Download Politics, The Empire, The Industrial Revolution

Mrs. Cumberland
POLITICS, THE EMPIRE, THE INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
POLITICS

The monarchy was restored under Charles II
(1660) after:
 The
conflict between the king and Parliament
culminated in the English Civil Wars ( 1642-51)
 The execution of Charles I (1649)
 The austere Commonwealth period under Oliver
Cromwell (1649-60)
POLITICAL FIGURES
Charles I
Charles II
POLITICS

The limitations of royal power and the rights of
the citizen were made clearer by the Bill of
Rights of 1689
TWO POLITICAL PARTIES
By the mid 18th century, England was
effectively a constitutional monarchy with a
system of government run by a Prime Minister
and his cabinet
 Tories
 Whigs

IT HAS FAULTS

The right to vote ( franchise) was limited to
property owners and the system was open to
abuse
REFORM AND LIBERALIZATION

Favored by many toward the end of the 18th
century, but their minds were changed by the
course of the French Revolution after 1789
 The
outbreak of war between France and Britain in
1793 demanded patriotism
EDMUND BURKE ( 1729-97)

The spokesman of the
aristocratic Tory
government of the period
said that the English must
treasure and support this
‘little platoon’ of England,
and thoughts of political
reform at home were for
the moment set aside.
COLERIDGE
Dreams that the French Revolution would lead
to an era of enlightenment and better justice
 He became disillusioned with politics

 In March 1798 he wrote: “I am of no party. It is true, I think the
present ministry weak and perhaps unprincipled men, but I could not
with a safe conscience vote for their removal.’
 By
April 1798 fears of a French invasion led him to
write in ‘Fears in Solitude’ that, with respect to
France, “We have been too long Dupes of a deep delusion…”
COLERIDGE

He went on to
bemoan the
fact that, as a
radical, he
was branded
an enemy of
Britain by
those in
authority.
‘But native Briatain! Oh my mother isle!
How shouldst thou prove aught else but dear and holy
To me, who from thy lakes and mountain-hills,
Thy clouds, the quiet dales, thy rocks, and seas,
Have drunk in all my intellectual life.
All sweet sensations, all ennobling thoughts,
All adoration of the God in nature,
Whatever makes this mortal spirit feel
The joy and greatness of its future being?
There lives nor form nor feeling in my soul
Unborrowed from my country! Oh divine
And beauteous island, thou hast been my sole
And most magnificent temple, in the which
I walk with awe, and sing my stately songs,
Loving the God that made me!’
AFTER THE NAPOLEONIC WARS CAME TO AN
END IN 1815 WITH THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO

Power in England passed into the hands of a
right-wing Tory government which was hated
and despised by most Romantics.
 Shelley’s
 His
attacks were forthright
view of the state of the nation in 1819 was summed
up in the Sonnet: England in 1819 and The Mask of
Anarchy
THIRTEEN YEARS PASSED

In 1688 both political parties:
Whigs/Tories combined to overthrow
the Catholic King, James II
 They
invited the Protestant Dutch King,
William of Orange to rule jointly with his
wife Mary, James’s Protestant daughter.
 William accepted both the throne and a Bill
of rights (1689)
BILL OF RIGHTS

Recognized the authority of Parliament as
representative of the will of the people, and
that British monarchs no longer ruled by divine
right
 Glorious
 Led
Revolution ( No bloodshed)
to greater stability in Britain
 Served as the basis for expansion of trade and territory
abroad
THE CREATION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE

Reflected an increasingly confident British
people
 The
ambitions of Louis XIV of France has been
contained by the victories of the Duke of
Marlborough in the early 18th century
 In the middle of the century the French challenge to
British power in India was overcome by Robert Clive
( 1725-74) and in Canada by James Cook ( 172759)
EXPLORATION

Captain James Cook * 1728-79)
explored the South Pacific and
extended Brittania’s grasp to
Australia and the Polynesian Islands

However, the American revolution
and subsequent loss of American
colonies in the later part of the
century was very damaging to this
emergent national pride.
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Advances in science and developments in
machinery during the 18th century
foreshadowed the Industrial revolution, which
rapidly gathered speed during the Romantic
period.
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

In 1779, Abraham Darby ( 1750-91) completed
the world’s first iron bridge, built across the
River Severn in Shropshire
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Thomas Telford ( 1757-1834)
A
Scottish engineer, who constructed many canals,
roads and bridges, and was a friend of the poet
Robert Southey
 Canals
may appear to be a relatively slow means of
transport by today’s standards, but they greatly
increased the speed with which raw materials and
manufactured goods could be transported from one part
of the country to another.
THE READING PUBLIC

Before the 18th century, those who could read
were mainly gentry, clergymen, and educated
professional people, and most of their leisure
reading was poetry

The early 18th century saw a large rise in the number of people, mainly
middle-class ladies, who had the time to read, and it was just at this
time that the novel emerged to cater for what was soon to become a
mass taste.
THE READING PUBLIC

Daniel Defoe 91660-1731) is often regarded as
the first novelist :
 Robinson
Crusoe ( 1719)
 Moll Flanders ( 1722)
THE READING PUBLIC: FASHIONABLE MATERIAL
GROWS
Fielding
 Samuel Richardson ( 1689-1761)
 Tobias Smollett ( 1721-71)
 Laurence Sterne ( 1713-68)

 These
became fashionable readings
THE READING PUBLIC
By the end of the century the craze was for the
Gothic novel
 The domestic novels of Jane Austen ( 1775-1817)
enjoyed limited popularity at the same time


They may have influenced Scott, who admired Austen
and favorably reviewed Emma (1816) when he moved
from writing poetry to novels he tended to create
characters who, within a Romantic setting with
Romantic ideas, have their idealism tested in the face
of hard reality
THE READING PUBLIC

Poetry held its place, but it was increasingly
reserved for the status of an elevated form of
writing that used a specialized language known
as “poetic diction”
 Wordsworth
introduced that poems could be written
in the language of ordinary people
 Lyrical
Ballads
HISTORICAL NOVEL: BYRON AND SCOTT
Sold enough of their work to achieve
commercial success
 Buying books could be a costly business
 The rise of circulating libraries from which
books could be borrowed, allowed more and
more people ready to access books
