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In 1903 Chamberlain had taken up the cause of protection, thereby disturbing an already uneasy balance within Balfour’s cabinet. He failed to win large-scale middle- or working-class support outside Parliament, as he had hoped, and the main effect of his propaganda was to draw rival groups of Liberals together. 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In 1903 Chamberlain had taken up the cause of protection, thereby disturbing an already uneasy balance within Balfour’s cabinet. He failed to win large-scale middle- or working-class support outside Parliament, as he had hoped, and the main effect of his propaganda was to draw rival groups of Liberals together. 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data-icon="toc"></em> <a class="font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue" href="https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom">United Kingdom</a> </div> <button aria-label="Close" class="js-sections-close-button btn-link btn-sm btn d-lg-none position-absolute top-0 p-10 right-0" > <em class="material-icons font-26" data-icon="close"></em> </button> </div> <div class="section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 clear-catfish-ad"> <div class="toc mb-20"> <div class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <ul class="list-unstyled my-0" data-level="h1"><li data-target="#ref1"><div class="pl-25"><a class="link-gray-900 w-100" href="/place/United-Kingdom">Introduction & Quick Facts</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref44671"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom#ref44671">Land</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44672"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom#ref44672">Relief</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44673"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-highland-zone">The highland zone</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44674"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-lowland-zone">The lowland zone</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44675"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-lowland-zone#ref44675">Drainage</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44676"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-lowland-zone#ref44676">Soils</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44677"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-lowland-zone#ref44677">Climate</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44678"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Plant-and-animal-life">Plant and animal life</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref44682"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Plant-and-animal-life#ref44682">People</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44683"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Plant-and-animal-life#ref44683">Ethnic groups</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44684"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Plant-and-animal-life#ref44684">Languages</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44685"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Religion">Religion</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref225229"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Religion#ref225229">Settlement patterns</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref225230"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Religion#ref225230">Rural settlement</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref225231"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Urban-settlement">Urban settlement</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44686"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Urban-settlement#ref44686">Demographic trends</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44687"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Urban-settlement#ref44687">Population growth</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44688"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Urban-settlement#ref44688">Migration patterns</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref44689"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Economy">Economy</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44691"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Economy#ref44691">Agriculture, forestry, and fishing</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44692"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Economy#ref44692">Agriculture</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44693"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Economy#ref44693">Forestry</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44694"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Economy#ref44694">Fishing</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44690"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Economy#ref44690">Resources and power</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref225232"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Economy#ref225232">Minerals</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref225233"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Economy#ref225233">Energy</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44695"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Economy#ref44695">Manufacturing</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44699"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Economy#ref44699">Finance</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44700"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Trade">Trade</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref215040"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Trade#ref215040">Services</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref225234"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Trade#ref225234">Labour and taxation</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44701"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Trade#ref44701">Transportation and telecommunications</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref44702"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Trade#ref44702">Government and society</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref225235"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Trade#ref225235">Constitutional framework</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref215041"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Trade#ref215041">Regional government</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44705"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Local-government">Local government</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44709"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Local-government#ref44709">Justice</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44706"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Local-government#ref44706">Political process</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44710"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Local-government#ref44710">Security</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44716"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Health-and-welfare">Health and welfare</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44717"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Health-and-welfare#ref44717">The National Health Service</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44718"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Health-and-welfare#ref44718">Cash benefits</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44719"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Health-and-welfare#ref44719">Housing</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44712"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Health-and-welfare#ref44712">Education</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44713"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Health-and-welfare#ref44713">Primary and secondary education</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44714"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Health-and-welfare#ref44714">Private schools</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44715"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Higher-education">Higher education</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref44720"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Higher-education#ref44720">Cultural life</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref225236"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Higher-education#ref225236">Daily life and social customs</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref225237"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Higher-education#ref225237">The arts</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref225238"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Higher-education#ref225238">Cultural institutions</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref215039"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Sports-and-recreation">Sports and recreation</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44722"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Sports-and-recreation#ref44722">Media and publishing</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44723"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Sports-and-recreation#ref44723">Newspapers</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44724"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Sports-and-recreation#ref44724">Broadcasting</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref214519"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Sports-and-recreation#ref214519">History</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44730"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Ancient-Britain">Ancient Britain</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44731" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Ancient-Britain#ref44731">Pre-Roman Britain</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44732"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Ancient-Britain#ref44732">Neolithic Period</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44733"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Ancient-Britain#ref44733">Bronze Age</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44734"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Ancient-Britain#ref44734">Iron Age</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44735" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Roman-Britain">Roman Britain</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44736"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Roman-Britain#ref44736">The conquest</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44737"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Roman-Britain#ref44737">Condition of the province</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref44738"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Roman-Britain#ref44738">Army and frontier</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref44739"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Roman-Britain#ref44739">Administration</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44740"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Roman-society">Roman society</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref44741"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Roman-society#ref44741">Economy</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref44742"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Roman-society#ref44742">Towns</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref44743"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Roman-society#ref44743">Villas</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref44744"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Roman-society#ref44744">Religion and culture</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44745"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Roman-society#ref44745">The decline of Roman rule</a></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44746"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Anglo-Saxon-England">Anglo-Saxon England</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44747" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Anglo-Saxon-England#ref44747">The invaders and their early settlements</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44748"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Anglo-Saxon-England#ref44748">The social system</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44749"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Anglo-Saxon-England#ref44749">The conversion to Christianity</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44750"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Anglo-Saxon-England#ref44750">The golden age of Bede</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44751" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-heptarchy">The heptarchy</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44752"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-heptarchy#ref44752">The supremacy of Northumbria and the rise of Mercia</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44753"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-heptarchy#ref44753">The great age of Mercia</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44754"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-heptarchy#ref44754">The church and scholarship in Offa’s time</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44755"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-heptarchy#ref44755">The decline of Mercia and the rise of Wessex</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44756" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-period-of-the-Scandinavian-invasions">The period of the Scandinavian invasions</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44757"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-period-of-the-Scandinavian-invasions#ref44757">Viking invasions and settlements</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44758"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-period-of-the-Scandinavian-invasions#ref44758">Alfred’s government and his revival of learning</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44759" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-period-of-the-Scandinavian-invasions#ref44759">The achievement of political unity</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44760"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-period-of-the-Scandinavian-invasions#ref44760">The reconquest