BBC - History : British History Timeline 1718 British convicts start being transported to penal colonies overseas In 1718, the Transportation Act introduced penal transportation. People convicted of capital crimes had their sentences 'commuted' to 14 years or life in the Americas. Convicts found guilty of non-capital crimes received seven-year sentences. Between 1718 and 1776, over 50,000 convicts were transported to Virginia and Maryland in the modern United States. The American Revolution made further transportation impossible. October - November 1720 'South Sea Bubble' bursts and triggers a financial panic The South Sea Company was a financial and trading organisation mainly dealing with Spanish America. It received trading rights to the South Seas in return for financing the British government's debt. Shares were issued and unrealistic expectations cultivated. A monopoly of the slave trade was envisaged. When it was discovered that the directors of the profitless company had sold out, it sparked a massive panic and a major financial crash occurred in the City of London. Huge fortunes were lost.

April 1721 Sir Robert Walpole becomes the first prime minister In April 1721, Sir Robert Walpole became first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer, in the wake of the South Sea Bubble financial crash of 1720. He confirmed the Whig party's allegiance to the Hanoverian monarchy. He never held the actual title of 'prime minister', but was given the powers that came to be associated with the office. George I also gave him 10 Downing Street, still the official residence of the prime minister. 1723 Poaching becomes a capital offence Poaching disturbances in Windsor Forest and Park led to clashes between 'blacks' (gangs of bandits and poachers who blackened their faces) hoping to maintain common rights and wardens and gamekeepers. The government issued the Black Act to handle the situation. This made various poaching misdemeanours into capital crimes. 11 January 1727 George I dies and is succeeded by the second Hanoverian king, George II The threat of a Jacobite rebellion (aimed at re-establishing the Stuart dynasty) continued into George II's reign.

It continued to be a source of alarm until its final defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. As the country prospered, the king's early unpopularity - partially caused by his preference for Hanover over England - changed into a general respect. March - April 1733 Excise crisis shakes Sir Robert Walpole's administration In 1733, British prime minister Robert Walpole tried to shift the burden of taxation on imports away from collection at customs. He devised an 'excise' scheme - a system of bonded warehouses for tobacco, wine and brandy, where imported goods could be lodged until the proper duty, or tax, had been paid. The project was abandoned after widespread political opposition. 1739 Methodist preachers begin their mission to the poor John Wesley, George Whitefield and other early adherents to Wesleyan views began preaching in fields. Their aim was to spread the gospels and save souls. They attracted large audiences and many converts to evangelical Christianity. Called 'Methodists' for their focus of rules, this marked the beginning of their mission to the poor.

19 October 1739 Britain declares war on Spain and the 'War of Jenkins's Ear' begins Britain declared war on Spain after repeated depredations on British ships by Spanish 'guarda costas'. This was mainly a colonial war in Caribbean waters. It was named after a Captain Robert Jenkins, whose ear had been severed by the Spanish. The War of Jenkins's Ear lasted until 1748, but from 1742 effectively merged into the larger War of the Austrian Succession, which took place from October 1740 until October 1748. 1740 - 1744 George Anson sails around the world Between 1740 and 1744 the British naval commander George Anson sailed around the world in HMS 'Centurion'. Anson returned to England with nearly £500,000 of Spanish treasure. His account of the voyage became a bestseller. 11 February 1742 Sir Robert Walpole resigns as prime minister At the 1741 general election, Sir Robert Walpole's majority in the House of Commons numbered fewer than 20 seats.

When parliament reassembled in December 1741, he suffered defeats in seven divisions. On 11 February 1742, Walpole resigned as first lord of the treasury after 21 years in power. Although he had effectively been prime minister, that was never his title. He died in 1745. 13 April 1742 Handel's 'Messiah' gets its first performance, in Dublin George Frideric Handel was one of the foremost baroque composers. Born in Germany, he lived most of his adult life in England and received a number of royal commissions, including 'Water Music' and 'Music for the Royal Fireworks'. 27 June 1743 George II becomes the last British monarch to lead his army into battle The Battle of Dettingen, at which the British allies defeated the French, was just one engagement in the War of the Austrian Succession. The war began in 1740, when Prussia invaded the Austrian region of Silesia, but its underlying causes were rival claims for the hereditary lands of the Austrian monarchy, the Habsburgs. Prussia allied with France against Austria, Britain and the Netherlands.

The war ended in 1748 with all seized lands returned, except Silesia, which Austria ceded to Prussia. 23 July 1745 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' lands in Scotland to claim the British throne Charles Edward Stuart, or 'Bonnie Prince Charlie', was the grandson of the deposed James II. He landed at Eriskay, Scotland, and quickly gathered an army, who proclaimed him 'Charles III'. On 21 September, he defeated the government army in Scotland at the Battle of Prestonpans. He then marched south 16 April 1746 Jacobites are defeated at Culloden, the last battle on British soil Culloden, the last battle fought on British soil, marked the defeat of the Jacobite revolt of 1745-1746, also known as the '45 Rebellion. Led by 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' - Charles Edward Stuart, the grandson of the deposed king James II - the Jacobites were fighting to restore the exiled Stuarts to the throne.

