The Ice Flow

By Red Sox Steve

Prior to his time as Roman emperor, Julius Caesar served as a governor of territories which bordered lands yet to be conquered by the Roman empire. This gave him the opportunity to extend Roman influence, and his own in the process. Under his rule, both the Gallic and Germanic tribes were conquered around 55 BC; he then led his armies farther north, across the ocean and onto a land occupied by people he feared were aiding the enemy Gauls: Britons. Although Caesar's initial attacks were unsuccessful, Rome eventually was able to create a military and political presence there, calling the land it occupied Britannia, which it maintained for over 400 years.

For the next 1,000 years (the "Middle Ages"), this part of the world was the site of conflict, feudalistic rule, and shifting alliances, in the constant pursuit of temporary power and elusive control. During the reign of King John, nobles at Runnymede in 1215 compelled the king to grant the Magna Carta which moved England toward a parliamentary system. 50 years later, in 1265, Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester and leader of the barons in their opposition to Henry III, called the first Parliament, with representatives of the rural nobility and of the boroughs and towns. In the late 13th century, Edward I expanded the royal courts and reformed the legal system, diluting the power held by the throne. Different kingdoms continued to jockey for power over others, until a civil war broke out in 1455, which took 30 years to resolve. After the conflict (known as the Wars of the Roses) had died down, Henry Tudor (a/k/a Henry VII) emerged as the monarch who was to govern all of England. This era marked the beginning of what is known as the Tudor Dynasty in 1485, or the start of what other historians call Early Modern Britain and it is where our discussion continues.

In 1534, Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy which confirmed Henry VIII (descendant of Henry VII) as the head of church and state and declared the Catholic religion null and void. Henry wanted separation from the Catholic Church because he had failed to obtain papal approval for his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. Meanwhile because of England's economic ties with the continent, Protestant ideas arrived soon after the German Martin Luther's declaration against the church in 1516. As a result, Henry's withdrawal of England from its relationship with Catholicism met with widespread approval.

After centuries of struggle, under Henry VIII much of governmental power became centralized in the monarchy. Parliament, however, in part made up of members of the nobility, continued to have some ability to control finances; Parliament alone had the right to enact new taxes, and the failure of previous monarchs to implement a financial system to fund wars gave Parliament a measure of control. In 1536, Parliament under Henry's pressure incorporated Wales into England. English law was imposed on Wales and English was made its official language. The two became known as England. Five years later, the English Parliament declared Henry VIII, “King of Ireland.”

After Henry's death and the death of his son and successor, Edward VI, Henry's daughter Mary, a Catholic, was aided by anti-Protestant sentiment in her bid for the Crown against Edward's chosen Protestant heir. Mary's repressive regime, during which hundreds of Protestants were burned at the stake, earned her the nickname Bloody Mary, and deepened the divide between Catholics and Protestants, part of which resulted from her father's establishment of the Church of England. Mary further strengthened her reestablishment of the Catholic Church in England by marrying Philip II of Spain, who was at the forefront of the Counter-Reformation, the goal of which was to eradicate Protestantism from Europe.

Queen Elizabeth I, coming to power after Mary’s death in 1558, sought to restore Protestantism by modifying some of its practices to mollify Catholics, however some similarities between Catholicism and Protestantism still remained. These remaining parts were enough to harden opposition to Catholicism among a sect of extreme Protestants, called Puritans. What happened next led us to one of the critical events in European history. Mary (another one), Queen of Scots, was a Catholic who was deposed by her own people. In leaving Scotland, she sought refuge with Elizabeth. However, because Mary was Catholic, she was imprisoned by Elizabeth and executed in 1587. In response, the pope instructed King Philip of Spain to invade England; because of the pope’s instruction, and because the English, Scottish and Irish had been aiding the Protestant Dutch in the Netherlands against Spanish rule, the Spanish Armada sailed the following year, 1588. The Spanish Armada, in attempting to attack and defeat the English, sailed back to Spain after having lost almost half its ships and control of the seas to the English and Dutch.

