United Kingdom (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

United Kingdom of Great Britain, Ireland, and Malta Timeline: Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum OTL equivalent: United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, and Malta
Flag Coat of arms
Motto:  God and my Right
Anthem:  (unofficial) Jerusalem Royal anthem:  God Save the King
Royal coat of arms in Scotland
Location of the United Kingdom
Capital		London
Other cities		Dublin; Birmingham; Leeds; Glasgow; Edinburgh
Languages		English; Irish; Scots; Welsh; Scottish Gaelic; Maltese
Ethnic groups		English; Irish; Scots; Welsh; Indians; Pakistanis; Afro-British; Chinese; Japanese; Maltese
Religion		Christianity; Islam; Hinduism; Judaism; Buddhism; Irreligion
Demonym		British
Government		Devolved parliamentary constitutional monarchy
-	King	Charles III
-	Prime Minister	Jeremy Corbyn
-	Prime Minister of Ireland	Alan Kelly
-	Prime Minister of Malta	Robert Abela
Legislature		Rikesday of the United Kingdom
-	Upper house	Athelthing
-	Lower house	Folkthing
Establishment
-	Acts of Union of England and Scotland	May 1, 1707
-	Acts of Union of Great Britain and Ireland	January 1, 1801
-	Government of Ireland Set 1914	September 18, 1914
-	Malta Representation Set 1957	November 15, 1957
Population
-	estimate	72,668,956
Currency		Pound sterling (GBP)
Time zone		GMT (UTC) (Great Britain and Ireland) CET (UTC+1) (Malta)
Internet TLD		.uk
Calling code		+44

The United Kingdom of Great Britain, Ireland, and Malta, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK), is a sovereign state mainly located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, and Malta as main administrative components as well as many smaller islands, with common government and parliament seated in London. Great Britain and Ireland are separated by the Irish Sea and surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean in the west and north, the North Sea in the east, the Celtic Sea in the south, and the English Channel in the southeast. Malta is located at southern Europe in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, lies between Italy to the north, Tunisia to the west, and Libya to the south.

Great Britain is divided into three lands: England, Scotland and Wales. The latter two have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capital cities, Edinburgh and Cardiff, respectively. However, such power is only delegated to the Mormaeraught (Scotland) and the Senedd (Wales) by Rikesday which may enact laws unilaterally altering or abolishing devolution. Ireland consists of four cúiges: Leinster, Ulster, Munster and Connaught. Unlike its British counterparts, the Irish provinces have now merely function as historical and cultural entities. Six shires of Ulster, however, are represented in the British parliament.

The United Kingdom has 14 British Overseas Territories, including Hong Kong, Gibraltar and the Canary Islands. Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man are Crown dependencies and are not part of the UK. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land mass and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in the language, culture, and legal systems of many of its former colonies.

The United Kingdom has the world's sixth-largest economy in terms of nominal GDP and the eighth-largest in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). It has a high-income economy and ranks 18th in the world on the human development index. It also ranks highly in international rankings for education, healthcare, life expectancy, and human development. The United Kingdom was the world's first industrialised country and the world's leading power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, the United Kingdom has tremendous economic, cultural, military, scientific, technical, and political influence on a global scale. It is a recognized nuclear power and ranks fourth in the world in terms of military spending.

Since the first session of the United Nations Security Council in 1946, it has been a permanent member. Aside of the UN membership, the United Kingdom is also a member of the Commonwealth Confederation, the European Community, the Council of Europe, the G7, the Group of Ten, the G20, NATO, AUKUS, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Interpol, and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Politics and government

Buckingham Palace, the royal residence and primary workplace of the monarch of the United Kingdom.

The United Kingdom is a unitary state under constitutional monarchy. King Charles III is the monarch and head of state of the Union, as well as nine other independent countries. These 10 countries are sometimes referred to as "Commonwealth rikes". The monarch and their immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial, diplomatic and representational duties. As the monarchy is constitutional, the monarch is limited to non-partisan functions such as bestowing honours and appointing the Prime Minister. The monarch is lord fyrdwielder of the British Cousintory.

Though the ultimate executive authority over the government is still formally by and through the monarch's kingly sundergift, these powers may only be used according to laws enacted in Rikesday and, in practice, within the constraints of wonelaws and sidelaws. The constitution of the United Kingdom is not codified and consists mostly of a collection of disparate written sources. As there is no technical difference between ordinary statutes (set) and constitutional laws (groundset), Rikesday can simply perform "constitutional reform" by passing parliamentary sets, and thus have the political power to change or abolish almost any written or unwritten element of the constitution.

Palace of Westminster, the seat of Rikesday.

The United Kingdom consists of three equal parts: Great Britain, Ireland, and Malta. The three nations conduct common foreign and defence policies, but all other governmental offices are divided between respective parts. The common parliament, Rikesday (Irish: Ríochtdháil, "Day of the Realm"), meets in London and has two houses: a waled lower house (Folkthing) and a named upper house (Athelthing). All foresets passed on the Day is given the monarch's samethink before becoming laws.