They reached as far south as Derby before being chased back to Scotland, where they were routed by an army under William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and second son of George II. 1747 Liverpool overtakes Bristol as Britain's busiest slave trading port In the mid-18th century, Liverpool slave ships made around 49 voyages a year against Bristol's average of 20. Bristol had itself overtaken London as the main slave trading port in 1737. Slave ship owners and the owners of Caribbean plantations, most of whom lived in Britain, became very wealthy and influential in government and society. 1750 Scottish landlords start evicting tenants in the Highland Clearances From the 1750s, landlords in the Scottish Highlands began to forcibly remove tenants from their land, usually to replace them with more profitable sheep farming. The clearances resulted in whole Highland communities leaving Scotland and emigrating, most of them to North America. Many others moved to growing urban industrial centres such as Glasgow. This was part of a broader process of agricultural change in Britain, but in the Highlands it was marked by particular abruptness and brutality.

May 1756 Seven Years' War between Britain and France begins The war between Britain and France that began in May 1756 is arguably the first global war in modern history. Britain and her allies fought France in America, India and Europe. France forged alliances with Austria and Russia against Prussia. In 1762, Spain entered the war on the side of France. Britain emerged from the war victorious in 1763, and under the Treaty of Paris acquired Quebec, Florida, Minorca, large parts of India and the West Indies. 23 June 1757 Indian province of Bengal passes into British control after the Battle of Plassey The Battle of Plassey took place between Siraj Ud Daulah, the last independent ruler of Bengal, and the forces of the British East India Company led by Colonel Robert Clive. The defeat of Daulah, who was backed by the French, led to the entire province of Bengal passing into Company control. This victory, and the enormous wealth of Bengal, are often seen as important factors in establishing eventual British control over all of India.

April 1760 Tacky leads a slave rebellion in Jamaica Tacky's Revolt was the largest of many slave uprisings in the British West Indies in the 18th century, caused by the dreadful conditions enslaved people had to endure on the sugar plantations. Hundreds of slaves attacked plantations, killing about 60 whites and setting crops and sugar works alight. Tacky was captured and beheaded, and 400 other rebels died or were executed, but skirmishes continued for many months. 25 October 1760 George III succeeds his grandfather George II George III was the first of the Hanoverian kings to be born and brought up in Britain. He was nicknamed 'Farmer George' because of his passion for agriculture. During his reign, Britain lost its American colonies but emerged as a leading European power. From 1788, George suffered recurrent mental illness and in 1811 his son was appointed regent. April 1763 Radical journalist John Wilkes is arrested for criticising the king John Wilkes, a member of parliament and journalist, was charged with seditious libel for criticism of George III his paper 'The North Briton'.

He was released and for the next 15 years campaigned for parliamentary reform. He was frequently in trouble with the authorities, and was expelled from the Commons a number of times, only to be re-elected. After his arrest in 1768, seven were killed in the 'Massacre of St George's Fields' when a crowd demanding his release was fired on by troops. March 1765 Riots erupt in American colonies after parliament levies 'stamp' taxes In 1765, British Prime Minister George Grenville's administration passed the Stamp Act to raise extra taxes from the North American colonists. The money was intended to pay for the colonists' own military defence against possible future French incursions. Stamp duties were levied on newspapers and legal documents. Six of the 13 American colonies petitioned against the act and riots broke out. The Stamp Act was repealed in March 1766. June 1767 American colonists are taxed on imports In 1767, Charles Townshend, the chancellor of the exchequer, drew up legislation to raise taxes from North American colonists on selected imports, including glass, paint, lead and tea.

As with the repealed Stamp Act of 1765, the intention was to make colonists contribute towards their own defence against French incursions. Colonial protests led to the Revenue Act being repealed in 1770, except for the duty on imported tea. 1768 - 1771 Captain James Cook leads his first expedition to the Pacific In 1768, James Cook led an expedition on HMS 'Endeavour' to observe the astrological phenomenon of the transit of Venus from Tahiti. The voyage continued into the South Pacific Ocean, where Cook circumnavigated New Zealand and charted the east coast of Australia. His team of botanists and scientists brought back to England many important specimens and much scientific information. Cook made two further Pacific voyages. He was killed on the second of these in 1779 by warriors in Hawaii. January 1770 Lord North becomes prime minister Frederick, Lord North (an honorary title), became prime minister at the end of a decade that had seen six administrations come and go. George III hoped that his friend North could provide political stability. Lord North remained prime minister until 1782.

