Histoire de la "question d'Irlande"

The Reformation marks the begin of the English conquest of Ireland, which build many cleavages. Indeed, the King of England, named Henry VIII, decided to separate with the Catholic Church, by founding the Church of England, which was Protestant, and didn’t obey to the Pope. Eleven years later, in 1541, Henry VIII took the title of King of Ireland. Furthermore, England was at war with the French and Spanish Catholic powers so the government feared that Ireland became their military base, and as a result England could be easily invaded. The conquest of Ireland was allowed.

The Henry VIII’s army destroyed and plundered many monasteries. Henry VIII’s daughters Queens Mary and Elizabeth Ist . Irish peasants were forced to leave their lands, that are monopolized by English planters. The English repression swept away the Irish resistance and after the ultimate defeat, in 1607, the last rebels families went into exile. And Ulster, which was the more rebel province, became a Plantation, according to King James’s decision.

The 17th century was for Ireland a long time of troubles. During the civil war, which took place from 1640 from 1649, Irish supported Catholics Kings, and opposed to the Revolution chiefs. After the English king’s execution, a Puritan named Oliver Cromwell, undertook the reconquest of Ireland in order to put an end to the massacres of planters by Native Irish. It was so violent that Cromwell is known in the Irish history as the “butcher”.

In 1689, the English Parliament’s rebelled against the catholic Jack II. The parliament asked William of Orange to get rid of Jack II, who consequently fled to Ireland. After William of Orange’s victory on Jack II, the English Kingdom definitively allied with the Anglican Church, and deprived the Catholic Church and Independent Reformed Churches members of political citizenship.

Discriminatory laws for Catholics, named the Penal laws, were voted by the Irish Parliament. They considered Papists as heretics, deprived them of their political rights, and forbade them to bear any weapons that could be used on the battlefield.

Following the American and French Revolutions, a Revolutionary society waged an uprising; Although this rebellion was quickly put down, the British government rapidly brought Irish separate institutions to an end. In 1801 the United Kingdom including Great Britain and Ireland was founded by the Act of Union. As a result British Iles were governed by a single Parliament, located in London.

In the early XIX century, catholic bourgeois, who were well educated citizens, claimed more rights. Their demands were considerd, especially thanks to the impetuous David O’Connell, at the head of a Catholic association. In 1829 the London’s Parliament voted the end of discriminatory laws and granted Irish the right to occupy parliamentary functions.

In the mid XIX century The Great Potato famine was a tragical suspension of the movement. A potato disease brought a terrible starvation, which killed 1 million Irish, and forced another million to leave their land for the US. This event was used by nationalists, whose propaganda said that England had brought starvation.

Nevertheless, the Irish nationalist resistance didn’t stop. In the 1870s the demand for a limited autonomy, Home rule grew, thanks to the movement of Charles Parnell. They claimed the creation of a Parliament in Dublin. At the same time, Gaelic revival contributed to build an idealistic Irish culture and identity. In 1912 the British government drew up a bill of Home Rule. But all Irish didn’t support the Home Rule. Half a million Protestants, living in the North, signed against the bill, in the Ulster Covenant. The most radicals threatened the South and that’s why both sides formed militias, ready to make war.

...