Performer - Culture & LiteraturePerformer - Culture & Literature

Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella,Margaret Layton © 2013

A New World Order(1945-1956)

The birth of the Nation

Performer - Culture & Literature

1. Britain between the warsA New World Order

• Disputes between the coal miners and the mine owners led to the General Strike of 1926.

• Unemployment meant prolonged periods of hardship for the families of the miners.

• The areas in the north of England, South Wales and central Scotland became depressed.

• In the south-east of England new light industries such as chemicals, electrical goods and automobiles developed.

Workers demonstrating during the General Strike of 1926.

The birth of the Nation

In 1931 the Statute of Westminster formalised the creation of the British Commonwealth of Nations.

The British Commonwealth of Nations is an intergovernmental organisation including fifty-four countries led by the United Kingdom.

Performer - Culture & Literature

1. Britain between the wars

This marked the end of the

British Empire

the recognition of equal status for all

member states of the new organisation

normally referred to today as The Commonwealth

A New World Order

The birth of the Nation

• Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940), leader of the Conservative party, became prime minister.

• King Edward VIII abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson, a divorced American woman.

• He was succeeded by his brother George VI (1936-1952).

• The Spanish Civil War broke out.

Performer - Culture & Literature

1. Britain between the warsA New World Order

Wallis Simpson and Edward, Duke of Windsor (1937).

1936

The birth of the Nation

Performer - Culture & Literature

1. Britain between the wars

The 1930s brought about important social transformations

• the growth of population slowed down thanks to birth-control practices

• women were more and more independent

• the drift of the population from south to north, which was a characteristic of the Industrial Revolution, was reversed

• fewer people lived in the centres of towns

• new ‘popular’ newspapers appeared, such as the ‘Daily News’, the ‘Daily Chronicle’, the ‘Daily Express’, and the ‘Daily Herald’

A New World Order

The birth of the Nation

In September 1939 Germany invaded Poland and the Second

World War started.

Poland fell in September 1939;

Belgium, Holland and Norway

fell in 1940; France surrendered

in June 1940.

The Conservative Winston

Churchill became prime minister

in 1940; he established a War

Cabinet of five ministers

to make important decisions.

Performer - Culture & Literature

2. World War IIA New World Order

London bombed (1940).

The birth of the Nation

Performer - Culture & Literature

2. World War IIA New World Order

REASONS FOR THE GERMAN DEFEAT

• Germany did not manage to get control of the air over the English Channel.

• Hitler’s greatest mistake was his decision to invade the USSR in June 1941.

• The German army was destroyed by the long Russian winter and by resistance in the sieges of Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad, where it was forced to surrender in January 1943.

Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin (Yalta Conference, February 1945).

• The Russian Red Army marched through Eastern Europe to liberate the invaded countries.

The birth of the Nation

REASONS FOR THE VICTORY OF THE ALLIES

• American intervention in 1941, following a Japanese air-attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

• The advance of Montgomery’s army in North Africa (1942) proved disastrous for the German and Italian troops.

On 6th June 1944, the Allies touched down on the French coast in Normandy and liberated France.

• In 1945 Germany surrendered.

• President Truman ordered the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Performer - Culture & Literature

2. World War IIA New World Order

D-Day – D for Deliverance

The birth of the Nation

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR

The European empires were weakened

The French, the Dutch and the British had to abandon some of their colonies.

Britain withdrew from India, Burma, Ceylon, Malaya and Singapore.

Britain’s foreign trading position was weakened by the huge debts to pay for the war and extensive bomb damage.

The general election in July 1945 was won by the Labour Party.

Performer - Culture & Literature

3. World War II and after

The Labour Party issued this general election campaign poster in 1945. The design incorporates a large 'V', representing Victory in the Second World War.

A New World Order

The birth of the Nation

The US Marshall Aid Plan (1947) the American programme to help European countries recover economically and prevent the weaker ones from falling under Russian influence.

Britain received large US loans but recovery was slow•huge foreign debt•the markets for goods in Europe were largely non-existent•the currency was weakThe North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, known as NATO an agreement of mutual defense with Western Europe.The United Nations Organisation (UN, 1945) replaced the League of Nations.

Performer - Culture & Literature

4.The US opening towards EuropeA New World Order

The birth of the Nation

The new role of the government in looking after the interests and welfare of its citizens in such areas as health, unemployment and pensions.

Nationalisation of power and natural resources, transport (airlines and railways) and credit (the Bank of England).

The government bought all the shares of the companies in these fields in exchange for government bonds.

Performer - Culture & Literature

5. Labour government policiesA New World Order

The Welfare State

The birth of the Nation

Competition and fear between the United States and the Soviet Union was seen as a ‘Cold War’.

It dominated international affairs for decades when major crises occurred:

• the wars in Korea (1949-1953)

• the Vietnam War (1957-1975)

Both the USA and the Soviet Union massively built up nuclear weapons.

• 1952 the USA exploded the H-bomb smaller in size than the Hiroshima atomic bomb but 2500 times more powerful.

• 1953 The Russians produced an H-bomb.

• 1957 Britain carried out its first H-Bomb tests.

Performer - Culture & Literature

6. The Cold WarA New World Order

The birth of the Nation

CAUSES

1869 The Suez Canal had been built by the French to connect the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea

1952 there was a revolution in Egypt and Britain agreed to withdraw from the Canal Zone but kept its shares in the Canal

1956 President Nasser nationalised the British and French company that owned the Suez Canal

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7. The Suez CrisisA New World Order

CONSEQUENCES

1956 British and French forces bombed and invaded Egypt

Condemnation from the United Nations and from the USA

The invaders forced to withdraw their troops by the United Nations

Britain no longer a world power and unable to manage international relations without US support

The birth of the Nation

Performer - Culture & Literature

8. Elizabeth II

George VI died in February 1952.

A New World Order

He was succeeded by his daughter Elizabeth II, crowned in 1953.

The general euphoria for a ‘New Elizabethan Age’, was mingled with a sense of anguish and rootlessness, especially among the young.

Disillusionment came at the realisation that Britain was a second-class power dependent on the USA.

Queen Elizabeth II (1953).

The birth of the Nation

15th August 1947 India gained its independence from Britain

Split into two countries: India (mostly Hindu) and East and West Pakistan (mostly Muslim)

Mohandas Gandhi, the leader of the Indian independence movement, fasted in protest against partition in vain

Prime Minister Nehru began the modernisation of India, building factories, railroads and roads

1948 Gandhi assassinated by a Hindu fanatic1970 East Pakistan became the new state of Bangladesh

Performer - Culture & Literature

9. Indian Independence

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

A New World Order