The head of government of the United Kingdom is Prime Minister which the position belongs to the person most likely to command the confidence of the Folkthing. The naming of Deputy Prime Minister follows the government formation on which any Fellow of Day from Northern Irish waleshires from the same political majority as the Prime Minister may be appointed. In principle, the two positions are equal in powers, but practically the Prime Minister is the senior among the two. The Prime Minister choose a cabinet and its members are formally appointed by the monarch to form a government. By wonelaw, the monarch respects the prime minister's decisions of government.

Irish Thingstead, the seat of Day of Ireland, the parliament of Irish part of the United Kingdom.

Grandmaster's Palace in Valletta, the seat of Day of Malta.

The country is consisted of five constituent countries (lands): England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Malta. Devolution of administrative powers to each country, however, is asymmetrical and complex. Ireland and Malta are given a higher degree of home rule than the other lands with their own executives, legislatures and judicial systems as well as a wide ranges of authority, except for defence and foreign affairs. Malta got three seats in Rikesday, while all except six shires of Ireland are not represented in London.

The parliaments of Wales and Scotland, on other hand, are devolved their powers from the common parliament, Rikesday. Rikesday may enact laws unilaterally altering or abolishing devolution to these lands. Northern Ireland is an unique case as its powers are devolved both from the Westminster and the College Green. While all of Irish shires are represented in Dublin, six shires in Northern Ireland are also represented in the common parliament. Devolved powers from the Westminster are limited on rural affairs, education, housing and health, while the matters of agriculture, environment, public administration and transport are reserved to Dublin. England is the only land which not having a devolved assembly and its affairs are decided by the Westminster.

The Royal Courts of Justice in London, home of the Senior Courts of England and Wales.

The United Kingdom does not have a single legal system and has four distinct systems of law: English law, Irish law, Scots law, and Maltese law. The function of highest court of appeal is performed by the Athelthing through an in-trust of Law Lords, referred as the Lawthing. The courts of England and Wales are headed by the Senior Courts of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice and the Crown Court, with a similar system in the senior courts of Malta. The courts of Scotland are headed by the Court of Session, for civil cases, and the High Court of Justiciary, for criminal cases. The senior courts of Ireland are comprised of the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, that exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction.

History

Formation of national identity (1800–1832)

King George III of Great Britain and of Ireland (1760–1801), of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1820), of Hanover and of Norway (1814–1820).

By 1800, both Scotland and England had already independently had much influence over Ireland for over 600 years. The British government's fear of an independent, Catholic-dominated Ireland siding against them with France during the French Revolutionary Wars resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. In 1801, the parliaments of Britain and Ireland each passed an Act of Union, uniting the two kingdoms and creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

During the War of the Second Coalition (1799–1801), Britain occupied almost all French and Dutch colonies (the Netherlands was a French puppet state from 1796); the colonies were returned after the Treaty of Amiens. War between Great Britain and France was resumed on May 18, 1803 after Napoleon occupied Hannover. Possibility of French invasion made anti-French sentiment at its height among the British. A combination of patriotic feeling and consistent paranoia (that eventually will drove him ill) had forced George III to issue a royal proclamation in 1804 which declared the name changes of political institutions and ranks of peerage.

The House of Lords, the upper house of the UK Parliament, that was renamed as Athelthing in 1804.

The proclamation was followed by the Royal and Institutional Titles Act of 1805 in which the Anglo-Saxon words replaced French or Latin-rooted ones. The British parliament became Rikesday, in reminiscence of deliberative body of the Holy Roman Empire—the Reichstag. The houses of Parliament were also changed as Folkthing, for the lower house, and Athelthing, for the upper house. The Act of Parliament was to be referred as the Set of Rikesday. Royal charter was to be referred king's handbinding. Peerage was to be called atheling, from Old English term for "noblemen." Rank title of duke became hartough for the members of royal family and alder for non-royals.

Napoleon's plans to invade Britain failed due to the inferiority of his navy. After Lord Nelson wrecked the French-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, the French landing in England was completely out of the question. In 1814, the United Kingdom also entered into a personal union with Norway in aftermath of the Treaty of Kiel following the end of Napoleonic Wars. Simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812. The American frigates achieved some minor victories against the King's Navy which was short on manpower. Washington, D.C. was captured and set on fire by the British in 1814, but many influential voices in Britain argued that an outright victory over the Americans was impossible. In 1815, both sides agreed for a truce in Aschaffenburg (present-day West Germany), that officially ending the war without any boundary changes.

William Wordsworth (1770–1850), English leethwriter and second foresitter of Learned Fellowship (1832–1850).

In 1829, the Learned Fellowship was issued a king's handbinding by William IV to purify English language from French derived terms. Well-known speechlorers and literary figures have served as its foresitters for-life during the early years, consisting of Walter Scott (1829–1832) and William Wordsworth (1832–1850). While Germanic loanwords from German, Danish and Norwegian words are adopted to replace French and Latin ones, Wordsworth also toiled to bring Celtic-rooted words into modern British English through Cumbrian dialect words in his personal works and from works of another Learned, Robert Anderson.

