Файл: Great Britain_0816044740.pdf

Spa Fields Riot occurs when a crowd assembled to hear speeches on parliamentary reform, but agitators use the occasion for violent protest (December).

1817

Attack on the Prince Regent’s coach after the opening of Parliament (January).

March of unemployed “blanketeers” is broken up by soldiers (March).

Coercion acts passed, banning seditious meetings; habeas corpus act suspended (March).

Derbyshire workers stage the Pentrich Rising (June).

1819

Outpost at Singapore is established by East India Company.

Factory Act prohibits children under nine from working in cotton mills, those over nine may only work a 12-hour day.

Meeting on parliamentary reform at St. Peter’s Fields near Manchester is broken up by soldiers, and a dozen people are killed, hundreds injured in the “Peterloo massacre,” as it is called (August).

In a panicked reaction to the massacre, Parliament passses the “Six Acts,” which allow magistrates to seize arms, prevent drilling, control the press, and limit public meetings (December).

1820

George III dies, and he is succeeded by George IV (January). The new king’s estranged wife Caroline returns from the continent to claim her place as queen (June).

The Cato Street Conspiracy is exposed. A radical plot to kill the cabinet and establish a provisional government, it leads to the trials and execution of the ringleaders, and it makes the achievement of moderate reform more difficult (February).

A bill is introduced to deprive Caroline of her title (July), but it is dropped when opposition mounts in the Commons (November).

1821

Coronation of George IV in Westminster Abbey; Caroline attempts but is not allowed to enter (July).

Rioting in London at Queen Caroline’s funeral (August).

1822

Lord Castlereagh commits suicide, is replaced by George Canning as foreign secretary (August).

Congress of Verona. The old alliance breaks down when the absolutist states (Russia, Prussia, and Austria) use the “Holy Alliance” to stifle any and all radical or reform movements (October).

1823

Robert Peel, the home secretary, proposes abolition of the death penalty for a long list of crimes, as well as a major prison reform act.

William Huskisson, president of the Board of Trade, initiates Reciprocity of Duties Act, enabling bilateral tariff reductions between Britain and European states.

Catholic Association founded in Ireland by Daniel O’Connell.

1824

War in Burma; Britain moves toward annexation.

Singapore ceded to Britain.

Repeal of the Combination Acts (February). Royal Naval Lifeboat Institution founded (March).

1825

Factory Act prevents children under 16 from working more than 12 hours a day.

Steam locomotive runs on the Stockton to Darlington railway.

Financial crisis with many failures of banks and businesses (November).

1827

Lord Liverpool has a stroke (February); George Canning becomes new prime minister (April).

Treaty of London with France and Russia to protect Greece (July).

Combined Anglo-Franco-Russian fleet destroys the Turkish-Egyptian fleet more than twice its size at Navarino (October).

Canning dies; Lord Goderich becomes prime minister (August).

1828

Goderich resigns after internal dispute in cabinet; the duke of Wellington forms government.

Repeal of Test and Corporation acts admits nonconformists to Parliament (May).

Foundation of King’s College and University College, London.

Catholic emancipation passes in Commons, is defeated in the Lords.

Corn laws reformed by adoption of sliding scale of duties.

1829

Daniel O’Connell wins election in County Clare; as a Roman Catholic he is unable to take his seat in Parliament.

Wellington and Peel declare in favor of Catholic emancipation, splitting the Tory Party (February).

Emancipation passes, allowing Catholics to hold most public offices; the Irish franchise is raised from 40 shillings to £10 (April).

Metropolitan Police Act creates a force of 3,300 paid constables for London (September).

Formation of the Birmingham Political Union.

1830

George IV dies, is succeeded by his brother William IV (June).

At the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, William Huskisson is hit and killed by the locomotive “Rocket” (September).

Unrest in rural areas due to distress, protesters invoking a “Captain Swing” as leader; the incidents include arson, machine breaking, and rioting, and they continue sporadically until 1833.

Wellington opposes parliamentary reform, and his government resigns. Whigs take office, and Earl Grey becomes prime minister (November).

1831

Reform bill is introduced, but the government is defeated on an amendment, resigns, and calls a new election (April). Whigs win election and introduce second reform bill (June) which passes the Commons (September) and is rejected by the House of Lords (October), prompting riots in Nottingham, Derby, and Bristol. A third bill in December passes the Commons.

Cholera epidemic begins in Sunderland, spreads to major cities, causing 31,000 deaths in England and Scotland (October).

