What were the causes of the Easter Rising?

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What were the causes of the Easter Rising?

On Monday 24th 1916 100 republican men marched on the general post office in Northern Ireland and took it over. The Pearse  declared that Ireland was now an independent country. After one week of fierce fighting the British army won the battle. Damage was enormous and both sides killed innocent people among the 490 dead and 2,000 injured. On the 29th April 1916 Patrick Pearse and his rebel gang surrended to the British army. The British army executed 15 of the rebel leaders.

Ireland has a long history of revolts and rebellions against the British. Nationalists led by Wolfe Tone had revolted many times in the 18th and 19th century. It was the rebellion of 1798 that made the British abolish Irish parliament this caused many problems when the home rule movement tried to get parliament back. This party was set up in the 1870’s by Irish nationalists. Home rule bills failed in 1886 and 1893. It took decades before the British gave in and gave the Irish home rule. Home rule was passed in 1914 but the fenians were not happy with just that they wanted complete independence and din'’ want to wait until the end of the war when the British had postponed it too. The fenians got frustrated as the war went on longer than expected. This was a major cause of the Easter Rising.

     The potato famine of 1845 to 1849 was another long-term cause of the Easter rising. This caused great resentment towards the British, as it seemed they did little to relieve it. This caused approximately 1 million deaths. The biggest problem was that too many people were trying to scrape a living off the land. British landlords who were only interested in making a profit owned much of the land.

     Religious divisions also split the two countries. Many English settled in the north who were Protestant. The rest of Ireland were catholic. The Catholics resented favourable treatment from the British in the 19th century, because Ireland didn’t have a government they couldn’t do anything about this. The British passed a law in 1829 that the Catholics could become MP’s only in that year and that Catholics had to pay money to support the Protestant Church of England.

 

     

     The Boer war between 1899-1902 was a short-term cause. This was a war between the British and South Africans who also wanted to be free from British control and have there own independence. This inspired the Irish to stand up to the British and do what they wanted to do. The Irish Nationalists had great sympathy for the south Africans, as they were a smaller group of people, so this gave Ireland confidence they knew they could defeat them.

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     The outbreaks of war in 1914 made the English fight on the western front against the Germans. Fewer and fewer soldiers could keep Ireland in order. This gave Ireland an opportunity to take over Dublin “ England’s misfortune is Ireland’s opportunity” The Irish took advantage of Germany at the same time. The Germans sent them rifles and ammo. They did this to be sure they would defeat Britain. The Germans believed if they helped the Irish it may distract the British so they could progress and defeat them.

In 1916 the British introduced conscription little men were joining. ...

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