Các Cuộc Chiến Tranh Thế Giới

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women campaigned for the right to vote. Suffragists used peaceful methods. Suffragettes used militant tactics.

Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903 with the motto "Deeds not Words." Suffragettes chained themselves to railings, went on hunger strikes, and committed acts of protest. Emily Davison died in 1913 after throwing herself before the King's horse at the Epsom Derby.

World War I (1914) changed the situation — women took jobs traditionally done by men in munitions factories, transport, and non-combat military roles. Their contribution helped change attitudes about women's rights.

The Representation of the People Act 1918 gave the vote to women over 30 with property qualifications (and all men over 21). The Equal Franchise Act 1928 gave all women over 21 equal voting rights with men. Emmeline Pankhurst died shortly before this Act passed.

WWI (1914–1918) was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo in June 1914. The Allies (Britain, France, Russia) fought the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire).

The Western Front in France and Belgium was characterised by trench warfare — soldiers in vast trench networks separated by "no man's land." The Battle of the Somme (1916) was one of the bloodiest battles in history: on the first day (1 July 1916), the British suffered approximately 60,000 casualties, about 20,000 killed.

The war ended on 11 November 1918 with an armistice. This date is commemorated as Remembrance Day (or Armistice Day). People wear poppies (which grew on the Western Front battlefields) and observe a two-minute silence at 11 a.m. The main national event is at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London.

WWII began 1 September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Britain declared war on 3 September 1939. The Allies (Britain, France, Soviet Union, later USA) fought the Axis (Germany, Italy, Japan).

Winston Churchill became PM in May 1940, inspiring the nation with speeches promising "blood, toil, tears and sweat" and vowing "never surrender." The Dunkirk evacuation (May-June 1940) rescued over 300,000 troops. The Battle of Britain (summer 1940) saw the RAF defend against the German Luftwaffe. Churchill said: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

The Blitz (September 1940–May 1941) — German bombing of London, Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow — killed thousands of civilians.

D-Day — 6 June 1944 — the Allied invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord), the largest seaborne invasion in history, led by General Eisenhower. The war in Europe ended 8 May 1945 (VE Day). The Holocaust — the Nazi murder of approximately six million Jews — was one of history's most horrific events.