old Age Health Contributory Pension schemes extended the Act of 1911 and insured over 20 million people. In 1928, the Equal Franchise Act gave the parliamentary vote to all women over twenty one. Under Health Minister Neville Chamberlain, the Local Government Act of 1929 reduced the number of local government authorities and extended the services they provided. There was still lacking a coherent policy to deal with the relief of unemployment. A Labour government, elected in 1929, came to power at the beginning of a world-wide depression triggered by the Wall Street Crash, but like the Conservative government before it, could do little to remedy the situation at home.

In the 1930's things improved a little under a national government comprised of members from all parties, led by Ramsey MacDonald. The abandonment of the gold standard and the decision to let the pound find its own value against the US dollar made British export prices more competitive in world markets. Agriculture was aided by the adoption of a protective tariff and import quotas in 1931. A building boom followed the increase in population that new health measures made possible. Old industries were replaced by newer ones such as automobiles, electrical manufactures, and chemicals. There were also changes made in the relationship of Britain to her colonies.

Since the Durham Report of 1839, the white-settled colonies of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa had been virtually independent of Britain. The Statute of Westminster, passed in November, 1931, removed much legal inferiority not addressed in 1839. The independence of the Dominions was now established. The Crown remained as a symbol of the free association of the members of the British Commonwealth. The Imperial Economic Conference met in Ottawa, Canada in July 1932 to hash out the problems of Dominion economic policies and to settle the matter of their exports to Britain.

At the conference, Britain agreed to abandon free trade, imposing a 10 percent tariff on most imported goods, but exempting Commonwealth nations. In turn, they were to provide markets for British exports, including textiles, steel, cars and telecommunications equipment (thereby discouraging innovation in many industries, which was to put Britain further behind other countries).

The colonies had come of age; the conference showed only too well that Britain was no longer a magnet for Commonwealth goods. In 1932, however, King George initiated the Christmas Day radio broadcasts that served to link the Commonwealth countries in a common bond with England. Their loyalty was to be proven in World War II during the reign of George VI. George had come to the throne in 1936 after the abdication of his older brother Edward VIII (tradition ensured that the Edward had to renounce the throne if he were to marry the American divorcee Mrs. Simpson).

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, and 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.

In Germany, Hitler had become Chancellor in July 30, 1934 on a rising tide of nationalism and economic unrest. After he proclaimed the Third Reich in March, his regime was given dictatorial powers. Also in March, the Nazis opened their first concentration camp for Jews, gypsies and political prisoners. In August, Hitler became President of the Reich at the death of Hindenburg. He announced open conscription early in 1935, in defiance of the conditions laid down at Versailles. Unencumbered by obsolete equipment and even more obsolete thinking that hindered the British and the French, the German republic was able to rebuild her army and airforce from scratch. They were soon to be used in a bid to dominate Europe.

Italy had entered the scramble for Africa in 1881 by taking over Assab in northern Ethiopia. It then expanded its holdings in the East African highlands. In 1887 the Italian-Ethiopian War began. Three years later, Italy made Assab the basis of an Eritrean colony. By 1896, however, a series of defeats led to the Italians withdrawing from their protectorate. In 1906, a Tripartite Pact declared the independence of Ethiopia but divided the country into British, French, and Italian spheres of interest.

In Italy, in November 1922, general fears of communism led King Victor Emmanuel to summon Benito Mussolini to form a ministry in which he would be given dictatorial powers to restore order and bring about reforms. Earlier in the year, Mussolini had led his black-shirts Fascists into Rome. He secured his fascist Dictatorship the following year through political chicanery and began protesting the terms of Versailles in 1930.

When Italian and Ethiopian troops clashed on the frontier between Italian Somaliland and Ethiopia in 1934, Mussolini had an excuse to invade Ethiopia. After his troops had occupied Addis Abbaba, he announced the annexation of Ethiopia and joined Eritrea and Italian Somaliland to create Italian East Africa. The League of Nations proved totally ineffective to prevent this seizure of the last bastion of native rule in Africa.

Lack of British resolve against the ambitions of Mussolini may have spurred Hitler to act. In March, 1936, at the height of the crisis in Ethiopia, he sent his armies into the Rhineland. France was afraid to react without British support. It proceeded to fortify its Maginot Line as Hitler began to fortify the Rhineland. The dictators of Germany and Italy then signed the pact known as the Rome-Berlin Axis. Both leaders then supported General Franco's fascists in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Britain and France stood back for fear of precipitating a general European war; in their efforts to appease, they protested but did nothing except to embolden Hitler even further. His troops marched into Austria in March, 1938.

Hitler's next move was first to surround Bohemia and then to demand modifications to the Czech frontier, including the Sudetenland (with a large German population). Fearing a catastrophic war, and with the vivid memory of the carnage of World War I in mind, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain then agreed, along with the French Premier, to hand over the Sudetenland to Germany. He thought he had bought "peace with honor." Hitler then showed his true intention by seizing the rest of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlains finally saw what Germany intended, to dominate Europe, and his extension of a guarantee to Poland practically ensured war.

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.

In Germany, Hitler had become Chancellor on July 30, 1934, on a rising tide of nationalism and economic unrest. After he proclaimed the Third Reich in March, his regime was given dictatorial powers. Also in March, the Nazis opened their first concentration camp for Jews, gypsies and political prisoners. In August, Hitler became President of the Reich at the death of Hindenburg. He announced open conscription early in 1935, in defiance of the conditions laid down at Versailles. Unencumbered by obsolete equipment and even more obsolete thinking that hindered the British and the French, the German republic was able to rebuild her army and airforce from scratch. They were to be used soon in a bid to dominate Europe.