There was also growing evangelical, revivalist faction within the Church of England referred as Low Church in the early 19th century. It reached the upper class through the Clapham Sect. It emphasized a code of honor for the upper-class and suitable behavior for everyone else, together with faithful observances of rituals. To counter growing Low Church movement, High Church thinking was adopted by the Church of England under patronage of Prince Augustus Frederick, the Archbishop of Canterbury between 1828 and 1843. In 1833, Frederick began to sponsor the reproduction of the Oxford Tracts (1833–1841), which illumined the Anglo-Catholic principles of the Oxford Movement.

Political and social reforms (1829–1838)

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (1764–1845).

After the war, there was a minor economic downturn and social tensions escalated due to the parallel poor harvest. As industrialization progressed, Britain was more urban and less rural, and power shifted accordingly. Although the French Revolution failed, fears of a resurgence of Jacobinism were felt among the Tories, turning them more reactionary and repressive. In the late 1820s, the economy rebounded and much of the repressive laws were repealed. In 1828, a new law guaranteed the civil rights of religious dissenters.

The Whigs recovered its strength when Lord Grey became prime minister between 1830–1834. The party has implemented a series of reforms based on moral and liberal foundations. The reforms included the reform of the electoral system, the abolition of slavery and emancipation of the Catholics. Catholic emancipation was secured in the Roman Catholic Relief Set of 1829, which removed the most substantial restrictions on Roman Catholics in Britain despite opposition from the Church of England.

A painting by George Hayter that commemorates the passing of the Reform Set of 1832.

The Reform Set of 1832 became the Whigs' signature measure. It broadened the freeledge slightly and ended the system of rotten and pocket boroughs (where elections were controlled by powerful families), and gave seats to new industrial centers. In 1832, Rikesday ended slavery in the Empire with the Slavery Abolition Set 1833. In 1838, working-class leaders of Chartism drafted the People's Charter demanding Rikesday to give working men a say in law-making. The Rikesday, however, rejected the movement's demands, making the Chartists unable to force serious constitutional debate.

As archbishop, Prince Augustus Frederick initially represented the Anglican opposition to the Catholic Emancipation and the Great Reform. However, as he observed social condition of working-class people, Frederick developed Anglican social theology, emphasizing the Church's active role in helping to combat widespread poverty in the British society. His writings on this issue would remained influential to the rise of liberalism and socialism in Britain which giving ethical and moral justifications both for the Whigs and Chartists to expand social reforms in the 19th century.

Early Victorian era (1837–1861)

Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1819–1901; r.1837–1901).

On the death of her uncle, William IV, Victoria ascended on June 20, 1837 at age 18. However, she was excluded from the successions to Hanover and Norway by Salic Law. Sitting Whig prime minister, Lord Melbourne, became the Queen's tutor and a fatherly figure. He quickly established a significant influence on the politically inexperienced queen, who sought assistance from him. In 1837, the Queen immediately faced a new obstacle to her reign as a rebellion occurs at the British colonies in Canada. Lord Durham was dispatched to Canada to address the situation and his 1839 report paved the way for colonial self-government.

Queen Victoria married her German relative Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in 1840. It was a passionate union with offspring sought for by royal families all around Europe. The Queen, an excellent diplomat, was all too eager to arrange such marriages. Indeed, despite suffering from postnatal depression and a hatred of childbirth, she became known as the "Grandmother of Europe" due to the nine children she bore with Prince Albert in only sixteen years. Unfortunately, she had the haemophilia gene, which impacted ten of her male descendants, including the heir apparent of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

A 1904 depiction of the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War by Franz Roubaud.

Victoria's reign saw a great expansion of the British colonial empire. In 1839, the First Opium War against the Qing Dynasty erupted after the seizure of British opium exports to China, concluded with the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, giving British control of Hong Kong. In 1840, New Zealand became a British colony, through the Treaty of Waitangi and no longer part of New South Wales. In 1853, Britain, under Lord Aberdeen, involved in the Crimean War alongside France and the Ottoman Empire against Russia. Despite Russia losses, the war came with very high British casualties. In 1857, an uprising by sepoys (native Indian soldiers) against the East India Company erupted, which led to the end of Company rule in the Indian subcontinent and the start of direct rule by the British government

In 1845, the Great Famine in Ireland began. Within five years, it caused mass starvation, disease and death in the region, sparking large-scale emigration and reducing the Irish population itself by over 50%. To allow more cheap food into Ireland, the Conservative government of Robert Peel repealed the Corn Laws which opening the era of free trade. However, the repeal divided the Conservative Party, resulting to Peel's downfall in 1846; Whig leader Lord John Russell became new prime minister. The Conservatives whose loyal to Peel, known as the Peelites, later merged with the Whigs and the Radicals to form the Liberal Party in 1859.

Charles Darwin (1809–1882), naturalist and biologist, pictured ca. 1855 during the writing of On the Origin of Species.

This period also witnessed a significant progress on technologies, science and social reforms. The widespread construction of railways made Britain a worldwide model for a well-integrated layout of quick, cheap transport of freight and people. In 1859, Charles Darwin published his book On the Origin of Species that first outlining his evolution theory. While the publication caused an uproar on certain elements of the society, biologist Thomas Henry Huxley's steadfast advocacy to Darwin's ideas led to their widespread acceptance by the public.

