This is the story all about how England's life got flipped turned upside down now I’d like to take a minute just sit right there and I’ll tell you about how it became the United Kingdom... you get it :)
1707 brought about the first of two Acts of Union with Scotland, though this could have gone either way and we could have been a Scottish Empire. Before this however, The Darien scheme was formulated and this was an unsuccessful attempt by Scotland to become a world trading nation by establishing a colony called 'New Caledonia' in the 1690s. From its inception the undertaking was rife with poor planning, weak leadership, and lack of demand for trade goods and devastating epidemics of disease and increasing shortage of food; it was finally abandoned after a siege by Spanish forces in April, 1700. As the Darien company was backed by about a quarter of the money circulating in Scotland, its failure left the nobles and landowners pretty much crippled and this is pretty much what lead to Scotland surrendering to the first Act of Union.
The second Act of Union came about in 1801 and this union was with Ireland, this was achievable because of the state of Ireland at the time, the land was rife with famine and revolution.
Never Waste a Good Crisis: England managed to benefit greatly from the French Revolution - during the Napoleonic War, many expenses had to be paid; this lead to the creation of the Income Tax of 1799 to try and pay for the war. After the war British Naval Power was absolute, so much so that they could control the main ports of France and block off their trade routes entirely. This in turn created a boom for British exports, so much so that the British were even manufacturing the clothes for the French Army - England pretty much decided to take a step back and make the most of all the turmoil and spent it’s time to build and maintain its new empire. The Transatlantic Triangular Trade was established and this regrettably included the Slave Trade, this was during the late 16th Century and transported over a million slaves, 17th Century saw three million and in the 18th Century at least seven million people being transported as slaves in these abhorrent Coffin Ships.
The War Ends: Since the war was now over, this meant that the economic boom was coming to an end, for example all the soldiers returning from the war were left unemployed, mostly because they were farmers and due to the Enclosures Act* many land owners were forced off their land and into the city. The government also introduced the Corn Law in 1815, which placed a huge tariff on imported goods. The Corn Laws were very important because people were importing far too much because all of the farmers were at war so no-one could buy home grown resources - therefore when all the farmers returned from the war the government had to protect British farm industry by placing the Corn Laws in effect.
1707 brought about the first of two Acts of Union with Scotland, though this could have gone either way and we could have been a Scottish Empire. Before this however, The Darien scheme was formulated and this was an unsuccessful attempt by Scotland to become a world trading nation by establishing a colony called 'New Caledonia' in the 1690s. From its inception the undertaking was rife with poor planning, weak leadership, and lack of demand for trade goods and devastating epidemics of disease and increasing shortage of food; it was finally abandoned after a siege by Spanish forces in April, 1700. As the Darien company was backed by about a quarter of the money circulating in Scotland, its failure left the nobles and landowners pretty much crippled and this is pretty much what lead to Scotland surrendering to the first Act of Union.
The second Act of Union came about in 1801 and this union was with Ireland, this was achievable because of the state of Ireland at the time, the land was rife with famine and revolution.
Never Waste a Good Crisis: England managed to benefit greatly from the French Revolution - during the Napoleonic War, many expenses had to be paid; this lead to the creation of the Income Tax of 1799 to try and pay for the war. After the war British Naval Power was absolute, so much so that they could control the main ports of France and block off their trade routes entirely. This in turn created a boom for British exports, so much so that the British were even manufacturing the clothes for the French Army - England pretty much decided to take a step back and make the most of all the turmoil and spent it’s time to build and maintain its new empire. The Transatlantic Triangular Trade was established and this regrettably included the Slave Trade, this was during the late 16th Century and transported over a million slaves, 17th Century saw three million and in the 18th Century at least seven million people being transported as slaves in these abhorrent Coffin Ships.
The War Ends: Since the war was now over, this meant that the economic boom was coming to an end, for example all the soldiers returning from the war were left unemployed, mostly because they were farmers and due to the Enclosures Act* many land owners were forced off their land and into the city. The government also introduced the Corn Law in 1815, which placed a huge tariff on imported goods. The Corn Laws were very important because people were importing far too much because all of the farmers were at war so no-one could buy home grown resources - therefore when all the farmers returned from the war the government had to protect British farm industry by placing the Corn Laws in effect.
*Enclosures Act was an act of parliament that forced people off the land and into the cities; this meant overcrowded cities because people who were living off the land were pretty much an extended family acting as a unit of production.
During the 1760's England became the workshop of the world, this was because of the Industrial Revolution and Manchester's population just kept growing and growing, which lead to massive overcrowding of the city and made living standards pretty dire. So Manchester was the centre of the industrial revolution which, though hard to believe, made it one of the most important places ever, this however had its drawbacks, since the introduction of these new factories and new machines brought with them a load of pollution - this in turn lead to illness and people living very short lives.
Cotton was a very important resource for the industrial revolution and these raw materials came from the slave plantations in the American south, and if things couldn't get much worse new inventions such as the gaslight allowed for people to work night shifts, this meant longer hours and increased health risks.
Reform Act 1832: The people were growing increasingly restless due to the state of the country and this lead to the public calling for radical Parliamentary Reform – William Cobbett, who was a huge radical, supported such campaigns and ended up in prison because of it. Parliament was getting worried for any more outbreaks of revolution or rebellion so the Parliamentary Reform Act in 1832 was introduced – this however was more of a smoothing over than a solution.
The Poor: The new Poor Law Act 1834 - The Poor Law Amendment Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government that reformed the country's poverty relief system - it was a very Benthamite policy based on Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is pretty much happiness overriding pain in aspects of life - it appears to be very idealistic insofar as it makes choices based on how much happiness the choice brings to an individual and how little pain it gives, so it’s like a thought process of when we weigh out whether or not to go to a lecture or a seminar, yes it might on occasion be boring but in the end we're going to get a damn good degree out of it (:
William Cobbett and Charles Dickens: My notes on Cobbett and Dickens are all covered in my Seminar Paper about William Cobbett and Rural Rides - so heres the link if you want to read
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