Italy had entered the scramble for Africa in 1881 by taking over Assab in northern Ethiopia. It then expanded its holdings in the East African highlands. In 1887 the Italian-Ethiopian War began. Three years later, Italy made Assab the basis of an Eritrean colony. By 1896, however, a series of defeats led to the Italians withdrawing from their protectorate. In 1906, a Tripartite Pact declared the independence of Ethiopia but divided the country into British, French and Italian spheres of interest.

In Italy, in November 1922, general fears of the spread of Communism led King Victor Emmanuel to summon Benito Mussolini to form a ministry in which he would be given dictatorial powers to restore order and bring about reforms. Earlier in the year, Mussolini had led his black-shirt Fascists into Rome. He secured his fascist dictatorship the following year through political chicanery and began protesting the terms of Versailles in 1930.

When Italian and Ethiopian troops clashed on the frontier between Italian Somaliland and Ethiopia in 1934, Mussolini had an excuse to invade Ethiopia. After his troops had occupied Addis Abbaba, he announced the annexation of Ethiopia and joined Eritrea and Italian Somaliland to create Italian East Africa. The League of Nations proved totally ineffective to prevent this seizure of the last bastion of native rule in Africa.

Lack of British resolve against the ambitions of Mussolini may have spurred Hitler to act. In March 1936, at the height of the crisis in Ethiopia, he sent his armies into the Rhineland. France was afraid to react without British support. It proceeded to fortify its Maginot Line as Hitler began to fortify the Rhineland. The dictators of Germany and Italy then signed the pact known as the Rome-Berlin Axis. Both leaders then supported General Franco's fascists in the Spanish Civil War (1936- 39). Britain and France stood back for fear of precipitating a general European war; in their efforts to appease, they protested but did nothing except to embolden Hitler even further. His troops marched into Austria in March 1938. There was no resistance.

Hitler's next move was to surround Bohemia and then demand modifications to the Czech frontier, including the Sudetenland (with a large German population). Fearing a catastrophic war, and with the vivid memory of the carnage of World War I in mind, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain agreed, along with the French Premier, to hand over the Sudetenland to Germany. He thought he had bought "peace with honor." Hitler then showed his true intention by seizing the rest of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain finally saw what Germany intended to dominate Europe, and his extension of a guarantee to Poland, a country which geography he was incapable of aiding, practically ensured war.

In Britain, though there were two million unemployed, but things were generally looking prosperous following the slump of the Great Depression. Nevertheless, it was a totally unprepared Britain that declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939; two days after Hitler's armies had invaded Poland. Conscription was ordered for all men 20 years and older. Somewhat better prepared France followed Britain by declaring war on Germany.

German armies swept through Poland in 18 days. The allies turned to Russia for support, but Stalin had ideas of his own, coming to a marriage of convenience with Hitler in which Poland became a pawn in the hands of both. Stalin also took advantage of the situation to attack Finland.

Britain then prepared for total war. Cities were blacked out, rationing was imposed and rigidly enforced; children from the larger cities were moved into the countryside, clouds of barrage balloons filled the English skies, housewives turned in their pots and pans for scrap, iron fences, railing and gateposts disappeared into blast furnaces, gas masks were issued to every single person, including babies; total blackout was imposed and rigorously enforced by air Ðraid wardens. While the country waited to see if the French could successfully resist the Nazi armies, British beaches were mined, protected by barbed wire; tank traps and other obstacles to invading forces appeared everywhere; air raid shelters were dug in back gardens and London subway stations prepared for their influx of nightly sleepers.

Trapped behind their so-called "impenetrable" Maginot Line, the French could not hold back the German tide, and the new weapon of war, the Blitzkrieg, swept all through it. Hitler's legions first occupied Denmark and then brushed aside a Franco-British force sent to help Norway.

Beginning their march to the Channel in the Ardennes, after they had easily bypassed the Maginot Line, German forces took only five days to take Holland. They then raced forward at lightning speed to capture Paris. In one of the most successful campaigns in the history of war, German forces soon controlled France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway and Romania, leaving Britain alone in the West to face the Nazi hordes.

In May 1940, after a disastrous British attempt to force the Germans out of Narvik, Norway, a humiliated Chamberlain (who had earlier crowed that "Herr Hitler had missed the boat") resigned in favor of Winston Churchill. The 65-year-old veteran of many a political campaign was to prove a remarkable leader. The country quickly rallied behind him to expend its "blood, toil, tears and sweat" to eventually emerge victorious in what was to become a long, bloody war that, if it did not involve nearly every country on earth, certainly affected them.

British industry mobilized every person not on military service into production. Even the old and retired were called on to play their part as plane spotters, air-raid wardens and night watchmen. But single women played a major role. They had to report immediately to work in war industries or to work on the nation's farms in the so-called Women's Land Army. Women also entered the armed services by the thousands, to work as radar operators, mechanics, truck drivers and pilots in non-combat roles, even the retired.

After the complete collapse of France in June 1940, when it signed an armistice, Mussolini entered the war on the side of Germany, believing that Britain was doomed and that he could pick up rich spoils in Africa. When France fell, the British army was forced to evacuate the continent at Dunkirk, but somehow halting a German division at Arras, managed to save most of its cadre to train millions of new soldiers it needed to defend its Empire. One of the strangest fleets in history had rescued the bulk of the British Expeditionary Force from the burning beaches of Dunkirk. In the meantime, Soviet troops entered the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to incorporate them into the USSR.

New Prime Minister Winston Churchill informed the British people that the Battle for France was over: the Battle for Britain was about to begin. He stressed that Hitler would have to break Britain in order to win the war, and that no nation would be safe from sinking into the resulting darkness, not even the United States.

When France formed a "Vichy" government under Marshal Petain, the Royal Navy destroyed the French fleet anchored at Oran in North Africa. In the Atlantic, German U-boats were destroying thousands upon thousands of tons of allied shipping, but Britain precariously held out (those of us who were living in Britain at the time realize just how near to collapse we were). All Britain could do was to hang on, to fight on until the situation might eventually change. Hitler expected Britain to come to terms, but Churchill's defiant riposte was that he wasn't on speaking terms with Adolph Hitler.