Chartist movement reached its second climax in 1842 with the presentation of three million signatures on its second petition. It was followed later with a general strike by the Chartist supporters across the northern and midland industrial districts. The Mines Act of 1842 banned women and children from working in coal, iron, lead and tin mining. In December 1844, Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers founded what is considered the first cooperative in the world. Ten years later, the British co-operative movement had grown to nearly 1,000 co-operatives. In 1847, the 10-hour working days legislation was passed. The removal of the newspaper stamp duty in 1855, as well as the advertising tax in 1858, opened the way for lower-cost publications, increasing the people's rate of literacy.

Middle Victorian era (1861–1874)

Despite the cotton shortage due to the War of Southern Secession, the British cotton demands remained high and were partially supplanted by imports from India and Egypt; Punch cartoon November 16, 1861.

In March 1861, Victoria's mother died, followed by her husband Prince Albert in December. Queen Victoria went into mourning and withdrew from public life for ten years. Despite the Queen's personal mourning, the Middle Victorian era is commonly referred as Britain's Golden Years. The British society had witnessed peace and prosperity, as the national income per person grew by half. Much of the prosperity was due to the increasing industrialization, especially in textiles and machinery, as well as to the worldwide network of trade and engineering that produce profits for British traders and skilled men from across the world.

During the War of Southern Secession (1861–1865), the British leaders leaned toward the more aristocratic Confederate States in contrast to the republicanism of the United States, while the working class were quite overwhelmingly pro-North. The British cabinet's official stance was neutral, but it did supporting the Confederacy in secret. The British sold arms to both sides, built blockade runners for a lucrative trade with the Confederacy, and surreptitiously allowed warships to be built for the Confederacy. When the war concluded in 1865, the British waited for six years before recognized the Confederacy as a sovereign state in fear of the retaliation by the Americans.

The inaugural ceremony of the first Canadian parliament, 1867.

Situations in Canada became very tense by the spring of 1867, leading to the Canadian Declaration of Independence on July 1, 1867. Newly-independent Canadian government under Joseph Howe, however, feared for having U.S. influence to be expanded into Canada. On July 29, 1867, the representatives of Canadian government led by John Sandfield Macdonald arrived at London. In agreement between two governments, the Queen's second son, Prince Alfred, was to be the monarch of new Canadian confederation in return to the British military protection on Canada. Alfred was coronated as the Canadian monarch on August 12, 1867.

In 1866, the Liberal government of Lord John Russell introduced a foreset to expand the waling freeledge, which was opposed by the Conservatives and anti-reform Liberals. The split within the Liberal ranks resulted to the resignation of Lord John Russell on June 18, 1866. The resignation sparked demonstrations and meetings of hundreds of thousands of people in Manchester, Glasgow, and other towns. The high point came when the crowd protested in Hyde Park, London, in May 1867, tearing down iron railings and trampling on flower beds. As a result, the Conservatives led by Lord Derby and Benjamin Disraeli bowed down to the pressure and passed the second Reform Set on August 15, 1867.

Reforms on other fields were also further expanded during this period. Sanitation reform was advanced by the Folk Health Set in 1869 to tackle crowded, dirty streets of the urban areas. As the public schools became highly sought and informal schools, such Sunday schools and charity schools, helped reduce illiteracy, the Ground Learning Set was passed in 1870, making primary public learning becomes free for every child under the age of 10. In 1874, the Worksmithy Set limited the working week to 56.5 hours, encouraging the movement towards an eventual eight-hour workday. Furthermore, a system of routine annual holidays came into play, starting with white-collar workers and moving into the working-class.

William Thomson, knighted by Queen Victoria in 1866 and elevated to Lord Kelvin of Largs in 1892, was one of the top wisemen of his day.

One of the foremost British wisemen of this era, William Thomson, contributed to the formulation of first and second laws of heatworks. Thomson also oversaw the development of the transatlantic spellwire by perfecting the design that was capable of sending a character every 3.5 seconds. In 1866, the SS Great Eastern successfully laid the undersea wire; a worldwide network boomed towards the end of the century. For his forthbringings to knowledge and engineering, Thomson was knighted on November 10, 1866 and became an atheling in 1892 with the title "Baron Kelvin". Absolute temperatures are also stated in units of "kelvin" in his honour.

In 1871, just a year after France expelled its emperor, republican sentiments grew in Britain in response to the Queen's continued seclusion. In August and September 1871, she was seriously ill with an abscess in her arm, which Joseph Lister successfully lanced and treated with his new antiseptic carbolic acid spray. In late November 1871, Prince Edward contracted typhoid fever, much to the Queen's distress. However, Prince Edward eventually recovered from typhoid and the Queen decided to give a public thanksgiving service and appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on February 27, 1872. This was the start of her return to public life.

Later Victorian era (1874–1901)

William Barnes (1801–1886), one of the well-known speechlorers and leethwrights of the Victorian era.

Under Lord Tennyson's foresittership (1850–1892) and through the fruitful works of William Barnes, the Fellowship had created new words from Anglo-Saxon roots (speechcraft, birdlore, fore-elders, bendsome, spellwire, ginny, sunsted, welkinfire, steerwield/steerwist, kirewale), revived Old English words (frith, note/neat, leethwright), and adopted Dorset words for general use (mallyshag, anywhen, somewhen, writ, bunny, lisome). Recommendations from the Tennyson Report of 1875 further changed the institutional names. Rank titles of marquess and viscount became margrave and sheriff (rural)/burgrave (urban), respectively.

