Performer - Culture & Literature

Performer - Culture & LiteratureMarina 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 II

A 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 weak

The 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.

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4.The US opening towards Europe

A 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 policies

A 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

Performer - Culture & Literature

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 fanatic

1970 East Pakistan became the new state of

Bangladesh

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9. Indian Independence

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

A New World Order