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The Romantic Age an age of revolutions (The Industrial Revolution (The…
The Romantic Age
an age of revolutions
The Industrial
Revolution
The ‘Revolution’ implied
the
development
of the
factory system
new sources of power
and
transport
new
technologies
and
inventions
James Watt’s
steam engine
was a very important invention: factories were built on coal and iron fields of Lancashire, Yorkshire, South Scotland and South Wales
cloth manufactured more cheaply
Changes in transport
transport was made more efficient
new waterways were built
road conditions were improved
CAUSES
Great increase in population towards 1750
Greater demand
Need for more efficient production
England changed from a farming to an industrial country
The Agrarian Revolution
The
enclosure
of ‘open fields’ and common land aimed
at making
larger, more efficient farms
improvements in farming techniques such as
crop rotation
and
mechanisation
Industrial society
‘
Mushroom towns
’
small towns built near the factories to house the workers
Terrible
living conditions
People lived in slums
Lack of elementary public services
air and water pollution
houses built in endless rows
overcrowding
Working conditions
women and children were exploited (paid less and easier to control)
long working hours
rational division of labour
Mechanisation and alienation
Very short life expectancy
High unemployment
The Luddites
Poverty
Mechanical looms and spinners replacing skilled craftsmen
Deteriorating working conditions
led to outbursts of machine-breaking culminating in the ‘
Luddites Riots
’ of 1811-1812
They caused so much alarm that the government made machine-breaking punishable by death
In 1819, during a peaceful public meeting in Manchester, soldiers fired into a crowd and eleven people were killed -> the so-called ‘
Peterloo Massacre
’
The American War
of Independence
Causes
New taxes to the American colonies.
One tax was on the importation of tea
Consequences
The ‘Boston Tea Party’ (1773)
the rebels threw tea imported from Britain into the harbour
Their motto ‘
No taxation without representation
’
July 4th, 1776 American
Declaration of Independence
written by
Thomas Jefferson
stated that
the
colonies = a new nation
all men have a natural right to ‘
life,
liberty
, and the
pursuit of happiness
’
governments can claim the right to
rule if they have ‘
the consent of the governed
’
Treaty of Versailles 1783
Britain recognised
the
independence
of its former colonies
The
republic of the United States of America
adopted a federal constitution in 1787
George Washington
became the first President
The Napoleonic Wars
(1799-1815)
In the Napoleonic era
the British navy dominated the sea
the French army dominated
the European continent
the great hero of the British
navy was Admiral Horatio Nelson
defeated the French-Spanish fleet
off Cape Trafalgar on the Atlantic
coast of southern Spain in 1805
The total defeat of Napoleon -> in 1815 at the battle of
Waterloo
in Belgium where the British troops, commanded by Arthur Wellesley, overcame the French
Their consequences
the acquisition of the Cape of Good Hope,
Trinidad, Singapore, Ceylon and Malta was
of strategic interest
enormous financial costs
Britain was on the verge of starvation,
bankruptcy and evolution
The Regency
The period between 1811 and 1820: the
Regency
The
Prince Regent
, later to become George IV,
acted as monarch during the illness of his father George III (1760-1820)
In 1830 William IV succeeded his brother and his short reign saw a new political awareness leading to the new age of reforms