A brief overview of politics in Britain
I've mentioned this before about how difficult it can be to write a book on a particular period of history when there is a lot in the past that leads up to the particular period in which the book is set. This book begins with the Act of Union between England and Scotland, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and finishes in 1975 with Britain's entry into the European Economic Community. Thus this book is a book about sovereignty, and it is seen by many that by entering the Economic Community Britain surrendered much of its sovereignty.
In another sense this book also chronicles the rise and fall of the British Empire. Britain did have an empire prior to that, but it wasn't until the mid 19th Century that the Empire was at its peak, and it wasn't until 1920 that the Empire had become the largest empire, in terms of land holdings, that the world had ever seen. However, power and land can be mutually exclusive since when Britain had the influence over the land, its power was already in decline.
This book was set as one of the text books for a university course on British History. The course started at 1689, which was the date of the Glorious Revolution, when William of Orange was invited to England to take up the throne and King James II was effectively kicked out. Many see this as the turning point in Britain's fortunes, however we cannot forget that England was a developing powerhouse from much earlier. However, what 1689 brought about was stability. After the death of Elizabeth and the ascension of the House of Stuart, England had fallen into conflict within itself. The conflict was between the protestants and the Catholics, as well as between King and Parliament. This conflict exploded into a full blown civil war which resulted in King Charles I losing his head, and then the establishment of the English Republic under Oliver Cromwell. Come 1689, the Stuarts, who had taken back the throne after Cromwell's death, had been removed and England was thus brought out of this period of conflict. In 1707 Scotland and England United to create the Britain that we know today.
This period saw an unprecedented rise in British economic power. The 1700s brought about the rise of merchantalism alongside the agricultural revolution. However, England still lacked a lot of land, which is why she continued to search for colonies overseas so that the people at home could be supplied with food. This was the beginning of Globalisation, however tariffs still existed and all trade had to go through England, which was one of the causes of the American Revolution.
Trade became very important during this period as is evident during the Napoleonic Wars. When asked about Britain, Napoleon simply laughed and asked what a nation of shopkeepers could do. What they could do was to raise capital to finance a war against Napoleon. While Napoleon attempted to strangle England's economy through the continental system, it didn't work, and Napoleon was eventually defeated. While it was not England's wealth that defeated him, it helped a lot. It was also during this time that the Rothschilds came into their own by betting on the Battle of Waterloo and winning.
The 19th Century brought the greatest changes to the world as we know it. England industrialised, and this industrialisation spread from her shores to Europe and America. Industrialisation (as well as the Republican movements on the continent) brought about a rift between the owners and the workers. There were no labour laws in existence, and people were paid pittance to work in horrific conditions. However along with the labour movement came reforms such as the eight hour day and free education (thanks to the Conservative Party). The idea was that by giving a little to the working classes would temper the desire for outright revolution. The American revolution had been infectious, spreading to France in 1789, and then to the rest of Europe in 1848. It should be remembered that in 1795, at the height of the French Revolution, England itself was on the verge of revolution. However the rising middle class already had access to power, but it was through the reforms of the 19th Century that power was shifted from the hands of the monarchy to that of the people (a lot had to do with Victoria not really being interested in running an empire).
This book has a lot to do with political and economic change in England. It does look at the wars and the rise and fall of the empire, but this is not really what it is interested in. There are other books that deal with these issues. This book is looking at political and economic reform. Back in 1707 access to power was limited in the extreme, however by 1975 anybody had the chance to rise to the top of the food chain (though one still needed money and friends). Much of this change arose from the threat of communism and a workers rebellion (which never originated, though many suggest that this was because of the union movement).
However, this book stops short of the changes brought about by Margaret Thatcher, though this occurred during the 80's, a period when both the US and the UK swung heavily back to the right on the belief that the socialist reforms of the last 100 years were having an adverse effect upon the economy. However, not everybody can afford a good education, and thus the swing back means that housing once again become unaffordable, the quality of schools and healthcare degrades, and the poorer classes of society are thrown back into their desperation as they struggle from day to day to make ends meet. Still, it is interesting to see that pretty much all of the beggars on the streets of London were white.