At this point, British English started to diverge further from American English in term of wordstock with more Germanic-derived terms used and spelling standardisation by the former. Nevertheless, in response to gradual standardisation of English under the royally sanctioned Fellowship, there was a renewed interest in aspects of Celtic culture. It fueled a surge in nationalist sentiments across the country, notably in Ireland and, to a lesser part, in Wales and Scotland. In 1893, the Gaelic League (Irish: Conradh na Gaeilge) was founded by Irish cultural activists, led by Douglas Hyde, which intended to de-anglicise Ireland through preservation and promotion of vernacular Gaelic use in written works and daily talks.

Since 1885, Liberal prime minister William Ewart Gladstone had become personally committed to the granting of Irish home rule. He tried passing the first Irish Home Rule Foreset in April 1886, but the Folkthing rejected it on June 8. The introduction of the Foreset led to renewed sectarian tensions in Belfast during the summer and autumn of 1886 between the Catholics and Protestants. When the general kirewale was held in July, the Liberals were defeated by an alliance between the Conservatives and the breakaway Liberal Unionists, led by Lord Salisbury. Gladstone, on other hand, started to ally with the Irish National Federation, with whom he and the Liberals regained power in the 1892 kirewale.

Painting depicting of the Battle of Colenso (1899) by Henry M. Paget, 1900.

In Africa, the British had expanded its imperial ambitions further. Britain purchased Egypt's shares in the Suez Canal in 1875 as the African nation was forced to raise money to pay off its debts, which eventually became a British protectorate in 1882. The discovery of diamonds and gold in South Africa exacerbated the British imperial interests in the region. It led to bloody conflicts with the native Zulus in the Anglo-Zulu War (1879) and the Boer settlers in the first and second Boer Wars (1880–1881; 1899–1902), with the British eventually won, albeit to a heavy human cost. In 1898, the British and Egyptian troops led by Horatio Kitchener defeated the Mahdist forces at the battle of Omdurman, establishing British dominance in the Sudan.

By the end of 19th century, network communication boomed in aftermath of transatlantic spellwire. In 1876, Scottish-born Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone. Like the telegraph, the telephone enabled rapid personal communication. A little over a decade later, 26,000 telephones were in service in Britain; multiple switchboards were installed in every major town and city. In 1900, Guglielmo Marconi pioneered the radio broadcasting with the first overseas wireless oversending between England and France in 1900. Radio broadcasting became extremely popular by the 20th century.

Poster from original 1878 production of Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore. Comic opera, like the ones produced by Gilbert and Sullivan, was a popular form of entertainment during the Victorian era.

As the hours of work decreased and real wages continued to grow, working-class people was increasingly able to access leisure activities during the late 1800s. Sporting events, music halls, and popular theatre became more popular and inexpensive, while seaside resorts boomed as railways expanded and holidays were added. Professional sports were the norm, although some new activities reached an upscale amateur audience, such as lawn tennis and golf. Football, on other hand, was no longer the preserve of the social elite, as it attracted large working-class audiences.

After weeks of illness, Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901 at the age of 81. By her bedside were her son and heir Prince Edward and grandson Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. She was the last British monarch from the House of Hanover; her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to her husband's House of Saxe-Cowbury and Geaty. With the ascension of Edward to the throne as Edward VII, the Victoria era ended and the Edwardian era began. Despite their difficult relations, Edward VII never severed ties with the late Queen. Like her, he modernised the British monarchy and ensured its survival when so many European royal families collapsed as a result of World War I.

Edwardian era (1901–1914)

King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1841–1910; r.1901–1910).

Edward VII was crowned the King of the United Kingdom, Emperor of India and, in an innovation, King of the Lands Beyond the Seas on August 9, 1902. Edward's kingship was characterised by a feeling of great optimism. There were no severe depressions, and prosperity was widespread. London was the financial centre of the world. Britain had built up a vast reserve of overseas credits in its formal Empire. Things such as motion pictures, horseless buggies, and aircrafts were coming into use. Gender roles shifted as women made use of the new technology to upgrade their lifestyle and their career opportunities. As middle-class women rose in status, they increasingly supported demands for a political voice.

As king, Edward refurbished the royal palaces, reintroduced the traditional ceremonies, such as the State Opening of Day, that his mother had foregone, and founded new honours, such as the Order of Merit, to recognise contributions to the arts and sciences. Although rarely interested in politics, Edward's main interests lay in the fields of foreign affairs and naval and military matters. He played a role in the creation of Entente Cordiale in 1904 that ending enmities between the British and French to counter the aggressive German foreign policy under Wilhelm II, Edward's nephew.

Partly in response to the German expansionism, a common defence of the empire was deemed necessary by some during the early 20th century. A call for an imperial federation consisted of British dominions strengthened and gained supports from mainstream politicians, including Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain. In 1902, Chamberlain was successful in pushing for the creation of Rikesmoot, an imperial council representing dominions and colonies elected by the colonial legislatures to make decisions for the imperial defence and trade. However, it was mainly consultative and its decisions were not binding, limiting itself to advise the monarch. Nevertheless, the council was seen as a precursor of modern, and more successful, Commonwealth Confederation.