Realizing that she would not come to terms, Hitler then planned an invasion of England, but first he would have to destroy the Royal Air Force. The task seemed easy enough; he had a decided advantage in the number of planes and in trained pilots. From airfields in conquered France, the English coast was only a few minutes away. At a time when the war at sea was rapidly turning in Germany's favor, the Battle of Britain began with an attack of German bombers on England, July 10, 1940 and artillery began shelling the English coast. The final assault was planned for August 13th. Hitler planned to have 125,000 men ashore by the end of the second day. Plans were meticulously drawn up for the government of a conquered Britain.

There was great fear throughout Britain during that late summer. In many villages, church bells rang in the mistaken belief that the invasion had begun. There wasn't much to stop the invader. Though 1,500,000 men in Britain had joined the Home Guard, they had only 70,000 rifles; the regular army had left most of its hardware behind in the evacuation from France. All that stood between the German armies and the planned invasion of Britain was the Fighter Command of the Royal Air Force.

During the early air war, the German Air Force conducted over 1500 missions a day over England, concentrating mainly on airfields and radar installations. Hitler's second-in-command Herman Goering miscalculated the resilience of the Royal Air Force. When British planes bombed Berlin to retaliate for bombs dropped on London (the German pilots had lost their way and missed their intended targets), Hitler determined to teach the British people, those "night gangsters, " a lesson. Insisting on a thousand-fold revenge, he ordered the Luftwaffe to destroy London. It was a grave error.

The British Air Force did not rise to the bait to defend London; they conserved what was left of their strength. More important, their airfields (and pilots) were given a much-needed respite to rebuild. Skilled use of a secret new weapon, Radar, then gave them a decided advantage over incoming German airplanes.

Though almost exhausted and down to its last few pilots, the RAF fought on in what was becoming a war of attrition in the air. Eventually, the heavy losses sustained by the Luftwaffe put an end to any real chances of German forces crossing the Channel. On September 17, following decisive losses, Hitler postponed the invasion of Britain. Instead of keeping up the pressure, the frustrated German dictator decided to ignore Goering's pleas for just a few more days to destroy Britain's air forces and turned eastward, to attack Russia.

In June 1941 when the German armed divisions poured into the east, Britain breathed a huge sigh of relief. Hitler's hatred of Communism blinded him to the risks involved; it was a colossal mistake. His involvement in the Balkans, where he feared a British attack against his flank from Greece, had delayed his assault on Russia. The oncoming winter would prove to be a deciding factor in the holocaust that ensued.

In September 1940, following a total blockade of the British Isles ordered by Hitler, U-boats sank 160,000 tons of British shipping. (In a time of great food shortages, even the Royal Family was issued ration books). These were called "the happy times" for German U-boat crews, idolized by adoring crowds as they set out into the Atlantic to wreak havoc on merchant ships bringing supplies from America. The British people, huddled in their air-raid shelters awaited the worst. Their defiance of the might of the German air force, their courage in carrying on "business as usual" and their slogan "London can Take it"" (relayed to the United States by radio commentators such as Edward R. Murrow) had a profound effect upon American opinion, especially upon the President.

In opposition to many in America who still thought that Britain's total defeat was only a mater of time, and a very short time at that, President Roosevelt came to the aid of the beleaguered island nation. He ordered his fleet to sink German submarines on sight. To meet the U-boat challenge, the US then provided Britain with Lend-Lease supplies in addition to handing over to the Royal Navy 50 much-needed destroyers. In November, British ships destroyed the Italian fleet at Taranto, putting it, like most of the French fleet before it, out of action for the rest of the war. Mussolini's grand boast of dominating what he called "mare nostrum" was defeated. The Royal Navy managed to keep control of the Mediterranean throughout the war.

In September, Japan had concluded a pact with the Axis powers in order to fulfil her designs on the Pacific, ranging from Hong Kong to Australia. On December 7, 1941 she seized her opportunity to attack. On the "day of infamy" so strongly proclaimed by Roosevelt, the Imperial Air force crippled the US Navy at Pearl Harbor. On December 11, Germany declared war on the US. Japanese forces then captured the British possessions of Malaya, Burma, Hong Kong and Singapore, the great symbol of the British Empire. They then advanced practically unopposed to the borders of India in the West and Australia in the South.

The Turn of the Tide

It seemed that the Japanese were unstoppable, but as had the Germans, they over-reached themselves. A string of successes was halted in May 1942 when they sustained heavy losses in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Germany too, suffered its first defeat when Hitler underestimated the strategic importance of Egypt. There, the British Eighth Army (the "Desert Rats") under Montgomery destroyed a German fighting machine of 250,000 men at the Battle of El Alamein in October 1942. After being blocked by the winter snows and the fierce resistance of the Russians, in February 1943, a huge German army surrendered at Stalingrad.

Later in the year, Allied forces recaptured Sicily to invade Southern Italy, and all through the year, Russian troops continued to inflict heavy casualties on the Germans, who lost over 2,000 tanks and 1,392 airplanes at the decisive Battle of Kursk. The tide of war had turned irrevocably on the side of the allies. It was still heavy going in Italy, but bit by bit allied armies advanced up the peninsular, despite determined German resistance, recapturing Rome to bring Italy out of the war. The whole country had been taken by the spring of 1945. It was now time for the allies to invade fortress Europe.

On the sixth of June 1944, "D-Day" the invasion of the Continent by allied forces in Operation Overlord marked the beginning of the end of the war in the West. Years of meticulous planning and careful preparation paid off and hundreds of thousands of allied soldiers were landed within a few days with their equipment. Deceptive messages had led the Germans to concentrate their forces around the port of Calais. An expected German counterattack at the landing beaches did not come.