Ireland came under English rule during the Tudor dynasty. When Elizabeth I came to power, prior to the sailing of the Spanish Armada, she felt that Ireland without direct English rule was a threat to England. However, although she sought to establish regional councils in Ireland to moderate the tribal power in existence there, this was undermined by brutal attacks on the Irish by English explorers such as Sir Walter Raleigh. Elizabeth was threatened by the assistance the Irish had given to Spanish seamen, especially when Irish chiefs repelled an English army attempting to slaughter all Spaniards in Ulster. This defeat led to confiscation of lands and the English colonization of Ulster (Northern Ireland) and by 1590, the ruling family of Monaghan (Northern Ireland) had been removed from power by the crown. Further attempts at English colonization led to nine years of rebellion, during which much of Ulster was devastated, and the destruction of cattle and crops caused widespread famine.

After Julius Caesar had acquired Britain for the Roman Empire, Scottish tribes like the Picts posed a threat to the peace and stability of Brittania. The solution that the Romans arrived at was to construct a series of walls in the northern part of the country. The most famous of these, partly because it is still standing today, is called Hadrian's Wall, constructed in 122 AD built after a visit by the Roman Emperor Hadrian. From the time of the wall's construction Scotland remained independent from the British monarchy. During the Tudor dynasty, however, that all changed. The beginning of the unification of Scotland and England as Great Britain can be traced to the rise of James VI of Scotland to the English throne as James I in 1603. However, England and Scotland retained separate Parliaments under the united Crown. The flag of the United Kingdom still in use today was created at this time by superimposing the red cross of St. George, patron saint of England, upon the X-shaped white cross of St. Andrew, patron saint of Scotland.

What was known as "The Union of the Crowns" ended the rule of the House of Stewart in Scotland, and united England and Scotland under one king. It was slightly over 100 more years until each of the Parliaments of England and Scotland mutually agreed to pass what is known as The Acts of Union. This was a pair of Parliamentary Acts passed in 1707 by both Parliaments to put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed in 1706, following negotiation between the two countries. The Acts joined the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland (previously separate states, with separate legislatures but with the same monarch) into a single United Kingdom of Great Britain.

Ireland had been in personal union (rule by England merely to prevent Irish uprisings, a lesser degree of governance) with its first king, Henry VIII. This relationship existed between Ireland and the United Kingdom until the Act of Union (1801) was passed. Similar to the Act of Union which brought Scotland under British rule, this was a set of complementary Acts which merged the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. As a result, the red saltire (X-shaped cross) of St. Patrick was added to the flag of Great Britain.

By the middle of the 19th century, Ireland was a devastated land. Britain was in the midst of an industrial revolution, while Ireland had yet to develop an industrialized economy. The population was growing, and land was becoming more expensive, so agriculture was the last hope for many families to feed themselves. By 1841 the population was at 8 million, with two-thirds working in agriculture. It was common for a family to own a half-acre plot. The only thing that could be grown on a half-acre plot that could feed a family was the potato.

The unfortunate reality of potato farming in Ireland prior to that point is that the crop had been completely wiped out by disease several times before, giving way to famine and widespread poverty. In the mid 1840s, a potato virus was brought to Ireland from overseas (possibly the United States), and had devastated the crop for 4 consecutive years. At least 1 million Irish died, and another million left Ireland for America and Liverpool. The famine decreased the number of Protestants in Ireland and hastened the replacement of Gaelic, the language of the poor, with English. By 1851 the Irish population was 6.5 million, and many Irish were upset with how their government had handled the problem.

Home Rule in Ireland was essentially the legislative action that cleaved the Irish from British rule. Although Home Rule had gained political momentum over a few decades, global events interceded, preventing the Irish from achieving independence until after World War I. By the end of the war, two parliaments were envisioned in the Government of Ireland Act of 1920. The Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland (the "Anglo-Irish Treaty") was signed on Dec. 6, 1921, creating the "Free Irish State". One of the main provisions of the treaty was as follows: "Northern Ireland shall not be subject to the rule of the Parliament and Government of the Free Irish State." Ireland as we know it today was free from British rule, however Northern Ireland remained under the monarchy.

Between the end of World War I and the start of World War II, Britain, like other European countries had taken a pacifist stance, and was simultaneously afflicted by the economic depression that had taken hold. As we've discussed here in our analysis of Spain and Italy, by the late 1930s, fascism was on the march in western Europe. In May of 1937, Stanley Baldwin was replaced as British Prime Minister by a former industrialist, postmaster general, and son of a statesman, Neville Chamberlain. By early 1938, Adolf Hitler had invaded Austria and positioned the German army for a move into the German-speaking region of Czechoslovakia. Britain had previously entered into treaties with European nations like Czechoslovakia, France and Poland, signifying British desire to protect such nations if attacked. Later that year, Chamberlain met with Hitler in Germany and the British PM agreed to give Hitler all that he wanted, requesting first permission to speak with French and Czech leaders. The French were unable to sway Chamberlain, and the United States was unwilling to enter the war at this point. Although Chamberlain was victorious in persuading British allies to agree to Hitler's request, Hitler occupied the entire nation of Czechoslovakia in direct repudiation of the agreement. As a result of this and other actions taken by the Germans, a declaration of war was made by Great Britain in September 1939.