of the Danelaw</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44761"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-period-of-the-Scandinavian-invasions#ref44761">The kingdom of England</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44762"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-church-and-the-monastic-revival">The church and the monastic revival</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44763" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-church-and-the-monastic-revival#ref44763">The Anglo-Danish state</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44764"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-church-and-the-monastic-revival#ref44764">The Danish conquest and the reigns of the Danish kings</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44765"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-church-and-the-monastic-revival#ref44765">The reign of Edward the Confessor and the Norman Conquest</a></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44766"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Normans-1066-1154">The Normans (1066–1154)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44767" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Normans-1066-1154#ref44767">William I (1066–87)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44768"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Normans-1066-1154#ref44768">Resistance and rebellion</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44769"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Normans-1066-1154#ref44769">The introduction of feudalism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44770"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Normans-1066-1154#ref44770">Government and justice</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44771"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Normans-1066-1154#ref44771">Church–state relations</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44772"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Normans-1066-1154#ref44772">William’s accomplishments</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44773" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-sons-of-William-I">The sons of William I</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44774"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-sons-of-William-I#ref44774">William II Rufus (1087–1100)</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44775"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-sons-of-William-I#ref44775">Henry I (1100–35)</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44776" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-sons-of-William-I#ref44776">The period of anarchy (1135–54)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44777"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-sons-of-William-I#ref44777">Matilda and Stephen</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44778"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-sons-of-William-I#ref44778">Civil war</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44779"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-sons-of-William-I#ref44779">England in the Norman period</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44780"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-early-Plantagenets">The early Plantagenets</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44781" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-early-Plantagenets#ref44781">Henry II (1154–89)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44782"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-early-Plantagenets#ref44782">Government of England</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44783"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-early-Plantagenets#ref44783">Struggle with Thomas Becket</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44784"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-early-Plantagenets#ref44784">Rebellion of Henry’s sons and Eleanor of Aquitaine</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44785"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-early-Plantagenets#ref44785">Richard I (1189–99)</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44786" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/John-1199-1216">John (1199–1216)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44787"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/John-1199-1216#ref44787">Loss of French possessions</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44788"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/John-1199-1216#ref44788">Struggle with the papacy</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44789"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/John-1199-1216#ref44789">Revolt of the barons and Magna Carta</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44790"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/John-1199-1216#ref44790">Economy and society</a></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44791"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/John-1199-1216#ref44791">The 13th century</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44792" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Henry-III-1216-72">Henry III (1216–72)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44793"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Henry-III-1216-72#ref44793">Minority</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44794"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Henry-III-1216-72#ref44794">Early reign</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44795"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Henry-III-1216-72#ref44795">The county communities</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44796"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Henry-III-1216-72#ref44796">Simon de Montfort and the Barons’ War</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44797"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Henry-III-1216-72#ref44797">Later reign</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44798" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Edward-I-1272-1307">Edward I (1272–1307)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44799"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Edward-I-1272-1307#ref44799">Law and government</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44800"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Edward-I-1272-1307#ref44800">Finance</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44801"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Edward-I-1272-1307#ref44801">The growth of Parliament</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44802"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Edward-I-1272-1307#ref44802">Edward’s wars</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44803"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Edward-I-1272-1307#ref44803">Domestic difficulties</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44804"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Social-economic-and-cultural-change">Social, economic, and cultural change</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44805"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Social-economic-and-cultural-change#ref44805">The 14th century</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44806"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Social-economic-and-cultural-change#ref44806">Edward II (1307–27)</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44807" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Edward-III-1327-77">Edward III (1327–77)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44808"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Edward-III-1327-77#ref44808">The Hundred Years’ War to 1360</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44809"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Edward-III-1327-77#ref44809">Domestic achievements</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44810"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Edward-III-1327-77#ref44810">Law and order</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44811"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Edward-III-1327-77#ref44811">The crises of Edward’s later years</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44812" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Richard-II-1377-99">Richard II (1377–99)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44813"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Richard-II-1377-99#ref44813">The Peasants’ Revolt (1381)</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44814"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Richard-II-1377-99#ref44814">John Wycliffe</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44815"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Richard-II-1377-99#ref44815">Political struggles and Richard’s deposition</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44816"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Richard-II-1377-99#ref44816">Economic crisis and cultural change</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44817"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Lancaster-and-York">Lancaster and York</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44818" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Lancaster-and-York#ref44818">Henry IV (1399–1413)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44819"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Lancaster-and-York#ref44819">The rebellions</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44820"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Lancaster-and-York#ref44820">Henry and Parliament</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44821" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Lancaster-and-York#ref44821">Henry V (1413–22)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44822"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Lancaster-and-York#ref44822">The French war</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44823"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Lancaster-and-York#ref44823">Domestic affairs</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44824" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Lancaster-and-York#ref44824">Henry VI (1422–61 and 1470–71)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44825"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Lancaster-and-York#ref44825">Domestic rivalries and the loss of France</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44826"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Lancaster-and-York#ref44826">Cade’s rebellion</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44827"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-beginning-of-the-Wars-of-the-Roses">The beginning of the Wars of the Roses</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44828"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-beginning-of-the-Wars-of-the-Roses#ref44828">Edward IV (1461–70 and 1471–83)</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44829"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-beginning-of-the-Wars-of-the-Roses#ref44829">Richard III (1483–85)</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44830"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/England-in-the-15th-century">England in the 15th century</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44831"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/England-in-the-15th-century#ref44831">England under the Tudors</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44832" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/England-in-the-15th-century#ref44832">Henry VII (1485–1509)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44833"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/England-in-the-15th-century#ref44833">Economy and society</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44834"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Dynastic-threats">Dynastic threats</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44835"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Dynastic-threats#ref44835">Financial policy</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44836"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Dynastic-threats#ref44836">The administration of justice</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44837" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Henry-VIII-1509-47">Henry VIII (1509–47)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44838"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Henry-VIII-1509-47#ref44838">Cardinal Wolsey</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44839"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Henry-VIII-1509-47#ref44839">The king’s “Great Matter”</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44840"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Henry-VIII-1509-47#ref44840">The Reformation background</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44841"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-break-with-Rome">The break with Rome</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44842"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-break-with-Rome#ref44842">The consolidation of the Reformation</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref275884"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-break-with-Rome#ref275884">The expansion of the English state</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44843"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-break-with-Rome#ref44843">Henry’s last years</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44844"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Edward-VI-1547-53">Edward VI (1547–53)</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44845"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Edward-VI-1547-53#ref44845">Mary I (1553–58)</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44846" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Edward-VI-1547-53#ref44846">Elizabeth I (1558–1603)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44847"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Edward-VI-1547-53#ref44847">The Tudor ideal of government</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44848"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Elizabethan-society">Elizabethan society</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44849"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Elizabethan-society#ref44849">Mary, Queen of Scots</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44850"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-clash-with-Spain">The