Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (30 November 1874 - 24 January 1965) was a British politician, military officer and writer, who was Prime Minister of the British Empire from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. As Prime Minister, Churchill led England to victory in the Second World War. Ideologically an economic liberal and a British imperialist, he was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924 before defecting to the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. Churchill represented five constituents during his career as MP.
Born in Oxfordshire to an aristocratic family, Churchill was the son of Lord Randolph Churchill and Jennie Jerome. Joining the British Army, he saw action in British India, the Anglo-Sudan War, and the Second Boer War, gaining fame as a war correspondent and writing a book about his campaign. Elected as a member of parliament in 1900, originally as Conservative, he defected to the Liberals in 1904. In the Liberal government of HH Asquith, Churchill served as President of the Council of Commerce, Minister of the Interior, and First Lord of the Admiralty, fighting for prison and workers' social security. During the First World War, he oversaw the Gallipoli Campaign; after proven disaster, he resigned from the government and served in the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front. In 1917 he returned to the government under David Lloyd George as the Minister of Munitions, and later became Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, then Secretary of State for the Colonies. After two years out of Parliament, he served as United Kingdom's Minister of Finance in the Conservative government of Stanley Baldwin, returning the pound sterling in 1925 to the gold standard on his pre-war parity, a move widely seen as creating deflationary pressure on the British economy.
Outside the office during the 1930s, Churchill led in calling for British disarmament to counter the growing threat of Nazi Germany. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he was reappointed as First Lord of the Admiralty. After the resignation of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1940, Churchill succeeded him. Churchill oversaw British involvement in Allied war effort, which resulted in victory in 1945. His wartime response to the 1943 Bala famine, which killed about three million people, has caused controversy, and he approved the Dresden bombing in Dresden, which left dozens dead. thousands of civilian deaths and continue to be debated. After the Conservative defeat in the 1945 elections, he became the Leader of the Opposition. In the midst of the development of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, he openly warned the "iron curtain" of Soviet influence in Europe and promoted European unity. He was re-elected as prime minister in the 1951 election. His second term of office was preoccupied with foreign affairs, including the Malayan Emergency, Mau Mau Mebau, the Korean War, the Syrian crisis and the British-backed Iranian coup. In the country his government emphasized the construction of homes and developing atomic bombs. In declining health, Churchill resigned as prime minister in 1955, although he remained a member of parliament until 1964. After his death in 1965, he was granted state funeral.
Widely regarded as one of the most important figures of the 20th century, Churchill remains popular in Britain and the Western world, where he is seen as a winning war leader who plays an important role in defending liberal democracy from the spread of fascism. Also praised as a social reformer and writer, among his many awards are the Nobel Prize in Literature. In contrast, the imperialist and racist views - coupled with sanctions for human rights abuses in the suppression of anti-imperialist movements seeking independence from the British Empire - have caused controversy.
Video Winston Churchill
Kehidupan awal
Masa kecil dan sekolah: 1874-1895
Churchill was born in the home of his parents, the Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, on 30 November 1874, at that time the United Kingdom was the dominant world power. The direct descendant of the Duke of Marlborough, his family is among the highest levels of the British aristocracy, and thus he was born into the elite of state government. The father's grandfather, John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough, has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for ten years, a member of the Conservative Party who served in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. His own father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was elected Conservative MP for Woodstock in 1873. His mother, Jennie Churchill (nÃÆ'Ã… © e Jerome), came from an American family whose wealth came from finance. The couple met in August 1873, and got engaged three days later, married at the British Embassy in Paris in April 1874. The couple lived out of their income and often owed; according to biographer Sebastian Haffner, the family was "rich by normal standards but poor by the rich".
In 1876 John Spencer-Churchill was appointed as the Young King of Ireland, with Randolph as his personal secretary, resulting in the relocation of Churchill's family to Dublin, when the whole of Ireland was part of the British Empire. This is where Jennie's second son, Jack, was born in 1880; there is speculation that Randolph is not his real father. Throughout the 1880s, Randolph and Jennie were effectively isolated, in which he had many applicants. Churchill had little to do with his father; referring to his mother, Churchill later declared that "I love her very much - but from a distance." His relationship with Jack will be warm, and they are close at various points in their lives. In Dublin, he was educated in reading and math by a teacher, while he and his brother were cared for primarily by their caregiver, Elizabeth Ann Everest. Churchill was devoted to him and nicknamed him "Woomany"; he later wrote that "He is my dearest and most intimate friend for the entire twenty years that I live."
Aged seven, he started upstairs to St. George in Ascot, Berkshire; he hates it, is not academic, and often misbehaves. The home visit was to Connaught Place in London, where her parents had settled, while they also took her on her first foreign holiday, to Gastein in Austria-Hungary. As a result of ill health, in September 1884 he moved to Brunswick School in Hove; there, his academic performance improves but he continues to err. He narrowly passed the entrance exams allowing him to begin his studies at the elite Harrow School in April 1888. There, his academics remained high - he excelled in history - but the teachers complained that he was not timely and careless. He wrote poems and letters published in school magazines, Harrovian , and won the fencing competition. His father insisted that he was ready for a career in the military, and that for the last three years Churchill at Harrow had been spent in the army. He performed poorly in most of his exams.
On a holiday to Bournemouth in January 1893, he fell and fainted for three days. In March he took a job at the school in Lexham Gardens, South Kensington, before vacationing in Switzerland and Italy that summer. He made three attempts to be accepted at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, only succeeding in the third. There, he was accepted as a cadet in the cavalry, beginning his education in September 1893. In August 1894 he and his brother vacationed in Belgium, and he spent spare time in London, joining the protests at the closure of the Empire Theater, which he had visited frequently. His Sandhurst education lasts 15 months; he graduated in December 1894. Shortly after Churchill finished at Sandhurst, in January 1895, his father died; this led Churchill to adopt the belief that his family members must have died young.