Some failures in the re-conquest of western Europe inevitably ensued, notably the efforts of Montgomery to end an early stalemate in Normandy by the airborne attempt to capture bridges over the Rhine, but steady progress brought British, Canadian, French and American forces into Germany. A failure of allied intelligence to spot 24 Nazi divisions gave the enemy temporary success in the Ardennes, at the Battle of the Bulge, but it was beaten back with heavy German losses. Hitler's exhausted forces in the west were finally brushed aside.

Back home, Londoners were once again forced into their underground shelters as V-1 rockets began to fall upon the city with terrifying effects. By September 1944, Germany still had enough resources to produce a thousand V-2 rockets a month, most of which were directed toward London. Only defeat of Germany would end the threat. In March 1945, the allies crossed the Rhine. In the east, a new Russian offensive began with 3,000,000 men polishing off one German division after another on an inexorable march to Berlin. In April, east met west as allied forces met with the Russians at the Elbe. On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered.

The fall of Saipan in July had the same effect in the East. The War in Europe came to an end on May 8. The news eclipsed the news from Burma, where British forces under William Slim had stopped the Japanese efforts to invade India through Assam. By May 6, 1945, Burma had been retaken. The re-conquest was the most successful of all the campaigns British forces had undertaken during the whole war. It was the climax of a most difficult but brilliantly executed campaign.

The War in the Pacific came to an end on August 14, 1945. Japan surrendered only after the American Airforce dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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.

The Labour Government struggled heroically to deal with the problems: to improve standards of living, move to a "mixed economy." close the trade gap, maintain its armed forces in sufficient strength to meet a new threat from Communist Russia, and to keep of its overseas bases. It succeeded in these aims remarkably well. During the dark early days of the War, economist William Beveridge had put forward proposals for postwar "cradle-to-grave" social security. The Government had taken on an emergency welfare responsibility; it provided milk for babies; orange juice and cod-liver oil for children.

It was now time for Labour to put the Beverage Plan into full operation. Family allowances had already been introduced before the War's end. A National School Lunch Act was passed in June, 1946. In 1948, the government introduced the National Health Service to proved free medical treatment for all, from the spectacles and false teeth, to maternity and child welfare services. Nationalization of the hospitals made nationwide care available for the injured and seriously ill. The "Welfare State" had begun.

The second major change brought about by the Labour Government, under Attlee, was to take control of industry and public utilities, and a two-year period beginning in 1946, saw the nationalization of the Bank of England; the coal industry; electricity and gas; air transport, along with road, rail and waterways. A total of 20 percent of all British industry had been taken into public ownership by 1950. (In August, 1947, the government operated its first atomic pile, at Harwell). Central control of the economy, which had proved so successful in wartime, was now a major undertaking in peacetime. It was achieved under terribly adverse economic conditions. Another crisis occurred in 1947.

Stringent financial measures, imposed to meet the enormous war debt, caused undue hardship that was only made worse by one of the worst winters on record, monstrous gales and floods wiped out farms and destroyed agricultural products. A fuel shortage severely curtailed exports, food was still severely rationed, and in 1948 even bread and potatoes were rationed (both had been exempt during the War). The author remembers well the little ditty "It had to B.U." that parodied a popular song of the time by referring to the Bread Unit.

In 1947, relief appeared in the form of the Marshall Plan, introduced by the US to help the European Economy recover. Along with the devaluation of the pound and an expansion of world markets, there was a revival of the spirit that had united the country during the War. The introduction of the Land-Rover to world markets in 1948 was a godsend for British exports. Britain was even able to join with the US in ferrying supplies to Berlin in the famous "Airlift" that began in July of that year. By 1950, rationing began to be phased out, though not until 1954 was meat rationing abolished.

Though the Labour Government did very little to develop the private sector, it can take credit for the building of giant hydro-electric schemes in the later 1940's, especially in the undeveloped areas of Scotland and Wales. In 1951, the Conservatives resumed control of the government. Under its slogan "You've Never Had It So Good," led by the aging Winston Churchill, economic prospects seemed to be on the upturn. In less than one year, the balance of payments deficit had become a surplus.

Compared to those of the developing nations of Southeast Asia and the rebuilt economies of Japan and Germany, however, Britain's pre-war industrial strength was severely weakened. The much-heralded Festival of Britain, held in London in 1951 has been seen by many in retrospect, not as a demonstration of the nation's strength, but as a product of British postwar weakness and a signal pointing to further decline. A fashionable joke at the time was that, like the Festival's Skylon, the country had no visible means of support. The Nation and the Commonwealth mourned the death of King George VI, who along with his queen Elizabeth, had done much to bring back dignity and honor to the monarchy. Yet there was a mood of optimism that received an another upturn with the coronation of the young queen Elizabeth, the first such ceremony to be televised.

Elizabeth II (1952-Present)

Coinciding with the accession of a new monarch, Britain began to shed her image as a tight little island, wedded to her old ways. Good news at the start of Elizabeth's reign was that a British team had become the first to conquer Mt. Everest. Bad news was that, even though the country's farmers had been increasingly turning to mechanization (with the number of tractors rising from 55,000 to 300,000 in three years) a severe food shortage forced the government to start selling horses for food in place of beef.

In the early 1950's, British forces formed part of the Commonwealth Division deployed alongside American forces in Korea to try to stop Communist North Korea taking over the South. Britain's first atomic bomb was tested, joining her to the US and the USSR as a nuclear power. (and thus prolonging her illusion of Great Power status). Another plus for the aging British Lion was her inauguration of the first jet aircraft passenger service (London to Johannesburg by the De Havilland Comet).

