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Y113: Britain 1930–1997

Britain’s position in the world 1951–1997: Europe, nuclear policy, the Falklands and decolonisation

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 1

Overview

Recall questions on entry to the European Community and Maastricht, Thatcher and Europe, the British bomb and Trident, nuclear protest, the Falklands and Gulf wars, the wind of change, Rhodesia and Hong Kong, and the Commonwealth.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Numbers

How did Britain become a nuclear power in the 1950s?

Evaluation

Why did Britain end up buying its delivery systems from the United States?

Evaluation

Why did Rhodesia and Hong Kong prove such awkward cases?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    How did Britain finally enter the European Community, and how was membership settled?

    Model answer

    With de Gaulle gone, Heath negotiated entry and Britain joined on the first day of 1973 on terms many thought poor; a divided Labour government then renegotiated and put membership to a referendum in 1975, which endorsed staying in by roughly two to one.

  2. 2

    Outline Thatcher's approach to the European Community.

    Model answer

    She fought a long campaign for a rebate on Britain's budget contribution, won at Fontainebleau in 1984, and welcomed the Single European Act as a means of creating a free market, but at Bruges in 1988 she rejected any drift towards a European super-state directed from Brussels.

  3. 3

    What did Britain sign up to at Maastricht, and what did it refuse?

    Model answer

    Major accepted the treaty creating the European Union and its pillars of cooperation, but secured opt-outs from the single currency and from the Social Chapter on employment rights, which he presented as game, set and match while his party remained unconvinced.

  4. 4

    How did Britain become a nuclear power in the 1950s?

    Model answer

    The first British atomic device was tested off Australia in 1952, and thermonuclear tests near Christmas Island in 1957 gave Britain a hydrogen bomb, which ministers believed bought influence with Washington and a seat at any disarmament table.

  5. 5

    Why did Britain end up buying its delivery systems from the United States?

    Model answer

    The home-built Blue Streak missile was cancelled in 1960 as obsolete and vulnerable, and when the Americans then cancelled the Skybolt air-launched missile Macmillan pressed Kennedy at Nassau in 1962 to supply Polaris for British submarines instead, making the deterrent independent in use but dependent in supply.

  6. 6

    Explain the Trident decision of 1980.

    Model answer

    Thatcher's government agreed in 1980 to buy the American Trident missile system to replace Polaris from the 1990s, confirming a submarine-based deterrent and a continuing technological dependence on the United States at very high cost.

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