clash with Spain</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44851"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-clash-with-Spain#ref44851">Internal discontent</a></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44852"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-early-Stuarts-and-the-Commonwealth">The early Stuarts and the Commonwealth</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44853" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-early-Stuarts-and-the-Commonwealth#ref44853">England in 1603</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44854"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-early-Stuarts-and-the-Commonwealth#ref44854">Economy and society</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44855"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-early-Stuarts-and-the-Commonwealth#ref44855">Government and society</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44856" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/James-I-1603-25">James I (1603–25)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref275885"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/James-I-1603-25#ref275885">Triple monarchy</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44857"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/James-I-1603-25#ref44857">Religious policy</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44858"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/James-I-1603-25#ref44858">Finance and politics</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44859"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/James-I-1603-25#ref44859">Factions and favourites</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44860" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Charles-I-1625-49">Charles I (1625–49)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44861"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Charles-I-1625-49#ref44861">The politics of war</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44862"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Charles-I-1625-49#ref44862">Peace and reform</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44863"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Charles-I-1625-49#ref44863">Religious reform</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44864"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Long-Parliament">The Long Parliament</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44865"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Long-Parliament#ref44865">Civil war and revolution</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44866"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Commonwealth-and-Protectorate">Commonwealth and Protectorate</a></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44867"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-later-Stuarts">The later Stuarts</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44868" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-later-Stuarts#ref44868">Charles II (1660–85)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44869"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-later-Stuarts#ref44869">The Restoration</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44870"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-later-Stuarts#ref44870">War and government</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44871"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-later-Stuarts#ref44871">The Popish Plot</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44872"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-later-Stuarts#ref44872">The exclusion crisis and the Tory reaction</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44873" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-later-Stuarts#ref44873">James II (1685–88)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44874"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-later-Stuarts#ref44874">Church and king</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44875"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Revolution-of-1688">The Revolution of 1688</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44876" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Revolution-of-1688#ref44876">William III (1689–1702) and Mary II (1689–94)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44877"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Revolution-of-1688#ref44877">The revolution settlement</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref275886"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Revolution-of-1688#ref275886">A new society</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44878"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Revolution-of-1688#ref44878">The sinews of war</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44879" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Anne-1702-14">Anne (1702–14)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44880"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Anne-1702-14#ref44880">Whigs and Tories</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44881"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Anne-1702-14#ref44881">Tories and Jacobites</a></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44882"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/18th-century-Britain-1714-1815">18th-century Britain, 1714–1815</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44883"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/18th-century-Britain-1714-1815#ref44883">The state of Britain in 1714</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44884" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/18th-century-Britain-1714-1815#ref44884">Britain from 1715 to 1742</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44885"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/18th-century-Britain-1714-1815#ref44885">The supremacy of the Whigs</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44886"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/18th-century-Britain-1714-1815#ref44886">Robert Walpole</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref44887"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/18th-century-Britain-1714-1815#ref44887">George II and Walpole</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref44888"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/18th-century-Britain-1714-1815#ref44888">Foreign policy</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref44889"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/18th-century-Britain-1714-1815#ref44889">Religious policy</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref44890"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/18th-century-Britain-1714-1815#ref44890">Economic policies</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44891"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/18th-century-Britain-1714-1815#ref44891">The electoral system</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44892"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Walpoles-loss-of-power">Walpole’s loss of power</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44893" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Walpoles-loss-of-power#ref44893">Britain from 1742 to 1754</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44894"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Walpoles-loss-of-power#ref44894">The Jacobite rebellion</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44895"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Walpoles-loss-of-power#ref44895">The rule of the Pelhams</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44896"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Walpoles-loss-of-power#ref44896">Domestic reforms</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44897" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/British-society-by-the-mid-18th-century">British society by the mid-18th century</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44898"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/British-society-by-the-mid-18th-century#ref44898">Joseph Massie’s categories</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44899"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/British-society-by-the-mid-18th-century#ref44899">Urban development</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44900"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/British-society-by-the-mid-18th-century#ref44900">Change and continuity</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44901"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/British-society-by-the-mid-18th-century#ref44901">The revolution in communications</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44902" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-from-1754-to-1783">Britain from 1754 to 1783</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44903"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-from-1754-to-1783#ref44903">Conflict abroad</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44904"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-from-1754-to-1783#ref44904">Political instability in Britain</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44905"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-from-1754-to-1783#ref44905">The American Revolution</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44906"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-from-1754-to-1783#ref44906">Domestic responses to the American Revolution</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44907" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-from-1754-to-1783#ref44907">Britain from 1783 to 1815</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44908"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/William-Pitt-the-Younger">William Pitt the Younger</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44909"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/William-Pitt-the-Younger#ref44909">Economic growth and prosperity</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44910"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/William-Pitt-the-Younger#ref44910">The Industrial Revolution</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44911"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/William-Pitt-the-Younger#ref44911">Britain during the French Revolution</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44912"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Napoleonic-Wars">The Napoleonic Wars</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44913"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Napoleonic-Wars#ref44913">Imperial expansion</a></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44914"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Napoleonic-Wars#ref44914">Great Britain, 1815–1914</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44915" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Napoleonic-Wars#ref44915">Britain after the Napoleonic Wars</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref274567"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Napoleonic-Wars#ref274567">State and society</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref274568"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Napoleonic-Wars#ref274568">The political situation</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref44919" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Early-and-mid-Victorian-Britain">Early and mid-Victorian Britain</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref274569"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Early-and-mid-Victorian-Britain#ref274569">State and society</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref274570"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Early-and-mid-Victorian-Britain#ref274570">The political situation</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274571"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Early-and-mid-Victorian-Britain#ref274571">Whig reforms</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274572"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Early-and-mid-Victorian-Britain#ref274572">Chartism and the Anti-Corn Law League</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274573"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Early-and-mid-Victorian-Britain#ref274573">Peel and the Peelite heritage</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274574"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Early-and-mid-Victorian-Britain#ref274574">Palmerston</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274575"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Gladstone-and-Disraeli">Gladstone and Disraeli</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44926"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Gladstone-and-Disraeli#ref44926">Economy and society</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref44928"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Cultural-change">Cultural change</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274576"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Cultural-change#ref274576">The development of private life</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274577"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Cultural-change#ref274577">Religion</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274578"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Cultural-change#ref274578">Leisure</a></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref274579" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Late-Victorian-Britain">Late Victorian Britain</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref274580"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Late-Victorian-Britain#ref274580">State and society</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref274581"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Late-Victorian-Britain#ref274581">The political situation</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274582"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Late-Victorian-Britain#ref274582">Gladstone and Chamberlain</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274583"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Late-Victorian-Britain#ref274583">The Irish question</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274584"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Late-Victorian-Britain#ref274584">Split of the Liberal Party</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274585"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Late-Victorian-Britain#ref274585">Imperialism and British politics</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274586"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-return-of-the-Liberals">The