Conservative Party (United Kingdom)

The **Conservative Party**, officially the **Conservative and Unionist Party** and also known colloquially as the **Tories**, was one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom. The Conservative Party existed for several decades, being outlawed after the British Revolution that led to the total dissolution of the United Kingdom.

The Conservative Party was founded in 1834 from the Tory Party and was one of two dominant political parties in the 19th century, along with the Liberal Party. Under Benjamin Disraeli, it played a preeminent role in politics at the height of the British Empire. In 1912, the Liberal Unionist Party merged with the party to form the Conservative and Unionist Party. In the early 1920s, the Labour Party emerged as the Conservatives' main rival. Following the collapse of the United Kingdom along with the wider British Empire, the Conservative Party was outlawed by the newly formed Union of Britain. Several high profiles members of the party would flee to Canada, and would greatly influence the internal politics of the Conservative Party of Canada.

The peak of the party's influence was during the Victorian Era, where it established itself as the party of the British Empire and of Imperial Stability.

## Origins (1834 - 1867)

Some writers trace the party's origins to the Tory Party which it soon replaced. Other historians point to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party, that coalesced around William Pitt the Younger in the 1780s. They were known as "Independent Whigs", "Friends of Mr Pitt", or "Pittites" and never used terms such as "Tory" or "Conservative". From about 1812 on the name "Tory" was commonly used for a new party that, according to historian Robert Blake, "are the ancestors of Conservatism". Blake adds that Pitt's successors after 1812 "were not in any sense standard-bearers of 'true Toryism'".

The term "Conservative" was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the *Quarterly Review* in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was formally adopted under the aegis of Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto. The term "Conservative Party" rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845.

## Conservatives and Unionists (1867 - 1914)

The widening of the electoral franchise in the 19th century forced the Conservative Party to popularise its approach under Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby and Benjamin Disraeli, who carried through their own expansion of the franchise with the Reform Act of 1867. The party was initially opposed to further expansion of the electorate which Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone had wanted but eventually allowed passage of Gladstone's 1884 Reform Act. In 1886, the party formed an alliance with Spencer Compton Cavendish, Lord Hartington and Joseph Chamberlain's new Liberal Unionist Party and, under the statesmen Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Lord Salisbury and Arthur Balfour, held power for all but three of the following twenty years before suffering a heavy defeat in 1906 when it split over the issue of free trade.

Young Winston Churchill denounced Chamberlain's attack on free trade, and helped organise the opposition inside the Unionist/Conservative Party. Nevertheless, Balfour, as party leader, followed Chamberlain's policy introduced protectionist legislation. Churchill crossed the floor and formally joined the Liberal Party (he rejoined the Conservatives in 1925). In December, Balfour lost control of his party, as the defections multiplied. He was replaced by Liberal Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman who called an election in January 1906, which produced a massive Liberal victory. Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith enacted a great deal of reform legislation, but the Unionists worked hard at grassroots organizing. Two general elections were held in 1910, one in January and one in December. The two main parties were now almost dead equal in seats, but the Liberals kept control with a coalition with the Irish Parliamentary Party.

In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party. In Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged Unionists who were opposed to Irish Home Rule into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence, formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. In Britain, the Conservative party was known as the Unionist Party because of its opposition to home rule in Ireland. Under Bonar Law's leadership in 1911–14, the Party morale improved, the "radical right" wing was contained, and the party machinery strengthened. It made some progress toward developing constructive social policies.

## First Weltkrieg (1914 - 1919)

While the Liberals were mostly against the war until the invasion of Belgium, Conservative leaders were strongly in favour of aiding France and stopping Germany. The Liberal party was in full control of the government until its mismanagement of the war effort under the Shell Crisis badly hurt its reputation. An all-party coalition government was formed in May 1915. In late 1916 Liberal David Lloyd George became prime minister but the Liberals soon split and the Conservatives dominated the government, especially after their landslide in the 1919 election. The Liberal party never recovered, but Labour gained more and more strength after 1920.

## The Great Slump (1919 - 1924)

The Conservatives handling of the Irish War of Independence received international criticism, due to the numerous atrocities British soldiers and paramilitary units committed against Irish civilians. The national reputation of the Conservative Party was badly damaged by the United Kingdom losing the war, as well as the ongoing economic crisis, known as the "Great Slump". Following Prime Minister Bonar Law's resignation in 1923, the party became embroiled in the Curzon Crisis. The Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, a member of the House of Lords, was favored as Law's successor. A leaked memo from King George V, outlining his intention to appoint Lord Curzon as Prime Minister sparked outrage across the country. The plan to appoint Lord Curzon as PM was abandoned, with Labour Leader Ramsay MacDonald becoming the first socialist prime minister of the United Kingdom. Sir Austen Chmaberlain became Leader of the Conservative Party. This scandal further damaged the party's reputation.

## British Revolution (1924 - 1925)

The Conservative Party was the senior partner in the First National Government formed in the aftermath of the collapsed MacDonald Ministry. Austen Chamberlain, now prime minister, re-introduced austerity measures. With the United Kingdom deep in debt, and the current state of affairs failing to improve the economy, pay was cut in all branches of the armed forces, and further investment into the Dreadnought Race ended. Many officers were decommissioned amidst accusations that preferential treatment was being given to men from the peerage or with well-connected family. Thousands of dock workers were left unemployed and with the prospect of an upcoming cut in unemployment benefits.

With the conflict in Port Talbot boiling over into full on revolution, the Conservative Party publicly denounced the revolutionaries as traitors to the crown. Chamberlain's government outlawed the Labour Party, and began taking draconian measures to prevent the syndicalists from conquering the Home Isles. Key Conservative politicians would continue to serve in the First National Government during the British Revolution until it was de facto dissolved on December 20, 1925. The Conservative Party was then banned the next day.

## In Exile (1925 - 1926)

Small remnants of the party briefly operated in Canada for the first few months after the British Revolution. It ultimately ceased operations in Canada in early 1926.