Comprehensive British History & Government Notes

Geography & Political Division of the British Isles

• Name: “British Isles” = c. $6{,}000$ islands off NW Europe.
• Principal islands & groups:
  • Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales)
  • Ireland (Island of Ireland: Republic of Ireland + Northern Ireland)
  • Orkney & Shetland (N Sea) • Hebrides (Atlantic) • Isle of Man (Irish Sea)
  • Isle of Wight (South) • Channel Islands (English Channel)
• Two sovereign states:
  • United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland (UK)
  • Republic of Ireland (independent)
• UK internal nations & capitals
  • England – London • Scotland – Edinburgh • Wales – Cardiff • N. Ireland – Belfast
• Position advantages
  • Continental-shelf location ➔ early world trade, capital inflow, industrial finance
  • Indented coastline ➔ cheap port construction, low transport cost of exports

Natural Resources & Main Economic Industries

• Coal
  • “Basic mineral” powering Industrial Revolution; major export.
  • Coalfields: Central Scotland, N. England, Wales, Midlands, Kent.
• Iron
  • Fed steel-making → ship-building; smelting centres inc. Basin of the Wash.
• Wool & Sheep
  • Historic fame; upland sheep-rearing for wool & mutton.
• Fishing
  • Sea-girt setting; cod dominant for distant fleets.
• Agricultural land
  • >$75\%$ farmed; ~$50\%$ of national food produced.
  • Main crops: barley (chief cereal), wheat (England), oats, rye, sugar beet, potatoes, vegetables, fruit.
• 18th–19th-century key industries
  • Iron & steel (coal-fired blast furnaces) • Coal mining • Textiles (cotton, wool; power loom)
  • Porcelain & pottery (Midlands clay) • Ship-building & railways • Overseas trade & colonies
• Modern addition: Offshore oil & gas.

Population & Celts

• Present: UK > $60$ million; Republic of Ireland ≈$4$ million.
• Density contrasts: <$100$ p/km$^2$ (Highlands, Welsh mtns, parts of N. Ireland) vs >$500$ p/km$^2$ (Midlands, SE England).
• Ethno-historical split: Anglo-Saxon roots (England) vs Celtic (Scotland, Wales, Ireland).
• Celts (arrived ~$700$ BC)
  • Iron technology; hill-fort society; Druids (oral law, sacrifice); powerful women (e.g. Boudica AD 61).
  • Tribal structure; trade via Anglesey, Thames & Forth routes; early coinage.
  • Languages: Welsh, Irish, Cornish survive.

Roman Britain (AD 43–409)

• Motive: secure food supply, flank Gaulic Celts.
• Conquest limits: controlled south; failed to subdue Caledonia → built Hadrian’s Wall (border Eng/Scot).
• Town types
  • Coloniae (settler towns) • Municipia (full-citizen cities) • Civitas (admin of Celtic capitals).
• Legacy
  • c. $20$ large + $100$ small towns; “castra” → place-name “-chester”.
  • Network of metalled roads (six converging on Londinium).
  • Villas (latifundia-style farms); social gap widened.
  • Language & literacy (Latin/Greek) vanished with later invasions.

Anglo-Saxon Period (5th–11th c.)

• Peoples: Angles, Saxons, Jutes (post-AD 430 settlement) ➔ “England = land of Angles”.
• Pushback of Celts to “Weallas” (Wales), Cornwall, Scottish borders; Celtic toponyms linger (Thames, Avon…).
• Kingdoms: Essex, Sussex, Wessex, Middlesex, East Anglia; later power-triad Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex.
• Institutions
  • Witan (king’s council) → roots of Privy Council.
  • Shires & “shire-reeve” (sheriff); manorial system; heavy plough ➔ open-field agriculture.
• Church
  • Mission of Augustine (AD 597); Synod of Whitby 663 chose Roman practice; monasteries = literacy hubs.
• Language: Old English; weekdays from Germanic gods.
• Economy: export woollens, cheese, dogs; king taxed raw wool → wealth.
• End: Viking raids → Danelaw; Norman Conquest 1066.

