The Republican Party produced their first president Abraham Lincoln, who served for 2 terms beginning in 1860. Lincoln played a huge part in ridding America of its slaves by signing the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment (which made slavery illegal), the Fourteenth Amendment (which guaranteed equal protection) and the Fifteenth Amendment (which helped to secure voting rights for African-Americans). In 1861 the American Civil War began, and the President had something to do with the cause. Lincoln was anti-slavery and the Southern states were pro-slavery - slaves were imperative for agricultural production. This caused the secession of 7 states from the Union beginning with South Carolina. Lincoln went on to issue a sort of ultimatum on April 15th 1861 forcing the Southern states to agree with him or face military action. Following this speech 4 further states voted to join the Confederacy. Lincoln was not intent on destroying America; he simply wanted to free the slaves and probably took the only route possible to do so. After the victory in the North in 1865 there were many casualties, the most casualties for the United States than in any other war (around 200,000). On April 14th 1865 Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth who was angry at the South’s defeat.
Between 1880 and 1886 there were many tensions within the British Liberal Party. This was caused by such things as a strong divide between the Radicals and the Whigs within the party. These two wings could not work smoothly together. William Gladstone, the Prime Minister from 1880-1885 and Liberal leader, also made problems for himself by taking on the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer leaving him little time to concentrate on other important matters. He was also renowned for acting “on impulse with consulting the cabinet.” Gladstone, during his year in office in 1886, tried to make concessions to the Irish, which the Whigs objected to. More problems ensued and the party broke in two with Joseph Chamberlain leading the Liberal Unionists, and many voters turning to Conservatism. Although the Liberals were the Conservative Party’s main rival their steady decline from this point is obvious. A new, stronger party was needed to challenge the Conservatives.
The Republican Party led the United States during the turn of the century with William McKinley as President from 1896 to 1901 (until his assassination), when his Republican Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt took over. At this time the economy and production was doing well, gold was even discovered in Alaska in 1897. This period did a lot for Republican leadership, they became “the party of progress and prosperity” and McKinley was a very popular man. In 1898 and 1899 however, the party was forced to focus on the Spanish-American War caused by Spain’s treatment of Cuba. President McKinley approved of Spain’s motives, but not of their threatening and brutal methods to keep Cuba in line and so after several warnings declared war on April 11th 1898. The war did do some good for America such as expansion of her empire, which now included Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, and McKinley could also begin a modernisation of Washington government offices,
“He found the War Department asleep, and left it awake.”
The Beginning of the new Century in Britain meant leadership by the Conservatives; but a new party, made up of three different socialist groups (the Social Democrat Federation, the Fabians and the Independent Labour Party) and some trade unions was quietly accumulating steam. The Labour Party formed in 1900, although they did not do well in the elections that year because it such a new party it was short of money and had hardly any union support. However James Ramsey MacDonald, the future Labour Prime Minister, wrote to “all trade unions stressing the need for a large Labour representation in Parliament” and a surge of trade union support followed. With the growth of industry, and industrial cities it seems Labour’s rise to equal the Conservatives was expected, but what had happened to the Liberal Party? The party was still intact, just bruised after the problems of the 1880’s. They still produced Prime Ministers until 1922 when David Lloyd George, the Welsh Liberal left office.
In 1914 Great Britain went to war with Germany. The USA was officially neutral but supplied loans and equipment to the Allies. Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic President at the time, did not want to join the war; however following the sinking of the Lusitania by German U-Boats in 1915 after warnings from America, Wilson realised diplomatic negotiations would not solve the dispute. The USA entered the war in 1917 after pressure from Theodore Roosevelt, Germanys’ refusal to back down, and the fact that the Germans kept managing to kill Americans with every boat they blew up.