Chamberlain was removed from office within a matter of months, and the statesman who took over as British Prime Minister would lead Britain through the end of the conflict: Winston Churchill. Churchill, in conjunction with Stalin, De Gaulle and Roosevelt prosecuted the Allied war effort against Germany, although diplomatic relations between the nations was sometimes unstable. After Hitler was defeated in May 1945, Churchill's party was subsequently defeated in August 1945 by the Labour Party. Churchill remained in Parliament as head of the Conservative (opposition) party, before he returned to power as Prime Minister in 1951.

After the end of the war, the Labour party had promised a series of social welfare reforms, and was attempting the nationalization of certain industries. Although they were able to push through a number of these reforms, the political momentum turned to inertia as the Conservatives were able to return to power on two separate occasions prior to 1980. The reality of Britain at this time was one of an empire in decline. It was trying to maintain multiple alliances like NATO, and by the mid 1970s, the British electorate had indicated by a 67% majority that it would like to remain a member of the recently joined European Community. The economy was in ruins and as a result of the flareup of conflict in Northern Ireland, tensions there persisted for a number of years.

In the last 20 years, the British have shifted from the Conservative party (Thacher, 1979-1990; Major, 1990-1997) to the Labour Party (Blair, 1997-2007; Brown, 2007-present). Each side has attempted to reduce the tension between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. The "Downing Street Declaration" that took place in 1993 between British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds over the future of Northern Ireland suggested that undisclosed contacts had been maintained for some time between the Irish Republican Army (IRA), Sinn Feìn (political wing of the IRA), and the British government. The United Kingdom, under Tony Blair in 1998, and Ireland signed a peace agreement (Good Friday agreement) which led Ireland to amend language in its constitution, ultimately disclaiming Northern Ireland as its territory. In return, the United Kingdom promised to amend the Government of Ireland Act.

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Prime Minister Blair offered support for the global war on terror and specifically the March 2003 declaration of war on Iraq by the United States. His actions, however, were not without controversy: Blair acknowledged flawed intelligence as it related to Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, and also presided over the "Downing Street memo" controversy which summarized a secret July 2002 meeting among British intelligence, government, and defense leaders, at which there was a discussion about the fact that US efforts were made to deliberately falsify intelligence in order to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

Subsequent to Tony Blair's election to a third successive term (hitherto unprecedented in the Labour party) in May 2005, Britain was wracked by terrorism. Not only did a train bombing in London in July 2005 kill 52 people and injure 700, but later there was also discovery of a terrorist plot to take down 10 airplanes going from the UK to the US. As a result of Blair's questionable handling of the terrorist threat and foreign policy, he was forced to resign his position as of June 2007 and hand over the keys to 10 Downing Street to his successor and current British PM Gordon Brown.

Brown, prior to taking over for Blair, served directly under him as Chancellor of the Exchequer since 1997. In this position, Brown was responsible for economic and monetary matters, which is similar to the responsibilities held by the Minister of Finance or Secretary of the Treasury in other nations. In recent British history, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been known as the second most powerful position in British government to the Prime Minister. The current global economic crisis is certainly a threat to the incumbent's ability to get re-elected, and with the next election only a year away (May 2010), Brown spoke directly to US Congress in early March, and clearly seeks a collaborative relationship with US President Obama through his actions at the more recent G-20 meeting.

Since World War II, Britain's role morphed from one of unquestionable empire to one that now seeks to build alliances with other global powers. Britain has had to deal with a declining influence in world affairs, domestic economic pressures, historical and constitutional challenges related to Northern Ireland, the global conflict against Islamic extremists, and more recently the global economic crisis in getting from where it was to where it is today. We will continue to pay attention as events in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland unfold, knowing that millennia of history have given the world a nation which understands the grave importance of a representative democracy and seeks to work with any nation that shows a willingness to build a more stable world.