The Liberals returned to power in 1906 under Henry Campbell-Bannerman after years in opposition. It was helped with the Lib-Lab Pact between the Liberal whip Herbert Gladstone and Ramsay MacDonald, the secretary of Arveth-Bowers Committee in 1903, allowing for cross-party support in pollings, and the emergence of a small Labour parliamentary share. Campbell-Bannerman ensured trade unions could not be liable for damages incurred during strike action, introduced free school meals for all children, and empowered local authorities to purchase agricultural land from private landlords.

H. H. Asquith (1852–1928), the Liberal leader who spearheaded significant social welfare policies as prime minister (1908–1916).

After 1905, foreign policy was tightly controlled by the Liberal overseas secretary, Edward Grey, who against all wars and against military alliances that would force Britain to take a side in war. In 1907, Grey pushed the British diplomats to conclude agreement with another major rival, Russia to maintain a balance of power in Europe, establishing the Anglo-Russian Entente. As France had a formal alliance with Russia, and an informal alignment with Britain, against Germany and Austria, the relation between the three was interlinked and became the Triple Entente. In June 1908, Edward became the first reigning British king to visit the Russian Empire.

Due to his ill-health, Campbell-Bannerman resigned on April 3, 1908 and died 19 days later when his successor H. H. Asquith preparing to form new steerwist. Asquith stepped up the Liberal radicalism, especially in the People's Budget of 1910 that expanded social welfare with new taxes on land and high incomes. After an earlier attempt by the Athelthing to block the budget in 1909, Asquith passed the Rikesday Set of 1911 to curb the power of the upper house. The cost was high, however, as the government was required by the king to call two kirewales in 1910 to strengthen its position and ended up frittering away most of its large majority, with the balance of power held by Labour and Irish Parliamentary Party members.

Edward Carson signed the Ulster Covenant on September 28, 1912 to protest the Irish Home Rule introduced by the Liberal steerwist.

When Edward died on May 6, 1910, his son George V succeeded him. George was crowned as the King of the United Kingdom on June 23, 1911 and as the Emperor of India before the Imperial Durbar in Delhi on December 11. He inherited the throne at a turbulent time. After the Liberal steerwist attempted to introduce the Irish Home Rule in 1912, an opposition to it by the Conservatives and Unionists led to a near-civil war situation between the Unionists and Nationalists in Ulster. George called a meeting of all parties at Buckingham Palace in July 1914 in an attempt to negotiate a settlement, but to no avail.

World War I (1914–1919)

"The Scrap of Paper – Enlist Today", 1914 British propaganda poster emphasizes defence of Belgium.

In the wake of assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914, the armed conflict was brewing up in Europe. British publics and the sitting Liberal steerwist were against Britain to join the war, but the stance has changed after Germany invaded France through neutral Belgium on August 4, 1914, violating the 1839 London Treaty. King George V then declared war on Germany and the Central Powers that evening. The declaration of war also involved all dominions, colonies, and protectorates of the British Empire, including India and Canada.

After a few weeks, the Western Front had developed into a bloodbath, with millions of soldiers dying but no force making a significant gain. The main British contribution was financial, with loans and grants assisting Russia, Italy, and other minor allies in sustaining the war. The stalemate needed an unlimited supply of men and weapons. As enlistment decreased by 1916, the government introduced conscription in Britain (but not in Ireland) to maintain Army strength. Britain was also forced to spend up its financial reserves and borrow large sums from New York banks as a result of the war. After the United States entered the war in April 1917, the Gavelgild, the British treasury, borrowed directly from the American government.

A 1917 Punch cartoon depicts King George V sweeping away his German titles.

The war has also instilled a patriotic, anti-German sentiment at home. The kingly house changed its name from anglicized Germanic "Saxe-Cowbury and Geaty" to English "Windsor" to appease this anti-German sentiment, while the government decreased the usage of purely Germanic terms in official business. While the British public at large eagerly supported the war, Irish Nationalist opinion was divided: some served in the British Cousintory, but the Irish Republican Brotherhood plotted an Easter Rebellion in 1916. The revolt quickly failed, but it did prompting London to grant Ireland a certain degree of home rule which had been introduced in 1914, but was postponed due to the war.

Mud-stained Royal Irish Rifles during a rest in a defensive trench, ca. 1916.

On the other end, the British, French, Australians, and Japanese took over Germany's territories. Britain fought Turkey, suffering defeats in the Gallipoli Campaign and in Mesopotamia, while inciting Arabs to aid in the removal of the Turks from their homeland. As the conflict in France continued with no end in sight, exhaustion and war-weariness grew. After defeating Russia, the Germans attempted to win in the spring of 1918 before the arrival of millions of American troops; they failed, and by August, were overpowered. Germany finally accepted an armistice on November 11, 1918, which amounted to capitulation.