In December, 1952 a four-day London "smog" raised the city's death toll to three times its normal level. Coal smoke from thousands of chimneys was the culprit. It had been blackening Britain's buildings and lungs for centuries, but only now was much notice taken of the deadly effects. In October, 1955, London passed its Clean Air Act to ban the burning of untreated coal to prevent a recurrence of the killer smog. The law would permit 80 percent more sunshine to reach London, permit green grass to flourish, and bring back birds and other wild life to the capital. Soot up to 9 inches deep was removed from London buildings. One year later, the Clean Air Act was adopted by the whole country to ban the burning of soft coal and other smoky fuels. The benefits were immediate; in all major cities blackened buildings were scrubbed down to reveal their pre-soot splendor.

Candy rationing ended in 1953, to the delight of candy-starved British children, but stores that sold candy completely sold out in hours (rationing in general ended in 1954). To counteract the effects of the increased consumption of candy, Britain's first fluoridation of community drinking water began in November, 1955. In May 1954, British hearts had swelled with the breaking of the four-minute mile for the first time in history by Roger Bannister.

By 1954, Britain was in its third year of an ambitious plan to rebuild its war-damaged cities. The Conservative Government embarked on a huge housing program to replace the bomb damage, homelessness and dereliction in British cities. Under Harold Macmillan, the target of 300,000 homes a year was surpassed, and many "New Towns" were established. War-time hero Winston Churchill, in ill-health, resigned in 1955 in favor of Anthony Eden. Things looked good for the Prime Minister, and for the country. In 1956, however, the Suez Crisis destroyed confidence in both.

In Egypt, Colonel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, promising compensation to British and French shareholders. Britain, in particular, wished to keep control of the vital link to the Far East. Eden described Nasser's actions as "having his thumb on our windpipe." When British and French forces successfully invaded Egypt to occupy Port Said, most of the world protested, led by the US and the USSR. The humiliation of the British withdrawal showed only too well that she was no longer a world power. Eden resigned to be replaced by old politico Harold Macmillan, known as "Super Mac" for his efficiency and skill.

The later 50's and early 60's then resulted in a boom time for Britain with increasing prosperity, rising wages and a manageable economy. As Harold Macmillan was to state in 1957, "most of our people have never had it so good." British technology was still tops. In August, 1956, at Calder Hall, Britain initiated full-scale use of nuclear fuel to produce electricity. A new era in transatlantic passenger service began in October, 1957, when two De Havilland Comet lV's completed the journey from Britain to the US in under six hours. An end to the centuries-old transatlantic service of the great passenger liners quickly followed.

In 1959, England developed the Hovercraft to cross the English Channel on a cushion of air. The same year saw the production of the Bristol Britannia, the first large turboprop aircraft to be used in commercial aviation. Protests against the building of nuclear weapons, however, produced the famous annual Aldermaston marches, beginning in 1958. When the government abandoned its plans to produce a nuclear missile, it turned to the US to fill the gap in its defenses and adopted the Polaris missile, promoting Labour leader Harold Wilson to remark that the new independent British deterrent was "neither independent nor British nor a deterrent."

Britain had declined to attend the Council of Europe that met in May, 1949 (the same year that NATO was organized). It also stayed out of the European Coal and Steel Community established by Germany and France in 1950. The 1957 Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community (EEC), but Britain stayed out mainly to protect its relationship with Commonwealth countries (its sources of cheap food).

Britain then set up a rival organization, The European Free Trade Association (EFTA). Harold Macmillan, however, decided that Britain's best interests lay in joining the EEC. French President De Gaulle, suspicious of the close cooperation between Britain and the US, vetoed the attempt (after the death of the wartime leader of the Free French, however, Britain finally became a member under Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath in 1973).

Entry into Europe was a process the country had long been preparing for by jettisoning her former colonies since the end of World War II. In fact, between 1945 and 1968, over 500 million people in former British dependencies became self-governing, most becoming members of the British Commonwealth. The list included India, Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), the West Indies (which formed a federation in January, 1957), Ghana, the Gold Coast, Singapore and Cyprus.

These countries were followed by Uganda, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Tanganyika (1962), Kenya (1963), Malta (1964) the Gambia and the Maldives (1965); Botswana, Lesotho, and Guyana (1966); Mauritius and Swaziland (1968). Nations that left the Commonwealth were Eire (the Irish Republic 1949), South Africa (1l961) and Palestine (where the new state of Israel had been formed in 1948).

In 1958, when Iceland extended her fishery limits to 12 miles offshore, protests from British fishing vessels led to the so-called "Cod War." One of the worst cold spells in history occurred in the winter of 1962 when pipes froze, the nation's antiquated plumbing could not cope with the numbing cold and in general, the whole country shivered. In 1963, the country was rocked by the Profumo affair, in which Britain's war minister was forced to resign after it was discovered that one of his mistresses (Christine Keeler) had been supplying information about Britain's nuclear capacity to a known Russian spy. When Alec Douglas-Home formed a cabinet at the resignation of Harold Macmillan, he became the first Prime Minister in English history not to have a seat in either the Lords or the Commons.

In 1965, the miniskirt of Mary Quant appeared, and Chelsea became an international conglomerate of fashion, cosmetics, fabrics and other consumer items. The old, stodgy lady that was London, now became "swinging " London. In the meantime, groups such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones made British music popular all over the world and brought in much needed income. A drop in infant mortality rates pointed to the great strides being made in Britain's health services. But in 1966, the disaster at Aberfan in South Wales shocked the nation, when a mountain of mine waste poured down on the infant school. The tragedy focused attention on the despoiled landscape of South Wales mining valleys and led to much-overdue government efforts at reclamation and re-greening of "the Valleys."

Heavy industry, in which Britain had led the world for so long, continued its decline. It extremely ironic that one of her most loyal allies in the war, her former colony of Australia, was partly responsible for the great decline in Britain's steel industry. Australia's sale of nearly 6 million tons of iron ore from the Hamersly Range deposits in 1964 allowed a major expansion of the Japanese steel industry, making her an industrial superpower. In 1967, Britain was forced to devalue the pound in an attempt to check inflation and improve the trade deficit.