Cuba, India and Sudan: 1895 - 1899
In February 1895, Churchill was commissioned as the second lieutenant in the British Army's Fourth Hussars regiment, based in Aldershot. This position earned him Ã, Â £ 150 a year wages, which far exceeded his spending. In July, he rushes to Crouch Hill, North London to sit with Everest as he lies dying, then arranges his funeral. Churchill was eager to witness military action and use his mother's influence to try to place himself on the battlefield. In the fall of 1895, he and Reginald Barnes traveled to Cuba to observe the war of independence; they were joined by Spanish troops who tried to suppress freedom fighters and were caught in several small battles. In North America, he also spent time in New York City, living with rich politician Bourke Cockran at Fifth Avenue's last residence; Cockran greatly influenced the young Churchill. Churchill admires the United States, writes to his brother that it is "a very great country" and tells his mother "how extraordinarily American!"
With the Hussars, Churchill arrived in Bombay, British India, in October 1896. They were soon transferred to Bangalore, where he shared a bungalow with Barnes. Describing India as "arrogant and boring land" Churchill remained there for 19 months, during which he made three visits to Calcutta, expeditions to Hyderabad and the North West Frontier, and two return visits to England. Believing himself to be poorly educated, he started an independent education project, reading the works of Plato, Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, and Henry Hallam. The most influential for him is Edward Gibbon History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , Winwood Reade's The Martyrdom of Man , and the writings of Thomas Babington Macaulay.
Very interested in the affairs of the British parliament, in a private letter he declared himself "a Liberal in everything but a name," but added that he could never support the Liberal Party's support for the Irish house government. Instead, he allied with the wing of the Conservative Tory Democracy, and at home visits gave his first public address for the Conservative Primrose League in Bath. Reflecting the mix between reformist and conservative perspectives, he supports the promotion of secular, non-denominational education while opposing women's suffrage, referring to Suffragettes as "silly movements".
Churchill decided to join the Malakand Army led by Bindon Blood in his campaign against rebel Mohmand in the Swat Valley in northwest India. Blood agrees on the condition that Churchill be assigned as a journalist; to ensure this, he earned accreditation from The Pioneer and The Daily Telegraph for whom he wrote a regular update. In the letters to the family, he described how the two sides in the conflict injured each other, although he did not mention any action taken by the British forces in his published report. He remained with British troops for six weeks before returning to Bangalore in October 1897. There he wrote his first book, The Story of the Malakand Clan Force, published by Longman for mostly positive reviews. He also wrote his only fictional work, Savrola , a romance ÃÆ' clef set forth in the imagined kingdom of Balkans. It was serialized in Macmillan's Magazine between May-December 1899 before it appeared in book form.
While living in Bangalore in the first half of 1898, Churchill explored the possibility of joining Herbert Kitchener's military campaign in Sudan. Kitchener was initially quiet, claiming that Churchill was only looking for publicity and medals. After spending time in Calcutta, Meerut, and Peshawar, Churchill sailed back to England from Bombay in June. There, he uses his contacts - including a visit to Prime Minister Lord Salisbury at 10 Downing Street - to get himself assigned to the Kitchener campaign. She agrees that she will write a column describing the events for The Morning Post. He sailed to Egypt, where he joined the 21 Lancers in Cairo before they headed south along the Nile to take part in the Battle of Omdurman against the army of Sudanese leader Abdallahi bin Muhammad. Churchill was critical of Kitchener's actions during the war, in particular the inhumane treatment of wounded enemies and the defilement of Muhammad Ahmad's tomb in Omdurman. After the battle, Churchill gave the skin from his chest for corruption to a wounded officer. Back in the UK in October, Churchill wrote an account about the campaign, which was published as The River War in November 1899.
Striving in the career of Parliament and South Africa: 1899-1900
Deciding that he wanted a parliamentary career, Churchill pursued political contacts and gave lectures at three Conservative Party meetings. It was also at this point that he seduced Pamela Plowden, then Countess of Lytton; although the relationship does not happen, they remain friends for life. In December he returned to India for three months, mostly to spoil his love for the game polo. While in Calcutta, he stayed for a week at Viceroy George Nathaniel Curzon's house. On his way home, he spent two weeks at the Savoy Hotel in Cairo, where he was introduced to Khedive Abbas II, before arriving in Britain in April. He refocused his attention on politics, handled further meetings and Conservative networks at events such as the Rothschild dinner party. He was elected as one of two Conservative parliamentary candidates in June 1899 by election in Oldham, Lancashire. Although Oldham's chair had previously been held by the Conservatives, the election was a narrow Liberal victory.
Anticipating the outbreak of the Second Boer War between England and the Boer Republic, Churchill sailed from Southampton to South Africa as a journalist writing for Daily Mail and Morning Morning . From Cape Town, in October he traveled to a conflict zone near Ladysmith, then besieged by Boer troops, before spending time in Estcourt before heading for Colenso. After his train was slipped by the firing of Boer artillery, he was captured as a prisoner of war and exiled at the Boer POW camp in Pretoria. In December, Churchill and two other inmates escaped from jail on the toilet wall. Churchill was kept on a freight train and then hiding in a mine, sheltered by sympathetic British mine owners. Wanted by Boer authorities, he again hides on a freight train and travels to a safe place in East African Portuguese.