Danish / Viking Influence

• Phases: mercenaries (5th c) → Viking raids (8th–10th c) → conquest (Cnut 1016 forms North Sea Empire).
• Cultural footprints: place-names “-by”, “-thorpe”; legal customs; Danegeld.

Norman Conquest & Middle Ages (1066–1485)

• William I replaced Anglo-Saxon nobility, imposed feudalism; castle-building (motte-and-bailey → stone keeps).
• Language shift: Norman French in law & govt → Middle English (hybrid).
• Feudal pyramid: king > barons > knights > peasants.
• Parliament embryonic under Edward I (Commons + Lords for taxation).
• Crises: Hundred Years’ War, Black Death 1348–49 (≈$1/3$ pop), Peasants’ Revolt 1381.
• Wars of the Roses 1455-85 (York vs Lancaster) ➔ victory of Henry Tudor (Bosworth Field 1485).

Tudor Period

Henry VII (1485-1509)

• Consolidated power via confiscated lands, avoidance of war, trade treaty with Netherlands; image-building (Prince Arthur).

Henry VIII (1509-1547)

• Break with Rome via Act of Supremacy 1534 to secure annulment from Catherine of Aragon & seize church wealth.
• Six wives (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived): Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Catherine Parr.
• Children: Mary I (Catholic), Elizabeth I (Protestant), Edward VI (Protestant, reigned $9$–$16$ yrs old).

Protestant–Catholic Struggle

• Edward VI: Protestant reforms (English liturgy).
• Mary I (1553-58): Catholic restoration, ≈$300$ Protestants burnt → “Bloody Mary”.
• Elizabeth I (1558-1603): Elizabethan Settlement 1559 (moderate Protestantism); defeat of Spanish Armada 1588; “Virgin Queen”; patronage of trade, sea-dogs, early colonial ventures; use of Parliament sparingly.

Stuart Era & Civil War

James I / VI (1603-1625)

• Union of Crowns; divine-right monarchy; conflict with Puritan demands & Parliament (finance, foreign policy).

Charles I (1625-1649)

• Personal Rule (11 yrs), Laud’s Anglican reforms; Scottish Prayer Book riot 1637 → Bishops’ Wars; recalls Parliament 1640 (Long Parliament).
• English Civil War 1642-49: Cavaliers vs Roundheads; key battle Naseby 1645; New Model Army (Cromwell).
• Execution 30 Jan 1649 for “war against his kingdom”.

Commonwealth & Protectorate (1649-1660)

• Monarchy, Lords, Anglican Church abolished.
• Oliver Cromwell
  • Irish & Scottish campaigns (Drogheda, Wexford killings ≈$6{,}000$).
  • Lord Protector 1653–58; Puritan moral laws (no Xmas, games on Sunday); allowed Jewish readmission.
  • Dissolved Parliament 1653; son Richard ineffective ➔ regime collapsed.

Restoration & Party Origins

• Charles II recalled 1660; Test Act 1673 excludes Catholics; birth of political parties: Tories (Crown/Anglican) vs Whigs (Parliament toleration).
• James II’s Catholicism ➔ Glorious Revolution 1688 (William & Mary) → Bill of Rights $1689$ (parliamentary supremacy).

Act of Union 1707

• Merged English & Scottish Parliaments → Kingdom of Great Britain.
• Scotland kept separate church, law, education; gained access to colonial trade.

Hanoverian Monarchs

George I (1714-27)

• Chosen via Act of Settlement 1701 (Protestant). German-speaking; relied on Whig ministers. Jacobite revolt 1715 failed.
• Rise of Cabinet government; Robert Walpole (PM 1721-42) – “first Prime Minister”, managed Commons, debt reduction.

