66. Crisis in Britain
A History of England29 Marras 2021

66. Crisis in Britain

While there’s much talk about the huge gains made by the American colonists, and the triumphant launching of the United States of America, far less is generally said about the effect of the American war in the mother country itself. Since Britain was also fighting France, Spain and Holland, the impact on its economy was massive, and on the political establishment if anything even more massive. Loyalty swung wildly, old allies became new adversaries, or vice versa, administrations were formed and fell in rapid succession. All this happened while in the background the latest battle was being fought between king and parliament over who would have the greatest authority over government.


Illustration: Soldiers deployed during the Gordon Riots, by John Seymour Lucas, in a painting of 1879. Public Domain

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License

Jaksot(274)

265. War in a unipolar world

265. War in a unipolar world

By the latter part of the twentieth century, the world had become unipolar. The Soviet Empire collapsed even more rapidly than the British one had after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. China was not yet...

26 Loka 202514min

264. Ethics, votes and wars

264. Ethics, votes and wars

We saw in the last episode, that Britain’s involvement in the NATO intervention in Kosovo could be regarded as part of an ‘ethical foreign policy’, since its objective, many felt, was humanitarian, th...

12 Loka 202514min

263. Tragedy at home, ethics abroad

263. Tragedy at home, ethics abroad

Divorce, contrary to what many believe, was not permitted by the Church of England. Henry VIII didn’t divorce two wives, he had the marriages annulled, declaring in effect that they’d never happened. ...

5 Loka 202514min

262. Uncool

262. Uncool

In the early years of Blair’s premiership, his supporters liked to refer to Britain as ‘Cool Britannia’, in a play on the title of the song ‘Rule Britannia’. Last week, we talked about some of the coo...

28 Syys 202514min

261. Cool Britannia

261. Cool Britannia

The Blair government threw itself into action as soon as it was formed.Rather confirming the existence of a deal between them, something they’ve never confirmed, Blair quickly appointed Gordon Brown C...

21 Syys 202514min

260. New Dawn

260. New Dawn

It was a new dawn. Or at least so Tony Blair said, as he emerged from his landslide victory in the 1997 General Election. It’s what he would say, isn’t it?Still, there was some truth to the claim. It ...

14 Syys 202514min

259. Major error, major success, Major’s out

259. Major error, major success, Major’s out

We’re just about ready to move on from John Major but, before we do, we need to spend a few moments on two major events of his second premiership. One was a significant breakthrough, in Ireland, even ...

7 Syys 202514min

258. Major’s bastards and Labour’s deal

258. Major’s bastards and Labour’s deal

By winning the 1992 general election, John Major had gained his own mandate to form a government, instead of imply inheriting Margaret Thatcher’s. He’d shown himself capable of leading the Conservativ...

31 Elo 202514min

Suosittua kategoriassa Historia

olipa-kerran-otsikko
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
mayday-fi
huijarit
rss-ikiuni
mystista
tsunami
konginkangas
totuus-vai-salaliitto
rouva-diktaattori
rss-i-dont-like-mondays-2
rss-kirkon-ihmeellisimmat-tarinat
historiaa-suomeksi
rss-subjektiivinen-todistaja
rss-sattuu-sita-suomessakin
apinan-vuosi
sotaa-ja-historiaa-podi
historian-nurkkapoyta
matakuu
rss-peter-peter