1771 'Factory Age' begins with the opening of Britain's first cotton mill The weaving of cotton cloth had become a major industry by the 1760s, with most of the labour being done by people in their homes. In 1771, inventor Richard Arkwright opened the first cotton mill at Cromford, Derbyshire. The spinning of yarn was carried out by his own patented machine, known as a water frame. This was a significant step towards the automation of labour-intensive industries and heralded the beginning of the 'Factory Age' in Britain. 22 June 1772 Slavery is effectively outlawed in England When the enslaved James Somerset escaped from his owner in London, he was captured and forced on to a ship bound for Jamaica. With the help of abolitionist Granville Sharpe, Somerset's case was taken to court and Lord William Mansfield, the lord chief justice, ruled that Somerset should be freed. This was widely, and mistakenly, believed to mean that slavery was outlawed in England. Slave owners continued to capture their runaway slaves and take them back to the Caribbean, but the case marked a milestone in the struggle to abolish slavery.

16 December 1773 'Boston Tea Party' heightens tensions in North American colonies In 1770, taxes on imports to the American Colonies had been repealed on all goods except tea. In 1773, colonists disguised as Native Americans dumped chests of tea from East India Company vessels into Boston harbour in protest against this remaining levy. Political tensions between the American colonists and the British government escalated as a result. 1774 Methodist John Wesley publishes 'Thoughts Upon Slavery' John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church, was a lifelong opponent of slavery. In 1774 he published a pamphlet entitled 'Thoughts Upon Slavery', which examined how Africans were captured and transported, and proposed legal and moral arguments against slavery and the slave trade. In 1788, at considerable personal risk, he preached a sermon against slavery in Bristol, one of the leading slave trading ports. Nonconformists, particularly Quakers, were very active in the abolition movement, and included other well known individuals such as Joseph Priestley and Josiah Wedgwood.

18 April 1775 American War of Independence begins On 18 April 1775, a skirmish between British redcoats and the local militia at Lexington, Massachusetts, led to the fighting that began the American War of Independence. No one knows which side fired the first 'shot heard around the world'. About 15 months after the outbreak of war, colonial leader Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, which argued that the goals of the United States of America were 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'. In September 1783, the Treaty of Paris formally ended the war. 1779 Penitentiary Act authorises state prisons An investigation into the state of English and Welsh prisons in the mid-1770s by penal reformer John Howard revealed the dreadful conditions, inadequate diet and corrupt administration of many jails. The Penitentiary Act was introduced with the intention of remedying the situation. This was the first British law to authorise state prisons.

2 - 11 June 1780 'Gordon Riots' break out in protest against the Catholic Relief Act In 1778, parliament passed the Catholic Relief Act, which removed many of the traditional restrictions on Catholics in Britain. George Gordon, leader of the Protestant Association, was leading a huge crowd to parliament with a petition calling for repeal of the act when anti-Catholic violence erupted. The ensuing orgy of property destruction and disorder lasted a week. Hundreds died in fighting between protestors and troops. These were amongst the worst riots in English history. 19 October 1781 Americans defeat the British army at Yorktown, Virginia British forces were besieged on the Yorktown peninsula, Virginia, by the American continental army in the west and the French fleet closing on Chesapeake Bay. Left in a hopeless situation, General Charles Cornwallis surrendered to American general George Washington, effectively ending the American War of Independence. The victory demonstrated beyond doubt that Britain could not hope to win a war so far from its own shores. The British government was forced into negotiations to end the conflict.

29 November 1781 133 Africans are thrown overboard the slave ship 'Zong' During a voyage from Africa to Jamaica, the captain of the slave ship 'Zong' ordered 133 slaves to be thrown overboard alive. The ship's owners then filed a fraudulent insurance claim for the value of the dead slaves. In March 1783 the case was heard in London as an insurance dispute rather than a murder trial. The case was widely publicised by outraged abolitionists, particularly Olaudah Equiano and Granville Sharp, and helped to attract new supporters to the abolition cause. 1783 Britain begins to evacuate loyalists from American colonies When it became evident that the American colonists were winning their war of independence, those who had fought for the British faced an uncertain future. These included former slaves who had fought on the understanding that they would gain their freedom at the end of the conflict. Around 75,000 loyalists decided to leave, most of them going to the British North American colonies in what is now Canada, others to the West Indies and some to Britain.

In 1792, more than 1,100 freed slaves and their families who had gone to Nova Scotia left Canada to settle in Sierra Leone, West Africa. December 1783 William Pitt the Younger becomes prime minister After three brief ministries had failed, the William Pitt the Younger became Britain's prime minister at the age of 23. (His father, William Pitt the Elder had held the office twice, in the 1750-1760s). His critics said that the nation had been 'entrusted to a schoolboy's care'. He successfully curbed the national debt, fought revolutionary France, restructured the government of India and passed the Act of Union with Ireland in 1801. Exhausted and in poor health, he died in 1806. 13 May 1787 First fleet of convicts sails to Australia Since 1718, Britain had transported convicts to its North American colonies, until this was ended by the American War of Independence. On 13 May 1787, penal transportation resumed with a fleet of convict ships setting out from Portsmouth for Botany Bay. This marked the beginning of transportation to Australia.

