Lingua inglese - l'Inghilterra tra le due guerre - Appunti

The Irish Question and the Treaty of Versailles

The political settlement which concluded the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles, left many problems unsolved. Among the problems that Britain had to face in the first half of the century there was the urgent Irish question.

In 1914, before the outbreak of the war, the British government had agreed to self-government for Ireland, but this was suspended during the war. However, at Easter 1916, those who wanted full independence rebelled in Dublin, under the leadership of Patrick Pearse. During the revolt called the Easter Rising, Pearse and 13 others, belonging to the Irish nationalistic party Sinn Féin, were executed.

In the 1918 election, Sinn Féin won throughout Ireland, except in six counties of Ulster, but did not join the British Parliament. Instead, they met the Irish Parliament in Dublin, announcing that Ireland was now a republic.

The war of independence began in 1919 led by the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and Sinn Féin. It ended in 1921 with the establishment...

of the Irish Free State. The unsatisfactory Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 led to a civil war and at last, after the 1932 election, the new Prime Minister, Eamond de Valera started to work on the foundation of the Irish Republic, officially created in 1937.

The treaty of peace signed at Versailles in June 1919 imposed such impossible conditions on Germany that consequently underwent a terrible economic crisis in the 1920s, which fed the Nazi Party's rise to power.

The League of nation fails his role and when Germany invaded Poland France and Britain declared war on Germany the 3rd of September 1939.

War was fought for the ideal of defending democracy against totalitarianism.

Churchill managed to overcome all difficulties and gather strong popular support, leading at last the country to victory.