Sailing to Durban, Churchill finds that his escape has attracted much publicity in the UK. Instead of returning home, in January 1900, he was appointed lieutenant in the South African Horse Light regiment, joining Redvers Buller's struggle to free the Ladysmith Siege and take Pretoria. In his writings during the campaign, he punished British hatred for Boer, calling for them to be treated with "generosity and tolerance" and urged "quick peace"; After the war, he will summon the British to be generous in victory. He included the first British troops to Ladysmith and Pretoria. He and his cousin, Duke of Marlborough, were able to advance from the remaining troops in Pretoria, where they demanded and accepted the handover of 52 Boer camp prison guards. After victory in Pretoria, he returned to Cape Town and sailed to England in July. In May, while he was still in South Africa, his post Morning Post was published as London to Ladysmith via Pretoria, which sold well.
Maps Winston Churchill
early political career
Early years in Parliament: 1900-1905
Arriving in Southampton in July 1900, Churchill rented a flat in Mayfair London, used it as his headquarters for the next six years, and hired a private secretary. He stood again as a Conservative candidate for Oldham's seat in the 1900 election, securing a narrow victory. At the age of 25, he is now a member of parliament. MPs unpaid, and to earn money, Churchill embarked on a talk tour focusing on the South African experience; After traveling around the UK in late October and November, he went on to the United States, where his first lecture was introduced by author Mark Twain. In the US, he met President William McKinley and Vice President Theodore Roosevelt; the last one invited Churchill to dinner, but did not like him. Churchill then crossed over to Canada to give more lectures, and in the spring of 1901 gave lectures in Paris, Madrid, and Gibraltar. In October 1900, he published Ian Hamilton's March, a book about his experience in South Africa.
In February 1901, Churchill took his seat at the House of Commons, where his first speech received extensive press coverage. He is associated with a group of Conservatives known as the Hughligans, despite being critical of the Conservative government in various issues. He condemned the British execution of the Boer military commander, and voiced concern about the level of public spending; in response, Prime Minister Arthur Balfour asked him to join the parliamentary electoral committee on the topic. He opposed increased army funding, suggesting that additional military spending should go to the navy. This disappointed the Conservative front seats but gained support from the Liberals. He is increasingly socializing with senior Liberals, and especially Liberal Imperialists like H. H. Asquith. In this context, he later wrote, he "shifted to the left" of British parliamentary politics. He personally considers "gradual creation by the evolutionary process of the Democratic or Progressive wing to the Conservative Party", or alternately as the "Middle Party" to unite the Conservatives and the Liberals.
In the House of Commons, Churchill increasingly opted for the Liberal opposition against the government. In February 1903, he was among 18 Conservative MPs who opposed increased government spending. He supported the Liberal vote against the use of Chinese contract workers in South Africa, and supported the Liberal Bill to restore legal rights to the union. The April 1904 parliamentary speech that enforces trade union rights is described by the Pro-Conservative
Churchill outspoken criticism against the government and Balfour imperial protectionism, coupled with a letter of support sent to a Liberal candidate in Ludlow, angered many Conservatives. In December 1903, the Conservative Association Oldham told him that it would not support his candidacy in the next general election. In March 1904, Balfour and Conservative front seats emerged from the House of Commons in one of his speeches; he described their response as "a very unpleasant and confusing demonstration". In May he objected to the government-proposed Aliens bill, designed to curb Jewish migration to Britain. He stated that the bill would "appeal to prejudice insular against strangers, racial prejudice against the Jewish people, and to work prejudice to competition" and declared himself in favor of "old practice of tolerant and generous of free entry and asylum that this country has so long adhered to and from which he has been very obtainable. "on May 31, 1904, he crossed the floor, defected from the Conservatives to sit as a member of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons.
Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies: 1905-1908
In December, Balfour resigned as Prime Minister and King Edward VII invited Liberal leader Henry Campbell-Bannerman to form a new government. Hoping to secure the majority working in the House of Commons, Campbell-Bannerman called the election for January 1906. The Liberals won by 377 seats to the Conservatives 157. After having previously invited from Manchester Liberals to stand in their election area, Churchill did, North West with a majority of 1241. January also saw the publication of Churchill's biography of his father, a work he has done for several years. He received an advance of £ 8000 for the book, the highest ever paid for political biography in Britain up to that time; in publications, generally well received. It was at this point that Churchill's first biography, written by Liberal Alexander MacCallum Scott, was published.
In the new government, Churchill became the Deputy Secretary of State for the Colonial Office, the position he requested. He worked under the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Victor Bruce, the 9th Earl of Elgin, and took Edward Marsh as his secretary; the latter remains Churchill's secretary for 25 years. In this junior ministerial position, Churchill was first tasked to help draft the constitution for the Transvaal. In 1906, he helped oversee the government's grant to the Orange Free Country. In dealing with South Africa, he seeks to ensure equality between England and Boer. He also announced the gradual elimination of the use of Chinese contract workers in South Africa; he and the government decided that a sudden ban would cause too much upset in the colony and could damage the economy. He expressed concern about the relationship between European settlers and the indigenous peoples of southern Africa; after Zulu launched the Bambatha Rebellion at Christmas, he complained about "the abominable native slaughter in Europe".
In August 1906, Churchill holidayed on a cruise ship in Deauville, France, spends much of his time playing polo or gambling. From there he proceeded to Paris and then Switzerland - where he boarded the Eggishorn - and then to Berlin and Silesia, where he was a guest of Kaiser Wilhelm II. He then went to Venice, and from there traveled around Italy by car with his friend, Lionel Rothschild. In May 1907, he took a vacation at another friend's house, Maurice de Forest, in Biarritz. In the fall, he embarked on a tour of Europe and Africa. Traveling through France and then Italy, he traveled to Malta and then Cyprus, before moving through the Suez Canal to Aden and Berbera. Sailing to Mombasa, he traveled by train through Kenya Colony - stopped to hunt for big matches at Simba - before heading through Uganda Protectorate and then sailed down the Nile. He writes about his experience for Strand Magazine and later published in book form as My African Travel .
