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The British Enlightment between the 17th and 18th century
First, there was a general turning away from the dominance of organized religion - especially the Catholic Church - with less emphasis on literal interpretations of the Bible.
Second, there was the emergence of a secular public culture that challenged the absolute authority of the traditional church and state leaders. -
Galileo Galilei and the planets
Galileo determined planets rotate around the sun. -
30 years war
A terrible war that length 30 years between Catholic nations and the protestant ones. It ended with the Treaty of Westphalia. -
The English Civil War
There was a power struggle known as the English Civil War, which resulted in the execution of King Charles I, and the establishment of a commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell. This first experiment with a republic lasted only ten years, and then the monarchy was restored under King Charles II. -
Restoration
Charles II became King and restored the parlament which Cromwell dismissed indefinitely. -
Thomas Hobbes & The Leviathan
Hobbes is best known for the Leviathan (1651), a lengthy work that explores the nature of man and justifies absolutist rule. -
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The Enlightenment Worldwide
The Enlightenment was an age of reason and learning that flourished across Europe and America. -
Sir Isaac Newton & The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
Was an English scientist, astronomer and mathematician. Newton’s discoveries on the laws of motion and the sources of gravitation were published in The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Newton realized that the force that pulls an object to earth is the same force that keeps the moon in its orbit. He discovered that the force of universal gravitation. -
The Glorious Revolution
the English people once again overthrew the Stuart monarchy and essentially chose their next rulers. The English Bill of Rights was drawn up, increasing parliamentary power and insuring personal liberties. England parlament made the crown and parlament power equal, and it remains the same. -
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The Scottish Enlightenmen
The Scottish Enlightenment exposed the idea of common sense. Common sense was an opinionated, enlightening approach to human society, which drew from the moral feelings of man. -
John Locke & “Essay Concerning Human Understanding”
Was an English philosopher whose writings have influenced political science and philosophy today. In 1690 Locke published his major work an “Essay Concerning Human Understanding” In this essay Locke explained the human mind, all of its operations, and how the mind functions in learning about the world. According to Locke the human mind enters the world without any preconceived ideas. -
Early 1700s, the beginning of The Industrial Revolution.
There were limited sources of power so the industrial development was initially slow. Textile mills, heavy machinery and the pumping of coal mines all depended heavily on old technologies of power: waterwheels, windmills and horsepower were usually the only sources available. -
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The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution started in England decades ago and then it spread to other parts of the world. It is defined as the big change from an agrarian and handicraft economy which was small scale and relatively unsophisticated to an economy dominated by machine and industry manufacturing. -
The "steam-driven piston engine" (The Industrial Revolution)
Thomas Newcomen unveiled his steam-driven piston engine, which led England to the more efficient pumping of deep mines process. -
Voltaire´s “Candide”
It has a sarcastic plot centered on a man who begins life optimistic, but suffers many misfortunes which shows his optimism was unwarranted. -
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Exportations during the Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was largely confined to Britain which led to the export of machinery, skilled workers, and manufacturing techniques. -
First Networks of Canals
The growing demand for coal reveled serious problems with Britain’s transport system so the Duke of Bridgewater opened a canal between his colliery at Worsley and the rapidly growing town of Manchester. So many mine owners and industrial speculators began financing new networks of canals, so they could link their mines more effectively with the growing centres of population and industry. -
The "water frame" (The Industrial Revolution)
Richard Arkwright patented his ‘water frame’, that allowed large-scale spinning to take place on just a single machine. Later on , James Hargreaves created ‘spinning jenny’ which complerely revolutionised the process of cotton spinning. -
Emperor Joseph II
Joseph II became emperor, one of the most progressive emperors of his time. -
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Child Exploitation (The Industrial Revolution)
But during these years many children were employed and were sent to work from workhouses or orphanages for 12 long hours in hot, dusty conditions, and were forced to crawl through narrow spaces between fast-moving machinery and of course, accidents happened frequently. -
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The first ‘manufactories
Appeared the first ‘manufactories’ (an early word for 'factory') as a result of the new technologies. For example, Richard Arkwright’s cotton factories employed nearly 600 people by this time. -
The spinning mule (The Industrial Revolution)
Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule which combined spinning and weaving into one machine. -
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The "road boom" (The Industrial Revolution)
Engineers like John McAdam and Thomas Telford were pioners in developing new techniques in road construction which led to the great ‘road boom’ -
The "Power loom" (The Industrial Revolution)
Edmund Cartwright developed the power loom which granted the mass production of the cheap and light cloth. -
The Industrial Revolution Results
By the end of 18th century the Industrial Revolution brought fundamental changes in the British way of life. Scientific innovations and technological improvements contributed to the advancement of agriculture, industry, shipping and trade and to the expansion of the economy. -
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1830s Transportation Advances
The stagecoach journey from London to Edinburgh took just two days, compared to nearly two weeks only half a century before! Railways revolutionised the speed of communication and the transport of passengers and, more gradually, freight. The role of government on both national and local levels was considerably transformed. -
Small regulation of child labor!