Between 1787 and 1868, when transportation was abolished, over 150,000 felons were exiled to New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land and Western Australia. 22 May 1787 Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade is formed The committee was formed by 12 men, the majority of them Quakers. The two non-Quakers, Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson, devoted their lives to the cause of abolishing slavery. These men provided MP William Wilberforce with material to assist his parliamentary efforts to abolish the slave trade. They wrote books and pamphlets and produced prints and posters to publicise the cause. Clarkson travelled tirelessly through England, organising local abolition committees, rallies and petitions and collecting information on slavery from sailors and others who had been involved in the slave trade. 1788 Under pressure from abolitionists, parliament investigates the slave trade Pressure from abolitionists and detailed information gathered on the transatlantic slave trade resulted in the first parliamentary investigation of the trade. Abolitionist Thomas Clarkson led the fact-finding mission, while member of parliament William Wilberforce became the parliamentary spokesman.

There was mass public support for the abolition of the slave trade - in 1788 alone, 103 pro-abolition petitions were sent to Parliament, signed by between 60,000 and 100,000 people. 1 January 1788 First edition of 'The Times' of London is published Originally founded in 1785 as the 'Daily Universal Register', the publication was re-named 'The Times' three years later. It is Britain's oldest surviving newspaper with continuous daily publication, and for much of its history has been regarded as the newspaper of record. Newspapers have been published in Britain since the early 16th century, but it was not until the early 18th century that regular daily newspapers were produced. November 1788 - February 1789 George III's illness sparks a regency crisis George III probably suffered from porphyria, a rare hereditary disease marked by severe attacks of pain and mental instability. For four months in 1788-1789 he was incapacitated by his illness, raising the possibility a 'regent' having to rule on his behalf.

This regency crisis was averted by the George's sudden recovery. 29 April 1789 Former slave Olaudah Equiano publishes his autobiography Olaudah Equiano was a former slave who settled in London and became closely involved in the abolition movement. His autobiography 'The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano' is one of the earliest known examples of a published work by a black writer. The public was fascinated by the story of a slave who converted to Christianity, learned to read and write and, by trading on the side, earned enough money to buy his freedom. The book became a bestseller. 14 July 1789 French Revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille The storming of the Bastille prison in Paris is generally held to mark the beginning of the French Revolution. This was a world-shattering event, in which the French monarchy was overthrown, the king, Louis XVI, executed and a republic established. It stimulated political debate in Britain between British Jacobins (pro-revolutionaries, named after the Jacobin Club in Paris), some of whom were republicans, and loyalists, who stressed the virtues of the existing British constitution.

19 April 1791 Parliament rejects William Wilberforce's bill to abolish the slave trade MP William Wilberforce introduced a bill to abolish the slave trade in May 1789. The bill was stalled and eventually consideration of the question was moved to a select committee. A general election again delayed progress and when the bill eventually came to a vote, it was passed by the Commons but defeated by the Lords. Between 1792 and 1806 a number of further unsuccessful attempts were made to enact parliamentary legislation which would either control or abolish the slave trade. 1792 - 1794 Radical artisans form the London Corresponding Society The spirit of 'liberty, equality and fraternity' that stemmed from the French Revolution of 1789 had inspired the establishment of radical societies in Britain. In January 1792, the 'London Corresponding Society', the most prominent of these organisations, was formed under the leadership of Thomas Hardy, a Scottish shoemaker. The LCS debated the need for parliamentary reform. It advocated universal male suffrage, a secret ballot and annual parliaments. The government banned the LCS in 1794.

7 March 1792 Sierra Leone is established under British rule as a home for former slaves A British settlement had been established in the area of West Africa now known as Sierra Leone in 1787, but the community was almost entirely wiped out due to failed crops and disease. In 1792 a group of 1,100 people left Nova Scotia to establish a community of free black people in Sierra Leone. Many of these settlers were black men and women who had fought for the British in the American War of Independence. 1 February 1793 Britain goes to war with France The French had been at war in Europe since 1792, but it was not until the execution of Louis XVI, king of France, that Britain joined the anti-French coalition. In 1805, Britain attained complete mastery of the seas at the Battle of Trafalgar, but by 1807 Napoleon Bonaparte, the emperor of France, was master of continental Europe. War continued until the final defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

1793 British troops attempt to suppress Toussaint L'Ouverture's rebellion in Haiti St Domingue had the largest slave population and was the wealthiest colony in the Caribbean. When a slave rebellion broke out, panic spread among slave owners all over the region. British troops were ordered to invade St Domingue, but disease and Toussaint L'Ouverture's irregular army forced them to withdraw. In 1802 Napoleon sent a French army to crush the rebellion. Toussaint was captured and imprisoned in France, where he died, but his army triumphed and on 1 January 1804 declared the Republic of Haiti. April - June 1797 Naval mutinies occur at Spithead and the Nore Two mutinies broke out in the Royal Navy after clashes between seamen and officers over pay and conditions. There were fears in that such disturbances might be the trigger for a French-style revolution. The Spithead mutiny (near Portsmouth) ended in a royal pardon for the crew. At the Nore (on the Thames Estuary), the mutiny was starved out and one of the ringleaders, Richard Parker, was hanged.

