Download The theatre of daily life: Restoration diarists

The first Hanoverian kings
Study Questions
Millennium I p. 146
1. Whom did George I have to depend on and what did this mean in political
terms?
• He depended completely on the Whig Party. The government was made up of
ministers who were not chosen by the king but by the party that had the majority
in Parliament. A Prime Minister, responsible to the king for the government’s
policy, was elected for the first time. The dependence of the king on political
parties laid the foundations of the modern British Parliamentary monarchy.
2. Who was the Prime Minister of the Whig Cabinet in the first half of the
century and what was he accused of?
• Sir Robert Walpole, who kept his position of Prime Minister for more than twenty
years, even though he was accused of corruption by his opponents.
3. What events led to the battle of Culloden and what were its
consequences?
• The Jacobite rebellion, led by Charles Edward, the Stuart pretender to the
throne. He crossed the Scottish border and invaded England with his troops but
was defeated at Culloden in 1745. With this defeat all hopes of an independent
Scotland were lost and the Highlanders’ traditions started vanishing.
4. What new war broke out among the European nations in 1756?
• The Seven Years’ War, which was fought by Prussia and Britain against
practically all the rest of Europe.
5. Who was Prime Minister at the time?
• William Pitt the Elder, who gave enthusiasm to the nation after the first defeats.
6. What peace treaty ended the war? What advantages did Britain gain
from this peace?
• The Treaty of Paris. Great Britain gained Senegal, Canada, the territories
east of the Mississippi River in North America and some Caribbean islands.
7. What was the situation in India?
• The Treaty of Paris also meant the end of the French influence in India. The
East India Company which had previously controlled only a few trading
posts like Madras, Calcutta and Bombay, now extended its political and
economic influence to the major Indian states. This laid the foundations of
the British Empire.
8. What great events characterized the reign of George III?
• The War of the American Independence, which ended with the British loss
of the thirteen colonies in north America. This loss, however was
compensated for by the colonial expansion in India and the acquisition of
immense new territories in the Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand.