Deep Are the Roots A Concise History of Britain (стр. 7 из 8)

The most important opponent of Sir R. Walpole was William Pitt "the Elder", later Lord Chatham who was determined to strengthen the economic power of Britain and to defeat France in the trade competition overseas. He agreed with DanielDefoe the author of Robinson Crusoe, who had written in 1728 "Trade is the wealth of the world, trade makes the difference between rich and poor, between one nation and another".

When Lord Chatham became the secretary of state he directed British efforts at destroying French trade and driving the French from North America; that policy culminated in the capture of Quebec, Montreal and other triumphs of the "Year of Victory" (1759). In India the British became the masters of Bengal. India became the "jewel of the Crown" of Britain's foreign possessions. In 1760 George II was succeeded by his grandson George III (1760-1820). He was the first Hanoverian to be born in Britain. He declared himself Patriot King and was determined to take a more active part in the government of the country. His Government, his Cabinet included the Tones who were described as King's Friends.

William Pitt, the Elder, had resigned as his new military plans did not find an understanding of the young King, who wanted to make peace with France (1763) and other European countries.

Meanwhile there were deteriorations in the relations with North American colonies. The colonists objected to the taxation from Westminster declaring their demands – "No taxation without representation". The King's new minister Lord North didn't stop George III from mismanaging the affairs in North American colonies.

The Boston Tea Party in 1773 was the protest against the Stamps for tea taxes, when the colonists threw the East India Company'stea into the harbour. The Parliament undertook repressions though the opposition of Whigs were against this disastrous policy.

There were military conflicts near Lexington and Concord near Boston. The Congress of the United Colonies at Philadelphia elected George Washington, of Virginia commander of their armed forces (1775). A year later, on the 4 of July, 1776, the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.

The English army was defeated in the battle of Saratoga and was forced to surrender. The war of Independence was won by the American forces supported by the French and when the Peace treaty was signed in 1782 in Paris, thirteen North American colonies transformed themselves into the United States of America with George Washington as their first President.

The defeat of Britain in North America ended the period of George III personal rule. The new Tories were his only hope, and in 1783 the King invited William Pitt, the younger, Lord Chatham's twenty-four year oldson toform a Cabinet.

The reign of George III was the period of the great activity of the Literary Club, headed by the literary and linguistic dictator Dr. S. Johnson among whose members were Sir Joshua Reynolds, Goldsmith, Burke, Fox, Gainsborough, Sheridan and Adam Smith. The book by Adam Smith "The Wealth of Nations" appeared in the year of the Declaration of Independence; in it the great economist presented the first classical system of economic activities of people. James Watt in 1782 improved the steam engines and his inventions made possible the Industrial Revolution.

Questions:

1. What were the English gains in the War for Spanish Succession?

2. When did the United Kingdom of Great Britain appear and how?

3. Who was the first Prime Minister in Britain?

4. In what way was George III different from his father and grandfather in his attitude to the government of the country?

5. Speak of the reasons and the outcome of the War of Independence in North America.

The technological Revolution was a new breakthrough in the economic and social development of Great Britain. It was a British way of bourgeois development, in contrast to the French Revolution. Chronologically its beginning is referred to the middle of the 18th century; and the first achievements were in the production of agricultural products due to the new farming techniques.

Mechanical inventions facilitated the unprecidented growth of iron and coal production. By 1800 Britain was producing four times as much coal as it had done in 1700 and eight times as much iron. John Wilkinson was making iron bridges, an iron chapel, iron boats.James Wattmade a steam engine in 1769. In 1764 a spinning machine was invented that could do the work of several people. The machines for spinning and weaving revolutionized the cloth making industry and transformed it from a cottage industry into a factory industry which was run and controlled by factory owners. Cotton textiles played the leading part in Britain's economic expansion.

Britain was importing raw cotton from its colonies and exporting the finished cotton cloth to sell in Europe and in the colonies as well. Manchester became the centre of the cotton textile industry.

In the Midlands manufacturing of china goods was developing successfully and large quantities of bone china were exported. The most famous factory was one started by master potter Josiah Wedgwood. His high quality bone china and blue china became popular, and now Wedgwood is the trade mark of most exquisite English china. The area of this industry's location is known as "the Potteries".

The industrial revolution involved a revolution in transport. Man-made canals together with rivers linked the main ports of England, roads were improved and a service of post coaches was started in 1784.

The end of the 18th century was the period of social disintegration – the wealth of the few was growing while the misery and poverty of the majority of people were increasing equally rapidly. Deprived of the means of production workers had lived in slums and worked long hours for very low wages in factories and mines. The country was splitting into two nations – the rich and the poor.

There were many reasons for discontent in Britain, but the Revolution in France in 1789 was first welcomed in England by liberals, but it was becoming ferocious and bloody, the British ruling classes were frightened that similar events might happen in Britain. The Book by E. Burke "Reflections on the Revolution in France" was a serious warning of the dangers of radicalism. The Government took tough measures against the working class movement and organisations that were appearing: mass meetings were forbidden, associations of workers were declared illegal.

Pitt had been Prime minister after 1784 almost all his life. But the King (George III) was an old sick man, who was not always in his right mind, so the position of the P. M. was extremely important. Pitt was determined to maintain peace, but Revolutionary France declared war in 1793. The British troops were defeated in the Netherlands and the French West India, and the situation became more dangerous when a New French general appeared on the political scene – Napoleon.