1832

House of Lords passes the third reform bill after the king threatens to create enough new peers for its approval (March). New franchise is uniform £10 for boroughs, 40 shillings for counties; 143 seats are taken from small “rotten” boroughs; 42 towns get new seats, 65 to counties, eight to Scotland, five to Ireland (June). Scotland (July) and Ireland (August) have separate reform acts.

1833

Tithe War in Ireland; coercion bill gives lord lieutenant powers to suppress public meetings (April).

Slavery is abolished in the British Empire; slaveowners promised £20 million in compensation for their “property” (August).

Irish Church Temporalities Act suppresses 10 Irish bishoprics and reduces church revenues (August).

Factory Act limits hours of work by children in textile mills; compulsory education (two hours a day) for the younger employees; state inspectors to be appointed.

Government makes first grant for education: £20,000 to be shared by the National Society and the British and Foreign School Society.

1834

Grand National Consolidated Trades Union organized by Robert Owen (February).

Six farm workers from Dorset (the Tolpuddle Martyrs) sentenced to transportation for administering illegal oaths to join union (March).

Grey resigns as prime minister; replaced by Lord Melbourne.

Poor Law Amendment Act removes direction of the law from parish authorities and vests it in new Boards of Guardians and Poor Law Commissioners; requires poor to enter workhouses to receive relief (August).

Fire destroys houses of Parliament (October). Melbourne resigns and is succeeded by Robert

Peel (November).

1835

During election campaign, Peel states the Conservative acceptance of the reformed government in his Tamworth Manifesto (January).

Peel resigns after defeat on the issue of Irish church revenues.

Melbourne wins 112-seat margin, returns as prime minister (April).

Municipal Corporations Act requires elected councils and published local accounts as well as a force of constables in 178 boroughs (September).

1836

London Working Men’s Association founded (June).

Tithe Commutation Act requires payment in money, not in kind (August).

Marriage Act allows licenses to be issued in register offices and nonconformist chapels.

1837

William IV dies, is succeeded by Queen Victoria (June).

General election required after the death of the sovereign; Liberals win a reduced majority of 33 seats.

Vital registration begins (births, marriages, and deaths) under civil direction and on a com-

pulsory basis, taking over the traditional role of the parish priest.

Electric telegraph invented.

1838

People’s Charter published, calling for universal manhood suffrage, secret ballot, no property qualification for MPs, pay for MPs, equal districts, and annual parliaments (May).

1839

Chartist convention meets in London (February). Convention moves to Birmingham (May), and

divisions appear between factions.

Chartist petition presented to Parliament and rejected (July), followed by rioting in some cities, and by a small uprising in Newport, Wales, in November.

Anti–Corn Law League is established in Manchester (August).

Opium War with China.

1840

The penny post is introduced (January). Victoria and Prince Albert are married (Febru-

ary).

Repeal Association is founded by Daniel O’Connell to repeal the Act of Union.

Committee on the Health of Towns publicizes slum conditions.

1841

Straits convention (Britain, France, Austria, and Russia) closes the Dardanelles to foreign shipping (July).

Government defeat followed by the administration of Robert Peel; Gladstone enters the cabinet (August).

1842

Second national convention of Chartists (April). Assassination attempt on the queen by John

Francis (May).

Peel brings in new sliding scale of duties; tariffs on over 700 imports are removed; income tax brought back (June).

Railway telegraph introduced.

Treaty of Nanking ends the Opium War: Hong Kong ceded to Britain, and five treaty ports are opened to British trade (August).

Mines Act bans employment of women and children underground.

“Plug Plot” in northern industrial areas: workers strike and pull plugs on boilers, forcing stoppage of production.

Edwin Chadwick writes Enquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain.

1843

Royal College of Surgeons founded (June). Chartist convention in Birmingham (September). O’Connell’s Repeal Association plans a “monster

meeting” at Clontarf, which is banned by the government (October). He and others are tried and convicted of conspiracy. Judgment is later reversed in the House of Lords.

Maori wars begin. Annexation of Natal.

1844

Bank Charter Act redefines functions of Bank of England, including monopoly on printing money (May).

Railway mania sees massive extension of railway building.

First cooperative shop opened in Rochdale (December).

1845

Half of the Irish potato crop destroyed by fungus; debate intensifies over repeal of the corn laws.

1846

Total failure of the potato crop in Ireland; Peel’s government sets up food depots; Whig government tries public works programs.

