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The twentieth century: 1900–45
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of his own party opposed him
1887 Queen Victoria celebrated fifty years as monarch (the
Golden Jubilee)
1893 Irish issues continued to dominate British politics.
Gladstone’s revised Home Rule Bill introduced. Keir
Hardie’s Independent Labour Party, originally
supporters of Gladstone in the divided Liberal Party,
became a full parliamentary force in 1906 (the Labour
Party, under Ramsay Macdonald)
1898 Marxist politics introduced in Russia, with the
establishment by Lenin and others of the Russian
Socialist Democratic Workers’ Party
1899 Establishment in Dublin of the Irish National Theatre
1899–1902 The Boer War: the Boers, from The Netherlands,
occupied Transvaal and the Orange Free State in South
Africa, and had territorial ambitions in Natal and the
Cape Province (British colonies). Britain won the war,
and established the Union of South Africa (to 1970)
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: 1900–45
1901 Death of Queen Victoria, after sixty-four years as
monarch
1904 France established many political alliances between
states on the continent of Europe; this was called the
‘Entente Cordiale’. But the agreements lasted for only
ten years, breaking down in 1914
1911 Height of the campaign by suffragettes in Britain; they
were women who had not achieved suffrage (the right
to vote) in three reform bills. Many people trace the
beginning of feminism to the suffragette campaign
(women over the age of 30 received the vote in 1918;
from 1928, all adult women – aged over 21 – were
given the vote)
1912 Defeat of the ruling Liberal Party’s Bill for Irish Home
Rule. The Conservative opposition were often called
Unionists, a name which still exists today (the Ulster
vote was decisive)
1914 Opening of the Panama Canal, built by the United States
of America. Originally a French project, then widely
supported in Europe, the work was conceded to the