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History -- Questions
August 1914 - May 1915 -- Asquith's Liberal Government
May 1915 - December 1916 -- Asquith's Coalition Government
December 1916 - November 1918 -- Lloyd George's Coalition Government
Not completely left wing, were closer to centre.
Liberals about social reform, pensions, health care etc.
Liberals thought travel and trade should be free.
Rich people still voted for the Liberals as they were not totally left wing like the Labour party.
1) What was Asquith's Coalition?
Asquith's Coalition was created because of criticism of Asquith's leadership, the shell crisis and the failure of the Gallopoli Campaign(1915-1916) were used the Conservative part to cause a Government shake-up. Asquith gave way and the coalition was formed. Bonar Law, Balfour and Carson from the Conservative party, Arthur Henderson represented the Labour Party at the Board of Education.
2) What was Lloyd-George's contribution to the war effort?
During the Ministerial reshuffle, Lloyd George moved from the Exchequer to the new Ministry of Munitions. He made the Ministry of Munitions into a model of what could be achieved when a Government department was inspiringly led.
His essential aim was to produce more shells to counter the criticism of the Governments handling of the war.
Lloyd George had particular success producing armaments as shown by the statistic,
Machine guns at start of war: 1,330
Machine guns at end of war: 250,000
By 1918, the supply of shells had begun to exceed demand, Lloyd George ascribed this success to the fact that the ministry was 'from first to last a business-man organisation'.
His use of experts from the areas of industrial production and supply was a step towards his concept of a government of national efficiency.
3) What was the conscription?
As the war went on it became clear it was going to be a long war and that the current system of voluntary enlistment would not be able to keep the army up to full strength.
It was decided that they would have to force people of a certain age to fight in the war, however it was decided to only force unmarried men and not both.
4) Why was Asquith removed from power by 1916?
People believed he was not a good leader for wartime, they believed that the duties of prime minister were too much for Asquith as well as running the war effort and that Lloyd George would be better because of his work as the Minister of Munitions.
5) What problems faced Lloyd George when he was PM 1916-1918?
there was a problem with German U-Boats sinking ships that was leading to ships not getting enough food to the UK, this led to Lloyd George saying thatv
Britain would starve if the problem continued.
6) What was the Representation of the people Act 1918?
Gave women over the age of thirty the ability to vote in the elections, it did not give all women the ability to vote but it did give some which was a major start for the people who had worked to be able to get women the vote.
7) Describe the coupon election
The coupon election was a way for coalition liberal and conservatives to not go against each other in the elections, They were also known as Coalition Coupons and were sent to the original coalition members.