Peel proposes repeal of corn laws, which passes in June, but a reduced duty is retained until 1849, and thereafter becomes a nominal one shilling.

Government defeated on an Irish coercion Bill; Peel resigns, and Lord John Russell forms a government.

1847

Irish famine causes increasing mortality and emigration. Public works plan is dropped; soup kitchens are used but abandoned as the potato crop appears to improve.

Factory Act limits hours of women and older children in textile factories to 10 a day.

1848

Revolution in France; publication of the Communist Manifesto (February).

Chartist meeting on Kennington Common supports third petition to Parliament, but the meeting is dispersed, and the petition is rejected (April).

Young Ireland uprising in Tipperary is suppressed (July).

Public Health Act provide local boards of health and power to appoint medical officers.

Women admitted to London University (extramural classes for women at King’s College).

1849

William Hamilton attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria (May).

Repeal of the Navigation Acts (June).

1850

Roman Catholic hierarchy is reestablished; Southwark Cathedral is the first Catholic cathedral of the modern era.

Don Pacifico Affair: a resident of Gibraltar claims compensation from Greece when his house in Athens is destroyed; Lord Palmerston, the foreign secretary, sends fleet to blockade Piraeus (April–June) and defends his policy on grounds that a British subject can claim imperial protection anywhere.

1851

Great Exhibition opens in Hyde Park (May).

Palmerston expresses approval of the coup of Louis Napoleon, without first referring to the queen; she dismisses him from office (December).

Reuters News Agency formed in London. Amalgamated Society of Engineers founded, ini-

tially with 12,000 members. Gold rush in Australia.

1852

Lord John Russell resigns; new government formed by the earl of Derby. Benjamin Disraeli is chancellor of the exchequer.

Conquest of Burma.

Transvaal independence recognized.

General election; conservatives win narrow victory.

Derby resigns in December.

1853

Lord Aberdeen forms a coalition government. Cholera epidemic.

1854

Britain and France ally with Turkey, declare war on Russia (March).

Northcote-Trevelyan report proposes reforms of the civil service.

Troops land in the Crimea (September); siege of Sevastopol and the Battle of Balaklava (October); allied victory in the Battle of Inkerman (November).

Cheltenham Ladies’ College founded.

1855

Aberdeen resigns, under attack for the conduct of the war (January).

Lord Palmerston forms a new government (February).

Russians abandon Sevastopol (September). Stamp duty on newspapers is repealed.

1856

Treaty of Paris ends the Crimean War. Britain and France at war with China.

County and Borough Police Act requires all counties and boroughs to maintain a police force; parliamentary inspectors to examine them, and if they qualify they receive a grant from the exchequer.

1857

Commercial crisis due to surplus of American wheat crop; failure of banks and commercial brokers.

Matrimonial Causes Act establishes divorce court and gives limited access to women.

Indian Mutiny begins in Meerut, spreads across northern India (May).

Liberals win general election by a margin of 126.

1858

Palmerston resigns, is replaced by Lord Derby. Property qualification for MPs is abolished; Jews

are admitted to Parliament.

Mutiny is suppressed with great violence in India. Government of India Act ends political role of East India Company, creates secretary of state for India.

Treaty of Tientsin ends war with China (June). National Miners’ Association formed.

Fenian Brotherhood established.

1859

After defeat on a reform bill, Derby resigns, is replaced by Palmerston.

Liberals win general election by a reduced majority of 60.

1860

Cobden-Chevalier Treaty reduces tariffs between Britain and France (January).

War in China ends when British and French troops enter Peking (October).

1861

British colony in Nigeria founded. Establishment of Post Office Savings Bank. “Trent Affair”: two Confederate commissioners

are seized aboard the British steamer Trent by a U.S. warship (November).

Prince Albert dies of typhoid (December).

1862

Companies Act creates limited liability.

“Cotton famine” strikes Lancashire textile industry.

1863

London Underground opens Metropolitan Line.

1864

Octavia Hill launches campaign to remove slum housing in London.

National conference of trade union delegates.

1865

Antiseptic surgery pioneered by Joseph Lister. Great Eastern lays transatlantic cable. William Booth founds the Salvation Army.

Palmerston dies; Lord Russell becomes prime minister (October).

Liberals win 82-seat majority in the general election.

1866

William Gladstone introduces parliamentary reform bill (February).

Thomas Barnardo opens home for deserted children.

