History of Wales (1830-1980) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Chartist

The historian Dorothy Thompson summed up the ethos of the Chartist movement with the following:

"Thousands of working people considered that their problems could be solved by the political organisation of the country".

Up until the movement started to impact on the politics of the nation, the working class man (women's suffrage would have to wait quite a while longer yet) in the United Kingdom was disenfranchised. The arm of Chartism that proceeded to attempt to change politics from within, that is to say constitutionally, thought that the cause of the movement was best advanced by the promulgation of the "People's Charter" (1838). This influential charter specified the need for, amongst other things, a vote for every man over the age of 21, the ballot to be secret, members of parliament (MPs) to be paid and for there to be equally sized constituencies.

Other elements of the Chartist movement were not quite so constitutionally-minded and would become violent if necessary. One of the major Chartist uprisings, led by John Frost, took place in Newport and one of the potential reasons behind this particular rebellion was the failure of the "People's Charter" to make it through the convoluted constitutional process in the House of Commons; it was rejected in parliament. Attempting to free fellow Chartists who were said to be detained in Newport's Westgate Hotel, Frost and followers engaged in an armed rebellion against British Army personnel who were charged with defending the building. About twenty Chartist rebels died in the confrontation and John Frost was found guilty of high treason, a crime for which the death penalty was in force. The death penalty was eventually commuted to a lesser sentence and Frost was pardoned in the mid-1850s.

Answer: Rebecca Riots

Through poor harvests and a combination of economic conditions that were of detriment to the agricultural communities across south Wales, farmers in the area were quickly finding themselves in poor financial situations. A lot of the blame for this was placed at the door of Robert Peel (British Prime Minister in the periods 1834-1835 and 1841-1846) by Welsh farmers who were angry that Peel and the British government had relaxed the tariff system which resulted in it being easier to import meat. With income going down, it became harder for the people of rural Wales to make ends meet, particularly given the fact that the price of things such as rents, tolls and tithes didn't seem to be reducing.

Tollgates bore the brunt of the frustration that had been building in the region, with the struggling farmers donning female clothing and attacking the structures that they deemed oppressive. The men in women's clothing involved in the riots came to be known as "Rebecca's Daughters" or rather the Welsh equivalent "Merched Beca". There is some uncertainty about the origin of this name but one suggestion is that it has its roots in a passage from the "Book of Genesis", which goes, "And they blessed Rebekah and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them". This Biblical passage is believed to have been oft-quoted by the rioters.

Answer: Church of England

In some countries, the separation of church and state is a constitutional given; in parts of the United Kingdom this is not traditionally the case. The British political system is an intriguing, and some may argue antiquated, mix of elected politicians, unelected politicians (including Anglican bishops) and a monarchy that has links with the Church of England. Additionally, the Church of England has, for the greater part of British history, been endorsed as the "official church" or "established church" of England and Wales. In parts of the UK where adherence to Anglicanism was not the norm, such as Nonconformist Wales, many campaigners rallied for the disestablishment of the Church of England.

In Wales, the disestablishment of the Church of England was brought about by the Welsh Church Act 1914 and by 1920, the Church of England was no longer the official church in Wales. Anglicanism didn't disappear from Wales entirely however as the Church of Wales was created as part of the Anglican Communion but it did not receive established status. In 1929, the Church of Scotland was disestablished, which left England as the only constituent nation of the UK with a state church.

It would be wrong for nationalism not to be mentioned here as the disestablishment of the Church of England in Wales was not entirely an issue of religion. Cymru Fydd, a group who sought Welsh national autonomy, were overjoyed that a piece of legislation specific to Wales passed through parliament; for them, it was a step towards Wales being viewed as a nation in its own right rather than being viewed as just an annex of England.

Answer: David Lloyd George

David Lloyd George, born in Manchester but very much Welsh in identity, was Britain's Prime Minister from 1916 to 1922 which meant that he was in charge for the latter half of World War I. Prior to this, native Welsh-speaker Lloyd George was "one of the foremost fighting leaders of a fanatical Welsh Nonconformity" according to biographer and Liberal politician, Frank Owen.

This fanaticism for Nonconformity was present despite his agnostic beliefs; this seems to suggest that issues of Nonconformity and disestablishmentarianism may have been conflated with desires for Welsh autonomy as was the case with Cymru Fydd. Further weight may be given to this suggestion by noting that David Lloyd George was once the leader of Cymru Fydd, a group that desired Welsh self-governance.

Answer: Labour

James Keir Hardie was born in a settlement close to Motherwell, Scotland in 1856. In 1893, he was instrumental in setting up the Independent Labour Party, which in turn became part of a somewhat larger organisation, the Labour Party. With an industrial background, which included stints in Scottish mines, Keir Hardie was a perfect representative for a constituency that included the town of Merthyr Tydfil. By 1903, Hardie was already one of the "movers and shakers" of British politics when he was involved in the Lib-Lab (Liberal-Labour) pact; another person involved in this pact was future Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald who had also served as an MP for a Welsh constituency (Aberavon).

