GREAT BRITAIN 



2592 



GREAT BRITAIN 



The life of the country was practically 

 revolutionized during the period that Victoria 

 was on the throne. At the beginning there 

 were but a few miles of railway in the king- 

 dom, and there was not a telephone or a tele- 

 graph line; before its close railways ran every- 

 where, people talked to each other from end 

 to end of the kingdom and messages flew over 

 thousands and thousands of miles of wire. 



Wars of the Reign. It had been the policy 

 of England since the early nineteenth century 

 not to be drawn into wars unless it was abso- 

 lutely necessary, but struggles could not always 

 be avoided. There was the Crimean War of 

 1854-1856, in which England successfully en- 

 gaged in checking the ambitious designs of 

 Russia; the Sepoy mutiny of 1857, which had 

 as its result the transfer of India from the 

 authority of the East India Company to that 

 of the Crown; and the South African War of 

 1899-1902, which resulted in the annexing of 

 the Transvaal and the Orange Free State to 

 the empire as colonies. Each of these wars is 

 treated under its own title. 



The Twentieth Century. More than ever 

 before it was noticeable during the reign of 

 Edward VII (1901-1910), son of Queen Vic- 

 toria, that Great Britain was an empire in 

 more than name. The colonies had shown 

 their loyalty during the war in South Africa, 

 and they began to give evidence in other 

 ways of the fact that they felt themselves to 

 be a part of one great country. The Aus- 

 tralian colonies were federated in 1901 into a 

 Commonwealth, but the relations with the 

 mother country were closer and more cordial 

 than ever before. During Edward's reign a 

 crisis was reached in Parliamentary affairs, the 

 question of the veto power of the House of 

 Lords becoming acute. Edward's death and 

 the accession of his son, George V, in 1910, 

 caused a temporary cessation in the strife over 

 the budget question, but in 1911 there was 

 passed a bill which made a greater change in 

 Parliamentary affairs than had any legislation 

 since the Reform Bill of 1832. This was the 

 removal from the upper house of the perma- 

 nent veto power. It declared not only that 

 the upper house had no right to amend 'or- 

 reject a financial bill, but that any bill which 

 was passed by the Commons at three suc- 

 cessive sessions became a law despite the dis- 

 approval of the House of Lords. 



The early years of the reign of George V 

 were marked by severe labor troubles in 1911 

 and 1912, including a number of serious 



strikes; the disestablishment of the Church of 

 England in Wales in 1914; and the passage 

 of the act allowing home rule to Ireland (see 

 HOME RULE). Out of this Home Rule Bill 

 there grew a disturbance in the Irish county 

 of Ulster, which for a time was very acute. 

 The Orangemen there refused to countenance 

 home rule because it would mean the domi- 

 nance in the island of the Roman Catholic 

 faction, and actual civil war was averted only 

 by the outbreak of a greater struggle the War 

 of the Nations, which began in the summer 

 of 1914. 



Great Britain and the War. The violation 

 of Belgian neutrality by Germany was an- 

 nounced by Great Britain as the cause which 

 led it to declare war on Germany on August 

 3, 1914. The military and naval forces of the 

 empire were at once mobilized. The colonies 

 showed wonderful loyalty, sending volunteers 

 in great numbers, while in the kingdom itself 

 in England, Ireland and Scotland the una- 

 nimity of purpose was even more remarkable. 

 Possibly never before in all its history had 

 the nation been so entirely united on any 

 great matter. The military events of this 

 greatest conflict of all times are treated in the 

 article WAR OF THE NATIONS. A.MC c. 



Consult Dilke's Greater Britain; Seeley's The 

 Expansion of England; Fox's British Empire; 

 Besant's The Rise of An Empire. 



Rlated Subjects. Of the numerous articles 

 in these volumes which are connected with the 

 subject of Great Britain, many are listed in the 

 indexes under ENGLAND, IRELAND, SCOTLAND and 

 WALES. The following list will simplify reference 

 not only to those indexes but to the topics below 

 as well : 



CITIES AND TOWNS 



See lists under ENGLAND,, IRELAND, SCOTLAND, 

 WALES. 



COLONIES 

 See list in article above. 



GOVERNMENT 



Cabinet Magna Charta 



Empire Parliament 

 Exchequer, Chancellor Premier 



of the Privy Council 



Flag Privy Seal 



Imperialism Supremacy, Royal 

 King 



For more general topics, see list under CIVIL 

 GOVERNMENT. 



HISTORY 



For earlier history, see lists of Related Subjects 

 under ENGLAND, IRELAND, SCOTLAND, WALES. 

 Alabama, The Black Hole of Calcutta 



Balaklava Boston Massacre 



Bering Sea Controversy Boston Port Bill 



