Anna+Vernon




 * E n g l a n d **

**“They had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor; they will have war.” – Winston Churchill **

**

Pre 1920’s: **

General:

-1916 Irish revolt against British rule in the Easter Rising, but it’s quickly hushed up.

-1917 Britain issues the Balfour Declaration, a statement that encourages the building of Jewish communities in Palestine. Later, conflict arises when thousands of Jews follow it and clash with the occupying Arabs


 * 1920-40 **

General:

//In// //India////, Gandhi rises to power, revolting against// //Britain// //’s hold in non-violent ways, such as boycotting British goods or leading campaigns for nationalism. //

//Back home, the Labour party was stronger than that of the Liberals, gaining more support by promoting socialism. However, they fell to the power of the Conservatives, who held reign for much of the 20’s. //

//France, Germany, and Britain were all arguing over foreign policy, mostly out of fear that the other would get too strong. Also not helping, both// //Britain// //and// //France// //owed a large amount of debt to the// //US////, to which they counted on// //Germany// //to help them with. However,// //Germany// //was facing its own problems, leaving them in turbulent economic times.//

-1922 Britain is forced to grant Egypt independence after a series of revolts prompted by suffering during WWI

-1922 Irish launch a guerilla war against the British, and shortly after Ireland and Britain agree to the majority of Ireland becoming the self-governing Irish Free State, with only the mainly Protestant northern counties left Britain to control.

-1926 A general strike erupted by some 3 million workers after becoming unionized, lasting nine days.

-1928 Women gained an equal status to men after a long ordeal to get there

1931- After the hit of the Great Depression, one in four workers is unemployed.

-1936 Edward VIII abdicated to marry an American divorcee, shocks the people -1938 At the Munich Conference, Britain and France agree to Hitler’s demands and persuade Czechs to surrender the Sudetenland without bloodshed. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain tells his people he’s gott en Britain “peace for our time.” And says a little about saving Czechoslovakia, which he completely failed to do. -1939 Germany invades Poland, to which Britain has various treaties with. Invasion forces Britain to declare war on Germany.

=
-1940 German troops surprise British and French forces hiding behind the Maginot Line, advancing far into France. British troops try to escape by using all available ships to pick up stranded troops from the beach of Dunkirk. 300,000 British troops were saved when the ships took them across the English Channel back to native protection - Upon learning that France is truly supporting German rule, Churchill responds by sinking all their ships he can find in British and French ports ======

-August 4th Italians invaded British East Africa

-August 13th the Battle of Britain commences, lasting 57 days straight. Germany had originally aimed to destroy the British Royal Air Force before invading England, via the German Luftwaffe (the German military air force that also violated the Treaty of Versailles). However, after this failed, Germany decided to go about a more direct approach. It began with bombs: the Luftwaffe used about 3,000 planes, bombing along the coast at first, but when this didn’t work…they went for London. Bombing were daily, and the casualties were high. Overall, 27,450 civilians were killed, with another 32,138 wounded. The Luftwaffe successfully took out 1,547 British aircrafts, but at the cost of 1,887 of their own. Despite the fatalities, London remained strong during the time- people went about their days as normal as they could, retreating to bomb shelter for safety when needed. This time is now referred to as “the blitz.”

-September 7th Britain prepares for an invasion within two weeks

-September 13th Italy invades British Egypt. British soldiers manage to drive them back to Libya in January.

-September 17th Hitler postpones his planned invasion on England in favor of Russia, unknowingly to either country

-September 27th Germany, Italy, & Japan form alliances in the event of a British attack

-October 12th Hitler abandons any ideas of invading England, but the blitz continues nonetheless

-December 6th President Roosevelt of the US provides a leasing package to England to restore supplies damaged from German attacks. The US continues to remain neutral.

-December 29th biggest air raid of the blitz occurs in London, with over 3,000 people killed and many buildings lost to the bombs or resulting fire.