George II (1727-60)

• Last monarch to lead troops (Dettingen 1743); similar German focus.

George III (1760-1820)

• Sought active rule; conflict with radical MP John Wilkes (free-speech precedent).
• American War of Independence 1775-83 – loss of colonies (except Canada).
• Act of Union 1801 created United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland; King blocked Catholic emancipation.

Victorian Age (1837-1901)

• Queen Victoria & Prince Albert: nine children, moral domestic image; withdrew after Albert’s death 1861 then regained popularity (Our Life in the Highlands 1868).
• Became “Empress of India” 1877.
• Political reforms: Reform Acts $1832, 1867, 1884$ → expanded franchise.
• Social legislation: Factory Acts (child labour), Education Acts.
• Industrial zenith: Britain “workshop of the world”; railways, telegraph, steamships.

British Empire Highlights

• “Sun never sets”; motives shift from trade security to strategic rivalry.
• India: Company rule ➔ direct Crown rule after Mutiny 1857; wars in Afghanistan, Punjab.
• China: Opium Wars 1839→ unequal treaties.
• Africa: cape seizure, exploration (Livingstone), Scramble for Africa treaty 1890; Boer Wars.
• Egypt & Suez Canal occupation 1882.
• Settler colonies (Canada, Australia, NZ) self-government → Commonwealth idea.
• Contradiction: liberal ideals vs imperial coercion; cost burden by late $19^{th}$ c.

Industrial Revolution (c. 1740s-1830s)

• Drivers: capital surplus, labour from enclosures, global demand, coal & iron, transport.
• Key inventions:
  • Newcomen engine (1712), Watt improvements $1769, 1781$ ➔ rotary steam power.
  • Spinning Jenny 1764, Water Frame 1769, Mule 1779; Cartwright power loom 1785.
• Iron: coke-smelted blast furnaces (Coalbrookdale); mass steel.
• Transport revolution: canals (Bridgewater 1761), turnpike roads, later railways; London–Manchester coach <$24$ h.
• Consequences
  • Urbanisation, factory discipline, class tensions (Luddites).
  • Economic growth, global trade (import raw cotton → export textiles).
  • Social reform pressures → Factory Acts, Methodism, abolition of slave trade 1807 & slavery 1833.

Modern UK Government & Politics

• Constitutional monarchy + parliamentary democracy; uncodified constitution (statute, common law, convention).
• Sovereign’s role: ceremonial head of state; royal assent, appoint PM, open Parliament, national unity, charity patron.
• Parliament: House of Commons (elected), Lords (appointed/hereditary), Crown.
• Prime Minister: head of government; chairs Cabinet; selects ministers; commands majority in Commons; oversees Civil Service, military deployment.
• Cabinet: ~$30$ senior ministers meeting weekly at $10$ Downing St.; chosen & reshuffled by PM.
• Main parties & broad differences
  • Conservative (Tories): right-of-centre, economic liberalism, low tax, limited welfare, traditional social values, tougher immigration, strong defence, Brexit support.
  • Labour: centre-left social democracy, progressive taxation, welfare expansion, public services, egalitarian social policies, multilateral foreign outlook.
• Devolution: Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland legislatures handle health, education, etc.; Westminster retains sovereignty.

Key Equations & Figures (for reference)

• Population densities: low <$100$ km$^{-2}$; high >$500$ km$^{-2}$.
• Industrial iron output 1850: Britain > rest of world production combined (qualitative fact).
• Six Roman roads converging on London; Hadrian’s Wall length ≈$117$ km.
• Tudor wives mnemonic: “divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived”.

Ethical & Philosophical Threads

• Divine right vs parliamentary sovereignty (Stuarts).
• Religious toleration vs uniformity (from Reformation to Test Act).
• Liberal individual rights emerging (John Wilkes case) vs state authority.
• Imperial justification (“civilising mission”) vs exploitation & coercion.