One year later, Britain converted to the decimal system, ending the age-old system in which 240 pennies equaled one pound. Thus the nation joined most of the world's system of decimal coinage. It also launched the QE 2 as a successor to the passenger liner Queen Elizabeth. British prestige was heightened by the successful round-the-world voyage of Francis Chichester in his Gypsy Moth in 1967, and the first flight of the Concorde supersonic jet in 1969, the year that a British woman (Anne Jones) triumphed at Wimbledon. In 1970, Tony Jacklin became the first British golfer to win the US Open in 50 years.

Something of a miracle occurred just when the world's oil producing nations doubled the cost of their product: Britain herself became a major oil producer. Since 1962, she had been conducting seismic prospecting for oil and natural gas in the North Sea, and full-scale activities had begun in 1964, the first oil find came five years later. Great expansion of the oil fields then took place in the 1970's so that in 1979, the country's oil production exceeded its imports for the first time. Britain's ports also adapted to the new container vessels, spelling the end for such great traditional ports as Liverpool, Glasgow and East London.

Continuing violence between Catholics, committed to union with Eire and Protestants, committed to retaining their British identity, led to the Government imposing direct rule over Northern Ireland, but hopes for peace were shattered on "Bloody Sunday" when British troops opened fire on protesters at Londonderry (January 30, 1972). The IRA brought their violence to Britain, killing a leading Conservative M.P. in March. In Ireland, violence continued and Lord Mountbatten was killed by an IRA bomb in August.

In 1974, the whole of Britain felt itself under siege from a vicious bombing campaign. Violence continued almost unabated. In 1985 the Anglo-Irish Agreement was an attempt to end it, with both Britain and the Irish Republic agreeing to confer over the problems and to work together against terrorism. It took the outrage of the Inniskillen bombing in 1998, however, to shock both sides into realizing that governments could do little; peace had to come from the initiatives of the people themselves.

Along with most of the industrialized nations of the world, Britain entered a period of depression in the 1970's. A tremendous blow to British pride came in February, 1971 when Rolls-Royce declared bankruptcy, forcing the government to bail out the company to avoid job losses and to restore national prestige. Britain's post-war lead in the production of motor-cycles had long been surrendered to the Japanese. In 1974, the great strike by the country's coal miners (over the government's "freeze" on wages) caused the Conservatives to lose the general election but under Labour, inflation spiraled and economic decline continued despite the social contract between the government and the trade unions.

Bitter confrontation between unions and government continued to escalate. A strike by London dock workers idled hundreds of ships and prevented goods from being exported. In March, 1979 Prime Minister Callaghan lost a vote of confidence by one vote in the House of Commons and Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher became the nation's first woman Prime Minister in May. Her promises to cut income taxes, scale down social services and reduce the role of the state in daily life had wide appeal and gave her a large majority. Many in Britain also wished to curb the power of the unions, which they believed had grown into a monster, almost out of control.

Margaret Thatcher

Though married to a millionaire, Margaret Thatcher was perceived as a grocer's daughter, hard-working and thrifty, a complete no-nonsense person. She was the first female Prime Minister in the nation's history and gained her reputation as "the iron lady" for her tight control of Britain's monetary policy. Her emphasis on "self-help" encouraged private enterprise, but her cutting back of expenditures on health, social services and education made her extremely unpopular with the masses. Then, in 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, claiming sovereignty over the small group of islands they called the Islas Maldivas in the South Atlantic that was home to a few thousand British settlers.

Prime Minister Thatcher sent a task force to recapture the islands; and after two months, the better-trained and disciplined British infantry, aided by its highly maneuverable airplanes (launched from carriers), won the day. The nation was jubilant, and Mrs. Thatcher was regarded as something of a national hero. The problems resulting from the country fast-becoming multi-national, with whole areas of the larger cities occupied by those whose religion, dress, food and social mores were considered "anti-British" were swept aside in a euphoria of jingoism.

Mrs. Thatcher's government was also helped by the splitting off of some Labour members to the Social Democratic Party, who later joined with the Liberals in "the Alliance." Then, in Mrs. Thatcher's second government, begun on such an optimistic note, the miners went on strike to protest the closing of many pits deemed unprofitable. Under their dynamic and outspoken leader Arthur Scargill, the miners also protested against overtime work. The bitterness caused by the strikes and the insensitivity of the government to their demands deeply divided the whole of British society. The Conservatives, once again helped by a split in opposition ranks, retained their control of the government. Its legislation, the closing of so many pits, and the switch to oil, had defeated the unions.

Mrs. Thatcher continued her policies of tight economic control, the privatization of industry and "dismantling" (when possible) of the Welfare State. Privatization of British Gas, British Telecom, the Water Authorities, British Airways and the electricity industry (termed by Macmillan as 'the family silver") proved a godsend to government revenues and also created a new class of British shareholders. The 1980's indeed, despite riots in the deprived areas of some of England's biggest cities, and continued IRA terrorist attacks, were a decade of prosperity (many immigrants, at the bottom of the social scale, especially those from the West Indies and some African states would disagree).

The number of videos acquired by British families was far greater than those in the US or Europe. The British were, on the whole, better fed, better housed, better clothed, cleaner and warmer than at any time in their history. No wonder the Labour opposition was in complete disarray. Spirits were also warmed in July, 1981 when Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer (and another kind of spirit benefited from the "real-ale" campaign that protested against the mass production of pasteurized beer).

In addition, many promising development in science occurred. In 1974, mainly with income derived from the sale of Beatles records, the computed axial tomography scanner was developed in England, revolutionizing diagnostic medicine in immunology, (essential for organ transplants). In July, 1978, British doctors at London's Oldham Hospital created the world's first "test tube baby" Louis Brown. British scientists retained their lead. The 1990's saw the birth of the famous sheep Dolly (the first mammal produced from a donor cell taken from an adult rather than from an embryo), and then Polly, a transgenic animal produced through cloning.

