Editing The World Wars (section)

===The Easter Rising===
Ever since they'd been incorporated into Great Britain at the beginning of the 19th century, Ireland hadn't been particularly happy under British rule. Things like the abolition of their parliament, the Great Potato Famine, the oppression of Irish Catholics, and the British army's heavy-handed treatment of anyone who got too unruly had caused younger Irish nationalists to conclude that nothing was going to get done unless they did it with violence. Just before the outbreak of the war, Britain had actually passed an act to grant the Irish home rule, but with Europe turning into a mosh pit, the act was suspended for a year, and then for two more periods of six months each as the war dragged on. At this point, several leaders of the nationalist Irish Republican Brotherhood decided that enough was enough and began planning an armed uprising during Easter Week 1916 to break Ireland free from the UK, even reaching out to the Germans for support. The rest of the IRB didn't think it was such a good idea and the Germans refused their initial suggestion to send a landing force, instead offering to send them some weapons and ammunition. The leaders who were planning the revolt didn't tell their foot soldiers in the Irish Volunteers until the last minute what was going on, and when the Royal Navy seized the German arms shipment, one of the less belligerent IRB leaders immediately decided to call the whole thing off. As a result, what was supposed to be a nationwide uprising was confined almost entirely to Dublin. The first day went pretty well, with the rebels taking control of the city and establishing the foundation of a government. [[Fail|Then the British army showed up with artillery and gunboats and started blasting them to shit]]. The uprising was suppressed by the end of the week, and the ringleaders were tried in military courts and executed. The executions and the brutal reprisals leveled by the British army, along with the murders of a bunch of unarmed civilians during the Rising, stoked public opinion in Ireland against the British and led to the rise of the nationalist party Sinn Fein, ultimately laying the grounds for the Irish War of Independence, the creation of the Irish Free State, and full independence in 1949.