Hi, are you taking the "Life in the UK" test?
This video is the sixth in a series of videos by me
showing you how to prepare for and pass
the "Life in the UK" test.
It contains all the knowledge and facts you need to know
to pass the test, first time.
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Okay, so in this video we're going to cover
the "Life in the UK" test materials for "The 20th Century",
which is part of Chapter Four of the official government
guide for the "Life in the UK" test.
I'm going to cover the whole subject for you,
including the points people struggle with in the test.
If you stay to the end of this video,
you will find some example questions from
the "Life in the UK" test on this topic,
including some of the more tricky ones,
so that you can test whether your
knowledge of the subject is up to standard.
"The 20th Century: The First World War".
The early 20th century was a time of optimism for Britain.
In the nation, with its expansive empire,
well-admired navy, thriving industry,
and strong political institutions, it was now known as a
global superpower.
It was also a time of social progress.
Financial help for the unemployed, old age pensions,
and free school meals were just a few
of the important measures introduced.
Various laws were passed to improve safety in the workplace,
town planning rules were tightened to prevent
the development of slums, and better support was given
to mothers and their children after divorce or separation.
Local government became more democratic,
and a salary for members of Parliament
was introduced for the first time,
making it easier for people to take part in public life.
The era of optimism and progress was cut short
when war broke out between several European nations.
On the 28th of June, 1914,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated.
This set off a chain of events leading
to the First World War,
from 1914
to 1918.
But while the assassination provided the trigger for war,
other factors, such as a growing sense of nationalism
in many European states,
increasing militarism,
imperialism,
and the division of the major European powers into two camps
all set the conditions for war.
The conflict was centred in Europe, but it was a global war
involving nations from around the world.
Britain was part of the Allied Powers, which included,
among others: France, Russia, Japan,
Belgium, Serbia, and later, Greece, Italy,
Romania, and the United States.
The whole of the British Empire
was involved in the conflict.
For example, more than a million Indians fought
on behalf of Britain in lots of different countries
and around 40,000 were killed.
Men from the West Indies, Africa, Australia, New Zealand,
and Canada also fought with the British.
The Allies fought against the Central powers, mainly:
Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire,
and later, Bulgaria.
Millions of people were killed or wounded,
with more than 2,000,000 British casualties.
One battle, the British attack on the Somme
in July 1916,
resulted in about 60,000 British casualties
on the first day alone.
The First World War ended
at 11:00 a.m. on the 11th of November, 1918,
with victory for Britain and its allies.
"The Partition of Ireland".
In 1913, the British government
promised Home Rule for Ireland.
The proposal was to have a self-governing Ireland
with its own Parliament that's still part of the UK.
A Home Rule bill was introduced in Parliament.
It was opposed by the Protestants in the north of Ireland,
who threatened to resist Home Rule by force.
The outbreak of the First World War
led the British government to postpone
any changes in Ireland.
Irish Nationalists were not willing to wait, and in 1916,
there was an uprising: The Easter Rising
against the British in Dublin.
The leaders of the uprising
were executed under military law.
A guerrilla war against the British army
and the police in Ireland followed.
In 1921, a peace treaty was signed,
and in 1922, Ireland became two countries.
The six counties in the north, which were mainly Protestant,
remained part of the UK under the name Northern Ireland.
The rest of Ireland became the Irish Free State.
It had its own government, and became a republic in 1949.
There were people in both parts of Ireland who disagreed
with the split between the north and the south.
They still wanted Ireland to be one independent country.
Years of disagreement led to a terror campaign
in Northern Ireland and elsewhere.
The conflict between those wishing
for full Irish independence and those wishing
to remain loyal to the British government
is often referred to as "The Troubles".
"The Interwar Period".
In the 1920s, many people's living conditions got better.
There were improvements in public housing
and new homes were built in many towns and cities.
However, in 1929, the world entered the Great Depression,
and some parts of the UK suffered mass unemployment.
The effects of the Depression of the 1930s
were felt differently in different parts of the UK.
The traditional, heavy industries, such as shipbuilding,
were badly affected.
But new industries, including
the automobile and aviation industries, developed.
As prices generally fell,
those in work had more money to spend.
Car ownership doubled from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000
between 1930 and 1939.
In addition, many new houses were built.
It was also a time of cultural blossoming, with writers
such as Graham Greene and Evelyn Moore prominent.
The economist, John Maynard Keynes,
published influential new theories of economics.
The BBC started radio broadcasts in 1922, and began
the world's first regular television service in 1936.
"The Second World War".
Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933.
He believed that the conditions imposed on Germany
by the Allies after the First World War were unfair.
He also wanted to conquer more land for the German people.
He set about re-negotiating treaties, building up arms,
and testing Germany's military strength in nearby countries.
The war was initially fought between the Axis powers:
Fascist Germany, Italy, and the Empire of Japan,
and the Allies.
The main countries on the Allied side were the UK, France,
Poland, Australia,
New Zealand, Canada,
and the Union of South Africa.
Having occupied Austria and invaded Czechoslovakia,
Hitler followed his invasion of Poland by taking control
of Belgium and the Netherlands.
Then, in 1940, German forces defeated Allied troops
and advanced through France.
At this time of national crisis, Winston Churchill became
Prime Minister, and Britain's war leader.