Mutinies occurred in several European navies in the 1790s. 26 May 1798 Society of United Irishmen rebel against British rule in Ireland In 1798, Wolfe Tone, a Protestant lawyer, led the Society of United Irishmen in a rebellion against British rule in Ireland. The SUI recruited supporters among Catholics and Presbyterians, but was beset by internal divisions. After failing to secure French assistance, the rebellion was ruthlessly crushed by British forces. It effectively ended with the capture of Tone in October of the same year. He was sentenced to hang, but took his own life first. 1799 - 1800 Trade unions are outlawed William Pitt the Younger's government passed two acts making it illegal for working men to form combinations in which their political rights were discussed. They were among several repressive measures designed to stifle any catalysts for a French-style revolution in Britain. The Combination Acts were repealed in 1824 and 1825.

1 January 1801 Act of Union creates the United Kingdom Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Ireland were formally joined under the Act of Union to create the United Kingdom in 1801. The Irish parliament in Dublin was dissolved. Despite the Union, Catholics were still unable to vote at general elections or to hold parliamentary and most public offices. 10 March 1801 Britain holds its first census The census was introduced to help the government understand the demographic layout of the country and better utilise the population in times of war. A census of England and Wales, and a separate one of Scotland, has been taken ever since on a ten-yearly basis, with the exception of 1941. In the 1801 census, information was collected on a parish basis and there were no details on individual households. It was not until the 1841 census that more detailed information was requested. 18 July 1801 - 9 June 1803 Matthew Flinders circumnavigates Australia English naval captain Matthew Flinders carried out the first known circumnavigation of Australia in HMS 'Investigator'.

He accurately charted many parts of the Australian coast that had not been surveyed by Captain James Cook on his voyages between 1768 and 1779. 21 October 1805 Royal Navy defeats a French and Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar In 1805, the combined fleets of France and Spain faced the Royal Navy in the last great battle of the age of sail, at Cape Trafalgar off the coast of Spain. British naval hero Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson led the daring British attack in HMS 'Victory', but was killed at the height of the battle. It seems likely that the French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, had already abandoned his plans for the invasion of England, but the victory nonetheless handed Britain complete control of the seas. 25 March 1807 Britain abolishes the slave trade In 1806, parliament passed an act to abolish the supply of slaves on British ships to foreign and conquered colonies. This was followed up by the total abolition of the British slave trade in 1807. It ended more than 200 years of slave trading.

The Abolition of Slavery Act, passed in 1833, freed all slaves in the British empire and provided for compensation for their owners. 1808 British West Africa Squadron is formed to suppress slave trading The British West Africa Squadron was established by the Royal Navy to suppress illegal slave trading along the West African coast after the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. By 1865, nearly 150,000 people had been freed by the Squadron's anti-slavery operations. The Squadron continued its work until the early 20th century. 1811 - 1812 Luddite protesters attack industrial machinery in protest against unemployment During two years of high unemployment, textile workers known as Luddites (named after their mythical leader 'Ned Ludd') sabotaged machinery in the woollen, cotton and hosiery industries in Nottinghamshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire. The government infiltrated the protesters with spies and sent 12,000 troops to Yorkshire in 1812 to stop further industrial violence.

1812 - 1818 Hampden clubs are formed to advocate parliamentary reform The Hampden clubs were the first major societies devoted to parliamentary reform following the demise of the London Corresponding Society in 1794. (The LCS had advocated universal male suffrage, a secret ballot and annual parliaments.) The clubs were named after John Hampden, a parliamentary opponent of Charles I. They were banned in 1818. March 1815 Corn Laws are introduced to protect British agriculture The Tory government of Robert Banks Jenkinson, Lord Liverpool, introduced the Corn Laws in a bid to protect British agriculture. Corn prices had halved following the end of the Napoleonic wars, creating a panic among farmers. The laws imposed heavy tariffs on imports of foreign grain. They were repealed in 1846. 18 June 1815 Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, defeats Napoleon at Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was a decisive victory for Britain and its allies in the Napoleonic wars.

