Chapter 3: A Long and Illustrious History

A Global Power

Ultima verificare: 15 July 2026

• 1After the Glorious Revolution the monarch's power shrank; Parliament's importance grew, though voting rights were limited and "pocket" and "rotten" boroughs were controlled by wealthy patrons.
• 2The Act of Union (known in Scotland as the Treaty of Union) in 1707 united England and Scotland, creating the Kingdom of Great Britain with one Parliament.
• 3After 1707 Scotland was no longer an independent country, but it kept its own legal system, its own Presbyterian national church (Church of Scotland), and its own education system.
• 4In 1714 George I, a German (Elector of Hanover), became king; because he spoke little English, he relied more on his ministers.
• 5Sir Robert Walpole is regarded as the first Prime Minister; he held the office from 1721 to 1742.
• 6In 1745 Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie"), grandson of James II, led a Jacobite rebellion to put the Stuarts back on the throne.
• 7The Jacobites were defeated by George II's army at the Battle of Culloden in 1746; Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped to Europe.
• 8After Culloden the clans lost much power; chieftains became landlords, and in the Highland Clearances small farmers (crofters) were evicted to make way for sheep and cattle — many Scots migrated to North America.
• 9Robert Burns (1759–1796), known as "The Bard", was Scotland's national poet; his song Auld Lang Syne is sung at New Year (Hogmanay) in the UK and elsewhere.
• 10The 18th-century Enlightenment saw new ideas in politics, philosophy and science; Adam Smith developed ideas about economics, David Hume about human nature; James Watt's work transformed the steam engine.
• 11A key Enlightenment principle still important today: everyone should have the right to their own political and religious beliefs.
• 12Britain was the first country to industrialise on a large scale — the Industrial Revolution: the rapid development of industry in the 18th and 19th centuries.
• 13Before the Industrial Revolution, agriculture was the biggest source of employment, alongside cottage industries done at home.
• 14Machinery and steam power drove industrialisation; coal and other raw materials were needed; Britain produced increasing quantities of iron and steel.
• 15The Bessemer process enabled mass production of steel, supporting the growth of the shipbuilding and railway industries.
• 16Richard Arkwright (1732–1792) improved carding/spinning machinery and was known for running factories efficiently.
• 17Canals were built to link factories to cities and ports; working conditions were harsh — no laws protected workers, and children worked long hours in dangerous conditions.
• 18Captain James Cook mapped the coast of Australia, and colonies were established there; Britain also gained control of Canada, and the East India Company gained control of large parts of India.
• 19Sake Dean Mahomet (1759–1851), born in the Bengal region of India: came to Britain in 1782, eloped to Ireland with Jane Daly, and in 1810 opened the Hindoostane Coffee House in George Street, London — the first curry house in Britain; he and his wife also introduced "shampooing" (Indian head massage) to Britain.
• 20The slave trade: British ships took slaves from West Africa to work on plantations in America and the Caribbean; the trade was fully established by the 18th century and dominated by Britain and the American colonies.
• 21The Quakers set up the first formal anti-slavery groups in the late 1700s; William Wilberforce was a leading abolitionist.
• 22In 1807 it became illegal to trade slaves in British ships or from British ports; in 1833 the Emancipation Act abolished slavery throughout the British Empire.
• 23After 1833 the Royal Navy stopped slave ships of other countries and freed the slaves; two million Indian and Chinese workers were employed to replace freed slaves on plantations.
• 24In the 1760s–70s Britain's 13 American colonies objected to being taxed without representation in Parliament; in 1776 the colonies declared independence, and Britain recognised the United States' independence in 1783.
• 25Britain fought long wars against Napoleon's France; in 1805 Admiral Nelson defeated the combined French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar — Nelson was killed in the battle.
• 26Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London, commemorates him; his flagship HMS Victory can be visited in Portsmouth.
• 27In 1815 the Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo; Wellington, known as the Iron Duke, later became Prime Minister.
• 28In 1801 Ireland was united with Great Britain by another Act of Union, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
• 29The Union Flag (union of crosses) dates from 1801 and combines: the cross of St George (England — red cross on white), the cross of St Andrew (Scotland — diagonal white cross on blue), and the cross of St Patrick (Ireland — diagonal red cross on white).
• 30Wales is not represented on the Union Flag because by 1801 it was already united with England; the official Welsh flag shows a Welsh dragon.
• 31Queen Victoria became queen in 1837 aged 18 and reigned until 1901 — almost 64 years, the longest reign of any British monarch at the time of the handbook.
• 32During the Victorian age the British Empire grew to cover all of India, Australia and large parts of Africa — the largest empire the world had seen, with an estimated population of more than 400 million people.
• 33Britain adopted free trade policies in the Victorian era; the Corn Laws (which restricted grain imports) were repealed in 1846.
• 34Victorian reforms improved working conditions, including laws limiting the working hours of women and children (e.g. a 10-hour day).
• 35George Stephenson and his son Robert pioneered the railway engine ("Father of the Railways"); a major railway network was built by Victorian engineers.
• 36Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859), originally from Portsmouth, built the Great Western Railway as well as bridges (including the Clifton Suspension Bridge over the Avon near Bristol), tunnels, docks and great steamships.
• 37By the middle of the 19th century Britain produced more than half of the world's iron, coal and cotton cloth — the "workshop of the world".
• 38The Great Exhibition of 1851, held in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, showed machines and goods from around the world; Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert helped organise it.
• 39In the Crimean War (from 1853) Britain fought with Turkey and France against Russia — the first war to receive extensive media coverage; the Victoria Cross medal for bravery was introduced during it.
• 40Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) nursed wounded soldiers at a military hospital in Turkey during the Crimean War and is regarded as the founder of modern nursing; in 1860 she founded the Nightingale Training School for nurses at St Thomas' Hospital, London.
• 41In the mid-19th century the Irish potato crop failed, causing famine: a million people died and another 1.5 million emigrated, many to the United States and England.
• 42Irish Nationalist movements grew: the Fenians campaigned for complete independence; others, like Charles Stewart Parnell, campaigned for Home Rule (Irish self-government within the UK).
• 43The Reform Act of 1832 increased the number of people who could vote and abolished rotten/pocket boroughs, giving more seats to towns and cities.
• 44The Reform Act of 1867 further extended the vote, but voting still depended on property; the campaign for universal suffrage (the vote for all adults) grew.
• 45Acts of Parliament in 1870 and 1882 gave married women the right to keep their own earnings and property.
• 46From 1870 onwards, and especially after 1903, women campaigned for the vote — the suffragettes.
• 47Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) founded the Women's Franchise League (1889) and in 1903 the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) — the first group whose members were called suffragettes; they used civil disobedience, demonstrations and hunger strikes.
• 48By the end of the 19th century Britain debated the future of its Empire; the Boer War (1899–1902) in South Africa, against the Boer settlers of Dutch origin, was costly and increased those doubts.
• 49Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), born in India, wrote books and poems reflecting the Empire, including The Jungle Book, Just So Stories and the poem "If"; he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907.