After a century of almost unchallenged political security, Britain perceived the aggressive militarisation of the new German state and empire as a threat. Britain (and her empire) lost a large part of a generation of young men in the First World War; Britain\'s civilian population found themselves under severe domestic restrictions, and occasionally bombing, during the Second World War.Conflict accelerated many social and political developments and growing nationalist movements impacted both on the British rule of Empire and on the individual nations of the British Isles. The first half of the twentieth century also saw major advances in the status of women in society so that issues of political, financial and domestic emancipation could no longer be ignored.
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