Britain was also busy creating its own "silicon valleys" adapting the new micro-chip technology to replace traditional industries. In 1981, the Humber Bridge was completed; at 4,626 feet the world's longest Suspension Bridge. The world's longest high-speed optical fiber link connected Birmingham with London. British television projected an image of quality throughout the world. In addition, one of Britain's oldest shoe companies, now named Reebok, made impressive gains in the world market in competition with Nike.

General optimism, however, was tempered with distrust of one who was acquiring almost dictatorial powers, and in 1990, the Iron Lady's imposition of the "Poll Tax" caused unrest and street demonstrations. (The tax was an attempt to reform local government and finance by replacing household rates, which made each voter bear a full share of the costs incurred by prodigal spending). Inflation and interest rates also remained alarmingly high. Mrs. Thatcher's decision to send British land and sea forces into the Gulf to participate in the United Nations multi-national task force raged against the government of Iraq divided the country, especially when it was learned that English casualties came mostly from "friendly" (i.e. US) fire.

The government was mainly split by the question of integration into Europe, with some prominent members disagreeing with the purchase of the Westland Helicopter by Americans rather then Europeans. Other such issues, heightened by what Sir Geoffrey Howe (deputy leader of her own party) called her anti-European paranoia, brought a challenge to Thatcher's leadership, and in November, 1990, the Thatcher Era came to an end. The longest ministry of the century, it had glorified the Victorian values of self-help and nationalism.

For many, the main achievement of the Iron lady was to free her country from the iron grip of the trade unions. For others, it was the restoration of British pride in the victory in the Falklands. For most, it was apparent that Britain was beginning to come to terms with the loss of much of its heavy industry and the increasing reliance on finance, communications, oil, insurance, tourism, accounting and other service industries.

John Major & Tony Blair

John Major then took over the reigns of the Conservative Party as Prime Minister. He was committed to keeping "Thatcherism" alive. The unions were not going to regain their former powers, despite public sentiment in favor of the miners and as debatable as the benefits of privatization had proved, there was no going back to the old days of nationalized industries (and council houses, which had been offered for sale to private owners).

What must not be overlooked in the polices of "Thatcherism" was the influence upon intellectuals and government policymakers alike of "The Road to Serfdom" by F.A. Hayek (first published in 1944). On Hayek's 90th birthday, Mrs. Thatcher wrote that none of what her government had achieved would have been possible without the values and beliefs "that set us on the right road and provide the right sense of direction." As a result of reading the book, Anthony Fisher founded the Institute of Economic Affairs in London which was to be the most important source of free-market ideas in Britain. By the mid-90's, there was very little to divide the Labour and Conservative parties on the central principles of economic management.

When Major was first elected, Britain was still saying "No" to socialism. By the general election of 1992, leading magazines (particularly in the US) wrote of the death of the Labour Party eventhough it had abandoned its policy of nuclear disarmament, forgotten that it had preached in favor of public ownership of the means of production and exchange, embraced the European community and purged from within the unrepresentative labor bosses. Its motto "It's Time for a Change" seemed to appeal to most Britons; not a single poll showed the Conservatives winning. But once again, the desire for continuity overrode the desire for change, John Major was returned to power.

Yet as early as 1993, the winds of change were blowing strong. Many Conservative M.P.'s were in open rebellion over Europe. They were told to support Major's European policy or bring down the government. The warm afterglow of the Gulf War had dissipated rapidly and continuing economic problems and uncertain leadership ate away Major's popularity.

Leading Tories wanted to scuttle any deals Britain had made at Maastricht; they feared that British industry would be subject to European regulations in working conditions and labor relations. Hundreds of Tory candidates were in open rebellion over Major's fence straddling on Europe; the Euro-skeptics determined to sabotage their leader. Why should they force Britain to enter a stagnant Europe? In addition, continuing revelations in the daily newspapers about scandals involving leading Tories doomed Mr. Major.

Despite the fact that the economy was recovering and inflation was at a 30-year low, the sale of tens of thousands of public housing (at bargain prices), perhaps the greatest gift of wealth to the working class in British history, putting the country far ahead of the US and Europe in the percentage of housing units owner-occupied, and despite the highest growth rate and the lowest unemployment in Europe, Labour won a landslide victory in 1997. Tony Blair was thus able to inherit an economy free from the dreaded "British disease" (militant trade unions, over-regulation, vacillating government policies and a foolish disdain toward enterpreneurship).

The election took place only two years after Labour had rid itself of the clause in its constitution that called for the "common ownership of production, distribution and exchange." It was particularly anxious to keep the billions of dollars that had been invested annually in the UK by the US, Japan, Korea and others during the 16 years of Conservative rule. The new brand of socialism was hardly distinguishable from that of Mrs. Thatcher but the move of Labour to the center was expedited by the popularity of its leaders.

The question of just how much should Britain integrate itself into Europe remained a thorny issue with the new government. It was now joined by a much more ancient problem: that of devolution with the British Isles, with powerful voices being raised in Scotland and Wales for more self-government, and the seemingly insoluble problem of Northern Ireland casting a deep shadow over the entire so-called United Kingdom.

On March 1, 1979 (St. David's Day) the people of Wales voted overwhelmingly against devolution. The reasons were many (they are discussed in full in my "Brief History of Wales" and "The Referendum of 1979." Too many feared changes in the statues quo; the work of the anti-devolutionists, led by such influential Welsh M.P.'s as Neil Kinnock (with his eyes on the Prime Minister's job) was done only too well. But in 1997 a new referendum was held in which, by a small majority, the people of Wales chose an Assembly of their own, despite heavily financed campaigns against it. This time, they had been supported by the Labour Party, led by Tony Blair.

