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Industrial Revolution
During the eighteenth-century, Britain had developed a vast colonial empire, it possessed a well-developed merchant marine, and had an ability to produce cheaply those articles most in demand abroad.
Britain had the highest standard of living in Europe and a rapidly growing population. The Industrial Revolution was produced because of a foreign markets and the inability of the old system to fulfill the demands. -
The first British water canal
The Bridgewater Canal opens, the first of its kind in Britain. It was named after Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater who commissioned it in order to transport the coal from his mines in Worsley. -
The Stamp Act
The British Parliament passed another new law called the Stamp Act. This too was intended to raise money to pay for the defense of the colonies. It said that the colonists had to buy special tax stamps and attach them to newspapers, licenses, and legal papers such as wills and mortgages.
This new law caused opposition from the colonies, since they had no representation in the parliament. "No taxation without representation" became their demand. -
George III’ proclamation
The English king, George III, issued a proclamation that forbade colonists to settle west of the Appalachians until proper treaties had been made with the Amerindians.
This angered the colonists, who became even angrier when the British government told them that they must pay new taxes on imports of sugar, coffee, textiles, and other goods. -
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Americal Revolution
In the middle of the eighteenth century most of Canada and Louisiana were still unexplored by Europeans. The French claim to own them was based upon journeys made in the previous century by two famous explorers. In 1756 Britain and France began fighting the Seven Years War (also known as the French and Indian War).
The war was ended by the Peace of Paris, which was signed in 1763. France gave up its claim to Canada and to all of North America east of the Mississippi River. -
Stamp Act Congress
Representatives from nine colonies met in New York and formed the "Stamp Act Congress" and organized opposition to the Stamp Act. All over the colonies merchants and shopkeepers refused to sell British goods until the Act was withdrawn. In Boston and other cities angry mobs attacked government officials selling the stamps. Most colonists simply refused to use them. -
Declaration Act
The opposition from the colonies due to the Stamp Act forced the British Parliament to withdraw the Act. But it was determined to show the colonists that it had the right to tax them.
Parliament passed another law called the Declaratory Act. This stated that the British government had "full power and authority (over) the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever. -
The new steam engine
In 1769, the Scottish inventor James Watt is commissioned to carry out repairs to a Thomas Newcomen steam engine and quickly recognises ways that it can be modified to operate much more efficiently.
James Watt also invented a new unit of measurement: The Horsepower. Through the introduction of steam powered railway locomotives and steam ships, transportation would be completely revolutionised. His steam engines would also go on to power the new mills that were starting to appear. -
The Boston Tea Party and its consequences
The British placed new taxes on tea, paper, paint, and various other goods that the colonies imported from abroad.
Again the colonists refused to pay. So they boarded British merchant ships in Boston harbor and threw 342 cases of tea into the sea. The British reply to this "Boston Tea Party" was to pass a set of laws to punish Massachusetts. Colonists soon began calling these laws the "Intolerable Acts”. -
The First Continental Congress
A group of colonial leaders came together in Philadelphia. They formed the First Continental Congress to oppose what they saw as British oppression.
The congress claimed to be loyal to the British king. But it called upon all Americans to support the people of Massachusetts by refusing to buy British goods. Many colonists went further than this, and they began to organize themselves into groups of part-time soldiers, or "militias", and to gather together weapons and ammunition. -
The Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was formed. They met in Philadelphia and began to act as an American national government. It set up an army of 17,000 men under the command of George Washington. He was a Virginia landowner and surveyor with experience of fighting in the French and Indian War. The Continental Congress also sent representatives to seek aid from friendly European nations, especially from France. -
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The American War of Independence
On the night of April 18, 1775, 700 British soldiers marched silently out of Boston. Their orders were to seize weapons and ammunition that rebellious colonists had stored in Concord, a nearby town.
The British commander ordered the Minutemen to return to their homes. They refused. Then someone fired a shot. Eight Minutemen fell dead. The first shots had been fired in what was to become the American War of Independence. -
America cuts political ties with Britain
The Continental Congress cut all political ties with Britain and declared that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states" -
Declaration of Independence
The Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence.
This is the most important document in American history and it officially named them the United States of America. It was written by Thomas Jefferson, a landowner and lawyer from Virginia. -
First American win
The Americans trapped a British army of almost 6,000 men in northern New York. The British commander and his men were forced to surrender. The Americans marched their prisoners to Boston who were put on board ships and sent back to England. -
French and American alliance
The French king, Louis XVI, signed an alliance with the Americans. French ships, soldiers and money were soon playing an important part in the war. -
The Luddite movement
The inventor Richard Arkwright became an entrepreneur and opened a cotton spinning mill using his invention of the water frame. In the same year, on the 9th October a group of English textile workers in Manchester rebelled against the introduction of machinery which threatened their skilled craft. This was one of the initial riots that would occur under the Luddite movement. -
Creation of the modern factory
Between the 1770s and the 1780s, the modern factory was created for the cotton textile industry. The early devices used were the products of weavers and spinners, but the expansion of the cotton industry and the ongoing demand created additional pressure for new and more complicated technology. -
New machineries, new inventions
The steam engine invention, and its improvement, revolutionized the production of cotton goods and caused the factory system to spread to other areas of production, creating whole new industries.