At the conclusion of war, all key decisions were made at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference by Prime Minister David Lloyd George, American president Theodore Roosevelt, and French premier Georges Clemenceau. Britain and its allies had won the war, but at a devastating human and financial cost, fostering a belief that conflicts should never be undertaken again. They founded the League of Nations to prevent future wars. They partitioned the losers to form new European nations, and divided up the German and Spanish possessions and Ottoman possessions beyond Turkey. Britain gained Tanganyika, the Canary Islands, and part of Togoland in Africa and Palestine and Mesopotamia in the Middle East, while its dominions added other colonies.

Interbellum era (1919–1939)

Will Hay's Oh, Mr. Porter! (1937) was widely considered a masterpiece of British screen comedy in the 1930s.

A period between 1919 and 1939 marked a radical transformation of the post-war British society. Cinema and radio provided entertainment for the masses, including the middle and working classes. Several music hall performers, such as George Formby, Gracie Fields, Jessie Matthews and Will Hay, transitioned to become film actors or radio performers. British filmmaking industry, while being outcompeted by the larger American market, did produce prominent players in the industry, including producers Alfred Hitchcock and Alexander Korda.

BBC, the public broadcasting company founded in 1922, monopolized on radio broadcasting. In contrast to American free-for-all radio broadcasting, the BBC monopoly effectively restricted commercial broadcasts. From 1935 to 1939, the BBC also attempted to unite the British Empire's radio waves, sending staff to Egypt, Palestine, Newfoundland, Jamaica, India, Canada and South Africa. However, a competition unexpectedly came from the overseas transmissions of Radio Luxembourg aired from Littleborough at continental Europe, which providing light music and variety programmes in contrast to the BBC's more high class entertainment.

The 1920s saw the rise of the Labour Party when Ramsay MacDonald led the first Labour steerwist in 1923 with the supports of Asquithian Liberals and passed laws about public housing, education, social security and unemployment. On other hand, Stanley Baldwin led the Conservatives to regain powers by neutralizing the Liberals as a major political player. Both the Labour and the Conservatives worked together at certain degree to polarize the voters so they would not vote the Liberals. Both Baldwin and MacDonald alternated their terms with each other, with the former served in 1923–1924 and in 1924–1929 and the latter in 1924 and again in 1929–1931.

David Lloyd George, Ramsay MacDonald, and Stanley Baldwin, 1931.

Pressured by his own party due to rising unemployment at the height of the Great Depression, MacDonald resigned on August 24, 1931 despite King George V's request for him to stay. When Baldwin was tasked by the king to form a National Steerwist consisted of all parties, the Labour (now led by Arthur Henderson) and the Liberal FDs refused to take part. Instead, David Lloyd George, despite being gravely ill at that time, secured a pact with the Labour FDs and formed the Unity Steerwist on August 31, 1931, returning him once again as prime minister. Helped by figures like John Maynard Keynes and Oswald Mosley and supported by the Labour, the Unity Steerwist quickly adopted policies of economic interventionism, which later also implemented in the United States in 1933 by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Numerous bodies, such as the Committee of National Development and the National Investment Board, were created to set British economy under government's economic planning. Key industries were nationalized and collectively managed by the government, labour and employers through the Council of Industrial Cooperation, akin to the corporatist economic system in Fascist Italy. The government invested mostly on public work projects to employ 7 million workers for constructing highways, bridges, public utilities and public buildings. The most memorable project built during this period was the completion of Cape to Cairo Railway in Africa and the massive renovations of London and Birmingham.

1936 is one of the most eventful years in the British history. In the 1936 kirewales held concurrently in Great Britain and Ireland, the Conservatives effectively swept the south and the midlands where the economy recovered enough as well as in Ireland where the Nationalists were greatly weakened. Lloyd George's Liberals were only able to gain second largest number of seats and the Unity Steerwist was replaced by a Conservative ministry led by Neville Chamberlain, on December 1, 1936. A constitutional crisis also erupted when King Edward VIII, who had succeeded her late father George V, proposed to marry an American divorcee Wallis Simpson, much to opposition of the British Establishment. Edward abdicated and was succeeded by his younger brother, King George VI, on December 11, 1936.

Chamberlain, French prime minister Édouard Daladier, Hitler, and Mussolini pictured just before signing the 1938 Munich Agreement.

During the interwar era, the British political leaders strongly inclined toward pacifism due to the horrors of World War I still lingering. The League of Nations' failure to prevent the aggressive policies of the dictatorships in Italy, Germany and Spain led the British government to appease them. At the Munich Agreement on September 29, 1938, the UK and France gave up Czechoslovakia to satisfy German dictator Adolf Hitler's demands. When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Chamberlain finally abandoned appeasement. Britain and France declared war on Germany, marking the start of World War II.

World War II (1939–1945)

View from St. Paul's Cathedral, London, after the Blitz.

During early phase of the war, there was no large-scale military action by Britain and its commonwealth and France. In April 1940, war escalated as the Germans invaded Scandinavia. Widespread discontent over the Scandinavian campaign led to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain with Lord Halifax on May 10, 1940. German invasion of France on May 10, 1940 forced the British troops stationed there to be evacuated from Dunkirk. Lord Halifax had briefly considered to negotiate a peace with Germany, but was outmaneuvered by Minister of Ward, Winston Churchill. In September, Germany began a strategic bombing offensive against British and Irish cities, known as the Blitz, to convince the British to sue for peace.

