What happened to Britain after World War 2?

Question

Estevan Bartoletti · Accepted Answer

Britain after World War II was victorious but bankrupt.

As soon as the war in Europe had ended, the coalition government (in place since 1940 under Winston Churchill) was dissolved and a Conservative administration took over.

A general election was held, which resulted in a landslide victory for the Labour Party under Clement Attlee. The had an ambitious policy agenda involving the full implementation of the Beverage Report and state control of the economy.

Over the following five years, the Beverage Report's "five giants to be slayed" - Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness - were tackled.

- Want: A new system of comprehensive social insurance providing state benefits for the sick, poor and unemployed replaced the hated "Poor Law" and the workhouse.

- Disease: A comprehensive healthcare system was invented, free at the point of use across local doctors, hospitals, surgeons, dentists and opticians.

- Ignorance: The school leaving age was increased to 15, the universities expanded and the coalition-originated Butler Act providing free education for all children was implemented.

- Squalor: A housing programme was begun, with ambitious (but unrealized) plans to build millions of new homes and to demolish the slums in the inner cities. A Town and Country Planning Act prevented the construction of factories by homes and homes by factories, clearing the soot from peoples' lives. The national parks and the green belts around the cities were created.

- Idleness: Full employment was a constantly stated and planned for goal.

The new government went to work on nationalising (then called "socialising") the "commanding heights" of the economy: the coal mines, electricity, gas, water, the railways, long-distance road transport, the Bank of England, iron and steel and the waterways. If Labour had won a second term, Tate and Lyle, British Electric Traction and a shopping list of the largest manufacturing companies may have followed.

In the meantime, the government faced some real challenges.

The country being bankrupt and the government spending comparatively heavily, we required support from the Americans. They withdrew that support on VJ-Day, forcing Britain to beg for a loan. This was granted, but on condition that the pound was made convertible. This was done, and Britain's foreign currency reserves drained away in weeks.

A very bad winter brought the country to a halt, severely disrupting transport and food supplies and causing rationing to be further tightened. With the economic situation being bleak and the country short of coal and electricity, Britain had probably never been worse off, even during the war.

Rationing would not go away, and with the Germans starving, British food had to be diverted to the British zone of occupation in Germany, causing bread to be rationed for the first time in the UK. Rationing became very unpopular with housewives marching in protest (the last major rationing, meat, was lifted in 1954).

Britain's Empire was also bankrupted by the war. The government began the process of dismantling it, starting with India in 1947. At the same time, the British League of Nations mandates (by then UN Trust Territories) had become too expensive and fractious and the UK pulled out (Palestine, for instance). It also pulled out of supporting some democratic governments (Greece, for instance) against Communist-backed insurrection, leading the Americans to have to step in.

Finally, the government had to plan for the "next World War" - including the development of nuclear weapons independently of the US; and deal with the start of what would become the EU (first by trying to stifle it at birth, then by trying to set up a rival, then by trying to join, then by trying to pull it down from the inside - a potted history of 50 years of Britain and the EU!) and the resurgence of an industrial powerhouse Germany.

For the people, somethings got better, somethings got worse, but generally the people "just survived" for the first few years, until things started to get better in the early 1950s - by which time Labour was out of office (until 1964), due to the first-past-the-post electoral system that gave them more votes but few seats.

Wiki User · Answer

Rebuilding a Battered Landscape

After the war was over, millions of people were without homes. Many more had homes that had been badly damaged in the war, but they "patched" them up to make them livable. Although most was restored during wartime, the infrastructure of all modern conveniences had been badly damaged - electric and phone lines, water and sewer systems, and roads and bridges. All of this had to be done but the resources were limited, because most of Europe had the same damage on their own turf, and factories had been switched over to making war supplies, and had to be restored to pre-war production. Above all, the people of Great Britain, and in many other countries, had gone through such a disturbing and traumatic experience that it took time for people to feel safe again, and many were just worn out. But, pride in their country got the people back on their feet much more quickly than it seemed possible.

After the First World War, the countries who were defeated were ordered to pay reparations - money, goods, and services - to the countries they had fought. It was the general consensus in those countries that the reparations were much too harsh, and countries like Germany had a lot of rebuilding to do on their own front. The discontent with the penalties of the first war had at least a small role in the development of the second war, and history couldn't repeat itself. So basically, the British had to rely on their own productivity and resources, and they did it in a timely and efficient manner.

Nearly every large city on the Island of Great Britain had been severely bombed; many had city centres that had been flattened entirely, and the destruction had left a severe shortage of housing. The council flats that dot the cityscapes of Britain were part of the answer; it was much faster and more economical to build one large building than to build 200 houses. The situation was dire ani am umfklsfnlg\ja,d the only expedient solution was to build large estates of housing units, which provided many families with brand new homes - and many of these families had lost everything.

As far as the public buildings were concerned, different cities had different approaches. It was important then, as now, to preserve the ancient architecture as much as possible. But in many cases it was a lost cause, or proved to be much too costly to make it even possible. However, while many small buildings had been completely destroyed, many of the large buildings had sustained only localised damage, or at least still had their "shell" to rebuild within, owing to Britain's traditiom, nnvnal use of stone and brick over wood. So slowly but surely, the cities rose again, sometimes just a shadow of their former selves, but also miraculously untainted by the horrors of the war.

Wiki User · Answer