World War I had an important political effect on Britain from 1915 with the “end of the Liberal government” to December 1918 when Lloyd George’s coalition won a landslide victory. In May 1915 the Conservative Party agreed to join a coalition under the Liberal Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, however the Conservatives soon became concerned with Asquith’s “lack of direction in the war” and pushed for a replacement in David Lloyd George. Many see Lloyd George as the man who won the war and he did seem to rally the government into shape. He set up a small war cabinet in 1916 comprising of himself, the Conservative and Labour leaders, the former governor of Cape Colony and George Nathaniel Curzon, a British statesman who held various offices under Lloyd George. This cabinet made all of the main decisions. Despite this, Lloyd George had many enemies and was even blamed for the decline of the Liberal Party. The Conservatives had made some organisational reforms during this ten year period, such as creating the post of Party Chairman in 1911 to oversee the work of the Central Office. Problems were rising in the Conservative Party however. Due to economic depression and failures of policy the coalition was becoming unfavourable. On October 19th 1922 a revolt against the coalition took place where Andrew Bonar Law “ousted both Chamberlain as Party Leader and Lloyd George as Prime Minister”.
The American Democrats led the US through World War II with Franklin Delano Roosevelt as President, elected in 1932. This was a period of great depression in the United States following the Wall Street Crash on 29th October 1929. Roosevelt knew that by spending money the country could save money so he chose to build airports and shipyards, thereby creating jobs for the unemployed. He was a brilliant speaker being the first President to effectively use the radio to address his country with ‘fireside chats’. The New Deal, implemented primarily by Roosevelt, was a,
“broad program of relief, recovery and reform that increased the role of government
in American life.”
The New Deal made many things possible such as saving the nations banks, and economy, from collapse by giving them government supervision and financial support. Another major New Deal victory was the Tennessee Valley Authority which meant dams were built along the Tennessee River to curb flooding and produce electricity, along with the creation of further jobs. Many Americans did not want to join the war and criticised Roosevelt for seemingly professing peace when he really knew war with Germany was inevitable. Others were critical of the President for being too cautious with the way he was slyly sending supplies to the Allies whilst remaining neutral. Roosevelt knew that it would be dangerous to enter the war as a divided nation and so cleverly bided his time until the enemy made the first move. He didn’t have to wait long, on December 7th 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour, Hawaii killing more than 2,400 American sailors. With the country now united against a common enemy the United States declared war on Nazi Germany. Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times, more than any other President.
As before, Great Britain had been at war for some time before America joined at the end of 1941. The first World War II leader in Britain was the Conservative Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain had huge support after the previous Conservative Leader, Stanley Baldwin, who didn’t seem to have a strong hold over his party. Chamberlain however could not deal with the outbreak of war and resigned in 1940 only to be replaced by Winston Churchill who proved to be an outstanding war leader. Elected at the age of 65 one could be forgiven for thinking that Churchill would be too old to take Britain to victory but despite his age he had an unbelievable mental and physical energy. His speeches to the public were strong and to the point leaving Britain in no doubt about our imminent victory. Before he took office in 1940 many questioned Churchill’s judgement and reliability. He had changed parties from Conservative to Liberal and back to Conservative again and had made some definitive mistakes between 1910 and 1936 such as his aggressiveness during the General Strike of 1926 which could easily have led the strikers into violence. However his views about the need for Britain to rearm and stand up to Hitler were consistent. Churchill had original ideas towards winning the war although some were impractical, so much so the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Sir Alan Brooke, spent a lot of time trying to get Churchill to drop some of his more radical suggestions. Like Lloyd George, Churchill set up a war cabinet which created a national government helping to carry Britain to victory.
With the election of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 the Cold War had been going for 11 years. There was a sense of national frustration in America following the economic adjustments following World War II and the possibility of Communist penetration. The Republican Party focussed on this and it helped Eisenhower secure the Presidency. However Eisenhower did not know how to deal with Communism and Joseph McCarthy, a Republican senator with strong views about Communist subversion. His advisors tried to get him to use his power as President to put a stop to McCarthy, but he refused. In 1954 McCarthy accused the American Army of harbouring Communists causing the American population to turn their back on him. The 1950’s was a difficult era for the Republican Party, following the 1954 midterm election the Democrats regained control of Congress leaving Eisenhower to deal with two Texas Democrats, Lyndon B. Johnson and Sam Rayburn for legislative action.