return of the Liberals</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274587"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-return-of-the-Liberals#ref274587">The international crisis</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref274588"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-return-of-the-Liberals#ref274588">Economy and society</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref274589"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-return-of-the-Liberals#ref274589">Family and gender</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref274590"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-return-of-the-Liberals#ref274590">Mass culture</a></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref44948"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-from-1914-to-the-present">Britain from 1914 to the present</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref274520" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-from-1914-to-the-present#ref274520">The political situation</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref274521"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-from-1914-to-the-present#ref274521">World War I</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274522"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-from-1914-to-the-present#ref274522">The Asquith coalition</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274523"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-from-1914-to-the-present#ref274523">Lloyd George</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref274524"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-from-1914-to-the-present#ref274524">Between the wars</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274525"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-from-1914-to-the-present#ref274525">The election of 1918</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274526"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-from-1914-to-the-present#ref274526">Harsh peace and hard times</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274527"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-from-1914-to-the-present#ref274527">Ireland and the return of the Conservatives</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274528"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-from-1914-to-the-present#ref274528">The Baldwin era</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274529"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Baldwin-and-the-abdication-crisis">Baldwin and the abdication crisis</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274530"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Baldwin-and-the-abdication-crisis#ref274530">Foreign policy and appeasement</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref274531"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Baldwin-and-the-abdication-crisis#ref274531">World War II</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274532"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Baldwin-and-the-abdication-crisis#ref274532">The phases of war</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274533"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Baldwin-and-the-abdication-crisis#ref274533">Political developments</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li data-target="#ref274534"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-since-1945">Britain since 1945</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274535"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-since-1945#ref274535">Labour and the welfare state (1945–51)</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274536"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-since-1945#ref274536">Economic crisis and relief (1947)</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274537"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-since-1945#ref274537">Withdrawal from the empire</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274538"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-since-1945#ref274538">Conservative government (1951–64)</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274539"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-since-1945#ref274539">Labour interlude (1964–70)</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274540"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-since-1945#ref274540">The return of the Conservatives (1970–74)</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274541"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-since-1945#ref274541">Labour back in power (1974–79)</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274542"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Margaret-Thatcher-government-1979-90">The Margaret Thatcher government (1979–90)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342384"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Margaret-Thatcher-government-1979-90#ref342384">The Falkland Islands War, the 1983 election, and privatization</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342385"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Margaret-Thatcher-government-1979-90#ref342385">Racial discrimination and the 1981 England riots</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342386"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Margaret-Thatcher-government-1979-90#ref342386">The 2001 England riots</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342387"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Margaret-Thatcher-government-1979-90#ref342387">The “Troubles” in Northern Ireland</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342388"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Margaret-Thatcher-government-1979-90#ref342388">“Thatcherism”</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274543"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Margaret-Thatcher-government-1979-90#ref274543">The government of John Major (1990–97)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342389"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Margaret-Thatcher-government-1979-90#ref342389">“Black Wednesday,” epidemic scandals, and Major’s “Citizens Charter”</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342390"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Margaret-Thatcher-government-1979-90#ref342390">“Mad cow disease”</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref342391"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Tony-Blair-government-1997-2007">The Tony Blair government (1997–2007)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342392"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Tony-Blair-government-1997-2007#ref342392">The struggle for control of Labour</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342393"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Tony-Blair-government-1997-2007#ref342393">New Labour, the repeal of Clause IV, and the “third way”</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342394"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Tony-Blair-government-1997-2007#ref342394">Navigating the European monetary system and the EU Social Chapter</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342395"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Tony-Blair-government-1997-2007#ref342395">The Good Friday Agreement</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342396"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Tony-Blair-government-1997-2007#ref342396">London’s local government, House of Lords reform, and devolution for Scotland and Wales</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342397"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Tony-Blair-government-1997-2007#ref342397">The royal family’s “annus horribilis,” the death of Princess Diana, and the Millennium Dome</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342398"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Tony-Blair-government-1997-2007#ref342398">The battle for the soul of the Conservative Party</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342399"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Tony-Blair-government-1997-2007#ref342399">Response to the September 11 attacks</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342400"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Tony-Blair-government-1997-2007#ref342400">Weapons of mass destruction and the Iraq War</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref274544"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Tony-Blair-government-1997-2007#ref274544">The Gordon Brown government (2007–10)</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref332804"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Conservative-Liberal-Democrat-coalition-rule-2010-15">Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition rule (2010–15)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342401"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Conservative-Liberal-Democrat-coalition-rule-2010-15#ref342401">The U.K. general election of 2010</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342402"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Conservative-Liberal-Democrat-coalition-rule-2010-15#ref342402">First-past-the-post referendum</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342403"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Conservative-Liberal-Democrat-coalition-rule-2010-15#ref342403">Intervention in Libya</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342404"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Conservative-Liberal-Democrat-coalition-rule-2010-15#ref342404"><em>News of the World</em> hacking scandal</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342405"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Conservative-Liberal-Democrat-coalition-rule-2010-15#ref342405">The 2011 riots, the European sovereign debt crisis, and Cameron’s veto of changes to the Lisbon Treaty</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342406"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Conservative-Liberal-Democrat-coalition-rule-2010-15#ref342406">The 2012 London Olympics, Julian Assange’s embassy refuge, and the emergence of UKIP</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342407"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Conservative-Liberal-Democrat-coalition-rule-2010-15#ref342407">The birth of George, rejection of intervention in Syria, and regulation of GCHQ</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342408"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Conservative-Liberal-Democrat-coalition-rule-2010-15#ref342408">Euroskepticism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342409"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Conservative-Liberal-Democrat-coalition-rule-2010-15#ref342409">Scottish independence referendum</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342410"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Conservative-Liberal-Democrat-coalition-rule-2010-15#ref342410">Economic recovery</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref332805"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Conservative-Liberal-Democrat-coalition-rule-2010-15#ref332805">David Cameron on his own (2015–16)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342411"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Conservative-Liberal-Democrat-coalition-rule-2010-15#ref342411">The U.K. general election of 2015</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342412"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum">The “Brexit” referendum</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref337649"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref337649">The premiership of Theresa May (2016–19)</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342413"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref342413">The resignation of Cameron, the rise of May, and a challenge to Corbyn’s leadership of Labour</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342414"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref342414">Triggering Article 50</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342415"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref342415">The Manchester arena bombing and London bridge attacks</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342416"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref342416">The snap election campaign</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342417"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref342417">The 2017 U.K. general election</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342418"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref342418">The Grenfell Tower fire, a novichok attack in Salisbury, and air strikes on Syria</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342419"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref342419">The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Chequers plan, and Boris Johnson’s resignation</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342420"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref342420">EU agreement and Parliamentary opposition to May’s Brexit plan</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342421"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref342421">Objections to the Irish backstop and a challenge to May’s leadership</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342422"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref342422">Parliamentary rejection of May’s plan, May’s survival of a confidence vote, and the Independent Group of breakaway MPs</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342423"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref342423">Parliament rejects May’s plan again</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref342486"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref342486">“Indicative votes,” May’s pledge to resign, a third defeat for her plan, and a new deadline</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref350369"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref350369">The Boris Johnson government</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref344342"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref344342">Boris Johnson’s ascent, the December 2019 snap election, and Brexit</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref347309"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref347309">The coronavirus pandemic</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref350370"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref350370">“Partygate”</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref351071"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref351071">Further scandal and Johnson’s resignation</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref351684"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref351684">The premiership of Liz Truss</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref352183"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref352183">Ascent to office</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref352184"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref352184">The death of Elizabeth II</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h6"><li data-target="#ref352772"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref352772">Abrupt resignation</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h5"><li data-target="#ref352803"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/The-Brexit-referendum#ref352803">The premiership of Rishi Sunak</a></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref274545" class="has-children"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/United-Kingdom/Society-state-and-economy">Society, state, and economy</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h4"><li 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Author of <i>Ben Donn's Map of Devon, 1765; </i>coauthor of <i>South-West England.