7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7Free State, however, because it accepted the exclusion of
Northern Ireland and imposed an oath of allegiance to the
British crown.
When Dáil Éireann (the assembly of Ireland) ratified
the treaty by a small majority in 1922, de Valera supported
the republican resistance in the ensuing civil war. William
Thomas Cosgrave’s Irish Free State ministry imprisoned
him; but he was released in 1924 and then organized a
Republican opposition party that would not sit in the Dáil.
In 1927, however, he persuaded his followers to sign the
oath of allegiance as “an empty political formula,” and his
new Fianna Fáil (“Warriors of Ireland”) Party then entered
the Dáil, demanding abolition of the oath of allegiance,
the governor-general, the Seanad (senate) as then consti-
tuted, and land-purchase annuities payable to Great
Britain. The Cosgrave ministry was defeated by Fianna Fáil
in 1932, and de Valera, as head of the new ministry, embarked
quickly on severing connections with Great Britain. He
withheld payment of the land annuities, and an economic
war resulted. Increasing retaliation by both sides enabled
de Valera to develop his program of austere national self-
sufficiency in an Irish-speaking Ireland, while building up
industries behind protective tariffs. In 1937 the Free State
declared itself a sovereign state, as Ireland, or Éire, con-
ceding voluntary allegiance to the British crown.
De Valera’s prestige was enhanced by his success as
president of the Council of the League of Nations in 1932
and of its assembly in 1938. The menace of war in Europe
induced British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, in
1938, to conclude the “economic war” with mutual conces-
sions. Britain relinquished the naval bases of Cobh,
Berehaven, and Lough Swilly. In September 1939 de Valera
proclaimed that Ireland would remain neutral and resist
attack from any quarter. Besides avoiding the burdens and