The British general who masterminded the victory, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, had once been dismissed by Napoleon Bonaparte as a 'sepoy general' (a derisive reference to his service in India). Napoleon was forced to abdicate as emperor of France a few days later. He was sent into exile on the small Atlantic island of St Helena, where he died. 10 March 1817 Working class 'Blanketeers' mount a march to London Working class men devoted to parliamentary reform began a march from Manchester to London to publicise their case to the government. They were nicknamed 'Blanketeers' after the blankets they carried. The marchers were dispersed by troops before they reached Stockport. 16 August 1819 Eleven die at the Peterloo massacre in Manchester A huge crowd of people gathered at St Peter's Fields, Manchester, to hear radical orators speak on the subject of parliamentary reform and high food prices. The local yeomanry were ordered to arrest the speakers, but panicked and charged the crowd. Eleven people died and hundreds were injured. The massacre became known as 'Peterloo' - an ironic inversion of the British military triumph at Waterloo.

29 January 1820 George III dies and is succeeded by George IV George III, the longest-serving Hanoverian monarch, died after occupying the throne for 60 years. His eldest son, who had served as prince regent from 1811 to 1820 when his father was declared insane, became George IV. The new king became deeply unpopular for his extravagant lifestyle and scandalous private life, but he was an enthusiastic supporter of the arts and his residences, particularly Carlton House and Brighton Pavilion, set new standards of taste. 27 September 1825 World's first steam locomotive passenger service begins The first public steam railway ran between the north eastern towns of Stockton and Darlington. This ushered in the 'Railway Age', with the building of an extensive railway network in Britain providing a fast and economical means of transport and communication. 13 April 1829 Parliament grants Catholic emancipation In 1828, parliament had repealed the Test and Corporation Acts which had banned Catholics from holding government and public offices or from attending universities. The Catholic Relief Act of 1829 went further, granting full emancipation to British and Irish Catholics.

This measure split the Tory party into different factions. The prime minister, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, steered the bill through its final stages and secured the assent of George IV. June 1829 Robert Peel sets up the Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Act was the brainchild of Home Secretary Robert Peel. It established the first paid, uniformed constabulary for the metropolis, excluding the City of London. Before the police there existed an informal system of watchmen, magistrates, volunteer constables and 'thief takers'. Initially unpopular, the police proved a success and by the late 1830s police forces were being set up in many large British cities. 26 June 1830 George IV dies and is succeeded by his brother William IV During his youth, William had served in the Royal Navy and his bluff, unassuming manner - he was nicknamed 'the sailor king' - was in marked contrast to the extravagant, decadent lifestyle of his brother George IV. His reign was dominated by the 'Reform Crisis' - political wrangling over reform to parliamentary representation, including issues like extending the franchise (those allowed to vote) and redrawing electoral boundaries.

William's personal involvement in the crisis damaged his standing. October 1831 Riots break out over the parliamentary Reform Bill The Whig Party, elected to power in 1830, introduced a major bill for parliamentary reform. Bristol, Nottingham, Derby and several smaller towns witnessed violent riots after the Reform Bill was rejected by the House of Lords. Nottingham Castle was attacked and the Council House in Bristol was burnt down. December 1831 Samuel Sharpe leads a massive slave revolt in Jamaica More than 20,000 slaves seized control of a wide swathe of Jamaican territory. It took a month for the British troops on the island to subdue the rebels. Sam Sharpe was executed. The British public's interest in slavery had declined after the slave trade was abolished in 1807, but Sam Sharpe's rebellion helped to bring it to the forefront again. A campaign for the abolition of slavery began to gain momentum in Britain. 4 June 1832 Great Reform Act changes parliamentary representation The third version of the Reform Bill finally received assent from the House of Lords and William IV.

Tory peers only backed the bill after William IV said he would create 50 new Whig lords - thereby giving the Whigs a majority from which to vote the issue through. The Great Reform Act made important changes to parliamentary constituencies and extended the franchise (those allowed to vote), but did not introduce parliamentary democracy or a secret ballot. 1833 Factory Act restricts work hours for women and children The Tory peer and reformer Anthony Ashley Cooper promoted the bill, which restricted the hours of work by women and children in textile mills. Under the terms of the act, mill owners were required to show that children up to age 13 received two hours of schooling, six days per week. 31 July 1833 Parliament passes a bill to abolish slavery in the British empire After years of intense anti-slavery lobbying and pro-abolition public meetings around the country (including an abolitionist march on 10 Downing Street) parliament finally voted to end slavery throughout the British empire. Slaves would initially become 'apprentices' for a six-year term, starting in 1834. This was later shortened to four years.

MP William Wilberforce, who had represented the abolitionists in the House of Commons, died just days before just before the emancipation measure became law. 1834 New Poor Law reforms Britain's social security system In 1832, a Royal Commission into the Poor Law recommended changes to the system of parish poor relief. Many of its recommendations were incorporated into the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. This statute maintained outdoor relief (relief given outside a workhouse), but led to more central control of the system. March 1834 'Tolpuddle Martyrs' are sentenced to transportation for trade union activities Six farm labourers from the Dorset village of Tolpuddle set up a 'friendly society' to campaign for better pay and working conditions. They were put on trial and sent to penal colonies in Australia, but were granted pardons in 1836 following a public outcry. The so-called 'Tolpuddle Martyrs' are credited with helping to launch the trade union movement. 1835 Municipal Corporations Bill creates town councils This legislation gave 178 boroughs the right to have their own town council.