</i></div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> William Ravenhill</span>, <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor" href="/contributor/Paul-R-Josephson/4526" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">Paul R. Josephson</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 clamp-description text-black">Visiting Associate Professor of History, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts. Visiting Fellow, Davis Center for Russian Studies, Harvard University. Author of <i>New Atlantis Revisited: Akademgorodok,...</i></div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> Paul R. Josephson</span><span class="text-gray-700 mx-5">•</span><a class="see-all border-gray-700 gtm-byline" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom/additional-info#contributors">All</a> </div> <div class="font-serif font-12 text-gray-700"> <span class="qa-fact-checked-by">Fact-checked by</span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 font-12" href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 text-black">Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2024-11-25T00:00:00CST" >Nov 25, 2024</time> •</span> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 ai-ask-button btn border-2 module-spacing btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <div class="bg-gray-50 p-15 rounded module-spacing recent-news d-flex flex-column float-false"> <div> <h2 class="font-weight-bold font-14 m-0 d-inline"> News <span class="text-gray-600">•</span> </h2> <div class="recent-news-item first-recent-news-item d-inline"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="/news/615557/0b4733c43d9628fd925d058799463b15" rel="nofollow">Germany's Merkel recalls Putin's 'power games' and contrasting US presidents in her memoirs</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Nov. 25, 2024, 6:02 PM ET (AP) <button class="btn btn-link d-inline p-0 font-12 js-toggle-recent-news"> <span class="text-gray-500">...</span><span>(Show more)</span> </button> </span> </div> </div> <div class="rest-of-recent-news-items"> <div class="recent-news-item mt-5"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="/news/615557/f955134de835d1ff591c6be29325e656" rel="nofollow">Britain on alert after 2nd major storm of the season batters country, leaving at least 2 dead</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Nov. 25, 2024, 2:46 PM ET (AP) </span> </div> <div class="recent-news-item mt-5"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="/news/615557/fd81bf5b67aa438d0da37aa9078d5bdb" rel="nofollow">Britain targets Russia's 'shadow fleet' with new sanctions package</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Nov. 25, 2024, 9:30 AM ET (AP) </span> </div> <div class="recent-news-item mt-5"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="/news/615557/c734d3cf9cc04171a2ebc9f8a8509e83" rel="nofollow">Barbara Taylor Bradford, million-selling novelist known for 'A Woman of Substance,' has died at 91</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Nov. 25, 2024, 6:40 AM ET (AP) </span> </div> <div class="recent-news-item mt-5"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="/news/615557/e7fd8790cd151ff3b73a5edcc5e00bf5" rel="nofollow">Russia captures UK national fighting alongside Ukraine in the Kursk region, report says</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Nov. 25, 2024, 4:20 AM ET (AP) </span> </div> <button class="js-toggle-recent-news d-flex btn btn-unstyled font-14 pr-10 rounded-sm mt-10" aria-label="Toggle additional news items"> Show less <em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_less"></em> </button> </div> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="2"><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="3"><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="4"><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="5" id="ref274586">  <span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="96556" data-asm-type="image"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media " data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/64/76264-050-424A4D2C/HH-Asquith.jpg" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media" data-href="/media/1/615557/96556"><picture><source media="(min-width: 680px)" srcset="https://cdn.britannica.com/64/76264-050-424A4D2C/HH-Asquith.jpg?w=300"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/64/76264-050-424A4D2C/HH-Asquith.jpg?w=300" alt="H.H. Asquith" data-width="1090" data-height="1600" loading="eager"></picture><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/64/76264-050-424A4D2C/HH-Asquith.jpg" data-href="/media/1/615557/96556">H.H. Asquith</a><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph">The Liberals returned to power in December 1905 after Balfour had resigned. Between the end of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/South-African-War" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">South African War</a> and this date, they had become more united as the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="Conservatives" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Conservatives" data-type="MW">Conservatives</a> had disintegrated. In 1903 <span id="ref483584"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Chamberlain" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Chamberlain</a> had taken up the cause of protection, thereby disturbing an already uneasy balance within Balfour’s cabinet. He failed to win large-scale middle- or working-class support outside <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Parliament" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Parliament</a>, as he had hoped, and the main effect of his <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="propaganda" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propaganda" data-type="MW">propaganda</a> was to draw rival groups of Liberals together. In the general election of 1906, the Liberals, led by <span id="ref483585"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Campbell-Bannerman" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman</a>, a cautious Scot who had stayed clear of the extreme factions during the South African War, won 377 seats, giving them an enormous majority of 84 over all other parties combined. The new cabinet included radicals and Liberal imperialists, and when Campbell-Bannerman retired in 1908, <span id="ref483586"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/H-H-Asquith-1st-earl-of-Oxford-and-Asquith" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">H.H. Asquith</a> moved from the Home Office to the premiership.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="30774" data-asm-type="image"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media " data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/19/10219-050-EC395232/David-Lloyd-George-1908.jpg" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media" data-href="/media/1/615557/30774"><picture><source media="(min-width: 680px)" srcset="https://cdn.britannica.com/19/10219-050-EC395232/David-Lloyd-George-1908.jpg?w=300"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/19/10219-050-EC395232/David-Lloyd-George-1908.jpg?w=300" alt="David Lloyd George" data-width="959" data-height="1285" loading="eager"></picture><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/19/10219-050-EC395232/David-Lloyd-George-1908.jpg" data-href="/media/1/615557/30774">David Lloyd George</a><span>David Lloyd George, 1908.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph">Social reform had not been the chief cry at the general election, which was fought mainly on the old issues of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/free-trade" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">free trade</a>, temperance reform, and education. In many <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="constituencies" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/constituencies" data-type="MW">constituencies</a> there was evidence of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nonconformist" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Nonconformist</a> grievances against the Balfour-engineered <span id="ref483587"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Education-Act-United-Kingdom-1902" class="md-crosslink ">education act</a> of 1902 that had abolished the school boards, transferred educational responsibilities to the all-purpose local authorities, and laid the foundations of a national system of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/secondary-education" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">secondary education</a>. Yet local and national inquiries, official and unofficial, into the incidence of poverty had pointed to the need for public action to relieve distress, and from the start the <span id="ref483590"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Peoples-Budget" class="md-crosslink ">budget of 1909</a>, fashioned by Lloyd George, as chancellor of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/Exchequer" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Exchequer</a>, set out deliberately to raise money to “wage <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="implacable" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/implacable" data-type="MW">implacable</a> warfare against poverty and squalidness.” The money was to come in part from a supertax on high incomes and from capital gains on land sales. The budget so enraged <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="Conservative" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Conservative" data-type="MW">Conservative</a> opinion, inside and outside Parliament, that the <span id="ref483591"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/House-of-Lords" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Lords</a>, already hostile to the trend of Liberal legislation, rejected it, thereby turning a political debate into a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="constitutional" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/constitutional" data-type="MW">constitutional</a> one concerning the powers of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/House-of-Lords" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">House of Lords</a>. Passions were as strong as they had been in 1831, yet, in the ensuing general election of January 1910, the Liberal majority was greatly reduced, and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/balance-of-power" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">balance of power</a> in Parliament was now held by Labour and Irish nationalist members. The death of King <span id="ref483573"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-VII" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Edward VII</a> in May 1910 and the succession of the politically inexperienced <span id="ref483592"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-V-king-of-United-Kingdom" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">George V</a> added to the confusion, and it proved impossible to reach an agreement between the parties on the outlines of a Parliament bill to define or curb the powers of the House of Lords. After a Liberal Parliament bill had been defeated, a second general election in December 1910 produced political results similar to those earlier in the year, and it was not until August 1911 that the peers eventually passed the <span id="ref483593"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Parliament-Act-of-1911" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Parliament Act of 1911</a> by 131 votes to 114. The act provided that finance-related bills could become law without the assent of the Lords and that other bills would also become law if they passed in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/House-of-Commons-British-government" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Commons</a> but failed in the Lords three times within two years. The act was finally passed only after the Conservative leadership had <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="repudiated" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/repudiated" data-type="MW">repudiated</a> the “diehard peers” who refused to be intimidated by a threat to create more peers.