An Overview of Britain in the Early 20th Century
During the early 20th century in Britain, lives for everyone changed dramatically. The population levels increased. From 1901 – 1911 the population increased from 42 million to 45 million. This meant there was an increase in birth and a decrease in death rates.
There were very distinct social divisions. At the top were the upper and upper middle classes. They earned above £700 a year. They were only 3% of the population yet they earned most the country’s wages. They usually went to public school when young then went onto university. Most would then join the army. Many went abroad during winter and the London house for the ball season in May. They
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The working class would get around £50-100 a year. They lived in very small terraced houses cramped with lots of people. They worked around 10 hours a day from Monday to Friday and six and a half on Saturday. They had no holidays and small innutritious meals which meant they died younger. The children would go to work after school and stay in the factory most of their life.
The most popular jobs were domestic, agricultural and in the building trade. The women were the lowest paid of them all and most worked in the domestic service. The Daily Mail was the cheapest newspaper at ½ pence.
In those days, Britain was a parliamentary democracy but the House of Lords could block decisions made by the House of Commons. The system was unfair in that only a few people could vote. By 1906, all men with households could vote but the women couldn’t. There were two main parties, the liberals and the Conservatives. They were mostly supported by richer people. The conservatives believed in laissez faire, where they leave people to their own problems. The Conservatives believed that they should leave the rich people to get on with making Britain richer.
The Liberals believed in freedom of the individual and that you had to work hard if you wanted to be wealthy. This meant that the rich then looked down on the poor as they believed it was their own fault that they were
Voting right in America around the early 1800s was a very complex process, because many of the politicians and government leaders had supported slavery, which led to limited voting rights to those who were legally free. Women, however weren’t treated as equals to men, therefore they didn’t get much attention to their voting rights (which at the time there was none). There were two other major factors in voting as well, which were socioeconomics and land owners, making the poor worker class have very little political freedoms as well. Most of the voting privileges went to rich white men.
vote in the early 1900’s, still it was not until nearly one hundred years ago that they were granted
men in Maryland could not vote until the early 1800’s. The same could be said for the
The problem that arose along with the phoenix from the ashes was that not ALL men could vote. The only men that were allowed to vote were men with a sort of financial holdings until the 15th Amendment was ratified in 1869.
With the cancellation of the Neutrality Acts enacted in the 1930's, the United States was able to supply Britain with weapons and other items needed for the war. Roosevelt developed strong and exceptional ties with British prime minister Winston Churchill as support was handed to Britain. As for further acts of aide towards Britain, Roosevelt provided fifty US destroyers in return for numerous military bases in the Caribbean in September of 1940. Also, in March 1941 the Lend Lease Act allowed for the United States to supply the seemingly bankrupt Britain with weaponry while excluding any form of monetary
For the 35-hour workweek we leaned towards position number 4 which was to require businesses to pay 1.5 times a worker’s wage above 44 hours per week. 44 hours per week is about a 9AM-5PM shift, which is a pretty standard work schedule. 8 hours a day is common.
The welfare state was brought about by the Beverage report of 1942. William Beveridge outlined the five social and economic factors which needed to be restored in order for Britain’s economy to thrive once more. He named them the ‘five giant evils’ poverty, disease, ignorance, squalor, idleness. During the early 1900’s, life in Britain was very different and the government did not accept any responsibilities for its citizens.
not get the vote in 1914, but it was not simply men against women. The
20th century was a progress and decline time for the United Kingdom. It was during this time that many improvements changed the life of everyday in the UK. In 1902 Education bill was passed that abolished the school boards and gave free education to the children. Children were getting more education than before, when they had to work long hours instead. Women got the right to vote in elections in 1918 but were on the same voting terms as men in 1928. Late 19th century Britain main industries were coal, iron/steel, engineering and clothing. But these declined into early 20th century and moved into specialized manufacturing, and service industries. The invention of washing machines and other appliances made women jobs easier. Women were given equal rights with the passing of Sex Discrimination act in 1975.
What had changed for people in England between 1912 and 1945? Inspector calls was written in 1945 but was set in 1912. in 1945 both world wars had finished and Britain was changed. People were still striving for recovery from nearly six years of warfare,danger and uncertainty brought on both the world wars. The wars had changed attitudes to women quite significantly.
The continental countries did not have the same knowledge and technologic advances as the British. Prior to 1825, the British professionals were not permitted to leave their country (Spielvogel 605). However, in 1825, the British began to spread their knowledge and their equipment to other areas of the world (Spielvogel 605). This was very helpful to the people of the Continent. As they began to learned the same skills as the British. By the 1840s, skilled workers from "Belgium and France were spreading their knowledge from east and south" (Spielvogel 605). The French and German began to create schools to train engineers and mechanics (Spielvogel 605).
The Industrial Revolution brought about a growth in urban areas throughout Europe. Great Britain and Western Europe urbanized the fastest, with the other parts of Europe following at various speeds. With the large growth of people living in cities, everyday life began to reflect an individual’s desire to create their own identity.
Living in London in 1854 was quite possibly terribly horrific. There had been a massive increase in the population in recent years and as a result there was an increase in the amount of waste produced. This waste was, for a while, managed properly, but in the middle of the 19th century the Soho neighborhood became quarters for the cholera bacterium. The disease puzzled many but it was through the workings of John Snow and Henry Whitehead that resulted in a realization of the causes of the outbreak. Their methods of research were the start of greater concern over public health.
During the 1930’s, the people of Great Britain had become increasingly aware of the class divisions, unemployment, and poverty that were plaguing their society.
The Victorian Era of British history was the time of Queen Victoria 's rule from 20 June 1837 until her passing, on 22 January 1901. It was a long stretch of peace, prosperous period regarding sensibilities and political concerns to the section of the Reform Act 1832. The time was gone before by the Georgian period and took after by the Edwardian period. The laterhalf of the Victorian age generally concurred with the first divide of the Belle period of mainland Europe and the Gilded Age of the United States. Among the numerous improvements that made Victoria 's rule appear to be extraordinarily not quite the same as prior periods in British history, two are particularly meriting consideration. The primary is the French Revolution (1789-1815), and the second is the Industrial Revolution that started around 1780 and quickened all through the Victorian Age.