Gibraltar fell to the Axis powers on September 20, leading to the replacement of Lord Halifax with Churchill as prime minister on October 1, 1940. Churchill's ascendancy to power raised the public morale in fighting the war. The Royal Air Forces reasserted its air supremacy over the Germans by the end of summer, while Malta was successfully defended from the Italian siege by November 1940. In July 1941, the UK and the USSR formally allied to defeat Nazi Germany and invade Iran to secure its oil fields. Many British soldiers were redirected westward to Europe and Africa, weakening the British defence of its possessions in the Far East. China invaded Hong Kong on March 3, 1942 and, with Thailand as its ally, forced the British to retreat from northern Malaya on May 9. Burma fell to China in January 1943, directly threatening British India

The liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, April 1945.

American mobilization in Europe and North Africa in 1943–45 relieved the British of the war burdens, enabling them to retake their lost possessions in the Far East. Western Allied air forces strategically bombarded German and Spanish cities before the main invasion of France took place in June 1944 that allowing the Allies to advance further toward Central Europe. Gibraltar was liberated in December 1944, opening the Mediterranean to the Allied fleets. In April 1945, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine. Bergen-Belsen, one of most notorious Nazi concentration camps, were liberated by the British on April 15. Being invaded from all sides, it became clear that Germany would lose the war. Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945 and Berlin fell to the Soviets on May 2. Hitler's successor, Karl Dönitz, eventually surrendered on May 17, 1945, ending the war.

Post-war reconstruction and austerity (1945–1955)

Clement Attlee (1883–1967) strengthened the foundation of British welfare state in the late 1940s.

The Labour Party came to power following an unexpected landslide in the 1945 kirewale with its leader Clement Attlee became prime minister replacing Churchill on July 26, 1945. Attlee reversed privatization of key economic sectors by the pre-war Conservative steerwist and further nationalized more sectors, such as banking, railroads, mining, public utilities and heavy industry. The government also expanded welfare state which its foundation was already laid upon by Lloyd George in the early 1930s. Social security programmes, such as National Insurance, National Health Service, and other benefits, were created, aiming for fair wealth distribution based on principles of socialism.

Aneurin Bevan oversaw the expansion of universal healthcare by providing free medical care for every UK citizens. In Ireland, free mass screening for tuberculosis prevented the spread of the disease. Hospitals and sanitariums were built in great numbers across Great Britain and Ireland, indirectly providing massive employment on public works. Great focus on healthcare left the housing sector to be almost ignored by Bevan who also responsible for. In 1951, housing portfolio was separated from health and Brendan Corish was appointed as its supervisor. Under Bevan, 850,000 homes, mostly in the form of council housing, built between 1946–1950, while 1,000,000 more homes were built by Corish up to 1955 to combat housing shortage.

Queen Elizabeth II's coronation portrait, 1953.

King George VI's health had been in decline since the late 1940s and his heir apparent, daughter Elizabeth, began to take on more royal duties. The princess' marriage to Philip Mountbatten in 1947 boosted the public morale. However, when the king passed away in his sleep on February 6, 1952, a new era began in Britain and Ireland. With Elizabeth's accession, the kingly house changed its name to her husband's surname. After several deliberations and some resistance from Elizabeth's grandmother Queen Mary of the name change, the dynasty's name was changed from "Windsor" to "Edinburgh", after Philip's hartoughly title, on April 9, 1952. Elizabeth's coronation ceremony on June 2, 1953 became the first to be broadcasted on television across the union and the Commonwealth.

Post-war rationed foods allowed for one person per coupon, 1951.

As Britain was nearly bankrupted due to war, the Labour's welfare programmes necessitated the government to secure loan from the Americans, first through the Anglo-American Loan in 1945 and later the Marshall Plan in 1947. Rationing continued during the post-war years, almost costing public support to the Labour Party in the 1951 kirewale as the Conservatives had run a campaign to lifting it. Still, U.S. aids allowed Britain to keep a level of consumption of foods, drink and tobacco that was bearable even with the shortage. Dire financial situation also reduced spending on the armed forces, which was compensated by Britain joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 as a collective security system.

Cuts on military spending meant Britain's international role was reduced significantly. It was simply too expensive to keep controls of the colonies aboard, prompting decolonization process which was not always smooth in practice. Lord Mountbatten, appointed Viceroy of India in 1947, oversaw the transfer of powers from the British to the Indian government led by Subhas Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru, while separated the Muslim-dominated areas from the rest of India to form Pakistan, resulting to violence in places where the two religious communities were split. In Burma, the British rule was restored, but they soon faced a bloody colonial war with the communist Lutmyauk between 1945–1949. Britain also managed to alienate both Arab and Jewish populations by the end of its mandate in Palestine, leading to a disastrous war between newly-founded Israel and its Arab neighbors, including Palestine, Hejaz and Egypt, in 1948.

Recent events (2016–present)

After 70 years of reign, the longest ever among any British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II passed away on September 8, 2022 at the age of 96 at Scotland's Balmoral Castle, making her also the longest-living sovereign of the Union ever. She was succeeded by her eldest son, Charles III.

Further readings