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In the course of the struggle over the Parliament bill, strong, even violent, feelings had been roused among lords who had seldom bothered hitherto to attend their house. Their intransigence provided a keynote to four years of equally fierce struggle on many other issues in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/nation-state" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">country</a>, with different sectional groups turning to noisy direct action. The Liberals remained in power, carrying important new legislation, but they faced so much opposition from extremists, who cared little about either conventional political behaviour or the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/rule-of-law" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">rule of law</a>, that these years have been called by the American historian George Dangerfield “the strange death of Liberal England.” The most important legislation was once more associated with Lloyd George—the <span id="ref483594"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Insurance-Act" class="md-crosslink ">National Insurance Act</a> of 1911, which Parliament accepted without difficulty but which was the subject of much hostile <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="criticism" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/criticism" data-type="MW">criticism</a> in the press and was bitterly opposed by doctors and duchesses. Nor did it win unanimous support from labour. The parliamentary Labour Party itself mattered less during these years, however, than extra-parliamentary <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/trade-union" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">trade union</a> protests, some of them violent in character—“a great upsurge of elemental forces.” There was a wave of strikes in 1911 and 1912, some of them tinged with syndicalist <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="ideology" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ideology" data-type="MW">ideology</a>, all of them asserting, in difficult economic circumstances for the workingman, claims that had seldom been made before. Old-fashioned trade unionists were almost as unpopular with the rank and file as they were with capitalists. In June 1914, less than two months before the outbreak of World War I, a “triple alliance” of transport workers, miners, and railwaymen was formed to buttress labour solidarity. In parallel to labour agitation, the suffragists, fighting for women’s rights, resorted to militant tactics that not only embarrassed Asquith’s government but tested the whole local and national machinery for maintaining order. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Womens-Social-and-Political-Union" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Women’s Social and Political Union</a>, founded in 1903, was prepared to encourage illegal acts, including bombing and <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="arson" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/arson" data-type="EB">arson</a>, which led to sharp police retaliation, severe sentences, harsh and controversial treatment in prison, and even martyrdom.</p><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The issue that created the greatest difficulties, however, was one of the oldest: <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Ireland" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Ireland</a>. In April 1912, armed with the new powers of the Parliament Act, Asquith introduced a new Home Rule bill. Conservative opposition to it was reinforced on this occasion by a popular Protestant movement in Ulster, and the new Conservative leader, <span id="ref483595"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bonar-Law" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Andrew Bonar Law</a>, who had replaced Balfour in 1911, gave his covert support to army mutineers in Ulster. No compromises were acceptable, and the struggle to settle the fate of Ireland was still in full spate when war broke out in August 1914. Most ominously for the Liberals, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Home-Rule-Great-Britain-and-Ireland" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Irish Home Rule</a> supporters at Westminster were losing ground in southern Ireland, where in 1913 a militant working-class movement entered into close alliance with the nationalist forces of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sinn-Fein" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Sinn Féin</a>. Ireland was obviously on the brink of civil war.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span> </section> <section data-level="5" id="ref274587"> <h2 class="h5">The international crisis</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The seeds of international war, sown long before 1900, were nourished between the resignation of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Salisbury-former-district-England" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Salisbury</a> in 1902 and August 1914. Two intricate systems of agreements and alliances—the <span id="ref483596"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Triple-Alliance-Europe-1882-1915" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Triple Alliance</a> of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Italy</a> and the <span id="ref483597"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Triple-Entente" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Triple Entente</a> of France, Russia, and Britain—faced each other in 1914. Both were backed by a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/armed-force" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">military</a> and naval apparatus (Britain had been building a large fleet, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Burdon-Haldane-1st-Viscount-Haldane-of-Cloan" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Richard Haldane</a> had been reforming the army), and both could appeal to half-informed or uninformed <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/public-opinion" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">public opinion</a>. The result was that a war that was to break the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="continuities" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/continuities" data-type="MW">continuities</a> of history started as a popular war.</p><div class="module-spacing"> </div><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The Liberal government under Asquith faced a number of diplomatic crises from 1908 onward. Throughout a period of recurring tension, its foreign minister, <span id="ref483598"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sir-Edward-Grey-3rd-Baronet" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Sir Edward Grey</a>, often making decisions that were not discussed by the cabinet as a whole, strengthened the understanding with France that had been initiated by his Conservative predecessor in 1903. An alliance had already been signed with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Japan" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Japan</a> in 1902, and in 1907 agreements were reached with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Russia" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Russia</a>. Meanwhile, naval rivalry with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Germany" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Germany</a> familiarized Britons with the notion that, if war came, it would be with Germany. The 1914 crisis began in the Balkans, where the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="heir" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/heir" data-type="EB">heir</a> to the Austro-Hungarian throne was assassinated in June 1914. Soon <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Austria" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Austria</a> (backed by Germany) and Russia (supported by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/France" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">France</a>) faced off. The British cabinet was divided, but, after the Germans invaded <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Belgium" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Belgium</a> on August 4, thereby violating a neutrality that Britain was committed by treaty to support, Britain and Germany went to war.</p><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span> <span class="md-signature"><a href="/contributor/Asa-Briggs/372">Asa Briggs</a></span> <span class="md-signature"><a href="/contributor/Patrick-Joyce/5210">Patrick Joyce</a></span> </section> </section> <section data-level="4" id="ref274588"> <h2 class="h4">Economy and society</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Changes in economic conditions during the last decades of the 19th century were of crucial importance. Mid-Victorian prosperity had reached its peak in a boom that collapsed in 1873. Thereafter, although national income continued to increase (nearly quadrupling between 1851 and 1911), there was persistent pressure on profit margins, with a price fall that lasted until the mid-1890s. Contemporaries talked misleadingly of a “great depression,” but, however misleading the phrase was as a description of the movement of economic indexes, the period as a whole was one of doubt and tension. There was anxious concern about both markets and materials, but the retardation in the national rate of growth to below 2 percent per annum was even harder to bear because the growth rates of competitors were rising, sometimes in spectacular fashion.</p><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD8 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The interests of different sections of the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="community" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/community" data-type="MW">community</a> diverged between 1870 and 1900 as they had before the mid-Victorian period. In particular, grain- and meat-producing farmers bore the full weight of foreign competition in cereals, and many, though not all, industrialists felt the growing pressure of foreign competition in both old and new industries. As a result of improved transport, including storage and refrigeration facilities, along with the application of improved agricultural machinery, overseas cereal producers fully penetrated the British <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/market" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">market</a>. In 1877 the price of English wheat stood at 56 <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="shillings" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/shillings" data-type="EB">shillings</a> 9 pence a quarter (compared with 54 shillings 6 pence in 1846); for the rest of the century, it never again came within 10 <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/shilling" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">shillings</a> of that figure. During the 1890s, therefore, there was a sharp fall in rent, a shift in land ownership, and a challenge to the large estate in the cereal-growing and meat-producing areas of the country. The fact that dairy and fruit farmers flourished did not relieve the pessimism of most spokesmen for the threatened landed interests.</p><span class="marker MOD8 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD9 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In industry, there were new forms of power and a trend toward bigger plants and more impersonal organization. There were also efforts throughout the period to increase cartels and amalgamations. Britain was never as strong or as innovative in the age of <span id="ref483577"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/steel" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">steel</a> as it had been in the earlier age of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/iron-chemical-element" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">iron</a>. By 1896 British steel output was less than that of either the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">United States</a> or Germany, while the British textile industry was declining sharply. Exports fell between 1880 and 1900 from £105 million to £95 million.</p><span class="marker MOD9 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD10 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Yet the country’s economic position would have been completely different had it not been for Britain’s international economic strength as banker and financier. During years of economic challenge at home, capital exports greatly increased, until they reached a figure of almost £200 million per annum before 1914, and investment income poured in to rectify adverse <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/balance-of-trade" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">balance of trade</a> accounts. Investing during these years in both “formal” and “informal” empire was more profitable, if more risky, than investing at home. But it also contributed to domestic <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="obsolescence" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obsolescence" data-type="MW">obsolescence</a>, particularly in the old industries. Thus, ultimately, there was a price to pay for imperial glory. During the last 20 years of peace before 1914, when Britain’s role as rentier was at its height, international prices began to rise again, and they continued to rise, with fluctuations, until after the end of World War I. Against this backdrop, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/City-of-London" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">City of London</a> was at the centre of international markets of capital, money, and commodities.</p><span class="marker MOD10 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD11 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Meanwhile, whether prices were falling or rising, labour in Britain was increasingly discontented, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="articulate" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/articulate" data-type="MW">articulate</a>, and organized. Throughout the period, national income per capita grew faster than the continuing <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/population-growth" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">population growth</a> (which stayed at above 10 percent per decade until 1911, although the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/birth-rate" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">birth rate</a> had fallen sharply after 1900), but neither the growth of income nor the falling level of retail prices until the mid-1890s made for industrial peace. By the end of the century, when pressure on real <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/wage" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">wages</a> was once again increasing, there were two million trade unionists in unskilled unions as well as in skilled unions of the mid-century type, and by 1914 the figure had doubled.</p><span class="marker MOD11 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD12 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In terms of the distribution of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/labor-in-economics" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">labour force</a> in this period, among the most striking changes was the development of white-collar occupations. Between 1881 and 1921, of male workers, those in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/public-administration" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">public administration</a>, professional occupations, and subordinate services, along with those in commercial occupations, increased from some 700,000 to 1,700,000 (out of a total workforce of some 9,000,000 in 1881 and 13,500,000 in 1921). Those in transport and communications almost doubled in number to 1,500,000, while those who worked in the manufacture of metal, machines, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="implements" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/implements" data-type="MW">implements</a>, and vehicles increased from almost 1,000,000 to over 2,000,000. Those in mining also doubled in number, to 1,200,000 in 1921. These were the real growth areas in the economy. The number of individuals involved in the agricultural sector, on the other hand, declined but exceeded 1,250,000 in 1921 and thus made up a still important component of the occupational structure of the country. All other sectors remained stable or lost workers, with the growth industry of the early 19th century, textiles and clothing, decreasing from about 1,000,000 to 750,000 workers in 1921.