British and American History: S1

This site is designed primarily for teachers and learners of English at UPPA - Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour

Power Point presentations UK and US history: text only as web pages

Lesson 1: from the beginnings to the Plantagenets

Lesson 2: from the Plantagenets to the Peasant's Revolt

Lesson 3: from the "Wars of the Roses" to the "Glorious Revolution"

Lesson 4: from Charles I to early 19th century philanthropists

Charles I
Charles I
Charles summoned Parliament to raise money several times: tension as Parliament sought to limit the funds it would vote and to impose conditions which made the King depend more on Parliament. Ruled without Parliament for long periods.
Appointed "High Church" Archbishop of Canterbury: reinstated ceremony etc. Scots in particular resisted.
Charles I
Charles sent army in 1638, but decided not to engage the Scottish forces and agreed to pay the Scots for the expenses they had incurred.
This strained relations with Parliament. He agreed to summon Parliament regularly (at least once every three years).
In Ireland rebellion 1641. Charles wanted to raise army; Parliament feared this would be used against them.
Charles I - Oliver Cromwell
1642 crisis: Civil War. Bitter war between Royalists and Parliamentarians (Cavaliers and Roundheads). Parliamentary general Oliver Cromwell.
Battle of Naseby 1645 King defeated and captured.
1649 Charles beheaded.
Oliver Cromwell "Lord Protector". Commonwealth.
Oliver Cromwell: "warts and all"
Oliver Cromwell
Cromwell severely repressed Irish rebellion.
"Levellers" in England rebelled against authoritarian government. Defeated.
Killjoy government. Oliver Cromwell died 1658. His son Richard not up to the task ...
1660 Charles II recalled. Restoration.
Charles II also believed in divine right of kings and admired Louis XIV.
Charles II/James II
Charles a little more flexible ... though he still favoured absolute monarchy.
Founded Royal Society (science, ...)
Emergence "Whigs" (pro-Parliamentary) and "Tories" (pro-Royalist)
1665 Second Dutch War* caused by trade rivalry. Dutch settlement at New Amsterdam taken and renamed New York. Dutch threatened London.
Charles II/James II
1665-6 Great Plague, 1666 Great Fire of London. Peace with Dutch negociated 1667.
1670 Charles signed secret treaty with France: he would receive money from Louis XIV and in return would side with France against the Dutch, and would at some later stage declare himself a Catholic.
Charles II
Charles believed Catholicism would be best and in 1672 issued a "Declaration of Indulgence" suspending penal laws against Catholics and Dissenters.
Charles II
His pro-Catholic views led to war with the Dutch 1672-4: Third Dutch War.
Parliament forced him to withdraw Declaration of Indulgence and pass Test Act (1673) which excluded Catholics and Dissenters from office.

Charles II
It also forced him to put an end to the war against the Dutch.
1678 fake "plot" against the state by Catholics "discovered". Reprisals against Catholics.
1679 Habeas Corpus Act.
In 1681 Charles suspended Parliament and received subsidies from Louis XIV.
Charles died 1685 and converted to Catholicism on his death bed ...

James II
James II King on Charles' death in 1685. James II favourable to Catholicism and absolute power of the king: divine right.
Parliament was prorogued shortly after he became king and never met officially again during his reign.
Glorious Revolution
James had a son in June 1688.
James II's religious tolerance was unacceptable to many people.
30 June 1688 party leaders invited Mary, James' daughter (wife of William of Orange), to reign in 1688.
William and Mary
William arrived with a substantial army, just to be on the safe side ... James II ran away. "Glorious Revolution". William insisted he would reign alongside Mary. Parliament agreed, but asserted its power to restrict the power of the king.
Parliament declared:
James II/crisis
"That King James II having endeavoured to subvert the constitution of the kingdom by breaking the original contract between the King and people and by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons having violated the fundamental laws; and having withdrawn himself out of this kingdom; has abdicated the government; and that the throne is thereby vacant."
William and Mary
There have been several interpretations of the events of 1688. The standard Whig interpretation was that it had ushered in Parliamentary democracy. For example it was claimed it had been the foundation of the "system of parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarch"
William and Mary
Others have seen it as "a coup d'état carried out largely by appealing to religious bigotry, and treachery"*.
It is worth pointing out that the Dutch were engaged in a struggle against Louis XIV of France and that the support of England was a substantial asset.
James II/crisis
By the Bill of Rights (accepted by William and Mary 1688, enacted 1689) Parliament declared that no Catholic could become king:
Bill of Rights
whereas it hath beene found by experience that it is inconsistent with the safety and welfaire of this protestant kingdome to be governed by a popish prince or by any King or Queene marrying a papist the said lords spirituall and temporall and commons doe [ … ] pray that it may be enacted that all and every person and persons that is are or shall be reconciled to or shall hold ...

