"What was the significance of the Liberal Election Victory of 1906".

Authors Avatar

“What was the significance of the Liberal Election Victory of 1906”

From the period of 1895 to 1900 the liberals remained out of power until 1906. The 1906 general election saw a convincing liberal landslide of 399 liberal seats to the conservatives 156. This was the end of the conservative dominance. The conservative party who were strongly united behind the three C’s Crown, Church, and Constitution had held power for seventeen years 1886-1906. Despite agricultural depression Britain was successful, the economy was the strongest where invisible exports made Britain corner the world market. However the Tories support started to decline and many factors had now started to affect the conservative party.

The Boer War from 1899-1902 was a conflict known as the South African War between the British Empire .It took Britain three years to win the war, because the Boers had guerrilla tactics. There had been much upset in the British Republic because it was not expecting its soldiers to encounter such strong resistance from the Boers and blamed the government for what appeared military incompetence. This then resulted to thousands of British soldiers dead. The war had also led to a rejection of volunteers, which raised questions regarding the health of the nations, when the government was spending money on the war. Many lived in poverty because the government was neglecting the people at home. The Boer war had disastrous effects on Britain even in the economic growth. The Boer war had a major effect on the public. The conservatives did as little as they could with the problems of the Boer war so they decided to introduce some reforms instead. These reforms were the key issues for why the conservatives lost the 1906 election.

Join now!

The Education Act was responsible for the landslide victory because the Liberals had gained a great deal of support from the Non-Conformist. In 1902 the Education Act, Balfour’s, ministry which was done to improve education. This upset the non-conformists because it saw schools receiving assistance from rates. This had angered the non-conformists because they had always objected to what they saw as privileges of the Church of England. This had led to the loss of support to the Tories.

The Licensing Act was another factor, which led to the Liberal election victory. The Licensing Act of 1904 led ...

This is a preview of the whole essay