</p><span class="marker MOD12 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD13 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The economy lost a good deal of its old artisan character. Accompanying this erosion of artisan power at the point of production were some tendencies toward increases of scale in factory production. To some degree there also was a decline in the old <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="hierarchies" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hierarchies" data-type="MW">hierarchies</a> of skill, most notably in the erosion of the position of artisans, the mid-Victorian labour <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="aristocracy" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aristocracy" data-type="MW">aristocracy</a>. At the same time, the characteristics of the social structure of production in the preceding period were still apparent, namely “combined and uneven” development, whereby old and new forms of industrial organization and production methods were often combined, and overall development was not uniform. The result was that skill and authority were still distributed in a very complex way throughout industry. Older historical accounts concerning the late 19th- and early 20th-century formation of an increasingly de-skilled and uniform labour force have given way to a more <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="nuanced" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nuanced" data-type="MW">nuanced</a> picture, so that the rise of the <span id="ref977950"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Labour-Party-political-party" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Labour Party</a> is no longer interpreted, as it earlier was, simply as a consequence of the supposed emergence of this de-skilled labour force. Moreover, in line with more recent scholarship, the emergence of the Labour Party in the late 19th and early 20th century is no longer viewed as a reflex reaction to economic conditions or to the situation of workers; instead, it is understood in terms of the role of political intervention and political language in shaping what was indeed a new sense of class <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="unity" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/unity" data-type="EB">unity</a> and not as a direct expression of the labour force itself, which was in fact still strikingly divided not only by skill but by many other characteristics of workplace experience.</p><span class="marker MOD13 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD14 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The number of women in professional occupations and subordinate services doubled to 440,000 in 1921, out of a total workforce of some 5,500,000 women. This shift did much to reshape women’s changing understanding of themselves, particularly among the middle classes, where the more public world of work called into question exclusively domestic definitions of femininity. Women’s employment in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/textile" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">textile</a> and clothing manufacture was, however, still massive, with the real decline in the production of textiles not coming until after <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">World War I</a>. In 1881 the textile and clothing industry employed nearly 1,500,000 women; though by 1921 this number had shrunk, it remained considerable, at 1,300,000. Within the textile industry, women’s trade unions made some headway, but it is testimony to the power of traditional paternalist understandings of gender relationships among workers that male authority still obtained for the most part in both the home and the workplace, where women were excluded from the better-paid and more-skilled jobs. Domestic service was still the bedrock of women’s employment, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="comprising" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comprising" data-type="MW">comprising</a> some 1,750,000 workers in 1881 out of a total of 3,900,000, though by 1921 this number had grown to 1,800,000 but shrunk in relative importance.</p><span class="marker MOD14 mod-inline"></span> </section> <section data-level="4" id="ref274589"> <h2 class="h4">Family and gender</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD15 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The structure of families in this period was still relatively <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="diverse" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diverse" data-type="MW">diverse</a> and significantly unlike 21st-century versions of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/nuclear-family" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">nuclear family</a> based upon co-residing parents and young children. There is some evidence to suggest that <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/industrialization" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">industrialization</a> strengthened rather than weakened kinship ties and intergenerational co-residence, because of the practical help resident grandparents could render to working mothers. Relationships across generations, both within and outside the household, continued to be important. Despite the migration of production from home to factory, the traditional identity of the family as a productive unit survived quite strongly into the 20th century, notably among shopkeepers and other self-employed workers, among tenant farmers, and particularly among the still important area of “homework” production, which, as a component of the late 19th-century clothing industry, went through a massive revival. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/family-kinship" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">family</a> retained many residual economic roles and acquired some new ones. For example, there was still a strong tendency for occupations to pass from father to son in all classes. The economy of workers, however, was much more likely to involve the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="collective" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/collective" data-type="MW">collective</a> earnings of father, mother, and children, compared with the family economy of those who were better-off.</p><span class="marker MOD15 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD16 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In mid-19th-century <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/England" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">England</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Wales" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Wales</a> (Scotland had its own <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/divorce" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">divorce</a>, custody, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/property-law" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">property rights</a>), a husband had absolute right of control over his wife’s person, as well as considerable rights over her <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/property-legal-concept" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">property</a>. He also had sole responsibility for the rearing and guardianship of children, and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/common-law" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">common law</a> gave him absolute freedom to <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="bequeath" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bequeath" data-type="MW">bequeath</a> his property outside his family. A wife, in contrast, had neither legal duties nor enforceable legal rights, and, indeed, under common law her juridical personality was totally submerged in that of her husband. During this period, the situation was to undergo remarkable changes as the law began to make inroads into not only the rights of husbands but also the rights of parents generally. By the end of this period, legal intervention had largely eroded the absolute paternal rights enshrined in the common law, although sexual relations between husbands and wives remained largely untouched by legal change. However, cultural changes were to lag behind legal ones.</p><span class="marker MOD16 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD17 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">For the better-off in society, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/marriage" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">marriage</a> was gradually transformed from what was in large measure a property contract into a union in which companionship and <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="consumerism" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/consumerism" data-type="MW">consumerism</a> played a larger role. That women were increasingly becoming consumers was reflected in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Married-Womens-Property-Acts-United-States-1839" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Married Women’s Property Acts</a> of 1882, which allowed women to control their own income. The period was therefore to see changes within marriage in the direction of greater independence for women, as well as changes in the status and independence of women outside marriage. At the same time, the legal and administrative code remained decidedly <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="biased" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biased" data-type="MW">biased</a> against women; for instance, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/income-tax" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">income tax</a> was framed as a duty of the male head of household. In terms of what might be called upper-middle-class society, traditional gender roles were still extremely powerful: girls were educated at home up to World War I and were trained for the social conventions of home life and home management; boys were sent to school, often to boarding school; and more companionate versions of spousal relationship were accompanied by the preservation of distance between parents and children, with much child care still being left to servants. Lower down the scale, things were much the same, although few middle-class households could afford a wholly idle wife.</p><span class="marker MOD17 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD18 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In this period it was widely established that natural processes no longer gave an adequate account of motherhood, which was increasingly seen as an activity of great <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="moral" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/moral" data-type="MW">moral</a>, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="intellectual" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intellectual" data-type="MW">intellectual</a>, and technical complexity that had to be learned artificially like any other skill. Indeed, there was an unprecedented concern with the nature of motherhood, which was not seen as a private matter but as something involving the future of society, the country, the empire, and indeed the “race.” This concern was an expression of changing gender roles; but, while on one hand it embodied a reaction against forces of change, in some respects it also signaled the movement toward greater <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/gender-equality" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">gender equality</a>. The role of the state was to reflect these changes, as its intervention in family life also reached unprecedented levels.</p><span class="marker MOD18 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD19 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">From the 1860s to the ’80s, the agitation surrounding the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="Contagious" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Contagious" data-type="MW">Contagious</a> Diseases Acts—an attempt to control <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/sexually-transmitted-disease" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">venereal disease</a> in the armed forces that involved state regulation and inspection of prostitution—laid the foundations for subsequent <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/feminism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">feminism</a>. The campaign for the repeal of the acts generated public discussion of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/bimetallism" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">double standard</a> of licence for men and chastity for women. This agitation brought women into the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/public-domain" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">public sphere</a> much more directly than before and in new ways. Moreover, it served to complement changes in education, charity work, political organization, and associational life (which for women expanded considerably in this period), all of which took women outside the home, especially better-off women. This was also the case with the growth of women’s role as <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="consumers" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/consumers" data-type="EB">consumers</a>, with shopping and the new department stores further increasing women’s involvement in public urban life.