The 2 acts of revolution that you could say have changed the world were the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution.
However, before all of the fun of the French Revolution had even begun, there were problems with our noisy neighbours - the Scottish. The Act of Union 1707 (with Scotland) was the start of the British Empire, however it could have been a whole different story. In 1698, Scotland attempted to set up it's own colony in Central America, this was a disaster. They made a second attempt at starting an Empire in Darien or New Caledonia, this was a disaster too! The whole thing cost Scotland at fifth of it's wealth and they were broke, so the English set up a Union with Scotland to start the British Empire. Of course now, they're throwing it back our faces!
The French Revolution was a turning point in Europe.
The UK did well out of the FE, but it became expensive and Income Tax was introduced.
During this time, the British Navy was supreme. The blockades they set up at French ports pretty much destroyed French trade and British exports dominated, the best example of British domination was that the Frenchies' uniforms were made by us! Britain then built up it's Empire in India, Singapore, South American and Africa.
The Transantlantic Triangular Trade
In the 16th century, 1 million slaves were transported from Africa to the Americas, in the 17th century, 3 million were transported and 7 million were transported over in the 18th century. This triangle started in Africa, went to the Americas (where the plantations were), the sugar and cotton grown on the plantations was taken back to England and made into products that were sold to the rest of the world.
At the end of the battle of Waterloo (and the end of the Napoleonic Wars) the boom ended and unemployment rose, along with wages falling. The response was the Corn Laws of 1815, these were high taxes on imports into the UK. These taxes were created to help British farmers and home grown produce flourish again.
The Industrial Revolution was a turning point in Britain.
Manchester became the centre of the world, the population rose from 17,000 to 180,000 in just 70 years.
In 1850, Manchester was the most important place in the world, however it was almost hell-like, with pollution levels high and diseases like ricketts rife.
The political system at the time was totally corrupt, with a constituency of only 11 people voting in 2 MPs and a constituency that had fallen into the sea mysteriously voting in 2 MPs.
Any sort of dissent shown towards the government was met with strict penalties, a revolutionary group called the Tolpuddle Martyrs was sent to Tasmania after resisting wage cutting - how dare they!
The dissent and anger of the people was met in (what is now) St Peters Square in Manchester, around 60,000 peaceful anti-government protestors in what is known as The Peterloo Massacre. 18 people died from trampling and cuts and over 700 were seriously injured. This happened in the name of freedom from poverty and liberty. At this time, the Corn Laws meant that bread was unaffordable and less than 2% of people had the vote.
http://www.peterloomassacre.org/history.html
The New Poor Law Act 1834 meant that no able bodied person would recieve money from the government, until the were in a workhouse - this was based on Utalitarian principles i.e. risk the minority for the sake of the majority.
TB 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment