Political & Economic History of Great Britain from the Civil War to the Twentieth Century (political.doc)

1642-6

The Great Civil War

1642

Charles I (Stuart; Anglican) captured. Queen Henrietta Maria and Charles, Prince of Wales, escape to France.

1649

Charles I beheaded.

1649-60

The Interregnum; the Commonwealth established.

1653

Oliver Cromwell (Puritan) becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth.

1658

Oliver Cromwell dies; his son Richard attempts to succeed him.

1660

The Restoration. Charles (II—Anglican) returns from France and takes the throne.

1681-5

Parliament does not meet. Court holds power.

1685

Charles dies; his brother James (II; Roman Catholic) succeeds him. Threat of "popery."

1688

James, Prince of Wales born. This means the crown will pass to him, a Roman Catholic, rather than to the King's Anglican siblings. Glorious (i.e., bloodless) Revolution. James flees to France and is deposed, because his daughter Mary and her husband William, Prince of Orange, have been invited by Parliament to share the crown. Executive ! power lodged with William. Balance of power shifts finally from Court to Parliament.

1688-1788

For 100 years, till the death of Bonnie Prince Charlie, England feels the threat of an invasion from France which would restore Stuart (Jacobite), and thus Roman Catholic, rule. In fact, Jacobite risings occur twice during this period, in 1715 and 1745.

1694

Mary dies; William (III) sole ruler.

1701

James II dies in France. Act of Settlement directs succession, should Anne die childless, to the (Protestant) House of Hanover--unless "the Old Pretender," James (son of James II) or, later, Bonnie Prince Charlie, "the Young Pretender," would ! abjure Roman Catholicism. (See the chart of kings and queens.)

1702

William dies; Anne (Mary's Anglican sister) succeeds.

1707

Act of Union between Scotland and England.

1702-13

War of the Spanish succession.

1713

Peace of Utrecht.

1714

Anne dies; Dynastic crisis; George I (of Hanover) succeeds unopposed.

1715

Jacobite rebellion.

1720

Charles Edward Stuart (a.k.a. Bonnie Prince Charlie or the Young Pretender) born in France to James (the Old Pretender).South Sea Bubble.

1721-42

Robert Walpole Prime Minister.

1727

George I dies; George II crowned.

1733

John Kay's flying shuttle.

1745

Jacobite rising in support of Bonnie Prince Charlie.

1754

Anglo-French war begins in North America.

1755

Lisbon earthquake.

1756-63

Seven Years' War.

1757

Clive captures India from the French.

1758

first threshing machine.

1759

British Museum opens.

1760

George II dies; his grandson crowned George III.
French surrender Montreal to the British.
Wedgwood opens pottery works.

1763

Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years' War. France cedes Canada and the Mississippi Valley to Britain.

1764

Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny.

1766

James "the Old Pretender" dies in France.

1769

Arkwright invents a spinning machine.

1771

Arkwright's first spinning mill.

1773

Boston Tea Party.

1774

Priestly isolates oxygen.
Accession of Louis XVI of France.

1775

American Revolution begins.
Watt's first efficient steam engine.

1776

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations.
American colonies declare their independence.

1778

Rousseau and Voltaire die.

1779

first steam powered mills. Crompton invents spinning "mule."

1781

Cornwallis surrenders to Washington at Yorktown, Va.

1782

Lord North resigns; full Parliamentary government restored.

1783

Peace treaty signed in Paris between Great Britain and the United States.

1785

Cartwright builds power loom.

1786

Coal gas first used for lighting.

1787

Warren Hastings impeached.

1788

Bonnie Prince Charlie dies in France.

1789

Bastille falls; French Revolution begins.
Bentham, Introduction to the Principles of Morals  (see utilitarianism).

1791-2

Paine, The Rights of Man.

1792

Reign of Terror in France.

1793

Louis XVI executed in France. England and France at war.
Godwin, Political Justice.

1794

Execution of Robespierre ends the Reign of Terror.

1796

Invasion of England threatened.

1798

Battle of the Nile. Malthus, Essay on . . . Population.

1799

Napoleon named First Consul of France.

1801

Union of Great Britain and Ireland.

1804

Napoleon declared Emperor.

1805

Battle of Trafalgar.

1809

Napoleon captures Vienna.

1811

Prince of Wales named Regent to act for George III, now insane.

1811-12

Luddite riots in the North and the Midlands. Laborers attack factories and break up the machines which they fear will replace them.

1812

Napoleon invades Russia.

1812-14

War of 1812 between England and the United States.

1814

Treaty of Ghent ends Anglo-U.S. War.
England and allies invade France.
Napoleon exiled to Elba.

1815

Napoleon escapes Elba; begins the "Hundred Days."
Battle of Waterloo; Napoleon exiled to St. Helena in the South Atlantic. Corn Laws passed.

1817

David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy.

1819

Peterloo Massacre of Corn Law protestors.

1820

George III dies; succeeded by Prince Regent as George IV. Cato Street Conspiracy

1821

Napoleon dies.

1822

Classical Tripos established at Cambridge.

1823

London Mechanics Institute founded.

1827

Thomas Arnold appointed to Rugby.

1829

Catholic Emancipation Act. Peel establishes the Metropolitan Police.

1830

George IV dies; his brother William IV succeeds.
Manchester - Liverpool Railway (first in England).

1832

First Reform Bill: adds £10/year householders to the voting rolls and reapportions Parliamentary representation much more fairly, doing away with most "rotten" and "pocket" boroughs. Adds 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000.

1833

Slavery abolished throughout the British Empire.
Factory Act.

1834

New Poor Law.
Houses of Parliament burn down.

Late 1830s

First of the Parliamentary "Blue Books"—facts and figures about England compiled by the Royal Commissioners.

1836-48

Chartist movement.

1837

William IV dies; succeeded by his niece, Victoria.

1838

Regular Atlantic steamship service begins.

1839

Anti-Corn-Law League founded.

1840

Queen Victoria marries her cousin Albert, who becomes Prince Consort.
Penny post started.
S.F.B. Morse invents the telegraph.
Grammar Schools Act.

1842

Chartist Riots.
Copyright Act.

1845-6

Potato Failure in Europe; starvation in Ireland. Corn Laws (which had kept up the price of grain) repealed.

1848

Revolutions in Europe.
Queen's College (for women) founded in London.

1849

Gold discovered in California and Australia.

1850

Telegraph cable laid under English Channel.

1851

Great Exhibition ("Crystal Palace").
Population of United Kingdom at 21 million.

1853-6

Crimean War.

1855

Livingston discovers Victoria Falls.
Civil Service Commissioners appointed.

1857-8

The Mutiny (India).

1858

First Atlantic cable laid.

1860

Garibaldi takes Naples; unification of Italy.

1861

Albert dies; Victoria retires into mourning.

1861-5

American Civil War.

1862

Bismarck becomes Prussian premier.

1864

Geneva Convention establishes Red Cross.

1866

Italy defeated by Austria.
Telegraph cable laid under the Atlantic.

1867

Second Reform Bill: enfranchises many workingmen; adds 938,000 to an electorate of 1,057,000 in England and Wales. (Disraeli's legislation)
South African diamond fields discovered.
Fenian rising in Ireland.

1869

Suez Canal opened.
Union Pacific Railway completed in U.S.

1870

Forster's Elementary Education Act establishes School Boards.
Vatican Council (establishes the infallibility of the Pope).

1870-1

Franco-Prussian War.

1871

University Tests Act removes religious tests at Oxford and Cambridge.
Trade unions legalized.
Newcastle engineers strike for a nine-hour day.
Germany unified.

1873

Population of the United Kingdom at 26 million (France 36 million).

1876

Victoria named Empress of India.
Edison invents the phonograph.
Compulsory school attendance in Great Britain.

1877

Transvaal annexed.

1879

Somerville and Lady Margaret Colleges (for women) founded at Oxford.
Zulu war.

1880

War with Transvaal.

1881

Cambridge Tripos exams opened to women.

1882

Triple Alliance (Germany, Italy, and Austria).
Married Women's Property Act enables women to buy, own, and sell property, and to keep their own earnings.

1883

"Oom Paul" Kruger named president of the South African Republic.
Fabian Society founded.
Mahdi Rebellion in the Sudan.

1884-5

Third Reform Act and Redistribution Act extend vote to agricultural workers; electorate tripled.

1885

Fall of Khartoum.

1886

First (Irish) Home Rule bill rejected.

1887

Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.

1889

London dock workers and match girls strike for 6d./hour.

1890

Parnell--O'Shea divorce case ends Parnell's influence; no Home Rule for Ireland.

1894

Dreyfus trial in France.

1895

U.S. equals the U.K.'s industrial output.

1897

Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

1898-99

Spanish-American War.

1899-1902

Boer war.

1901

Victoria dies; Edward Prince of Wales succeeds.

1903

U.S. acquires Canal Zone from Panama.

1904

Entente Cordiale (England and France).

1905

Revolution in Russia.

1914-18

The "Great War" (World War I).

1916

Easter Rising in Dublin.

1917

Russian Revolution.

1918

all men over 21 and women over thirty enfranchised.

1922

Irish Free State established.
James Joyce, Ulysses; T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land.

1928

Equal Franchise Act grants right to vote to women over 21 (as well as men).

1936-8

Spanish Civil War.

1938

Chamberlain cedes Czech territory to Hitler at Munich.

1939-45

World War II.