This pact saw the Liberal Party and the Labour Party refusing to stand against each other at selected constituencies in the 1906 general election so as not to split the anti-Conservative vote.

The result was a very poor election for the incumbent Conservatives, and a win for Liberal leader Henry Campbell-Bannerman propped up by Hardie, MacDonald and their Labour cohorts.

Answer: Plaid Cymru

Plaid Cymru was founded during the inter-war period in 1925 but it took the Welsh political group over forty years to win its first seat at the Westminster parliament. Even by the general election of 2010, the party continued to struggle against Labour's dominance in Wales with Plaid winning in only three of forty Welsh constituencies.

In its early years, Plaid Cymru's main area of concern was the decline of Welsh language usage; they believed that by establishing Welsh as the only official language in Wales, more people would be persuaded to learn the language and use it on a daily basis. By the 1930s, Welsh autonomy was brought to the fore and perhaps to emphasise this desire for self-governance, the party took a neutral stance throughout the course of the Second World War. Moving forward to the 21st century, the modernised aims of the party still included the nationalistic desire for an independent Wales but also included a rather conflicting ideal that Wales should be a part of the European Union (not a very nationalistic proposition at all)!

Answer: Liverpool

The piece of legislation in question was a bill that was presented to the UK Parliament at Westminster which sought to create a new reservoir in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. The controversial aspect of this is that the bill was sponsored by Liverpool City Council and that with the passing of the bill, the local authorities of north Wales would not need to be consulted. The bill indeed did pass through parliament and the area of Gwynedd that was deemed desirable was flooded to create a reservoir in 1965. Capel Celyn was a village that was situated in the area to be flooded and so the settlement had to be evacuated.

As well as the impact it had on the lives of those in Capel Celyn, there was also the indirect effect of support for the Welsh political party, Plaid Cymru increasing. It could be suggested that this was due to a portion of the electorate in Wales feeling as though the voice of the Welsh people was not being heard in Westminster; this is evidenced by the fact that despite all but one of the 36 politicians representing Welsh constituencies voting against the bill, it still passed. In 1965, the same year as the flooding, the Welsh Office was set up in Whitehall by the then Prime Minister, Harold Wilson.

Answer: Welsh language

Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, which translates into English as The Welsh Language Society, was established in 1962 in the village of Pontarddulais, not far from the city of Swansea. It is perhaps best to describe the main aim of Cymdeithas as being the reintegration of the Welsh language into mainstream Welsh life.

This has manifested itself in the form of changes to road signs in the country such that they always be written in Welsh and English if at all possible and also for important documents (such as birth certificates) to be bilingual. Building upon these changes, Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg began campaigning for a Welsh-medium education for every child in Wales.

Some members of the organisation are well known for causing disruption which has resulted in fines received and prison sentences incurred.

Answer: Aberfan

Many things in history are open to interpretation and debate but the crippling effect that the decline in the mining industry had on Merthyr and the surrounding valleys is certainly not one of those things. Prior to World War II, and to a lesser extent by the 1980s, Merthyr Tydfil was a town that revelled in its status as one of the greatest industrial towns in the United Kingdom and perhaps even the world.

This pleasure was tempered somewhat by the sad events that took place in Aberfan on October 21st, 1966.

The valleys of south Wales are more than familiar with industrial accidents but what made the collapse of a spoil heap at the colliery in Aberfan so painfully memorable is that the local school, and its young children, was so deeply involved - over one hundred children died that day.

Whilst life goes on in the village, it is almost impossible to look up the slopes of the valley without thinking about the events of 1966.

Answer: Television channel

S4C was the Welsh-language equivalent of the British television station, Channel 4 [Sianel - Channel, Pedwar - Four, Cymru - Wales], and actually predates the English-language channel by a day. The desire for a predominantly Welsh-language channel became an electoral football in the race to the Premiership in the 1979 General Election. Not only did Labour, which has traditionally been the political party of choice for constituencies of south Wales, pledge to institute such a channel but so did the Conservatives, a party that only tended to win the more well-to-do agricultural areas of the region. Margaret Thatcher led the Conservatives to victory in 1979 and so the expectations of Welsh speakers rested on the shoulders of the UK's first ever female Prime Minister.

The decision regarding a Welsh-language channel was delegated to Thatcher's then Home Secretary, Willie Whitelaw. He decided, despite pre-election "promises", that such a channel was not a good idea and that the government of which he was a part was not interested in pursuing the policy any longer. This decision did not go down well with the Welsh speakers most culturally invested in having access to a channel such as S4C; some refused to honour their television licence fees, whilst others started attacking communications infrastructure.

As Margaret Thatcher was a lady "not for turning", the actions described above were unlikely to get her to change the government's view on this issue. Consequently, a prominent member of Plaid Cymru, a political party that takes interest in all things Welsh, said that he would go on hunger strike if the policy was kept on the political scrapheap any longer. This Plaid Cymru member was Gwynfor Evans, a man that many believe to be the main reason behind S4C becoming a reality in 1982.