Dr Tomasz Skirecki, IFA, UAM

History of Britain and the USA – 1 BA, 2011-12

LECTURE THIRTEEN

Georgians Part II

1

AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION

-

market-oriented agriculture

-

new fertilizing crops

-

crop rotation – alternate pasture and farming

-

Jethro Tull - development of mechanical seed drill and better farming

-

selective breeding

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enclosures

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Highland clearances in Scotland – Scottish improvers

All of the above increase:

-

drift of population from the countryside to industrial cities

-

productivity of the land and the labor force

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

-

money and banks

-

better labor – factories, cotton mills, weavers

-

great demand for goods - Britain becomes the 'workshop of the world'

-

new power - ironworks, coal mining

-

better transport - railway, turnpikes, coaches, canals

-

cottage industry – cloth production

Areas of industrialization:

–

linen - Northern Ireland

–

woolen industry - Yorkshire

–

cotton industry – Lancashire

–

shipbuilding – Glasgow, Belfast, London

–

coal mining and steelworks – Newcastle, Midlands, Lowland Scotland, south Wales

Scientific developments

-

James Watt – refinement of a steam engine (1763)

-

George Stephenson “Father of Railway”

1825 Stockton-Darlington - first railway in the world

1830 Liverpool Manchester – first passenger service

-

Joseph Priestley - oxygen

-

Henry Cavendish - hydrogen and measures Earth density

-

Humphry Davy – sodium, potassium, magnesium

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John Dalton – atoms, scientific description of color blindness

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Thomas Telford - “Colossus of Roads” – Menai Bridge, Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

-

Abraham Darby – The Iron Bridge (cast in 1779)

Dr Tomasz Skirecki, IFA, UAM

History of Britain and the USA – 1 BA, 2011-12

LECTURE THIRTEEN

Georgians Part II

2

PHILOSOPHY

Edmund Burke

Scottish Enlightenment

Adam Smith, David Hume, Walter Scott, Robert Burns

NAPOLEONIC WARS

1789 - the French revolution begins - a threat to all European monarchies

Charles James Fox – “the greatest event in the world”
Edmund Burke – highly critical Reflections on the Revolution in France

The French Convention passes the Edict of Fraternity - declaration of help to: "all those
nations who desire to overthrow their kings" – rightly interpreted as a threat to Britain

In reaction Britain declares war on France.

War phases:


I.

FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WAR (1792-1802)

1793 - unsuccessful capture of Toulon - retaken by Napoleon

Horatio Nelson’s victories:

1798 - battle of the Nile
1801 - battle of Copenhagen

1802 Treaty of Amiens

The war is resumed in 1803 - Britain participates in form of Pitt's Gold - money paid in
support to the Austrians and Prussians.

Britain becomes involved in all coalitions against Napoleon


II.

NAPOLEONIC WARS (1803-1808)

1805 - the Battle of Trafalgar

Dr Tomasz Skirecki, IFA, UAM

History of Britain and the USA – 1 BA, 2011-12

LECTURE THIRTEEN

Georgians Part II

3

Without further chances of invasion of the British Isles - Napoleon declares The Continental
System – blockade of European ports.

III. PENNINSULAR WAR 1808-1814

The British land in Portugal under Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington.

After a series of battles the French are pushed out of Spain, and the British capture Toulusa.

1815 - Battle of Waterloo

Congress of Vienna, 1815

•

British gains: Malta, Heligoland, the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, Tobago,
Mauritius, West Africa

•

BALANCE OF POWER - determining British European policy until 1914.

•

global superiority of the Royal Navy throughout the 19

th

cent.

Post-war economic depression:

•

small demand for British goods

•

growing unemployment

•

development of wild capitalism - terrible work conditions

•

huge urbanization

•

Corn Laws - ban on import of cheap grain, rising bread prices cause riots.

•

The Luddites - blaming machinery for misery

•

A number of riots and protests around the country culminating in 1819 - Peterloo
Massacre - riots crushed by the army.

Reign of George IV (1820-30)

Regency (1810-20)

Sir Robert Peel founds the London Metropolitan Police (“bobbies”) - Scotland Yard.


Reign of William IV (1830-37)

Great Reform Act, 1832

•

abolishment of “rotten boroughs”

•

giving franchise to new industrial areas - 50% extension in England and Wales

•

retaining franchise based on property but extended - growth of the middle class

Dr Tomasz Skirecki, IFA, UAM

History of Britain and the USA – 1 BA, 2011-12

LECTURE THIRTEEN

Georgians Part II

4

Foreign policy:

1807 - abolition of slave trade
1833 - abolition of slavery in the British Empire