Bill of Rights
... communion with the see or church of Rome or shall professe the popish religion or shall marry a papist shall be excluded and be for ever uncapeable to inherit possesse or enjoy the crowne and government of this realme and Ireland and the dominions thereunto belonging or any part of the same or to have use or exercise any regall power authoritie or jurisdiction within the same ...

Bill of Rights
More importantly (or less controversially?) the Bill of Rights established the principle that the monarch did not enjoy unlimited power.
Parliament had to be regularly convened. Free speech in Parliament was confirmed. Laws could only be made with the approval of Parliament. etc

William and Mary
Irish wars. William set out to establish his authority over Ireland after Irish rebellion. James had raised an army with the support of Louis XIV (Jacobites).
In 1690, at the Battle of the Boyne, he defeated the Irish forces. James fled to France.
William and Mary
Act of Settlement 1701 confirmed Protestant succession to ensure Stuarts would not be able to return to the throne. Catholics again explicitly barred from the throne.
William died 1702 and was succeeded by Queen Anne (1702-1714)
Act of Union with Scotland 1707
Act of Union 1707.
Scotland agreed to union with England (to recover access to markets in England and to restore financial situation): England keen Scotland should not revive the "Auld Alliance".
United Kingdom of Great Britain.
War with France
William brought England/Britain into the wars with France.
War of Spanish Succession 1701 to 1714.
Several English/British victories: Blenheim (1704, Duke of Marlborough)
The Treaty of Utrecht (1713) transferred many French possessions in North America to Britain (Hudson Bay, Newfoundland, Acadia, Rupert's Land).
War with France
It also gave Britain Gibraltar and Minorca, as well as the Asiento (exclusive slave trading contract).
Britain emerged a world power with growing influence.
Treaty of Utrecht, signed by Queen Anne and Louis XIV
The House of Hanover
The first of the Hanoverian Kings, George I, was only 52nd in line to the throne, but the nearest Protestant according to the Act of Settlement. Two descendants of James II, the deposed Stuart king, threatened to take the throne, and were supported by a number of 'Jacobites' throughout the realm.
For all that, the Hanoverian period was remarkably stable, not least because of the longevity of its kings. From 1714 through to 1837, there were only five monarchs.
The House of Hanover
The period was also one of political stability, and the development of constitutional monarchy. For vast tracts of the eighteenth century, great Whig families dominated politics.
Britain's first 'Prime' Minister, Robert Walpole, dates from this period.

The House of Hanover
George I 1714-1727
George II 1727-1760
George III 1760-1820
George IV 1820-1830
George IV had no surviving children, and so his brother William became king as
William III 1820-1837
On his death, his sister Victoria became Queen 1837-1901.

The House of Hanover
Victoria married Albert 1840 (Saxe-Coburg-Gotha). Edward VII (1901-1910) Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, then George V renamed it "Windsor" during the First World War.

George I 1714-1727
George actually spoke little English to begin with and showed scant interest. His claim to the throne was challenged by James Stuart, James II's son. A "Jacobite" rebellion in 1715 was easily defeated.
1720 South Sea bubble. Walpole skilful in rstoring confidence. He assumed great influence, as the first "Prime Minister" (1721-1742) (though the term was not yet used). Development of Cabinet.
George II 1727-1760
Like his father, for much of his reign George's political options were limited by the strength of the Jacobite cause (James Stuart the Old Pretender, and then his son, Charles Edward Stuart*), with which many of the Tories were linked. (*"Bonny Prince Charlie")

George II 1727-1760
George's reign was threatened in 1745 when Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender, landed in Scotland. After some initial success (which led to the national anthem in its current form becoming popular among the Hanoverian loyalists), during which Charles' army drove down south as far as Derby, ...
Battle of Culloden
... Charles was defeated at the Battle of Culloden in April 1746 and the Jacobite threat was over.
April 1746. The rebellious Jacobite soldiers, mostly Scottish, were massacred by the Duke of Cumberland. Repression in Scotland after the battle was merciless.
Battle of Culloden
George II 1727-1760
The foundations of the industrial revolution were laid during George II's reign, with new levels of production in industries such as coal and shipbuilding and also in agriculture, together with a rapid rise in population.
Overseas, trade was boosted by successes such as Clive's victories in India at Arcot (1751) and Plassey (1757), which placed Madras and Bengal under British control,
George II 1727-1760
and Wolfe's capture of French-held Quebec in 1759 (part of a successful campaign which transferred Canada with its wealthy trade in fish and fur from French to British rule).