New processes for smelting iron ore with coal and coke, the first act of parliament to authorize the construction of a railway, the expansion of transportation facilities, and the construction of railroads, all contributed to the start of the industrialization of Britain. -
The Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation set up a plan for the states to cooperate with one another. They had agreed to work together in a national Congress to which each state sent representatives. -
The Constitutional Convention
The Constitutional Convention was summoned in order to talk about the changes that were needed in the Articles of Confederation.
The Constitution of the United States stated a federal system of government in which the power to rule is shared. The Legislative Branch, the Executive Branch and the Judicial Branch. -
The defeat of the British Army
George Washington, leading a combined American and French army, surrounded 8,000 British troops under General Cornwallis. Cornwallis expected British ships to arrive and rescue them, but when ships arrived they were French ones.
The british were trapped so Cornwallis surrendered his army to George Washington. The British started to withdraw their forces from America. British and American representatives began to discuss peace terms. -
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The "Age of Montesquieu". Constitutional monarchy
Montesquieu was a French lawyer and one of the most influential political philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment. His political theory work, particularly the idea of separation of powers, shaped the modern democratic government.
Montesquieu believed the best example of what was required in terms of a separation of powers was already in existence in England, where the monarchy, House of Lords, and House of Commons shared power with the judiciary. -
Treaty of Paris
In the Treaty of Paris, Britain officially recognized its former colonies as an independent nation. The treaty granted the new United States all of North America from Canada in the north to Florida in the south, and from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River. -
First American President
George Washington became the first president of the United States. -
The Three Estates
Society in the Kingdom of France in the period of the Old Regime was broken up into three separate estates, or social classes. The First Estate compromised the entire clergy which represented only 0,5% of the population.
The Second Estate was the French nobility which represented between 2-4% of the population. Both the First Estate and the Second were exempt from taxation .
The Third Estate compromised the bougeoisie, the wage-laborers and the peasents. They represented 90% of the population. -
Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights, an amendment made to the Constitution, gave Americans freedom of religion, a free press, free speech, the right to carry arms, the right to a fair trial by jury, and protection against "cruel and unusual punishments. It was based in the ideals of the Enlightenment. -
Economic conditions under the Old Regime
France’s economy was based primarily on agriculture but peasant farmers of France bore the burden of taxation and poor harvests meant that peasants had trouble paying their regular taxes.
The Bourgeoisie often managed to gather wealth but they were upset that they paid taxes while the other two Estates did not.
The King and Queen at the time wasted lots of money on themselves, but the government at the time did not have funds as a result of the wars. France was in debt and bankrupt. -
Causes of the French Revolution
Long-term causes: absolutism, unjust socio-political system, poor harvests which left peasant farmers with little money for taxes, influence of Enlightenment philosophes, system of mercantilism which restricted trade, influence of other successful revolutions (England’s Glorious Revolution and American Revolution)
Short-term causes: bankruptcy, worst famine in history, impoverished peasants, Louis XVI called for a meeting of the three estates to find a solution to the bankruptcy problem. -
Women's march to Versailles
In October, when shortages of bread persisted and incited by Jean-Paul Marat, 7000 women marched from Paris to Versailles demanding' the king redress their economic problems. Women invaded royal apartments, and slaughtered bodyguards while searching for Queen Marie Antoinette.
As a result, Louis XVI met with a group of women in the palace and signed decrees guaranteeing bread in Paris at reasonable prices. -
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French Revolution
The American Revolution inspired the French Revolution, mainly because the French went into a lot of debt because of the war.
At this time the prevailing system was the "Old regime", which was a social and political order in which the monarchy had absolute control over the government. This system lasted from approximately the 15th century until the latter part of the 18th century. There was a rigid division of the society into three disproportionate and unequally treated classes. -
Meeting of the Estates-General
Voting was conducted by estate, and each estate had one vote. This meant the First and Second Estates could operate as a bloc to stop the Third Estate from having its way.
Thus, representatives from the Third Estate demanded that voting be by population, which meant a greater advantage for them. The other two Estates refused.
The Third Estate declared itself to be the National Assembly, but Louis XVI responded by locking the Third Estate out of the meeting. -
Tennis Court Oath
After the King locked the Third Estate out of the meeting, the men of the National Assembly swore an oath never to stop meeting until a constitution had been established. -
Storming of the Bastille
A "parisian" revolution began in response to food shortages, soaring bread prices, 25% unemployment, and fear of military repression. Workers and tradesmen began to arm themselves in response to the king's summoning of troops to Versailles.
