Modern English History Review
Parliament and More
House of Lords: Hereditary; donât have to be elected since the monarch appoints who is a lord.
House of Commons: Commons are elected, but they are still very wealthy and landowning themselves. Also, they had to be in the COE
Virtual Representation: The idea that everyone is represented under the House of Lords, because they will do the right thing for the people
Pocket Borough/Rotten Borough: Due to the districting not changing with the population people were essentially an MP for as long as they wanted to be. In Pocket Boroughs, it happened in small, wealthy areas where everyone would vote for you. Rotten Boroughs happened where the population had ârotted awayâ such as towns underwater or small villages
Statute Law: Anything what Parliament says is the constitution. The king stamps it into law
Charles II: Secular King
James II: A Catholic ruler, but was told that he could rule in private
Glorious Revolution: two factions started because of the religious strife. The army eventually dispersed, and James the II escapedâthey let him as they donât want a catholic ruler. This starts the whole Jacobite drama
William and Mary: The protestant co-rulers who come in after James II is disposed of. Parliament reasserts its control.
Revolutionary Settlement: Signing of the Bill of Rights, and the Army Bill, where Parliament is responsible for the army where the King used to be the one asserting that
Act of Toleration: Part of the Revolutionary Settlement. COE still exists but it is no longer a crime to be a dissenter (like a puritan) but Catholics are still barred
Whigs and Tories: First two modern political parties. Whigs are more liberal while Tories are more conservative.
Jacobites: Those who wanted James II as the leader along with his son. Lots of them in Ireland and Scotland, since James was Scottish and he was also Catholic (Lots in Ireland)
The Age of Walpole and the Transition of Government
Patronage: Supporting people with money to do things, and youâre supposed to be reflected well as the patron. The patronage system bleeds into the government and voting
Handel: Was a composer from Hannover so he left for England after Queen Anne liked his music.
Queen Anne: Didnât have any Kids so Parliament had to decide the next heirs. James and his younger brother are out of course.
George I: Becomes Queen after Anne. However, he doesnât speak English and heâs not exactly the greatest guy (had two mistresses) So parliament exerts more control now â
Salutary Neglect: Britain isnât really watching, so Americans can do whatever
Old â15: A rebellion where over 10k rise up; they do not like George I. They secretly collect taxes for James the younger. The Battle of Glenshiel was the climactic battle. Eventually died off.
Riot Act: A win for speech as it explicitly states that you can form an assembly. Thereâs just a limit to it and the government can decide what itâs turned into a riot.
Cabinet: The group of people who decides this, with the PM leading this
South Sea Bubble: Scheme for trading slaves with Spain and a bunch of people invested in this. However, the people purposely werenât doing anything with the money, just cashing it in for themselves. To legitimize themselves they paid money that other people had invested to other investors. It was a whole mess in Parlimament as many MPs said it was a good idea, and some people knew it was a scam but still continued to invest for some cash.
Walpole: comes out clean from the South Sea Bubble drama. He figures out the scam early on, finding a fall-guy to take the blame. Personality: Loved the patronage system; was essentially bribery as Walpole would be the patron and would bribe other MPs to do his bidding. He was also very pro-business, such as trying to crush piracy.
Prime Minister: the leader of the majority party in Parliament. Can be ousted with a vote of no confidence.. add extra information. Maybe about the changing nature of this role?
William Pitt: The rival of Walpole. Came from a wealthy family so he needed nothing from Walpole. Pitt also had his own system of âclientsâ
Scottish Problems and Solutions
Act of Toleration: Allowed protestants who werenât in the COE in worship publicly, excluding Catholics
Ulster: This is the place where Scots beings moving to, as both England and the Scots are fighting for dominance
Battle of the Boyne: A battle between the Catholics and Protestants. It was fought between James II and William III, (William and Mary) with William winning.
Massacre of Glencoe: After the Jacobite War (So after the Battle of Boyne) the Scottish leaders needed to swear loyalty to the King. However, after some delays, the King sent an army targeting the Glencoe clan, killing around 30 people
Act of Union: Officially combined both England and Scotland
Act of Settlement: Since William and Mary werenât having kids, Anne would step in so that only her and only protestants could rule
Lloyds: This was a cafe/coffee house where powerful people could meet, so lots of investing talk and important decisions were discussed here
John Wesley and Lacking British Society
Bloodsports: Any sort of entertainment that involved the shedding of blood. For example, chicken-fighting was a popular past time where people would gamble lots of money. This was a part of the social underworld that existed along with drinking lots of gin.