-May 11th, 1941: Hitler calls his air force back. The blitz ends. Key point: initially, Hitler didn’t want to attack Britain. He would rather have made a deal with them before attacking Poland, and consequentially them, but several things changed to make that happen. First, Stalin of Russia told Hitler that Prime Minister Churchill had said not to trust Hitler to ignore Russia- Uh oh, Hitler starts getting paranoid. Adding to this was Roosevelt saying in his re-election speech: you can’t trust Nazis. Hitler was afraid that the US + Britain might attack, so he decided to go for them first.

Key point: Britain shouldn’t have withstood, but they did. So, what happened? First of all, England had a better radar system going for them, so they could give advanced warning to the public before air attacks. England also had two great fighter planes: the Spitfire and the Hurricane from the 1930’s. The final tip was Hitler’s move to go for England: in leaving the RAF alone, they had time to make repairs and regroup before defending London.

Lifestyle: During the blitz and shortly after, food was hard to come by. Germany sunk as many ships going to England as they could, forcing England to adapt the convoy system, where fighter ships would travel alongside cargo ships. Rationing was introduced, which helped greatly, but people still went hungry. Farming rose as famine increased.

 - March-July 1941 England has to fight off both German and Italy forces from their bases in Africa. England also fights in the Middle East to maintain access to oil that Churchill has promoted from getting into German hands.

-September 1941 England bands with Russia to secure the Anglo Iranian oil fields.

-December 7th 1941 Japanese arrive in Malaysia 

-December 25th 1941Japanese take over British Hong Kong

-January 1942 Japanese invade Singapore, which is British territory.

-February 5th Singapore surrenders.

-1942 brings the first round of the England bombing Germany.

-May 1943 the Allies re-obtain North Africa and head for Italy. The takeover begins. The allies plan to take France, Belgium, and- eventually- Germany.

-end of 1944, all of Western Europe- up to the Rhine river- has been taken back.

-May 1945 Germany surrenders

-May 2nd 1945 Italy surrenders to allies

-June 1945 Clement Atlee becomes prime minister

-360,000 British citizens killed in total

-1948 England hosts the Olympics


 * 1950-80**

General:

 -May 7 th 1951 George VI holds the first Festival of Britain <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 83%;">-October 21 <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 83%; position: relative; top: -0.45em;">st <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 83%;"> 1951 Winston Churchill re-elected for prime minister at the age of76

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 83%;">-February 6 <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 54%; position: relative; top: -0.45em;">th <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 83%;"> 1952 Elizabeth II succeeds George VI

<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 91.3%;">-May 3 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> rd 1979 Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman to be prime minister


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">1980-modern **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">General:

<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">-1981 Racial riots in Brixton, London <span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 83%;">-April 2 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> nd 1982 Argentina invades the Falkland Islands but are defeated shortly.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 83%;">-1985 35 Italians killed at the Liverpool stadium by <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> “ British hooligans ”  <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">-1989 96 football fans killed at Liverpool stadium. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 91.3%;"> -1990 Margaret Thatcher resigns <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 83%;"> -November 8 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> th 1965 the death penalty is abolished <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 83%;">-1991 Britain fights with the US against Iraq in the Gulf War <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> -1996 Mad Cow Disease causes millions of cows to be slaughtered -1997 Britain gives Hong Kong back to China. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> - 1997 J.K. Rowling writes the first "Harry Potter" book <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> -1997 British biologist Ian Wilmut clones a sheep. <span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 83%;">-1997 Lady Dianna dies in a <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> “ mysterious ” car accident. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> -1989 96 football fans killed at Liverpool stadium.

-1999 Scotland inaugurates its own parliament

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 91.3%;">-2001 Britain fights with the US against Afghanistan <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 83%;">-2003 Tony Blair (prime minister) & George W. Bush order the invasion of Iraq to overthrow Sadum Hussein. Tony Blair later admits that Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction (the reason to invade.) <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> -Suicide bombers kill 55 in London