The twentieth-century world

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

HintThe heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, shot by a Bosnian Serb nationalist.

The whyOne murder became a European war because of the alliance system: Austria-Hungary attacked Serbia, Russia backed Serbia, Germany backed Austria-Hungary, and France and Britain were pulled in.

No man's land

HintCratered, wired and swept by machine guns, it belonged to neither side.

The whyIt could be a few hundred metres wide or barely thirty. Attacking meant crossing it in the open against machine guns and artillery, which is why the front line barely moved for years.

Versailles

HintIt was signed in the hall of mirrors at a French palace just outside Paris.

The whyGermany lost territory, was held to an army of 100,000 men, and had to accept blame and pay reparations. Historians still argue whether it was too harsh, too soft or simply unenforceable.

1918

HintIt came right at the end of the First World War, and only women over thirty who met a property test qualified.

The whyThe same Act gave the vote to all men over 21. Women got it on equal terms with men ten years later, in 1928.

1933

HintHe was appointed to the post rather than elected to it, weeks before the Reichstag fire.

The whyThe Nazis were the largest party but never won a majority in a free election. President Hindenburg appointed him, and the Enabling Act soon afterwards let him rule by decree.

It gave the damaged airfields and squadrons time to recover

HintFighter Command was close to breaking; the pressure came off the one target it could not afford to lose.

The whyRaids on the sector stations in late August and early September 1940 were wearing Fighter Command down faster than it could replace pilots. After a German raid strayed onto London and the RAF bombed Berlin in reply, the Luftwaffe turned on the capital from 7 September. The stations were repaired, squadrons rested, and on 15 September the RAF broke up the daylight raids. Hitler postponed the invasion two days later.

The films were censored propaganda made to sustain morale

HintAsk who chose what the camera pointed at, and what they needed the audience at home to believe.

The whyMinistry of Information film and photographs were checked before release, and reporting of panic, looting or nightly trekking out of the cities was suppressed. Mass Observation diaries and the government’s own Home Intelligence reports give a more mixed picture: real courage and endurance, but also fear, exhaustion and anger at the shortage of deep shelters.

Six million

HintAbout two thirds of the Jewish population of Europe was killed.

The whyRoma people, disabled people, political prisoners and others were murdered too. Historians study the early stages closely because persecution escalated in steps rather than all at once.

1948

HintThree years after the war ended, Aneurin Bevan launched it on 5 July.

The whyIt grew out of the Beveridge Report and its promise of care from cradle to grave: free at the point of use, paid for through taxation.

curtain

HintSomething heavy you draw across a window so that nobody can see through.

The whyThe wartime allies had fallen out over the future of eastern Europe. Because both sides came to hold nuclear weapons, the Cold War was fought through arms races, spying and proxy wars instead.

Windrush

HintIt docked at Tilbury carrying hundreds of Caribbean passengers who had answered a call for workers.

The whyIt docked at Tilbury on 21 June 1948. Its passengers were already British subjects, free to settle here because no immigration control applied to them until 1962. The British Nationality Act, passed that July and in force from January 1949, recast that status as citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies. Many came for work in transport, building and the new NHS, and met colour bars in housing and jobs when they arrived.

India

HintIts first prime minister was Jawaharlal Nehru, and Gandhi had led the long non-violent campaign for its freedom.

The whyPartition created Pakistan alongside it and displaced perhaps 15 million people. Most of the rest of the empire followed within twenty-five years, especially across Africa after 1957.