“The result was a very modest legislative record.”
The Labour Party’s second Prime Minister was Harold Wilson, elected in 1964. At this time the nation’s economy was in bad shape and a budget was introduced in November 1964. The budget was poorly received and the failing economy was only helped by loans from the United States. What Wilson did manage to do was help pass several laws concerning divorce, homosexuality and abortion, and in 1968 passed the Race Relations Act which made it illegal to,
“discriminate against people on racial grounds in employment, housing, insurance,
education and other areas.”
During this time the Open University was created allowing people to study at home using radio and television. Unemployment continued to fall, and although Wilson was confident of an election victory in 1970, the Conservatives gained the majority.
When Richard M. Nixon was elected President in 1968 America was halfway through the war with Vietnam. Nixon was passionate about Foreign Policy and welfare state. The Lyndon B. Johnson administration had begun to put a stop to segregation in Southern schools. Those who were against this as Nixon came to power blamed the Supreme Court because of Nixon’s shrewd ability to shift responsibility. Johnson had also attempted to fight the Vietnam War without raising taxes which caused a rising inflation rate. Nixon found this to be a real test,
“Nixon opted for a reduction in spending while encouraging the Federal Reserve
Board to curtail the money supply, forcing up interest rates, and slowing the rate
of business expansion.”
Unfortunately this sent the economy into recession. Nixon is probably most famous for the Watergate Scandal. He had huge distrust in his associates, Congress and the White House and planted bugs in telephones and managed to persuade James McCord, amongst others, to break into the Watergate complex in Washington to steal confidential papers. McCord was caught and the Nixon administration brought down, with Nixon’s resignation on August 9th 1974.
In May 1979 the British public elected their first female Prime Minister in the shape of Margaret Thatcher. During her first government in 1983, there was a 3 million rise in unemployment causing the Conservative Party’s popularity to diminish. Thatcher did well in her handling of the Falklands crisis however, and Britain emerged victorious over Argentina restoring the nations hope in the Conservative Party. She was re-elected twice over, but between 1987 and 1990 she was determined to introduce the poll tax, an unpopular policy, even with the rest of her cabinet. Behind closed doors the party began to divide over Europe and Mrs Thatcher was forced to resign in November 1990. However the party had not fallen out with Britain and John Major, Thatcher’s’ replacement was elected Prime Minister.
With the help of his slogan: “read my lips - no new taxes” George Bush was elected President in 1988. In 1991 Bush broke his pledge and, along with the continuing recession, the 1990 budget agreement had “led to an increase of more than $1 trillion in the national debt during Bush’s Presidency.” Although the Cold War ended in 1990, on August 2nd of that year Saddam Hussein, the dictatorial ruler of Iraq, invaded Kuwait and threatened Saudi Arabia. Bush sent American troops to Saudi Arabia in order to protect the oil reserves there. Operation Desert Storm freed Kuwait in 1991. This victory could not help Bush’s administration to win the 1992 election however; he was replaced by the Democrat William J. Clinton.
George Bush’s son, George W. Bush is currently the Republican President and following a landslide victory in 1997 Tony Blair became the current Labour Prime Minister. Blair and Bush are both enjoying a comfortable economy and, following the September 11th attacks, are united against a common enemy – terrorism.
“The Conservative Party-From Peel to Major” page 74
“Modern British History” page 236
“American Past and Present” page 370
“The Penguin History of the USA” page 441
“Modern British History” pages 302-303
“Modern British History” page 355
“America Past and Present” page 464
“America Past and Present” page 524
“Modern British History” page 500
“America Past and Present” page 564
“America Past and Present” page 598