7. The Crown in World War II

In 1936, the British Crown passed to George — the younger brother of Edward VII as a result of Ed­ward's abdication. George, who did not expect to be­come a king, was a conscientious, dedicated and deeply religions man. His dedication to duty and his country gave him great popularity during the Second World War.

During this extremely difficult for Britain period George VI developed a close working relationship with Winston Churchill — the wartime British Prime Minister. The victory in this war was celebrated in the Buckingham Palace, which strengthened the link between the King and his people.

In 1948, when Britain seemed to overcome the worst hardships of the post­war years, the King failed to recover from a lung operation. He died in his sleep on February 6, 1952 and was succeeded by his daughter Elizabeth.

Britain in the second half of the 20th century

1. The World in the Cold War Period

At the end of World War II the Allies created the United Nations Organization (UN) to prevent local and global conflicts in the world and to settle interna­tional disputes peacefully. Britain was one of only five nations (alongside the USSR, USA, China and France) to have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Though at first the US, France and Britain wanted to work together with the USSR for the recovery of central Europe, this idea did not work. Europe was divided into two parts — controlled by the capitalist powers and by the socialist power (the USSR). Berlin, the capital of Germany, was also divided into two parts — East Berlin controlled by the USSR and West Berlin.

In 1948-1949, the Soviet Union tried to capture West Berlin — all roads to it were blocked, and it was only saved by constant supplies from the West brought by air. The struggle ended in favour of capitalist powers, but as a result of this strug­gle two opposite alliances were formed: the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation of the western nations (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact / the Eastern block.

The same year, 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested the atomic bomb; this testing ended the Western monopoly of nuclear weapons. In 1952, Britain be­came the third nation in the world to test nuclear weapons.

In 1949 and 1950, the world saw new wars and changes — China established a communist regime, which threatened Western powers and allies, the wars of North and South Koreas were also interpreted as a Soviet-inspired diversion. This was the time when a Third World War seemed imminent. Now the question of the defence became paramount for two world powers. The explosion of British atomic bomb marked the beginning of new weapons delivery— in 1957 the hydrogen (thermonuclear) bomb was tested and came into service. After this event nuclear weapons were proclaimed the cornerstone of Britain's defence policy — it was cheaper than maintaining a huge army.

With NATO and Western European Union (WEU) Britain built up the Cen­tral Treaty Organization (CENTO) to defend the Middle East against a possible Soviet invasion. In 1954, Britain acceded to another mutual defence agreement, the South Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). These three alliances— NATO, CENTO and SEATO effectively encircled the Soviet Union and China.

By the 1950's, Britain could consider herself one of three world's greatest powers (including the USSR and the USA), but after this period Britain was loos­ing the remnants of power together with the remnants of the dying Empire. Two following cases put an end to Britain's supreme status and showed that now it can't act unilaterally, without prior agreement with the allies.

In 1956, Egypt took the Suez Canal jointly owned by Britain and France thus placing both nations in dilemma. Britain and France tried to stop this by military actions, but were disapproved by their allies (firstly by the USA) and found them­selves isolated on the world stage. After a few days of fighting the Anglo-French forces had to withdraw.

In 1974, Britain tried to protect Cyprus, her former colony, from Turkish in­vasion. Again British military activity was restricted by the world community and her allies.

The Cold War with the Soviet Union was based on the increase of nuclear weapons. It was never popular with the British and since the 1950's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CHD) stated in the country. After the Cold War came to its end in the late 1980's, British government finally reduced the weapons and the armed forces. Today British armed forces have been much reduced, but they still are able to make contributions to international peacekeeping efforts.