2. • By the beginning of this century , Britain was
no longer the world's richest country. One
reason for this sudden decline was the cost
and effort of two world wars: the Great War
– 1914 (the World War I) and the World War
II – 1939. Another reason was the cost of
keeping up the empire, followed by the
economic problems involved in losing it.
3. • The first twenty years of the century
were the period of extremism in
Britain. There appeared the
Suffragettes ,the women who
demanded the right to vote and
were prepared both to damage
property and to die for their beliefs.
4. • In 1902 selective secondary education
was introduced. In 1908 government
started to give old-age pensions. In 1911
the power of the House of Lords was
reduced.
5. • At the beginning of this century that the
urban working class (the majority of the
population) finally began to make its voice
heard. In Parliament, the Labor party
gradually replaced the Liberals (the
‘descendants’ of the Whigs) as the main
opposition to the Conservatives (the
‘descendants’ of the Tories).
6. • Trade unions managed to organize themselves. In
1926, they were powerful enough to hold a General
Strike, and from the 1930s until the 1980s the Trades
Union Congress was probably the single most
powerful political force outside the institutions of
government and Parliament.
7. • In 1922 after the treaty between Ireland and
Britain made in 1921 southern Ireland became
free. In 1949 the republic of Ireland was set up.
In 1953 Elizabeth II became the Queen of the UK.