Financial crisis (May). Failure of the finance company Overend and Gurney met by emergency measured by the Bank of England.

Cholera epidemic.

Sanitary Act give powers to limit air pollution. Russell is replaced by Derby as prime minister

after defeat of the reform bill (June).

1867

Disraeli introduces reform bill (February). Fenian raid on arsenal at Chester; uprising in Ire-

land put down (February).

British North America Act establishes Dominion of Canada (July).

Parliamentary reform act introduces household suffrage in boroughs and a wider franchise in counties, adding nearly a million new voters (August).

Master and Servant Act limits prosecution of strikers; a royal commission recommends legalization of trade unions.

1868

Derby resigns; Benjamin Disraeli becomes prime minister (February).

General election in November gives the Liberals a majority of 116; William Gladstone forms his first administration.

Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Act empowers local authorities to compel owners to repair or demolish unsanitary housing.

Trades Union Congress (TUC) meets in Manchester with 34 delegates.

1869

Act for disestablishment of the Anglican Church of Ireland (July), to take effect in 1871.

Suez Canal opens (October).

TUC meets in Birmingham, with 40 delegates representing 250,000 members.

1870

Bankruptcy Act and the end of imprisonment for debt (January).

Peace Preservation Act increases power to deal with agrarian violence.

Married Women’s Property Act allows women to retain £200 of their earnings.

Education Act creates system for elementary education in England and Wales.

Irish Land Act begins to recognize the grievances of tenants.

Home Government Association formed by Isaac Butt, a Dublin Protestant.

1871

In the first Rugby international, Scotland defeats England (March).

Religious tests abolished at Oxford and Cambridge (June).

Trade Union Act recognizes unions, grants protection to funds, but allows them to be prosecuted under old laws (June).

Purchase of army commissions abolished (August).

Newnham College, Cambridge, founded for female students.

1872

Ballot Act establishes the secret ballot in parliamentary elections.

Licensing Act restricts sale of intoxicating liquor. Scottish Education Act.

Joseph Arch establishes National Agricultural Labourers Union.

1873

Irish Universities Bill plans to unite all colleges, Protestant and Catholic.

Gladstone is defeated, resigns, but returns to office when Disraeli declines to replace him (February).

Judicature Act creates the High Court of Justice (a merger of old royal courts) and a new Court of Appeal (February).

Agricultural depression. Ashanti War begins.

1874

Gladstone loses general election (by 91 votes) and resigns. Disraeli forms a government (February). Irish nationalists win 59 seats.

Ashanti War ends; Gold Coast becomes British colony.

Strike by agricultural workers.

1875

Agricultural depression and strikes continue. Artisans Dwellings Act gives local authori-

ties power to make compulsory purchase of housing “unfit for human habitation” (June).

Conspiracy Act ends the use of that law against trade unions and allows peaceful picketing (August).

Government buys £4 million in Suez Canal shares from the Khedive of Egypt (December).

1876

Alexander Graham Bell, a Scot, invents the telephone.

Massacre of Christians in Bulgaria arouses a storm of protest in Britain.

Merchant Shipping Act regulates the seaworthiness of vessels.

Royal Titles bill creates the title Empress of India for Queen Victoria (April).

Medical schools opened to women.

1877

Transvaal annexed by the Cape Colony.

The first cricket Test Match won by Australia in Melbourne (March).

The first Wimbledon Men’s tennis final played (July).

Socialist demonstration in Trafalgar Square and clashes with the police (November).

1878

Treaty of Berlin (July) embodies the Balkan settlements of the Congress of Berlin, plus the Anglo-Turkish agreement on Cyprus.

Anglo-French control established in Egypt. Second Afghan war.

1879

Zulu war begins (January).

Treaty of Gandamak settles boundary between Afghanistan and India.

Agricultural depression continues.

Tay Bridge collapses, killing 74 aboard the Edin- burgh-Dundee train (December).

Charles Parnell and Michael Davitt form the Irish Land League.

1880

In the general election, Gladstone wins 115 more seats than the Tories, and the Irish nationalists take 61. Gladstone forms his second administration (April).

Charles Bradlaugh, an atheist, declines to take the oath as a member of Parliament.

Education Act makes schooling between ages five and 10 compulsory.

Irish Land League organizes “boycotts,” and Home Rule MPs use obstruction tactics in Parliament.

1881

Coercion Act for Ireland to deal with agrarian violence (April).

Irish Land Act (August) is unpopular with landlords and tenants.