President of the Board of Trade: 1908-1910
When Asquith succeeded Campbell-Bannerman in 1908, Churchill was promoted to Cabinet as President of the Council of Commerce. 33 years old, he is the youngest member of the Cabinet since 1866. The newly appointed Cabinet Minister is legally obliged to seek re-election in the mid-term elections; in April, Churchill lost North Manchester to a Conservative candidate with 429 votes. The Liberals then put him in an intermission in Scotland's safe seat in Dundee, where he won comfortably. In his cabinet role, Churchill worked with Liberal politician David Lloyd George to fight for social reform. In one Churchill speech stated that although the "pioneers" of the English people "enjoy all the pleasures of all ages, our rearguard fights out into the more cruel conditions of barbarism". To counter this, he promotes what he calls "state intervention and regulatory networks" similar to those in Germany. His speech on this issue was published in volume Liberalism and Social Issues and The People's Rights .
One of the first tasks he faced was the arbitration of industrial disputes between ship workers and their employers on the River Tyne. He then established the Arbitration Court to deal with industrial disputes in the future, establishing a reputation as a conciliator. On the grounds that workers should reduce their working hours, Churchill promotes the Eight Hour Mining Bill - which legally prohibits miners from working more than eight hours a day - introduces a second reading at the House of Commons. In 1908, he introduced the draft Trade Council bill to parliament, which would establish a Trade Council that could prosecute exploitative employers, establish the principle of minimum wage, and the right of workers to get a meal break. The bill was passed with a large majority. In May, he proposed a labor market bill that seeks to form more than 200 labor markets where unemployed people will be assisted in finding employment. He also promoted the idea of ​​unemployment insurance schemes, which would be partially funded by the state.
To ensure funding for this social reform, he and Lloyd George denounced the expansion of Reginald McKennas warship production. Churchill openly mocks those who think war with Germany is inevitable - according to Roy Jenkins's biography he is going through a "pro-German phase" - and in the fall of 1909 he visited Germany, spent time with Kaiser and observed the maneuvers of the German Army. In his personal life, Churchill proposed a marriage with Clementine Hozier; they got married in September in St Margaret's, Westminster. They honeymooned in Baveno, Venice, and Moravia, before settling in London's home at 33 Eccleston Square. The following July they have a daughter, Diana.
To legitimize his social reforms into law, Asquith's Liberal government presented it in the form of the People's Budget. Conservative opponents of reform form the League of Budget Protest; his supporters established the Budget League, in which Churchill became president. The budget was passed in the House of Commons but was rejected by the Conservative colleagues who dominated the House of Lords; this threatens Churchill's social reform. Churchill warned that such upscale obstruction would upset the working-class British and could lead to class warfare. To deal with the impasse, the government called the January 1910 general election, which resulted in a narrow Liberal victory; Churchill kept his chair in Dundee. After the election, he proposed the abolition of the House of Lords in a cabinet memorandum, which hinted that it was replaced either by a unicameral system or by a smaller and smaller second room which had no advantage built for the Conservatives. In April, the Lords relented and the budget was passed.
Home Secretary: 1910-1911
In February 1910, Churchill was promoted to Minister of the Interior, giving him control over police and prison services, and he implemented a prison reform program. He introduced the distinction between criminal and political prisoners, with the prison rules for the latter being relaxed. He tried to set up a library for the prisoners, and introduced measures that ensure that every prison should wear a lecture or concert for the entertainment of the prisoners four times a year. He reduced the length of the isolation cell to first offenders up to a month and to a residivist for up to three months, and spoke against what he regarded as an excessive punishment imposed on certain offenders. He proposes the removal of automatic prisons for those who fail to pay fines, and terminates prison sentences for those aged between 16 and 21 except in cases where they have committed the most serious offenses. Of the 43 capital sentences passed when he served as Secretary of the Interior, he changed 21 of them.
One of the main domestic problems in the UK is women's suffrage. At this point, Churchill supports voting for women, although it will only support the bill if it has the majority support of male voters. The solution he proposed was a referendum on this issue, but this did not benefit Asquith and women's suffrage remained unresolved until 1918. Many Suffragettes thought of Churchill as a committed opponent of women's suffrage, and targeted his meeting in protest. In November 1910, a stubborn Hugh Franklin attacked Churchill with a whip; Franklin was arrested and jailed for six weeks. It is the militant right to vote who is the main beneficiary of Churchill's relaxed rule for those categorized as 'political' prisoners.
In the summer of 1910, Churchill spent two months on a de Forest cruise ship in the Mediterranean. Upon his return to England, he was assigned to deal with Tonypandy Riot, where coal miners in the Rhondda Valley vehemently protested their working conditions. Police Chief Glamorgan asked troops to help the police quell the riots. Churchill, knowing that troops were already traveling, allowed them to go as far as Swindon and Cardiff, but block their spread; he worried that the use of troops could lead to bloodshed. Instead he sent 270 London police - who were not equipped with firearms - to help their Welsh colleagues. When the unrest continued, he offered the protesters an interview with the head of state industry arbitrator, which they received. Personally, Churchill considers the two mine owners and miners striking as "very unreasonable". The Times and other media outlets accused him of being too soft on the rioters; on the contrary, many in the Labor Party, which are associated with unions, consider it a too heavy person.
