Historical and Cultural Transitions in the United Kingdom in the 20th Century

When Queen Victoria died Edward VII came to the throne. His reign was not prosperous and stable but Edwardian period was a time of a political, social and cultural unrest.

What are the Social Reforms and Ireland?

The There were two social reforms: The Old pensions Act, that guaranteed pension to people over 70, and the National Insurance Act, that insured workers against sickness.

Edward VII died in In this period comes the Irish Question: the major part of the Irish population was Catholic and wanted an independent Parliament in Dublin, but Protestant population preferred to stay under the British rule. Internal conflicts begun and it was coined the expression "Sinn fein" that in Celtic means "Ourselves Alone".

In 1914 the First World War started and provoked economic consequences: the fall in the value of money; the rise of taxation; war industries; a stronger foreign competition; difficulties in trade and workers went on strike.

Royal Successions and Modernism

The United Kingdom faced the In the In George V died in His brother George VI succeeded him.

When George VI died, he was succeeded by his elder daughter Elizabeth, who married to Philip, Duke of Edimburgh.

The early 20th century was a period of The end of the 19th century saw an explosion of Culturally, the inner-war period was called the age of modernism.

Innovations in Psychology and Science

The first set of new ideas came from Freud in his work the interpretation of He also introduced a new method of investigation of human mind through the analysis of dreams and the concept of free association which influenced many writers of the modern age.

In the field of science, the old certainties were lost because of the introduction of the concept of relativity by Einstein, whose theory was based on the subjective dimensions of time and space.