The British were rescued by their Navy. The commander of the British fleet, admiral Horatio Nelson won brilliant victories over the French navy, near the coast of Egypt, at Copenhagen and near Spain. At the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 Nelson destroyed the French-Spanish fleet, but was killed by a sniper. He became one of Britain's greatest national heroes. His words to the English fleet before the battle of Trafalgar "England expects that every man will do his duty" are preserved in the memory of the nation as a historic example of partiotic duty in the time of danger.

The greatest general of the British army in the actions against Napoleon became the Duke of Wellington (Sir Arthur Wellesley 1769-1852).

After the disastrous invasion of Russia (1812) Napoleon was defeated by the European coalition in the Battle of Nations at Leipzig (1813), was imprisoned on the isle of Elba and escaped from it to reappear in Paris again. The last battle was fought in Belgium at a small place called Waterloo(1815). The British army led by Wellington and the Prussian army under Marchal Bluher defeated Napoleon, he had to abdicate and was sent to

St. Helena in the South Atlantic and died there.

The Congress of the European Powers held at Vienna made peace and Britain emerged from the "Napoleonic Wars" a great empire: to Canada, Australia and most of India she added Cape Colony (South Africa), Ceylon and Guinea as well as a number of small provinces.

But this newly enlarged great power was suffering from internal problems: political and economic reforms had been long overdue, the years of the war had been a period of repressions, and the position of the workers and the poor had deteriorated.

The first political measure of the Government was a Corn Law prohibiting the import of cheap foreign grain. It was followed by riots and more repressions, some demonstrators were killed in the "Massacre of Peterloo" in Manchester. The people had their progressive champions who criticized the established institutions and created "new settlements of the greatest happiness of the greatest number". Robert Owen, the philanthropic factory owner and a theorist of Utopian socialism, who influenced the development of the working class movements–cooperative retail societies and trade unionism was one of them.

The social and political changes in the world involved a revolution in the arts. A brilliant galaxy of writers and poets looked for inspiration to nature, to emotions and to the spirit of freedom. Lyrical Ballads of Wordsworth and Coleridge were published in 1798. The works of Byron, Shelly and Keats were romantic and emotional. Jane Austen was not carried away by the Romantic Movement and in her domestic miniatures described the adventures of young lovers in the English country houses.

Painting was equal to the achievements of poetry. Landscape painting produced two greatbut very different geniuses – Turner and Constable.

The old King (George III, 1760-1820), blind, insane, died in 1820 and was succeeded by little respected George IV (1820-1830) who had been Prince Regent for the last nine years of his father's life (1811-1820).

Questions:

1. In what way is it traditional to compare the French bourgeois revolution and the Technological Revolution in Britain?

2. What branches of industry were progressing immenselyin theTechnological revolution?

3. What social situation was developing due to the technological revolution in Britain in the middle of the 17th century?

4. What were the military developments in the Napoleonic warsagainstFrance?

5. What were the victories of the Anti-Napoleonic coalition and what military heroes glorified Great Britain?

6. What territorial advantages did Great Britain gain out of the Vienna congress?

7. What were the internal problems of Britain at that time?

8. What were the revolutionary changes in arts?

THE 19тн CENTURY – THE VICTORIAN AGE OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND... THE NEW RIVALS

Keywords, terms and concepts:

1. R. Peel, "Peelers or Bobbies"

2. Stephenson's "Rocket"

3. The electoral franchise reform (1832) and other Acts of Parliament

4. The Earl of Shaftesbury, friend of the oppressed

5. Queen Victoria (1837-1901)

6. Great English novelists

7. People's Charters (1838-1839, 1842, 1848). Chartism

8. Potato famine in Ireland, 1846

9. The Crimean War (1854-1856), Victorian politicians and their policies

10. The Education Act, 1870

11. Home Rule for Ireland

12. Britain and Ireland

In the 19th century the post-Napoleonic wars period of reaction was being gradually reformed and more liberal ministers were included in the Government, more progressive policies and laws were adopted. Under ultra-conservatory Wellington, who became Prime minister in 1828, some reforms were introduced: R. Peel, the Home Secretary created an efficient police force, and the policeman were called peelers or bobbies.

The Catholic Emancipation Act was a forced decision that split the Tory party and brought the Whigs to power in 1830. The Whigs were determined to reform the Parliament and the parliamentary franchise, which had not changed since the reign of Elizabeth I. The electoral franchise and distribution of seats in Parliament were in a mess. Different parts of the country were represented in an uneven and unjust way. The county of Cornwall where the population was less than the population of Manchester or Birmingham elected 44 men to the House of Commons, but neither of these big industrial cities elected a single M. P. The voting was not secret, the whole system was corrupt and unrepresentative.

The confusion at Westminster reflected the situation in the country. There were outbreaks ofmachinebreaking and riots: people exploited at the factoriesby factory owners and left unemployed by machines replacing them, were outraged;they smashed machines blaming Ned Ludd for it and bearing his name – Luddites, wearing masks and damaging the factories.

The Parliament Reform came together with railways. The Manchester and Liverpool Railway was opened by the Duke of Wellington in 1830. George Stephenson built a locomotive – "theRocket", which reached a maximum speed of fourty eight kilometres per hour.

The technological revolution was going on strengthened by social reforms that were obviously lagging behind.