Asquith called the general election for December 1910, in which Liberal was re-elected and Churchill again secured his Dundee seat. In January 1911, Churchill was involved with the Sidney Street Siege; three Latvian robbers have killed several police officers and were hidden in a house in London's East End, which is surrounded by police. Churchill joined the police despite not directing his operation. After the house was on fire, he told the fire brigade not to go home because of the threat posed by the Latvians armed to them. After the incident, two robbers were found dead. Although he faces criticism over his decision, he states that he "thinks it's better to let the house get burned than to spend a good British life in saving those vicious bastards."
In March 1911, he introduced the second reading of a bill to parliament Coal Mine, which - when implemented into law - to introduce more stringent safety standards for coal mines. He also formulates the Store Law to improve the working conditions of shop workers; he faces opposition from shopkeepers and breaks the law in a very bad shape. To maintain pressure on this issue, he became president of the Initial Closing Association and remained in that position until the early 1940s. In April, Lloyd George introduced the first health insurance and unemployment law, the 1911 National Insurance Act; Churchill has been instrumental in putting it together. In May, his wife gave birth to their second child, Randolph, named after Churchill's father. In 1911 he was tasked with handling increasing civil strife, sending troops to Liverpool to extinguish shipyard workers protesting and rallying a national railroad strike. When the Agadir crisis emerged, which threaten the outbreak of war between Germany and France, Churchill suggested that - if negotiations fail - Britain must form an alliance with France and Russia and maintain the independence of Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark in the face of German expansionism. The crisis of Agadir had a dramatic effect on Churchill and his views on the necessity of naval expansion.
First Lord of the Admiralty: 1911-1915
In October 1911, Asquith appointed Churchill, Lord of the Admiralty. He settled in London's official residence at Admiralty House, and set up his new office on an admiralty yacht, Enchantress . For the next two and a half years he focused on naval preparations, visiting naval stations and shipyards, trying to improve the naval morale, and overseeing the development of the German navy. After the German government authorized the German Navy Act to increase the production of warships, Churchill promised that Britain would do the same and that for every new warship built by Germany, Britain would build two. Believing that Germany had been taken over by the oligarchy of "landlord power", he expressed hope that a war with the state would be avoided if German "democratic forces" could re-affirm their control over his government. To prevent conflict, he invited Germany to be involved in the de-escalation of the two countries' development projects, but his offer was rejected.
As part of its naval reform, it encourages higher pay and greater recreation facilities for naval staff, improvements in submarine development, and a new focus on the Royal Naval Air Service, encouraging them to experiment with how aircraft can be used for the purpose military offensive. He coined the term "seaplane" and ordered 100 to build for the Navy. In 1913 he began taking flying lessons at Eastchurch air station, although his close friend urged him to stop because of the dangers involved. Some Liberals objected to the level of naval expenditure; in December 1913 he threatened to resign if his proposal for four new warships in 1914-15 was rejected. In June 1914, he convinced the House of Commons to authorize the purchase of 51% of government shares in oil profits produced by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, to secure advanced oil access for the Royal Navy. As a supporter of eugenics, he participated in the drafting of the Mental Deficiency Act 1913; However, the Act, in a form finally endorsed, rejects the sterilization method it likes from the weak to support their confinement at the institution.
Taking the center stage politically during this period is an annoying issue about how the British government should respond to the Irish home government movement. In 1912, the Asquith government had filed a House Rules bill, which if passed into law would give house rules to Ireland. Churchill supports the bill and urges the Ulster Unionists - a largely Protestant community that wants a continuing political unity with Britain - to accept it. He opposed the division of Ireland, and in 1913 suggested that Ulster had some autonomy from an independent Irish government. Many Ulster Unionists reject any option that makes them under the jurisdiction of the Dublin-based government and Ulster Volunteers threaten the uprising to establish an independent Protestant state in Ulster. Churchill was a cabinet minister charged with giving an ultimatum to the threatening violence, doing so in a Bradford speech in March 1914. After the Cabinet's decision, he increased the presence of the navy in Ireland to confront the Unionist insurrection; The Conservatives accused him of trying to start "Ulster Pogrom". Looking for further compromises to appease Ulster's Volunteers, Churchill suggested that Ireland remain part of the federal United Kingdom; this in turn irritates the Liberal and the Irish nationalists.
First World War
After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in June 1914, there was a growing discussion of the war in Europe. Churchill began preparing the navy for conflict, convinced that if the Germans invaded France then England would surely join the war. Despite strong opposition to involvement in the conflict within the Liberal Party, the Cabinet agreed that the German invasion of Belgium would be a cause of war. When this happens, Britain declares war. Churchill was tasked with overseeing the country's marine war effort. Within two weeks, the navy transported 120,000 British troops across the English Channel to France. In August, he oversaw the sea block of German North Sea ports to prevent them from transporting food through the sea; he also sent a submarine to the Baltic Sea to help the Russian Navy fight a German warship. Also in August, he sent the Marine Brigade to Ostend to force the Germans to reallocate some of their troops from their main push to the south.
In September, Churchill took full responsibility for the British air defense, and made several visits to France to oversee the war effort. While in England, he spoke at the all-party recruitment rally in London and Liverpool, and his wife gave birth to their third child, Sarah. In October, he visited Antwerp to observe the Belgian defense against besieging Germany; he pledged to Belgian Prime Minister Charles de Broqueville that Britain would provide help to the city. The German attack continued, and shortly after Churchill left town, he agreed to retreat to England, allowing Germany to take Antwerp; many people in the media criticized Churchill for this. Churchill stated that his actions extend the resistance for a week (Belgium had proposed handing Antwerp on October 3) and that this time has allowed the Allies to secure Calais and Dunkirk.