John Wesley: English preacher who developed Methodism. He didnât like how the Church operated at the time. For example, rich people would get their own pews. His revival movement within the Church, Methodism, preaching salvation coming from the heart,
Methodism: Focused on social actions; were also labeled do-gooders based on their actions. Wesley was banned from official churches because of his specific method of preaching which Methodists adopted
Charles Wesley: Brother of John Wesley, he eventually caught on to his brotherâs ideas and wrote lots of poems/songs
Scotland, 2nd 100 Years War, and William Pitt
War of Jenkinsâ Ear: Another War of fighting the French. Since the PM is still an unofficial role along with the booting system, the dynamic will be cemented into law. Of course, there were exceptions to votes of confidence for stuff that didnât matter, (consensus votes) but usually pieces of legislation like the budget were votes of confidences. Walpole agrees to the war but itâs a disaster, and now the opposition to him is gaining power
Charles Edward Stuart: Another battle is happening during this war involving Stuart. He was the new pretender who fought in Scotland. Also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, as people loved him. Him and his group conquered Scotland and marched toward London, but since there werenât many Jacobites there the whole thing collapsed and the British Army chased them all the way up to Northern Scotland. As a result, England banned the wearing of Tartans and other Scottish cultural practices.
Seven Yearsâ War: Also known as the French and Indian War. At first, it was going terrible for Britain until Pitt came up with the idea of spending lavish amount of money on the war, even if they didnât have it. When itâs over in 1763, taxes are raised to help gain money.
John Wilkes: Anti-King speaker, did not like how much power George III was trying to consolidate power with things like the Kingâs Friends.
General Warrant: George gave a warrant to the ministers to search through the officers of Wilkesâ newspaper company
N. Brition: The Newspaper company. Wilkes hired people to transcribe the words of MPs for transparency
Porphyria: Affected the Judgement of King George III (perhaps)
đ Industrial Revolution
Bridgewaterâs Folly: He wanted to make coal shipments faster by making a canal, especially with all of the money and unlimited debt opportunities (investments) with the Bank of England. A lot of people thought it was stupid but it made tons of money. This was a spark.
Open Field Farming: Farmers paid rent but land was all over the place; it wasnât contiguous. Planting is decided communally in order to reduce double panting and achieve efficiency. This conservative way of planting caused stride when people were inventing new things.
Copyhold: The lands that farmers leased were usually passed down, and this document was your proof that this land was yours. Inheritance got tricky and farmers had many kids.
Putting-out system: A chain of making stuff. A merchant was a contractor and hired out people to do the spinning, for example, by also hiring people to bring them wool. However, thereâs too many people involved and the supplies canât keep up due to a lack of streamlining.
Jethro Tull: Invented new agricultural machines, such as The Seed Drill and Horse-Hoe
Charles Townsend: asked people to put certain crops in the ground but was met with skepticism from conservative planters.
Enclosure: Extra land was enclosed and sold by Parliament, and Townsend had his land sold back to him. As a result, the resulted in leases being changed and land being more centralized and contiguous. This results in a lot of people becoming jobless and sucked into the new, industrial cities.
Highland Clearances: Similar to Enclosure, but happening in Scotland.
Richard Arkwright: Invented the Water Frame, which made cloth-making and textiles easier to produce. It was an improvement to the Spinning Jenny. It produced thread automatically from cotton.
Industrial Revolution continues and Slavery
Invention Cluster: No such things as a single inventions, but rather clusters of them that are tied together. A single invention doesnât do anything by itself because they build off one another.
Reverse Salient: The thing that sticks in, or whatever is slowing you down and preventing growth. As a result, chain reactions inventions start along with the development of many different fields of learning.
Henry Cortâs Puddling: Made purer metal that could handle better for the steam engine. The steam Engine also helped spur things along developmentally wise.
Somerset Case: A slave was being forced off into the New World as his master was trying to sell him there. Abolitionists reported it saying that he was taken against his will and it was taken to trial. Abolitionists knew they had to target slavery first
William Blackstone: The judge over the Somerset case. He was a straight arrow, and ruled that nothing said that a slave could be kidnapped and slavery went against the bill of rights. As a result, slavery was banned in England without fanfareâunlike America.
American Revolution and Changes
Wealth of Nations: Written by Adam Smith, this book talked about supply, demand, and free trade. Essentially, it highlighted how the government was too involved with resulting in the American Revolution.
Charles James Fox: Pushed for liberty and giving votes to more people. He said that it was the governmentâs fault for the war as they were being taxed without representation.
Edmund Burke: An opponent of Fox; a conservative who believed Fox was making things worse. Tories were becoming more conservative at this point as well, as it used to just be if your favor Parliament or the King. Now, itâs more policy based
Reflections on Revolution in France: Burke does not like letting revolutions happen, so the one in France was also a bad idea. To him, the American Revolution occurred because we changed the rules too fast. The fact that both sides are saying that itâs our fault points the blame at the King. George wanted to maintain more royal power and couldnât accept that revolutionary settlement.
William Pitt the Younger: Was one of the only ones untainted from the mess of the American war, so he ended up as PM at only 24. The song outshined Pitt the Elder, as he helped reconstruct the power dynamics a basically reduce the king into a shadow. He was a moderate but tended to lean liberal. He was in favor of abolition but also loved Adam Smithâs ideas.
Napoleonic Wars and War in Ireland
William Wilberforce: Political sidekick of William Pitt the younger who was interested in social reforms and his alliance with Methodists since he was quite religious. He went full on board with wanting to get rid of the slave trade and helped developed an early grassroots program to abolish slavery in Europe
Press Gangs: Groups of people who captured guys, kidnapping them and forcing them into the Navy during the Napoleonic wars. There was no way for these sailors to escape since they were always at sea
Blockade: Surrounding land with lots of ships to prevent your enemy from escaping out to either invade, communicate, or conduct trade. The British did this to try and shut down French activity but this became harder as the French Empire expanded so Pree Gangs became more popular as an easy means of gaining labor to man ships.
