Dr Tomasz Skirecki, IFA, UAM
History of Britain and the USA  1 BA, 2011-12
LECTURE THIRTEEN
Georgians Part II
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
- enclosures
- 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
- John Dalton  atoms, scientific description of color blindness
- Thomas Telford -  Colossus of Roads  Menai Bridge, Pontcysyllte Aqueduct
- Abraham Darby  The Iron Bridge (cast in 1779)
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Dr Tomasz Skirecki, IFA, UAM
History of Britain and the USA  1 BA, 2011-12
LECTURE THIRTEEN
Georgians Part II
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
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Dr Tomasz Skirecki, IFA, UAM
History of Britain and the USA  1 BA, 2011-12
LECTURE THIRTEEN
Georgians Part II
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 19th 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
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Dr Tomasz Skirecki, IFA, UAM
History of Britain and the USA  1 BA, 2011-12
LECTURE THIRTEEN
Georgians Part II
Foreign policy:
1807 - abolition of slave trade
1833 - abolition of slavery in the British Empire
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