A mob approached the Bastille to demand the arms and ammunition stored there, and, when the forces guarding the structure resisted, the heads of the prison's governor and the mayor were put on pikes and paraded through the streets. -
National Assembly
Louis XVI relented. He ordered the three estates to meet together as the National Assembly and vote, by population, on a constitution for France. -
The Great Fear
The spirit of rebellion spread to the French countryside, sparking a wave of violence. Peasants attacked manor houses in an effort to destroy the legal records of their feudal obligations. Taxes went unpaid. Middle class landowners were also attacked. They responded by forming a National Guard Militia to protect property rights.
In an attempt to stop further violence, the National Assembly voted to abolish feudalism in France and declared equality of taxation to all classes. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
One of the basic charters of human liberties, containing the principles that inspired the French Revolution; Its 17 articles adopted by France's National Assembly, served as the preamble to the Constitution of 1791.
It included that taxes could only be raised with common consent, that a separation of powers in different braches would be implemented, and that "citizen" applied to all french people regadless of class, among other things. -
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy
It was an attempt, by the National Assembly, to reorganize the Roman Catholic Church in France on a national basis. But it resulted in a division of France over the subject of religion, and half of French priests refused to accept it ("refactory clergy").
The backlash later led to increased papal influence on the French church during Napoleon's rule and beyond. -
Flight of Varennes
In June, Louis XVI tried to escape France to avoid having to approve the Constitution of 1791 and to raise a counter-revolutionary army and seek help from foreign powers. But he was captured and the King and Queen became prisioners of the Parisian mobs. The King was forced to accept a constitutional monarchy. -
Legislative Assembly
From 1791 to 1792, a new group of legislators replaced the National Assembly in the new government. Political factions of the revolution were competing for power.
The Jacobins came to dominate the Legislative Assembly. The Girondins, initially a group of Jacobins, became the left or advanced party of the Revolution in the Legislative Assembly and led the country into war. -
Declaration of Pillnitz
French nobles who fled France, at the beginning of 1789, influenced Prussia and Austria to declare the restoration of the French monarchy as their goal. The Declaration of Pillnitz was issued by Prussia and Austria in August, 1791.
This caused the Legislative Assembly to declare war on Austria in July of 1792. -
War of the First Coalition
French revolutionary forces were defeated by the Austrian Military, and the Jacobins blamed this on Louis XVI. But the conflict between eastern monarchs over the division of Poland saved France from defeat. -
Brunswick Manifesto
On July 25, 1792, Prussia and Austria issued the Brunswick Manifesto, which threatened to destroy Paris if the royal family was harmed. But this caused the opposite reaction in the Parisan's mobs and on August 10, 1792, the King's palace in Paris was stormed and the King was taken prisioner. This marked the beginning of the "Second Revolution". -
September Massacres
The Paris Commune, was a revolutionary municipal goverment set up in Paris, which effectively usurped the power of the Legislative Assembly.
A mass killing, led by the Paris Commune, of over a thousand imprisoned counter-revolutionary aristocrats and priests took place in Parism, named the September Massacres. A major event of what is sometimes called the “First Terror” of the French Revolution. -
France is proclaimed a Republic
France was proclaimed a republic in September 21, 1792, during the government of the National Convention, which lasted from 1792 to 1795. This abolished the monarchy and installed republicanism. It was based on the ideas of Equality, Liberty, Fraternity. -
France declared war again
In February 1793, the National Convention declared war on Britain, Holland and Spain, in adittion to its war with Austria and Prussia (First Coalition). -
Reign of terror
The Reign of Terror was a period of state-sanctioned violence during the French Revolution, which saw the public executions and mass killings of thousands of counter-revolutionary 'suspects' between September 1793 and July 1794. The Terror was organized by the twelve-man Committee of Public Safety, which exercised almost dictatorial control over France. -
Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were executed
The King was accused of having conspired with Austria against the Revolution. He was convicted of treason and executed publicly in the guillotine. Queen Marie Antoinette was executed in the same way later that year. -
Thermidorian Reaction
Parliamentary revolt initiated on 9 Thermidor, year II which resulted in the fall of Maximilien Robespierre and the collapse of revolutionary fervour and the Reign of Terror in France. -
War of the Second Coalition
The War of the Second Coalition (1798-1802) was the second attempt by an alliance of major European powers to defeat Revolutionary France. The Second Coalition, which included Russia, Austria, Great Britain, Naples, Portugal, and the Ottoman Empire, was defeated by the French Republic, and hostilities ended with the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. -
Combination Acts
The Combination Act received royal assent in July, preventing workers in England collectively bargaining in groups or through unions for better pay and improved working conditions. -
Coup d'etat Brumaire
A bloodless coup d'état (seizure of power) in France that overthrew the government of the Directory and replaced it with the Consulate. The coup brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power and marked the end of the French Revolution (1789-1799). -
Working conditions
The working conditions that working-class people faced were known to include: long hours of work (12-16 hour shifts), low wages that barely covered the cost of living, dangerous and dirty conditions and workplaces with little or no worker rights.