Scotland, meanwhile, voted overwhelmingly in favor of its own Assembly. The reasons are given at length in my "Brief History of Scotland," but are also summarized below:

Though very much a minority party, and still suffering from the stigma attached to the very idea of nationalism during war years, (the Scottish National Party) SNP had begun to build its organizational skills and work on political strategy; its share of the vote steadily grew. This was also a period of intense activity in Wales by members of Plaid Cymru, the Party of Wales, and by the fervent and some say overzealous and destructive activities of the Welsh Language Society Cymdeithas yr Iaith Cymraeg. In any case, discontent in both areas of Britain led to a feverish proliferation of committees soon at work in Westminster looking at further measures of devolution for Scotland and Wales.

The government published its proposals for a devolved Scottish assembly in November 1975. It would have no revenue raising powers and sovereignty would be retained in Westminster. Though prospects for passage looked good, the wide range of competing priorities for government attention took away the time needed for the Callaghan government to devote to the issue. Labour, fearing loss of support in Scotland to the SNP, was also still deeply divided on the question and the extent of devolution. The government's program was bound to fail: the Bill was headed for defeat.

Eighteen years later, the results were reversed. On September 11, 1997, four days after the trauma of Lady Diana's funeral, the referendum resulted in the decision to give back a Parliament to Scotland by a 3-1 margin. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose Labour Party had actively campaigned for passage of the devolution bill, called the results a step in the process of "modernizing Britain." Hollywood movie star, Scotsman Sean Connery (who did not appear in "Braveheart") campaigned hard and contributed a great deal of cash to the campaign, invoking the 1370 Declaration of Arbroath, "It is not for glory, riches or honours we fight, but only for liberty, which no good man loses but with his life."

The decision gives Scotland an Assembly with tax-levying powers, unlike the much weaker "talking-shop" that the Welsh are going to be saddled with as the result of their own (barely) successful referendum. The Scots will be given the broad authority to legislate in a host of sectors, but Westminster has the right to "reserve" or "withhold" many powers (constitutional matters, foreign policy, defense, and national security, border controls, monetary and fiscal matters, common markets for goods and services, employment law, and social security).

For the people of Wales and Scotland (and no less, the people of England), the decision to approve the Labour Government's plans for separate assemblies, may prove to be one of the most important ones in their long histories. In the councils of Europe, three voices will be heard instead of one: three equal voices, sharing a unique British heritage, but each proud of its own distinctiveness as cultural and political units. Westminster must have breathed a sigh of relief that the problems of devolution for Wales and Scotland were settled so amicably. Would the Irish question follow the same road? The problem of Europe remained for Tony Blair; in addition, there was the age-old question of what to do about the House of Lords.

In many ways, the Upper Chamber had become an anachronism. The very idea of non-elected, hereditary legislators seemed ridiculous in a country that prided itself on its democratic institutions. The old arguments about the need for a second chamber to act as a brake on any impetuousness showed by the government of the day had long since disappeared. Time and time again the Lords had obstructed legislation that would have surely benefited the nation. Their defense of ancient privilege had often blinded them to the realities of British political life since the time of Oliver Cromwell. Their record on Ireland was appalling, with their obstruction of Home Rule Bills, but it could be matched by many other areas in which they had excelled in their obstinacy.

Leaving aside century after century of attacks on the privileges (and power) enjoyed by the Lords, it was the budget of Lloyd George in 1909 that really stirred up the pot. The landed aristocracy saw his attempts to tax the rich as the beginning of the end of all rights of property. When the Lords rejected his bill, Lloyd George threatened to swamp them with five hundred new peers. Yet all attempts at reform eventually died down lacking a concerted opinion as to what kind of second chamber the country should support. The Parliament Bill of 1911 was thus a weak compromise: all the hereditary peers and bishops would stay in the House, but their powers of delay would be reduced to two years: it continued to remain a powerful revising chamber.

The advent of the First World War postponed the move to exclude hereditary peers from the Upper House. A conference held in 1917, however, faced the old difficulty of "the paralysing perplexity of so many alternatives." The Commons also feared that an elected upper chamber would offer a serious challenge to its own powers. In 1922, Lloyd George became notorious for selling lordships to the highest bidder; and the old aristocracy found itself rapidly outnumbered by the new captains of industry and leading financiers on the benches of the chamber. The newcomers proved just as anxious to preserve their newly-gained privileges as their hereditary colleagues.

Another crisis occurred in 1960 when Antony Edgwood Benn, a promising and ambitious Labour M.P. was duly elevated to the peerage upon the death of his father (who had been appointed as a Labour peer only twenty years before). As a peer, the younger Benn was refused admission to the Hose of Commons when he came to take his usual seat. A private bill, to allow him to resign his peerage, was defeated. It took four years of contentious debate to settle the matter, but it was evident that the House of Lords needed some drastic changes. The days of complacency were over.

In 1967, the Labour Party announced its plans to reduce the powers of the Lords and to eliminate its hereditary basis. Once again, however, it was willing to compromise in the uncertainly of what was to replace the second chamber. Many Labour M.P.'s wished to abolish the Upper House altogether, but a compromise was reached: only minor changes were effected. In the late 1990's, the government of Tony Blair and is centrist Labour Party, is still grappling with the problem of the Lords, a problem that perhaps exemplifies the struggle of Britain to adjust itself to the modern world.

There is nothing in the nation's proud past that would prevent a satisfactory solution to the problem of the privileges enjoyed by the House of Lords. While England my no longer Rule the waves, it is perfectly capable of putting its own house in order, as Wales and Scotland have shown. The past two thousand years have shown a resilient people, proud and independent; a people who will continue to give so much to the world, in art, literature, politics, science and technology, exploration, social welfare and sport; but above all, in the difficult art of compromise.