The first Factory Act provides first small regulation of child labor in textile factories. -
General Board of Health
British government sets up the General Board of Health to investigate sanitary conditions, setting up local boards to ensure safe water in cities. -
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The Second Industrial Revolution
Late 19th and 20th centuries: The Second Industrial Revolution happened. Modern industry began to exploit many natural and synthetic resources not hitherto utilized: lighter metals, new alloys, and synthetic products such as plastics, as well as new energy sources. Combined with these were developments in machines, tools, and computers that gave rise to the automatic factory. -
Women can vote! Peniciline is discovered!
Women over the age of 21 are given the vote & Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin. -
Edward VIII becomes King but abdicates
And we all knew who Wallis Simpson was.. And now we know what was the Romance of the Century. -
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First term as prime minister of Winston Churchill
"We shall never surrender" Churchill led Britain to an allied victory in the Second World War. -
The five "giants on the road to reconstruction"
The Liberal politician William Beveridge declared what kind of Britain people wanted to see after the war:
1. poverty
2. disease
3. ignorance
4. squalor
5. idleness
To defeat these giants, he proposed setting up a welfare state with social security, a national health service, free education, council housing and full employment. -
Compulsory education
English government mandates and funds compulsory education for all citizens through age 18. -
The Butler Act
The 1944 Butler Act which reformed schooling, the commitment to full employment in the same year - 'Rab' Butler set the school-leaving age at 15, and introduced free secondary schools. Pupils took an '11-plus' IQ test that determined whether they went to grammar school (for academic pupils), secondary modern school (teaching practical subjects), or technical school (to teach practical skills). -
The Family Allowance Act & National Insurance Act
Family Allowances Act: 5s a week for each child after the first.
National Insurance Act: unemployment pay for six months and sick pay for as long as you were sick. -
National Insurance - Industrial Injuries Act
Extra benefits for people injured at work. -
India gains independence from Britain
India was regarded as the most valuable British imperial possession. World War Two forced Britain to realise that it could not maintain a global empire and the British agreed to Indian self-government. -
The National Health & National Assistance Act
The National Health Act, aimed at achieving that very objective, and established for the first time a national minimum. National Assistance Act: benefits for anybody in need. 'The Times' described it as: 'the last defence against extreme poverty'. -
Marshall Aid & "General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money"
The government used Marshall Aid to get industry going. The government nationalised the road haulage, railways and coal industries in 1947 and steel in 1951. By adopting the ideas in the economist JM Keynes's book - the "General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money" (1936) - the government learned how to keep the economy vibrant by increasing public spending. This meant that there has never been a depression like the one of the 1930s again. -
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Second term as prime minister of Churchill
Winston Churchill retires as prime minister. He was by then 80 and his health was declining. -
Elizabeth II succeeds her father, George VI
Princess Elizabeth was in Kenya when news of her father's death reached her. She immediately returned to Britain and was crowned on 2 June 1953. -
Death penalty is abolished
This was a major symbolic act in the reduction of the power of the state. The death sentence for treason and piracy with violence remained on the statue books until 1998 when they were abolished by the Crime and Disorder Act. -
Britain is forced to borrow money from the International Monetary Fund
A crisis in sterling forced the Labour government to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), making Britain the first major Western state to be forced into this humiliating course of action. -
Margaret Thatcher
Conservative Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain’s first woman prime minister -
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Thatcherism
Margaret Thatcher's policies as prime minister changed many aspects of British life, and were collectively called Thatcherism. She marked a major shift in British politics to produce a State that was smaller and did less, though in some ways more centralised, while the market was accorded a much more important role in the provision of services and the promotion of entrepreneurship was seen as a major role for Government. -
Prince Charles marries Lady Diana
Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, marries Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral and we now know the political and historical consequences it had. -
Economic recession leads to high unemployment
Unemployment breached the psychologically significant barrier of three million as manufacturing was hard hit by a deep economic recession. -
World Wide Web Creation
Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web, while working at CERN the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Switzerland. The first successful communication follows in 1990 -
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Early 1990s recession
US savings and loan crisis, high bank rate in response to rising inflation caused by the Lawson Boom and to maintain British membership of the Exchange Rate Mechanism. -
Margaret Thatcher resigns and John Major becomes prime minister
Faced by large-scale opposition within her own parliamentary party, Margaret Thatcher, who was widely seen as remote and autocratic, resigned as prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party.
