Professeur: Jean-Pierre Fons
Amphi L3, de 14h30 à 15h30

→ jean-philippe.fons@univ-rennes2.fr
→ http://perso.univ-rennes2.fr/jean-philippe.fons

Plan du semestre:

• Chapter 1 : The consequences World War 2 • Chapter 2 : The British Institutions • Chapter 3 : The Welfare State • Chapter 4 : British politics

Chapter 1: The consequences of World War 2

Before the WW2, Britain was a strong economic and industrial power. The commonwealth was the natural market, huge empire.

Commonwealth: independents, autonomous countries, administratively speaking

At the end of the war, many countries took their autonomy serenely, peacefully.
Even tough this countries took their independences, Britain keep an economic relationship with them (Nothing to compare with the French empire).

The growing emergence at the end of the 19th century is the USA.
At the 19th century, USA industrial product represented 25% of the whole product, and UK, the 18%.

→ How Britain came out of the war a victor?

Britain was probably the most resistant country in the war. 1940-1941: the only European country against Germany.
Britain’s image was one of the big three (Britain [Churchill], USA [Roosevelt], and URSS [Stalin]).

Special relationship between US and UK.

Britain was in 1945 a major international politic player, in the international scene.
In 1945; it was Churchill who was representing UK internationally (Moscow...)

In 1945, UK was totally devastated, cause of a non-stop booming by Germans plane, and hardly affected materially speaking and financially speaking. Huge human cost, people were hurt, London was hurt, economy was hurt.

But, UK came out with a commonwealth preserve, a US special relationship, a peacemaker statute. London became the capital of the free world (BBC, De Gaulle, constant movement with resistance...)

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They are relied to the US financially speaking.

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