Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the early 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party (the SDP) to form a new party which would become known as the Liberal Democrats.

Liberal Party in Southern Victory
Although paying some lip-service to ideals of equality, the Liberal Party's immediate mandate to support free-trade saw the British government under Henry Temple Palmerston support the Confederate States during the War of Secession, and overlook its practice of slavery. This decision created a continued relationship between the CS and the UK, which would eventually serve as a cornerstone in the Entente alliance.

The Liberal Party led Britain through the Great War, although the country's defeat insured that the Liberal Party would fall out of power.