In November, Asquith call the War Council, consisting of himself, Lloyd George, Edward Gray, Kitchener, and Churchill. Churchill proposed a plan to seize the island of Borkum and using it as a post from which to attack the northern coastline of Germany, believes that this strategy should shorten the war. Churchill also encourage the development of tanks, which he believed would be useful in troubleshooting trench warfare, and the fund is generated by the fund admiralty. To relieve the pressure of Turkey against the Russians in the Caucasus, Churchill is part of a plan to divert the Turkish army to attack in the Dardanelles, in the hope that if successful, the UK could seize Constantinople. In March, a fleet of 13 warships attacked the Dardanelles but faced severe problems of drowned mines; in April, the 29th Division started its attack on Gallipoli. Many MPs, especially the Conservatives, blame Churchill for the failure of these campaigns. Amid rising Conservative pressure, in May, Asquith agreed to form a coalition government of all parties; One of the conditions of the Conservative entry was that Churchill was demoted from his position in the Admiralty. Churchill pleaded his case with both Asquith and Conservative leader Bonar Law, but eventually received a demotion to the position of Chancellor of the Duke of Lancaster.
On the Western Front: 1915-1916
For several months Churchill served in a safe place at the Duke Chancellor of Lancaster. However, on November 15, 1915 he resigned from the government, feeling his energy was not being used.
Despite remaining a member of parliament, Churchill returned to the British Army, attempting to obtain appointment as brigade commander, but complete the battalion's command. After some time gaining frontline experience as a Major with the 2nd Battalion, the Grenadier Guard, he was appointed temporary Lieutenant Colonel, leading the 6th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers (part of 9th Division (Scotland)), on January 1, 1916.
The correspondence with his wife indicated that his intention in taking on active service was to rehabilitate his reputation, but this was offset by a serious risk of being killed. During the period of his command, his battalion was stationed at Ploegsteert but did not participate in any battles. Though he does not approve of the mass slaughter involved in many of the Western Front's actions, he exposes himself to danger by making a front-line visit and personally making 36 forays into a no man's land.
Return to Parliament
In March 1916, Churchill returned to England after he became restless in France and wanted to speak again at the House of Commons. Future Prime Minister David Lloyd George commented sourly: "One day you will find that the state of mind expressed in the letter (you) is the reason why you do not win the trust even where you command awe.In each line, the national interest is completely overshadowed by your personal attention. "
In July 1917, Churchill was appointed Minister of Munitions, and in January 1919, Secretary of State for War and Secretary of State for Air. He is the principal architect of the Ten-Year Rule, a principle that allows the Treasury to dominate and control strategic, overseas and financial policies under the assumption that "there will not be a major European war over the next five or ten years". (Then as Minister of Finance in 1928, Churchill would persuade the Cabinet to make the rule self-perpetuating.) The great preoccupation of his tenure at the War Office was Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. Churchill was a strong supporter of foreign intervention, which stated that Bolshevism must be "strangled in its cradle".
He played a role in having military-armed forces (Black and Tans and Auxiliaries) intervened in the Irish War of Independence. He became Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1921 and signatories of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which established Ireland's Free State. Churchill was involved in long negotiating agreements and, in order to protect the British maritime interests, he engineered parts of the Ireland Free Treaty to include three Agreement Ports - Queenstown (Cobh), Berehaven and Lough Swilly - which could be used as the Atlantic Base by the Royal Navy. However, in 1938, under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement, the bases were returned to Ireland.
In 1919, Churchill approved the use of tear gas in the Kurds in Iraq. Although the UK did consider the use of non-lethal toxic gases in bringing down the Kurdish rebellion, it was not used, because conventional bombings were considered more effective.
In 1919, the United Kingdom and the United States signed an alliance agreement with France that the United States Senate refused to ratify, thus making the proposed Anglo-Franco-American alliance born still alive. In July 1921, Churchill argued at the Imperial Dominion's prime minister's conference that despite a rejection by the United States Senate over the alliance with France that Britain should continue to sign military alliances with France to ensure post-war security. Churchill's idea of ​​an Anglo-French fellowship was denied at the conference as British public opinion and even more that Dominion's public opinion contradicts the notion of "continental commitment."
In September, the Conservative Party withdrew from the Coalition government, after the backbencher meeting was dissatisfied with the handling of the Chanak Crisis, a move that speeded up elections in 1922 November. Churchill fell ill during the campaign, and had to undergo an appendectomy. This made it difficult to campaign, and further setbacks were the internal divisions that continued to plague the Liberal Party. He came fourth in the poll for Dundee, losing to Edwin Scrymgeour's ban. Churchill then quipped that he left Dundee "without office, no seating, no parties and no attachments".
On May 4, 1923, Churchill spoke to support the French occupation of Ruhr, which was very unpopular in England by saying: "We must not allow certain phrases of French policy to keep us from the great French nation. our friends from the past ".
In 1923, Churchill acted as a paid consultant to Burmah Oil (now BP plc) to lobby the British government to allow Burmah's exclusive rights to Persian (Iran) oil sources; these rights are finally granted. He stood for the Liberals again in the 1923 general election, losing at Leicester West.
Constitutionalist
In January 1924, the first Labor Party government had occupied the office amid fears of a threat to the Constitution. Churchill was recorded at the time because it was very hostile to socialism. He believed that the Labor Party as a socialist party, did not fully support the existing British Constitution. In March 1924, aged 49, he sought election in Westminster Abbey by-election, 1924. He initially sought the support of a local Unionist association who happened to be called the Westminster Abbey Constitutional Association, so he adopted the term 'Constitutionalist' to describe himself during the election campaign. Despite the support of Beaverbrook and Rothermere newspapers, he lost 43 votes.