Spithead Mutiny: One of the famous mutnities that occured in 1797 from people who were press-ganged. It took a lot of negotiation and punishment to fix this, especially since Britainâs own sailors were going against them.
Battle of the Nile: Considered a turning point in the war. Napoleon attacked Egypt to try and surprise the British and have a means of getting out to expand their empire via the Red Sea (they would have access to Asia)
Horatio Nelson: He was the British Admiral in the Mediterranean at the time of the Battle of the Nile. He wedged between French ships (on both sidesâbecause only so many people can man the guns) in the Nile River. Since both sides can be properly covered, he destroyed the French opportunity for exiting via the Red Sea
Wolf Tone: He was a leader who reorganized the jacobites into the United Irishmen and negotiated with the French to attack Britain from Ireland. However, the winds did not work in favor for the French and they were blown back to sea and it was too late, as the British eventually found them out. Cornwallis took advantage of the decentralized Irish Command but even after he defeated them it was too late, as he lost control of the army
Catholic Emancipation: Pitt the Younger negotiated with the Irish leaders, saying that he would give representatives in Parliament for them along with Catholic Emancipation of discrimination laws that had previously been established. However, the Catholic Emancipation portion of the bill failed and since it was a vote of confidence Pitt was no longer the PM
Battle of Trafalgar: Napoleon wanted to invade England with the help of Spain, so he tried to break their blockade but Nelson caught them at Fort Gibraltar. The result is that the French and Spanish navies are decimated, allowed Britain to dominate Navally
End of French Fighting, Waterloo, Congress of Vienna, and Reforms
Anthony Ashley-Cooper: Wilberforceâs sidekick, so a do-gooder who wanted change. He was the heir to the Do- Gooder movement
Utilitarians: Looking at things by what will create the biggest help, so everything is a cost-benefit analysis on how many people are hurt/helped by something
Jeremy Bentham: He founded the Utilitarian school of thought and even donated his body for science to produce the maximum amount of efficiency for society
Edwin Chadwick: Benthamâs sidekick, and he really cared about the environment and a good environment helps people
Romanticism: Made up of Authors, Poets, Painters, etc. Loved nature and deep feeling, so something like slavery gives them agony and the Industrial Revolution would make the country ugly
Peninsular War: The British tried to help push back Napoleon army but was pushed out of Spain into Portugal. In 1808, Napoleon wanted Portugal and responded to the British blockade with one of his own, preventing Britain from reaching the continent
Lines of Torres Vedras: These were the forts and defensive lines that the British had built in Portugal, going head to head with France and not giving them Portugal, which was what Napoleon wanted
Arthur Wellesley (Lord Wellington): He was the one that ran the lines, and was successfully able to drive the French back. Soon, other countries joined in and began to crush the French, especially at Waterloo when Napoleon returned
Congress of Vienna: Decided what happened after the war and the trading of land that went along with that
Robert Stewart (Lord Castlereagh): He was an ambassador for Britain at the Congress, and had the idea of a 2 power rule (Britain must be the most powerful Navy, better than the next two combined) along with making more countries neutral and having a balance power powers.(not letting states get too strong)
Riot, Reform, and Conservatives:
Lord Liverpool: A conservative PM trying to maintain the current ways, especially after the war. But he needed money so he enacted the Corn Laws
Corn Laws: Protective tariffs on incoming food, so tax dependent on how cheap the food coming in was to make it more expensive. Now, prices are all up and people already donât make a lot of money. This also highlights how regular people are not getting representation to fix this because of the current system of Rotten and Pocket boroughs.
Luddites: People who despised the new technology, so the burned factories and even sniped owners. It even got to the point where 11,000 people were sent in just to fight these guys
Peterloo: Started when a reformer, Henry Hunt, began an assembly orating the changes that needed to be made. They tried to arrest him and this just led to chaos
Daniel OâConnell: He was an Irish Politician and Catholic who pushed for Catholic emancipation. He put his name forward for Parliament (There wasnât a rule that he couldnât run, just that he couldnât hold a seat because you had to swear an oath to the Church of England) and of course was elected. He walked into London at the dumbfoundment of Lord Wellington (Now PM) and Robert Peel (His sidekick) and passed the Roman Catholic Emancipation Act
Robert Peel: He helped created a police force (Less armed than soldiers) to help deal with all the violence
Early Grey: He helped to United the 3 different reform movements so that they could work together and get the change that they wanted. A reform bill is desperately needed because Riots in Britain are occurring
Great Reform Bill: Grey told the king to force the Lords to pass a bill to fix all of these problems, passing this bill. It took away rotten Boroughs and allowed better representation in growing places like Manchester, and also opened the door for more reform
Factory Act: After the growing amount of child labor that was very unethical for a variety of reasons, Parliament passed the Factory Act, which did not allow children under 10 to work and also gave children over more time off