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

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

1: from the beginnings to the Plantagenets

2: from the Plantagenets to the Peasant's Revolt

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

4: from Charles I to early 19th century philanthropists

5: From the first inhabitants of North America to the USA

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.

(*"Bonnie Prince Charlie")

Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Silvester Maria Stuart

aka Bonnie 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).

The Death of Wolfe

Clive at Plassey

Clive receiving Diwani (tax collection rights) for all of Bengal 1665

Clive receiving money from the Nawab of Bengal to start fund for wounded soldiers

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.
Early steam engines (first patented 1698) designed to act as pumps.
Industrial Revolution c.1760-c.1830
James Watt's steam engine (1765, patented 1779) much more efficient than previous engines. Negative pressure engines.
Trevithick invented high pressure steam engine: better yield, but dangerous to operate (danger of boiler exploding). First steam locomotive 1803/4. Also tried steam road carriage (1801) but uneconomical.
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: Hargreaves and the "Spinning Jenny" (1764), very large numbers produced. Richard Arkwright and the "Spinning Frame" (late 1760s early 1770s).
Industrial Revolution c.1760-c.1830
Industrial Revolution c.1760-c.1830
Richard Arkwright's "Spinning Frame" produced stronger thread, needed substantial source of power (1771 first factory built, powered by water wheels) but could be run by an unskilled work force. In fact two-thirds of Hargreaves' workers were children, working from 6 am to 7 pm, from age 6. Built extensive network of factories in 1780s using steam and became very rich.
Industrial Revolution c.1760-c.1830
Richard Arkwright's "Spinning Frame"
Industrial Revolution c.1760-c.1830
Canals, built by teams of "navigators" (navvies). Roads (new techniques for surfacing introduced by people like Macadam).
Mainly used for passenger transport. Development of coach transport (with "stages" to change horses etc)
Industrial Revolution c.1760-c.1830
Railways: at first machines for coal mines, originally with stationary engines hauling wagons. First passenger railway the Stockton and Darlington railway 1825. Stephenson's "Locomotion"
Industrial Revolution c.1760-c.1830
Industrial Revolution c.1760-c.1830
New steam engines. Competitions for best mobile steam engines (locomotives). The winner in 1829 was Stephenson's Rocket. 30 mph!!! Liverpool and Manchester railway 1830.
Stephenson's Rocket 1829
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.
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 ...) especially from 1811 to 1816. The government and owners responded vigorously.
Industrial Revolution
Unrest because of Corn Laws (especially after 1815, combined with poor harvest in 1806) and other issues. "Demonstration" in St Peter's Field Manchester in 1919. Yeamanry (mounted "police" charged the crowd in an attempt to arrest the speaker. Several people, including women and children, killed, and many more wounded. The "Peterloo" massacre.

Industrial Revolution
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. Even after then union activity severely opposed "Tolpuddle martyrs" (1834): six men were transported to Australia for seven years for forming a union of agricultural workers (in fact for illegally "administering an oath").
Industrial Revolution
Pollution, "dark satanic mills" (Wm Blake).
Nostalgia for the English countryside before the industry arrived.
Pictures of industrial life.

AND did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?

In the meantime
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! Tom Paine, John Stuart Mill, Mary Wollstonecraft ... (major early feminist) welcomed the promise of Liberty. Burke was opposed and published bitter Reflections on a Revolution in France.
Paine responded in The Rights of Man.

In the meantime
In the meantime

However with threat from East by Prussian troops (1792), execution of King and Queen (1793), the atmosphere turned sour. Many who had welcomed the Revolution took fright.
In the meantime
Clamp down in Britain. Major military mobilisation. Trafalgar 1805, Waterloo 1815, ... 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. Favoured landowners at expense of population at large and of factory owners.

In the meantime
Also in the meantime, after Irish and French attempts to destabilise Britain (and even an unsuccessful rebellion and French invasion of Ireland in 1798, repressed with substantial loss of life), 1801 Act of Union with Ireland. Today's Union Jack.
Reform
People like Thomas Bewick grew unhappy with situation of working people in the UK. People like Thomas Coram and the Foundling Hospital (forerunner of Victorian philanthropists). Pressure to end child labour in the mines. Gradual opposition to slavery.
Reform
There was also increasing dissatisfaction with the electoral system in Britain, in which constituencies had singularly failed to adapt to the rapidly changing realities of 18th and early 19th century Britain. Some newly populous towns had no MP, while some MPs had very few constituents.
Reform
The most extreme cases were "rotten boroughs" where there were so few electors that it was in practice possible to buy a seat in the House of Commons. Even in larger constituencies elections were riven with corruption and bribery.
Reform
1829 Catholic Relief Act finally implemented promise made at the time of the 1801 Act of Union to restore political (and other) rights to Catholics.
Reform
1832 Great Reform Act extended franchise and suppressed a number of "rotten boroughs" or "pocket boroughs".

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