War with France
1743-1748 War of the Austrian Succession. William Pitt (Lord Chatham) concentrated on undermining the French navy.
1756-1763 Seven Years War. India, Canada, ... France lost many of its possessions in North America and lost influence irrecoverably in India.

City life
Rapidly growing population in cities, especially London.
Towns growing rapidly with industry.

Industrial Revolution c.1760-c.1830
(Cotton, Coal, Iron)
There are several reasons why the Industrial revolution occurred in Britain first:
Reforms to agriculture freed up people to work in towns and factories (Enclosure Act, crop rotation, etc)

Industrial Revolution c.1760-c.1830
Britain emerged from the Napoleonic wars as leading nation. Money from trade to invest in industry.
Protestant work ethic (see Max Weber): many dissenters who were barred from high office but nonetheless accorded a certain sympathy by the Protestant middle classes were able to devote their energies to trade and industry.
Industrial Revolution c.1760-c.1830
Britain enjoyed a privileged position with iron ore and coal in abundance.
However coal became increasingly difficult to extract: miners had to go deeper and deeper, and this raised problems keeping the mineshafts free of flood water.
"Primitive" steam engines designed to act as pumps.
Industrial Revolution c.1760-c.1830
James Watt's steam engine much more efficient.
Industrial Revolution c.1760-c.1830
Other less "technology-driven" changes: better organisation, using technology.
Cotton "mills" (factories): move from cottage industry (people essentially working at home) to factory model. Water wheels. (Lancashire and King Cotton).
Problem providing cotton and linen thread in sufficient quantities. Labour intensive.
Industrial Revolution c.1760-c.1830
Machine tools built by craftsmen, using techniques developed by clock makers.
Textiles: Richard Arkwright; Hargreaves and the "Spinning Jenny"
Canals, built by teams of "navigators" (navvies). Roads (new techniques for surfacing introduced by people like Macadam).
Industrial Revolution c.1760-c.1830
Industrial Revolution c.1760-c.1830
Railways: at first machines for coal mines, originally with stationary engines hauling wagons. First railway the Stockton and Darlington railway, then Liverpool and Manchester railway. New steam engines. Competitions for best mobile steam engines (locomotives). The winner in 1830 Stephenson's Rocket. 30 mph!!!
Industrial Revolution c.1760-c.1830
The Rocket could haul passenger trains at speeds approaching 20 mph.
Railway boom. 1850s. Railways then built in other countries, often with British (Irish?) workforce, technology and knowhow.
Manufactured goods became more widely available.
Iron bridge at Ironbridge (1799)
Industrial Revolution
The "down side".
Many workers lost their jobs because increasing productivity of machines (largely manned by unskilled labour) replaced (skilled) men. Luddites (groups of rebels breaking machines at night ...) from 1811 on.
Industrial Revolution
Workers began to "combine" (get together) to protect their interests. The Combination Act forbade any kind of trade union from 1799 until 1824.
Industrial Revolution
Pollution, "dark satanic mills" (Wm Blake).
Nostalgia for the English countryside before the industry arrived.
Pictures of industrial life.

In the meantime
We have seen the events in North America.
1788 First Fleet arrived in Sydney, Australia (700 convicts).
1789 French Revolution. At first greeted warmly be reformers in England who had expressed their distress at hardship of workers' lives in new conditions of the Industrial revolution.
In the meantime
Freedom! Burke initially keen. Tom Paine, John Stuart Mill, Mary Wolstonecraft ... (major early feminist).
However with 1792 execution of King and Queen, threat from East by Prussian, Russian, Austrian etc troops, the atmosphere turned sour. Many who had welcomed the Revolution took fright.
In the meantime
Clamp down in Britain. Major military mobilisation. Trafalgar, Waterloo, ... Britain reasserted domination of the seas. "Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves, Britons never never never shall be slaves"
After Napoleonic wars, Corn Laws to maintain price of agricultural production. Seen to favour landowners at expense of population at large.
In the meantime
Also in the meantime, after Irish and French attempts to destabilise Britain (and even an unsuccessful French invasion of Ireland in 1798, repressed with great loss of life--30,000?), 1801 Act of Union with Ireland. Today's Union Jack.
Reform
People like Thomas Bewick grew unhappy with situation of working people in UK. People like Coram and the Foundling Hospital (forerunner of Victorian philanthropists). Pressure to end child labour in the mines. Gradual opposition to slavery.

Site géré par Michael Parsons, créé le 26 octobre 2005

Dernière mise à jour mercredi 2 novembre 2005

Nombre de visiteurs depuis le 26 octobre 2005 à cette :