Factory and mine owners were eager to hire children since they cost less to employ, and they could often be used for certain work due to their size. As a result, child labor was common during the Industrial Revolution. -
Living conditions
Because of the excesive use of coal for household activities, pollution was very common. And due to the overcrowed cities: housing was small, diseases such as typhus, typhoid, tuberculosis and cholera were spreading rapidly, waste disposal was unsanitary, and fresh water was not easily available, which meant people would get water from streams, wells and rivers, all contaminated with human waste. -
Steam powered locomotive
Richard Trevithick, a mining engineer and inventor drove a steam powered locomotive down the streets of Camborne in Cornwall. He was a pioneer of steam-powered transport and built the first working railway locomotive. -
Concordant of 1801
An agreement reached between Napoleon Bonaparte and papal and clerical representatives in both Rome and Paris, defining the status of the Roman Catholic Church in France and ending the breach caused by the church reforms and confiscations enacted during the French Revolution. -
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Napoleonic Empire
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Code Napoleon
The resulting Civil Code of France marked the first major revision and reorganization of laws since the Roman era. The Civil Code (renamed the Code Napoleon in 1807) addressed mainly matters relating to property and families -
Confederation of the Rhine
An alliance of various German states that served as a satellite and major military ally of the French Empire with Napoleon as its “Protector,” and was created as a buffer state from any future aggression from Austria, Russia, or Prussia against France. It lasted from 1806 to 1813. -
Continental system
This system (November 21st 1806 - April 11th 1814) was Napoleon's strategy to weaken Britain's economy by banning trade between Britain and states occupied by or allied with France, which proved largely ineffective and eventually led to Napoleon's fall. -
Treaty of Tilsit
It ended the war between Imperial Russia and the French Empire and began an alliance between the two empires that rendered the rest of continental Europe almost powerless. -
Peninsular war
The British Army fought a war (May 2nd 1808 - April 17th 1814) in the Iberian Peninsula against the invading forces of Napoleon's France. Aided by their Spanish and Portuguese allies, the British held off superior French numbers before winning a series of victories and driving them out. -
Luddite riot
In 1812, the first large-scale Luddite riot took place in Arnold, Nottingham resulting in the destruction of machinery.
In response to the riots, the following year, Parliament passed a law making the destruction of industrial machines punishable by death. And in 1813, fourteen Luddities were hanged after their trial. -
Russian Campaign
Initiated by Napoleon with the aim of compelling the Russian Empire to comply with the continental blockade of the United Kingdom. -
British goods
Cheap British goods flooded continental markets with high tariffs. Britain was ruling the market. -
The Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought between Napoleon's French Army and a coalition led by the Duke of Wellington and Marshal Blücher. The decisive battle of its age, it concluded a war that had raged for 23 years, ended French attempts to dominate Europe, and destroyed Napoleon's imperial power forever. -
Railroads
A new railway line was built from Liverpool to Manchester in 1829, the world's first inter-city railway, this meant that passengers could now travel in groups of up to 1,200 per day. The construction of railroads was the most important factor in promoting European economic progress. It was possible to transport goods and people at dramatic speeds. It created new job opportunities and larger markets were created too, by reducing the price of goods. This meant more factories and more machinery. -
The Factory Act
After many Trade Unions' attempts, the Factory Act strengthened earlier labor legislation. Children between nine and thirteen could work only eight hours a day, and those between thirteen and eighteen, twelve hours. Factory inspectors were appointed with the power to fine violators of the law. Another legislation required that children between nine and thirteen have at least two hours of elementary education during the working day. -
Cholera epidemic
Cholera was a disease caused by contaminated water or food. The poor living conditions of the main populated cities, such as Liverpool, resulted in a rapid spread of the disease. Those who lived in the cities has a life expectancy of 15-19 years, while those who lived in rural areas had a life expectancy of 52.
Many believed the government should ensure a clean water supply for everyone and invest in proper sanitation systems. But a the time, a laissez-faire policy was more popular. -
Iron rails
A network of iron rails had spread across Europe. -
Britain after industrialization
With just 2 per cent of the world’s population Britain produces around half of the world’s manufactured goods. And rural to urban migration results in over half the population of Britain now residing in towns. -
World War One
The First World War changed the industrial heartlands, with foreign markets setting up their own manufacturing industries. The golden age of British industry came to an end