All ratepayers were thereafter entitled to vote in borough council elections. The new councils gradually took control of local services such as education, housing and street lighting. To which period does Pride and Prejudice belong: Georgian, Regency or Victorian? | eNotes To which period does Pride and Prejudice belong: Georgian, Regency or Victorian? lit24 | College Teacher | (Level 3) Valedictorian Posted on December 10, 2008 at 10:37 AM King George III who ruled England from 1760-1820 went mad in 1810. Since he was not fit to rule the country, his son the Prince of Wales was appointed the vice-regent and ruled the country instead of him. The prefix 'vice' means 'instead of.' King George III died in 1820 and the vice-regent became a full fledged King George IV. King George IV ruled England from 1820-1830.

However, the term 'Regency Period' is often expanded to apply to the years between 1795 and 1837, a time characterised by distinctive fashions, politics and culture. In this sense, it can be considered to be a transitional period between the Georgian and Victorian eras. The era was distinctive for its architecture, literature, fashions, and politics. Jane Austen (16th December 1775 to 18th July 1817) spent most of her adult life during the rule of the Vice-Regent. So, it is appropriate that she be classified as belonging to the 'Regency Period.' "Pride and Prejudice" was initially written by her between 1796 and 1797 when she was at Steventon. However, it was later revised by her at Chawton and published on 28th January 1813.

Hence it belongs to the 'Regency Period.' like 3 dislike 0 May 13, 2014 at 5:57 PM The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term Regent as "A person appointed to administer a State because the Monarch is a minor, is absent or is incapacitated."Officially the years between 1811 and 1820 were the Regency Era in British History. In 1810, King George III became unfit to rule the country because of madness and his son, the Prince of Wales, began working as the proxy of the king as Prince Regent. In 1820, the Prince Regent became King George IV on the death of his father. Austen wrote the novel in between October 1796 and August 1797.It was titled ‘First Impressions’. London Publisher and book seller Thomas Cadell declined her father’s request of publishing it in 1997.However, Austen made a through revision of the text and changed the title to ‘Pride and Prejudice’.

Thomas Egerton of Whitehall purchased the copyright for £110 and published it on 27th January, 1813. like 1 dislike 0 Historical Context for Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen | The Core Curriculum Historical Context for Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Relates to: Pride and Prejudice Late Eighteenth-Century Britain and the Regency Period Jane Austen’s brief life and writing career overlapped with one of the most transformative eras in British history, marked by revolution abroad and unrest at home. The signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the year after Austen’s birth, signaled the start of the American Revolution, followed in the next decade by the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789. For the next two decades, Britain was engaged almost without cease in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars of 1793–1815, one of the most significant conflicts in British history. Among the effects of England’s foreign wars during this period were great financial instability and monetary volatility.

The precariousness of the late eighteenth-century was followed in the 1810s and 1820s by what is known as the Regency period. The Regency officially began in 1811, when King George III went permanently insane and his son George, Prince of Wales, was sanctioned to rule England in his place as Regent. The political Regency lasted until 1820, when George IV was crowned. However, the Regency period has also come to refer more generally to the early decades of the nineteenth century before the start of Victoria’s reign in 1837, during which the Prince Regent provided a great deal of support for the development of the arts and sciences that flourished during this period. Austen would have witnessed, moreover, the beginning of industrialization in England, though the growth of the factory system would not reach its peak until the middle of the nineteenth century. Outside of the genteel world we see in Pride and Prejudice, a third of the country’s population lived on the verge of starvation, spurring food riots across the countryside.

This unrest was compounded by Luddite protestors who attacked new industrial machinery (a practice called “machine breaking”) in demonstrations that were a precursor to labor strikes. As these demonstrations spread fear of a revolution in England, the government responded with repressive measures that sharply curtailed freedom of speech. The Historical Context of Pride and Prejudice War with France Stretching over twenty-two years, Britain’s war with France affected every level of British society. While an estimated quarter of a million men were serving in the regular army, a militia of officers and volunteers in the southeast coast of England (the region where Austen was from) mobilized for what was thought to be an impending invasion by Napoleon. Austen had a close connection to the militia, as her brother Henry joined the Oxfordshire militia in 1793. Though the rural countryside in which Austen’s novels are set seems at a far remove from the tumultuousness of the period, the world of Pride and Prejudice bears the traces of turmoil abroad.