</p><span class="marker MOD19 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD20 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The discussion generated by these acts resulted in a series of feminist responses varying from the more socially, sometimes politically, conservative emphasis on traditional family roles and on maternalism, seen in the “social purity” campaigns of the late 19th century (with their links to “social hygiene” movements espousing hygiene as the gateway to moral betterment), to the more radical, egalitarian political feminism of the early 20th century. The latter form was itself split into radical, socialist, and constitutional variants. In 1903 the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/woman-suffrage" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">women’s suffrage</a> movement split dramatically over the issue of the parliamentary vote, some pursuing the vote as merely one item on a long list of political and extra-political reforms and others concentrating on the single aim of obtaining the vote. These agitations also influenced men’s <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="conception" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conception" data-type="MW">conception</a> of themselves, notably in response to the social purity movement’s emphasis on the importance of chastity for men as well as women. Male roles were further defined in the 1880s with the consolidation of male <span id="ref978011"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/homosexuality" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">homosexuality</a> as a distinct social identity, given legal definition at the time (in the Labouchere <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="amendment" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/amendment" data-type="MW">amendment</a> of 1885, which criminalized homosexuality as gross indecency), not least in the famous case involving the arrest and imprisonment of Irish poet and dramatist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oscar-Wilde" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Oscar Wilde</a>. From this time the rise of “scientific” understandings of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/sexuality" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">sexuality</a>, including the science of sexology, also served to redefine gender roles. However, there as in so many other realms, recognition for women lagged behind that for men, and it was not until the 1920s that a similar delineation of lesbian identity became fully apparent.</p><span class="marker MOD20 mod-inline"></span> </section> <section data-level="4" id="ref274590"> <h2 class="h4"><span id="ref978007"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/mass-society" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Mass culture</a></h2> <span class="marker PREMOD21 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Class distinctions in cultural life continued to be very important. “Rational recreation” (productive and socially responsible recreation) remained an aim of those who wished to reform the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="culture" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture" data-type="MW">culture</a> of the lower classes. However, it also came to characterize the provision of recreation for the upper classes too. The idea of “playing the game” and “the game for its own sake” represented an extension of rational recreation into the sphere of sports, particularly as developed in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/public-school" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">public schools</a>, which in this period were reformed so as to institute a sense of public duty and private responsibility among the propertied classes. The cult of the disinterested amateur was part of the notion of the classically trained English gentleman, whose education and sense of moral duty purportedly created a moral superiority and disinterestedness that uniquely fitted him to rule. The development of popular forms of literature aimed at boys in this period served to glorify this particular <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="manifestation" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manifestation" data-type="MW">manifestation</a> of gentlemanly rule. More broadly, the model of the reformed public school itself, as well as a reformed Oxbridge (the Universities of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Oxford-England" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Oxford</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Cambridge-England" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Cambridge</a> had been restructured in large part somewhat earlier to meet the needs of a changing, moralized civil service), came to have a considerable influence on educational institutions in Britain. The masculine emphasis in sports was complemented by the club life of the upper classes, which, while always decidedly masculine, in the 1880s and ’90s, in terms of the development of London clubland, served even more to emphasize expressions of masculine identity in leisure activities.</p><span class="marker MOD21 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD22 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The move from the sociability that characterized upper-class culture in the 18th century to the more <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="didactic" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/didactic" data-type="MW">didactic</a>, socially concerned interventions of the early and mid-19th century gave way to a gradual involvement in hitherto forbidden forms, forms now suitably sanitized and made rational (or, as in the case of classical music, made sacred). It was not only music that became respectable but also the reading of novels, the playing of cards, and theatre attendance. The growth of the “legitimate” theatre from the 1880s, in distinction to more popular, melodramatic forms, is indicative of this development. Institutions and locations that were defined by associations with class especially harboured these changes, most notably the school and the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="suburb" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/suburb" data-type="EB">suburb</a>. As the transport system developed, especially the expansion of railway commuting from the 1870s and ’80s, suburban life grew in importance, most notably in London. However, it was not only the propertied in society who sought to create rational recreation: in continuance of earlier attempts to influence change from within the labouring population, the reform of low culture was sought by the appeal to high culture in radical and socialist movements such as the<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/cooperative" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true"> Cooperative</a> movement, the Workers Educational Association, and, after <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">World War I</a>, the Left Book Club. Radical rationalist recreation took the form of rambling, bicycling, and educational holidays.</p><span class="marker MOD22 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD23 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">However, this very negotiation of the hitherto forbidden cultural forms also represented a qualification of the class character of culture and the development of what came increasingly to be called “mass culture.” In part this represented a nationalization of cultural life that reflected the increasing importance of a mass polity. Britain also became a more centralized, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="homogeneous" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homogeneous" data-type="MW">homogeneous</a> national society. But a simple, linear development toward uniform experience had not characterized British history. The earlier development of modern British society had seen an emphasis on the significance of local and regional <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="cultures" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cultures" data-type="MW">cultures</a>, which echoed and reflected the relationship between state and society. While the four nations of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/British-Isles" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">British Isles</a> had <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="constituted" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/constituted" data-type="MW">constituted</a> a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/unitary-state" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">unitary state</a> since the end of the 18th century, Britain remained in the early and mid-19th century a society that was highly diverse and localized. Different cultural, religious, and legal traditions reinforced the very diverse occupational and manufacturing structure that industrialization brought with it. The importance of political <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/devolution-government-and-politics" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">decentralization</a> was reflected in very strong municipal cultures, so that the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/centre-of-gravity" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">centre of gravity</a> of a good deal of British artistic and literary life long continued to remain in the English provinces and within each of the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="constituent" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/constituent" data-type="MW">constituent</a> nations. The growth of organized sports reflected not only the social separation between classes but also the strength of regional and local attachments.</p><span class="marker MOD23 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD24 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/nationalization" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Nationalization</a> was apparent in an increasingly elaborate and <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="integrated" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/integrated" data-type="MW">integrated</a> communications structure represented in the railway, the telegraph, the postal service, and later the telephone. By the beginning of the 20th century, the local press, while strong, was beginning to give way to mass-circulation newspapers, most famously the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Daily-Mail" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true"><em>Daily Mail</em></a>. The nationwide retailing revolution apparent from the 1880s, along with the development of an increasingly nationally coordinated and centrally based entertainment industry, which could be seen, for example, in the development of music hall, were part of the process too. So was the migration of intellectual life into the universities, which tended to be dominated by Oxbridge and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/University-of-London" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">University of London</a> colleges, despite strong provincial resistance and pride. London itself became the cultural centre of the country and therefore the cultural centre of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/British-Empire" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">British Empire</a>. A fundamental influence on this change was the shift in the British economy from manufacturing industry to international finance and, with it, the migration of wealth, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="prestige" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prestige" data-type="MW">prestige</a>, fashion, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-status" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">social status</a> away from the provinces to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/London" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">London</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD24 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD25 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">While organized sports might express regional loyalties, their increasingly organized and commercialized basis—whereby rules were drawn up, leagues founded, and competitions inaugurated—served to coordinate local loyalties on a national basis. National bodies were created, along with national audiences. Spectatorship gave way to participation among all classes. In this sense, a “mass” culture was evident. This culture, however, might occur within and across class lines. For example, professional <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/football-soccer" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">football</a> (soccer) and county <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/cricket-sport" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">cricket</a>, the best-known instances of mass sports, particularly in the early days, witnessed the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-class" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">class distinction</a> between “gentleman” and “players,” as well as north-south differences. Particular sports developed along class lines: <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/tennis" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">tennis</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/golf" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">golf</a>, at least in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/England" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">England</a>, were played by the higher orders of society, and rugby was divided along the class lines, with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/Rugby-Union-World-Cup" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">rugby union</a> for the higher classes and rugby league for the lower classes. (<em>See</em> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/rugby" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">rugby</a> for the history and development of both traditions.) Indeed, professional football has only relatively recently lost its working-class character in Britain. Nonetheless, in the 20th century, developments of mass culture across class lines were increasingly important—with cultural and social <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="homogeneity" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homogeneity" data-type="MW">homogeneity</a> increasingly going hand in hand.</p><span class="marker MOD25 mod-inline"></span> <span class="md-signature"><a href="/contributor/Patrick-Joyce/5210">Patrick Joyce</a></span> </section> </section> </section><span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":56,"pagesTotal":66,"pageId":615557,"pageLength":4773,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"C","adLeg":"C","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"COUNTRY_PAGINATED","gisted":false,"pageNumber":56,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>