After the election Churchill continued to use the term and talked about establishing the Constitutionalist Party, although any formal plan Churchill may have suspended with other electoral summons. Churchill and 11 others decided to use a Constitutional label rather than a Liberal or Unionist. He is returned in Epping against the Liberals and with the support of the Unionists. After the election, seven constitutional candidates, including Churchill, were elected inaction or voted as one group.
Rejoin the Conservative Party
Chancellor Cast: 1924-1929
Churchill accepted the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Unionist Stanley Baldwin, and officially rejoined the Conservative Party, remarking bitterly that "anyone can complain, but it takes a certain ingenuity to repeat a mouse" (in English English to "rat" means to betray ).
As Chancellor of the Churchill Exchequer oversaw the British disaster to the Gold Standard, resulting in deflation, unemployment, and miner strikes that led to the General Strike of 1926.
His decision, announced in Budget 1924, came after long consultations with various economists including John Maynard Keynes, Sir Otto Niemeyer, Permanent Secretary for the Treasury, and the Bank of England board. This decision prompted Keynes to write Economic Consequences. Churchill , arguing that the return of the gold standard to pre-war parity in 1925 (Ã, Â £ 1 = $ 4.86) would lead to a global depression.. However, the decision was generally popular and seen as a 'healthy economy' despite being opposed by Lord Beaverbrook and the British Industrial Federation.
Churchill later considered this the greatest mistake of his life; in a discussion at the time with former Chancellor Reginald McKenna, Churchill admitted that his return to the gold standard and the 'money-sweet' policies generated poorly. In these discussions he defended the policy as a fundamental politics - returning to prewar conditions in which he believed. In his speech at Bill, he said, "I will tell you what it [returns to the Gold Standard] will take us in. It will bind us to reality."
Its return to pre-war exchange rates and into the Gold Standard's depressed industry. The most affected is the coal industry, which has already declining output due to shipping to switch to oil. Since basic UK industries such as cotton are under more competition in export markets, their return to pre-war stocks is expected to add up to ten percent in costs to industry. In July 1925, the Inquiry Commission reported generally preferred the position of the miners rather than the mine owners.
With Churchill's support, Baldwin proposed subsidies for the coal industry, while the Royal Commission under Herbert Samuel prepared further reports. The Samuel commission did not solve anything and the disagreements of the miners led to the General Strike of 1926. Churchill edited the Government newspaper, British Gazette , and was one of the more hawkish Cabinet members, recommending that the food convoy route from the dock to London must be guarded by tanks, armored cars and hidden machine guns. This was rejected by the Cabinet. An exaggerated record of Churchill's greatness during the strike soon began to circulate. Soon afterwards, the New Statesman claimed that Churchill had been the leader of the "war party" in the Cabinet and wanted to use military force against the strikers. He consulted with Attorney General Sir Douglas Hogg, who suggested that although he had a good case for criminal slander, it would be discouraged to have a secret Cabinet discussion broadcast in an open court. Churchill agreed to let the matter disappear.
The then economist, as well as the people at the time, also criticized Churchill's budgetary measures. This is seen as helping rented banks and generally well-off paying classes (which Churchill and his colleagues generally include) at the expense of producers and exporters who are known to then suffer imports and from competition in traditional export markets, and as peasants of the Armed Forces, and especially the Royal Navy, is too heavy.
Political isolation
The Conservative Government was defeated in the 1929 general election. Churchill did not seek election for the Conservative Business Committee, the official leadership of Conservative MPs. For the next two years, he became alienated from the Conservative leadership on protective tariff issues and the House Rules of India, by his political views and by his friendships with baroque press, financiers, and people whose character was considered dubious. When Ramsay MacDonald formed the National Government in 1931, Churchill was not invited to join the Cabinet. He was at the lowest point of his career, in a period known as "the years of the wilderness".
He spent most of the following years concentrating on his writing, working including Marlborough: Life and His Age - his ancestral biography of John Churchill, Marlborough's First Duke - and A History of English Speaking Peoples (though the latter was not published until after the Second World War), Great Contemporaries and numerous newspaper articles and speech collections. He was one of the best paid writers of his time. His political views, laid out in his lectures in 1930 and published as Parliamentary and Economic Affairs (reissued in 1932 in his "Mind and Adventure" essay collection) which involves renouncing universal suffrage, a return to property franchises, proportional representation for major cities and 'sub-parliamentary' economies.
Indian Independence
Churchill opposed the rebellion of Gandhi's peaceful disobedience and the Indian Independence movement in the 1920s and 30s, arguing that the Round Table Conference "is a frightening prospect". Churchill does not moderate. "The truth is," he said in 1930, "that Gandhi-ism and all that it possesses must be wrestled and destroyed." In response to Gandhi's movement, Churchill declared in 1920 that Gandhi should be bound hands and feet and destroyed by an elephant ridden by a young king. Reports later show that Churchill would rather let Gandhi die if he went on a hunger strike.
In his speeches and press articles in this period, he expects widespread unemployment in Britain and civil strife in India should be granted independence. The Viceroy, Lord Irwin, who had been appointed by the previous Conservative Government, was involved in the Round Table Conference in early 1931 and then announced the Government's policy that India should be granted the status of Power. In this case, the Government is supported by the Liberal Party and, at least officially, by the Conservative Party. Churchill denounced the Round Table Conference.