As Gillian Russell writes, “The hum of wartime, if not the blast or cry of battle, pervades [Austen’s] fiction.” [1] The presence of the troops at Brighton and militia officers like Wickham reflect wider concerns about the place of the military in English civil society. The Landed Gentry The novel is also embedded within a set of domestic concerns over property, money and status that highlight the changing social landscape of late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century England. Austen’s novels portray the gentry, a broad social class that includes those who owned land (the country or landed gentry) as well as the professional classes (lawyers, doctors and clergy) who did not. Though industrialization and urbanization had begun to take hold at the end of the eighteenth century, the most influential sector of society in Austen’s time was the landed gentry. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, ownership of English land was concentrated in the hands of the relatively small landed classes, who retained their hold over the land through a system that encouraged the consolidation and extension of estates by enforcing strict inheritance laws.

Entails of the kind referred to in the novel were established during this period in order to concentrate wealth and enlarge estates by funneling property to male children or male relatives rather than breaking it up and distributing it amongst family members. Thus, Mr. Bennett’s land is left not to his daughters but to a (male) member of his extended family, Mr. Collins, ensuring that the property stays in the family line, while disinheriting Elizabeth and her sisters. Large country estates, of the kind Darcy owns and Mr. Bingley desires to purchase, served as a symbol of the wealth and power of the landed gentry. Marriage and Gender Roles As we see in the novel, questions of land ownership and inheritance are closely interlinked with courtship and marriage. In the late eighteenth century, English conceptions of family and the role of women began to change, as British culture became increasingly focused on the accumulation and concentration of wealth within the family. One way for families to rapidly accumulate capital was through advantageous marriages. As a result, the position of daughters within the family changed, as they became the means through which a family could attain greater wealth.

Familial aspirations, coupled with women’s increased dependence on marriage for financial survival, made courtship a central focus of women’s lives. At the same time, the late eighteenth century also witnessed a transformation in the conception of women’s rights following the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792. In the Vindication, Wollstonecraft argues, in the language of Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke, that women should be treated as the rational equals of men. Elizabeth Bennett serves as a paradigmatic example of the conflicting transformations in women’s roles that occurred in the late eighteenth century. Disinherited of her father’s property, Elizabeth is not financially independent, and in fact depends upon an advantageous marriage for her future survival. Yet throughout the novel, she asserts an intellectual and moral independence that reflects a Wollstoncraftian conception of gender politics. Print Culture and the Novel in Austen’s Time One particularly significant change that occurred during Austen’s lifetime was the expansion of literacy and print culture in England. By 1800, almost everyone in the middle classes and above could read, and literacy rates for the rest of the population rose steadily thereafter.

At the same time, from 1780 onwards there was a fairly steady rise in the number of new novels being published, so that by the end of Austen’s life, the novel was the dominant form of literature in England. In part, the rise of the novel was spurred on by new forms of printing and marketing, which made books less expensive and expanded their readership. Smaller format books—octavos and duodecimos, as opposed to quartos—were more portable, and therefore easier to consume. Similarly, novels became more readily accessible through the expansion of various modes of access, including circulating and subscription libraries as well as periodicals, which made literature affordable in a time when books were often prohibitively expensive. Nevertheless, novels of the kind Austen published would have been an unaffordable luxury for a great deal of the population. This was particularly true in the earlier part of the nineteenth century, when “taxes on knowledge” raised prices on paper, newspapers, advertisements, and other texts. These taxes were in fact at their height during Austen’s career. This was in part because of a desire to limit access to information for the lower classes in response to revolution in France and upheaval at home.

Though the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries marked an explosion in novel reading and the production of the novels themselves, the widely affordable novel would not become ubiquitous until the middle of the nineteenth century. The realist novel, defined by its putatively objective narrator, psychologically developed characters, and minute description of the realities of domestic life, was in part inaugurated by Austen in Pride and Prejudice, and would come to dominate the literary scene in England throughout the rest of the nineteenth century. The rise of the novel has historically been linked to the rise of the middle class in England from the eighteenth century onwards, because this expanding social class (and middle class women in particular) had both the income and the leisure time available to consume them. Although novels were widely read, throughout the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, they were largely considered unserious, frivolous, and even irrelevant—a merely “popular” genre.

Written by Lucy Sheehan (Department of English & Comparative Literature) Sources Consulted: A Companion to Jane Austen (Blackwell Publishers, 2009) A Companion to the History of the Book (Blackwell Publishers, 2007) A Companion to Eighteenth-Century Britain (Blackwell Publishers, 2002) A Companion to the Eighteenth-Century English Novel and Culture (Blackwell Publishers, 2005) An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age (Oxford University Press, 2009) The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2009) The Oxford Companion to British History (Oxford University Press, 2009) [1] Gillian Russell, "The Army, the Navy, and the Napoleonic Wars," A Companion to Jane Austen. Claudia L. Johnson. and Clara Tuite (eds) (Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2009).

Question: The period in British history from 1795 to 1837 is often referred to as the ‘What…..era’?
Answer: Regency era