As France fell, the British decided to evacuate British
and French soldiers from France in a huge naval operation.
Many civilian volunteers in small pleasure and fishing boats
from Britain helped the navy to rescue more than 300,000 men
from the beaches around Dunkirk.
Although many lives, and a lot of equipment, were lost,
the evacuation was a success and meant that Britain
was better able to continue the fight against the Germans.
The evacuation gave rise to the phrase "The Dunkirk Spirit".
From the end of June 1940 until the German invasion
of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Britain and the Empire
stood almost alone against Nazi Germany.
Hitler wanted to invade Britain,
but before sending in troops,
Germany needed to control the air.
The Germans waged an air campaign against Britain,
but the British resisted with their fighter planes
and eventually won the crucial aerial battle against
the Germans, called the Battle of Britain.
In the summer of 1940, this took place.
The most important planes used by the Royal Air Force in
the Battle of Britain were the Spitfire and the Hurricane,
which were designed and built in Britain.
Despite this crucial victory, the German air force
was able to continue bombing London
and other British cities at nighttime.
This was called the Blitz.
Coventry was almost totally destroyed,
and a great deal of damage was done in other cities,
especially in the east end of London.
Despite the destruction, there was
a strong national spirit of resistance in the UK.
The phrase, "the Blitz Spirit", is still used today
to describe Britain's pulling together
in the face of adversity.
"Winston Churchill: 1874 to 1965".
Churchill was the son of a politician,
and before becoming a Conservative MP in 1900,
was a soldier and journalist.
In May 1940, he became Prime Minister.
He refused to surrender to the Nazis
and was an inspirational leader to the British people
in a time of great hardship.
He lost the general election in 1945,
but returned as Prime Minister in 1951.
He was an MP until he stood down
at the 1964 general election.
Following his death in 1965, he was given a state funeral.
He remains a much-admired figure to this day,
and in 2002, was voted the greatest Briton of all time
by the public.
During the war, he made many famous speeches,
including lines which you may still hear.
"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat".
Churchill's first speech to the House of Commons
after he became Prime Minister in 1940 was:
"We shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight on the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills,
we shall never surrender".
His speech to the House of Commons after Dunkirk in 1940:
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed
by so many to so few".
At the same time as defending Britain,
the British military was fighting the Axis
on many other fronts.
In Singapore, the Japanese defeated the British
and then occupied Burma, threatening India.
The United States entered the war
when the Japanese bombed its naval base
at Pearl Harbour in December, 1941.
That same year, Hitler attempted the largest invasion
in history by attacking the Soviet Union.
It was a fierce conflict, with huge losses on both sides.
German forces were ultimately repelled by the Soviets,
and the damage they sustained proved to be
a pivotal point in the war.
The Allied forces gradually gained the upper hand,
winning significant victories in North Africa and Italy.
German losses in the Soviet Union,
combined with the support of the Americans,
meant that the Allies were eventually strong enough
to attack Hitler's forces in Western Europe.
On the sixth of June, 1944,
Allied forces landed in Normandy.
This event is often referred to as D-Day.
Following the victory on the beaches of Normandy,
the Allied forces pressed on through France
and eventually into Germany.
The Allies comprehensively defeated Germany in May, 1945.
The war against Japan ended in August, 1945,
when the United States dropped its newly developed
atom bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Scientists, led by Ernest Rutherford,
working at Manchester and in Cambridge University,
were the first to split the atom,
and took part in the Manhattan Project in the United States
which developed the atomic bomb.
The war was finally over.
"Alexander Fleming: 1881 to 1955".
Born in Scotland, Fleming moved to London as a teenager
and later qualified as a doctor.
He was researching influenza, the flu, in 1928
when he discovered penicillin.
This was then further developed into a usable drug
by the scientists Howard Florey and Ernst Chain.
By the 1940s, it was in mass production.
Fleming won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1945.
Penicillin is still used to treat
bacterial infections today.
So the key points you need to remember and cover here, are:
What happened during the First World War,
The partition of Ireland and
the establishment of the UK as it is today,
and the events of the Second World War.
So, let's have a look at some example questions
from the "Life in the UK" test on this subject.
"The First World War ended at 11:00 a.m. on:
The 10th of November, 1917;
The 11th of November, 1919;
or, the 11th of November, 1918."
The answer is, "The 11th of November, 1918."
The First World War ended at 11:00 a.m.
on the 11th of November, 1918,
with victory for Britain and its allies.
"The central powers in the First World War
against which the Allies fought were:
The Austro-Hungarian Empire and the UK;
Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
the Ottoman Empire, and later, Bulgaria;
or, the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
the Ottoman Empire, and the UK."
The answer is: Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
the Ottoman Empire, and later, Bulgaria.
"The whole of the British Empire
was involved in the conflict and the Allies
fought against the Central Powers.
These were mainly Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
the Ottoman Empire, and later, Bulgaria.
"What battle was fought by the British in July 1916,
which resulted in about 60,000 British casualties
on the first day alone?
The answer is the Battle of the Somme.
If you'd like to check out the rest of the lessons
in this series, in total, it contains all the knowledge
and facts you need to have to pass the test, first time.
If you have any questions on the "Life in the UK" test,
just put them in the comments below, and I'll answer them.
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Good luck on the test, and I'll see you in the next video.