At a meeting of the West Essex Conservative Association, specifically held so Churchill could explain his position, he said "It is alarming and also disgusting to see Mr. Gandhi, a lawless lawyer of Middle Temple, now posing as a fakir of the famous kind in the East, walking half-naked up the steps of the royal court... to fight the equivalent of a King-Emperor's representative. "He called the leaders of the Indian National Congress" Brahmana who expressed and obeyed the principles of Western Liberalism ".
Two incidents damaged Churchill's reputation within the Conservative Party during this period. Both were taken as an attack on the conservative front bench. The first was his speech on the eve of St George's election in April 1931. In the safe Conservative seat, the official Conservative Party candidate Duff Cooper was opposed by Ernest Petter, an independent Conservative. Petter is supported by Lord Rothermere, Lord Beaverbrook and their respective newspapers. Though set before the mid-term elections were set, Churchill's speech was seen as supporting independent candidates and as part of a baron press campaign against Baldwin. Baldwin's position was strengthened when Duff Cooper won, and when civilian dissidents campaign in India stopped with the Gandhi-Irwin Pact.
The second issue is a claim by Churchill that Sir Samuel Hoare and Lord Derby have pressured the Manchester Chamber of Commerce to amend the evidence already given to the Select Joint Committee considering the Indian Government Bill, and thus have violated the parliamentary privilege. He had a problem referred to the House of Commons Privilege Committee which, after an investigation in which Churchill provided evidence, reported to the Parliament that there were no violations. The report was debated on June 13, 1934. Churchill could not find a single supporter in the House and the debate ended without division.
Churchill permanently severed ties with Baldwin for Indian independence and never again held any posts while Baldwin became prime minister. Some historians see his basic attitude toward India as stated in his book Germany and Italy
In 1920, Churchill supported the idea of ​​"reconciliation" between Germany and France with England as an "honest mediator" for reconciliation. "Beginning in 1931, when he opposed those who advocated giving Germany the right to military parity with France, Churchill often spoke of the danger of German nuclear weapons.
In 1931, Churchill said: "It is not in the direct interest of European peace that the French Army should be seriously weakened, not in Britain's interest to oppose France". He then, especially at The Gathering Storm, describes himself as for a while, a voice calling on Britain to strengthen itself against aggressive Germans. But Lord Lloyd was the first to be so nervous.
In 1932 Churchill received the presidency of the newly founded New Commonwealth Society, a peace organization he described in 1937 as "one of the few peacekeeping societies advocating the use of force, if possible extraordinary power, to support public international law".
Churchill's early attitude toward the fascist dictators was ambiguous. After the defeat of the First World War Germany, a new danger occupied conservative political consciousness - the spread of communism. A newspaper article written by Churchill and published on Feb. 4, 1920, has warned that "civilization" is threatened by the Bolsheviks, a movement he links through historical precedents to a Jewish conspiracy. In his 1920 article entitled "Zionism versus Bolshevism", Churchill wrote in part:
The movement among these Jews is nothing new... conspiracy around the world to overthrow civilization and for the recovery of society on the basis of captured development, jealous envy, and unlikely similarities, have grown steadily.
However, in this article, Churchill praises those Jews who have integrated into the national life of the countries in which they live "faithfully adhering to their own religion", comparing them with those who have "abandoned the faith of their forefathers" and come to play an influential role in the revival of the Bolshevik movement. Most Churchill scholars cited his great admiration for the Jews. Because partly because of his childhood exposure to many of his father's Jewish friends and associates, Churchill was a lifelong anti-Semitic opponent and supporter of the Zionist movement.
In 1931, he warned against the League of Nations that opposed the Japanese in Manchuria: "I hope we will try in England to understand the position of Japan, the ancient country... On the one hand they have the dark threat of Soviet Russia.On the other hand Chinese chaos , four or five provinces of which were tortured under communist rule. "In a contemporary newspaper article he referred to the government of the Spanish Republic as a communist front, and Franco's army as an" Anti-Red Movement. " He supported the Hoare-Laval Pact and continued until 1937 to praise Mussolini. He regarded the Mussolini regime as a bulwark against the threat of the communist revolution, going so far (in 1933) to refer to Mussolini as "the Roman genius... the greatest lawgiver among men." However, he stressed that Britain should stick with the tradition of Parliamentary democracy, rather than adopt fascism.
Speaking at the House of Commons in 1937, Churchill said, "I would not pretend that, if I had to choose between communism and Nazism, I would vote for communism." In the 1935 essay, "Hitler and his Choice", reissued in his 1937 book Great Contemporaries Churchill expressed hope that Hitler, if he so chose, and though he ascended to power through dictatorial action, hatred and cruelty, may not yet "go down in history as one who restores the honor and peace of mind to the great Germanic nation and brings it back calmly, helpfully and firmly at the forefront of European family circles." His first major defense speech on February 7, 1934 stressed the need to rebuild the Royal Air Force and create the Ministry of Defense; the second, on July 13 urged a new role for the League of Nations. These three topics remained the theme until the beginning of 1936. In 1935, he was one of the founding members of The Focus, which brought together people from different political and occupational backgrounds who united in seeking "the defense of freedom and peace. " Focus led to the formation of a much wider Weapon and Movement Agreement in 1936.
Germany and armed again: 1936
Churchill, on holiday in Spain when the Germans regained the Rhineland in February 1936, returned to the divided England. The Labor Opposition is adamant in opposing sanctions and the National Government is divided between advocates of economic sanctions and those who say that even this will lead to humiliating humiliation by Britain because France will not support any intervention. Churchill's speech on March 9 was measured, and praised by Neville Chamberlain se
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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