Arrest of Parnell; he is confined in Kilmainham prison (October). His arrest triggers “No Rent” movement.

Flogging abolished in the army and navy.

1882

Parnell is released after the “Kilmainham Treaty,” in which he promises to try to reduce violence. Only days later the new Irish chief secretary is a victim in the Phoenix Park murders (May).

Prevention of Crimes Act suspends jury trial and grants full powers to police in Ireland (July) to combat Irish terrorism.

British bombard Alexandria (July) and occupy Cairo (September).

Married Women’s Property Act allows women to own and administer property.

1883

Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act limits spending in parliamentary campaigns (August).

British forces occupy Egypt, begin evacuating The Sudan.

1884

Parliamentary reform bill introduced.

Uprising in The Sudan; General Gordon sent to rescue the garrison at Khartoum, but he is trapped there.

Reform Act grants vote to almost a third of the adult population (December).

1885

Gordon is killed at Khartoum; the city falls (January).

Redistribution of Seats Act creates single-mem- ber districts (March).

Anglo-Burmese war: Burma is annexed. Bechuanaland becomes a colony.

Secretary of state for Scotland is (re)created.

Gladstone resigns (June); Lord Salisbury becomes prime minister.

Ashbourne Act creates £5 million fund to subsidize Irish tenant land purchases (August).

General election gives Gladstone an 86-vote majority over the Conservatives, but the Irish nationalists have that exact number of seats (December). Gladstone appears to have decided to support Irish Home Rule.

1886

Gladstone forms new Liberal government (February); introduces Home Rule bill (April); bill defeated in the House of Commons, with largescale defection of Liberal Unionists (June).

General election brings a Conservative victory; Lord Salisbury forms a government (July).

Discovery of gold in the Transvaal. Kenya becomes a British colony.

1887

Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee (June).

First Imperial Conference, discusses imperial defense.

A new coercion act for Ireland.

Social Democratic Federation calls meeting in Trafalgar Square, which is broken up by police, and dubbed “Bloody Sunday” (November 13).

1888

Miners’ Federation founded. County Councils Act.

Affirmation Act passed due to efforts of Charles Bradlaugh.

Commission investigates Parnell’s involvement in Irish violence.

Murders by “Jack the Ripper” (August–November).

1889

Formation of the London County Council. Board of Agriculture established.

London Dock Strike (August–September).

1890

Opening of the mile-long Forth Railroad Bridge in Scotland (March).

Parnell cited in O’Shea divorce; Home Rule party splits, majority rejecting Parnell’s leadership (December).

1891

Gladstone presents the “Newcastle Programme,” in which Liberals call for Irish Home Rule, Scottish and Welsh disestablishment, reform of the House of Lords, and three-year periods between elections, plus a number of other progressive proposals (October).

Joseph Chamberlain assumes leadership of Liberal Unionists, affirming the split in the Liberal party.

1892

General election returns a small advantage for the Liberals, but they have an overall minority.

Keir Hardie is elected, the first Labour MP. Liberal government is formed by Gladstone

(August).

1893

The Independent Labour Party is formed, with Keir Hardie as chairman (January).

The Second Home Rule Bill introduced, passes the Commons, but is rejected by the Lords, 419–41 (September).

Gaelic League founded.

1894

Local Government Act creates parish councils, urban district councils, and rural district councils. Women eligible to vote for parochial councils (March).

Gladstone resigns, and he is replaced as prime minister by Lord Rosebery (March).

Sir William Harcourt’s budget includes death duties (August).

Second Imperial Conference meets in Ottawa and discusses the laying of a cable across the Pacific.

1895

Trial of Oscar Wilde. He is convicted of sodomy, sentenced to two years’ imprisonment at hard labor (May).

Rosebery resigns, is succeeded by Salisbury (June).

General election returns an overall Conservative majority (July).

Britain and the United States dispute the boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana (the matter is settled in the Treaty of Washington, 1897).

The Jameson Raid into the Transvaal is repelled (December).

1896

The so-called “Kruger telegram” brings congratulations to the president of Transvaal from the German emperor (January).

Lord Northcliffe founds the Daily Mail, the first mass circulation newspaper, priced at 1/2 d. (May).

Sir William Harcourt takes the leadership of the Liberal Party after Rosebery resigns (October).

1897

Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee (June). Third Imperial Conference agrees to hold regu-

lar meetings.

Committee reports on the Jameson Raid clear Chamberlain but censure Cecil Rhodes.

Workmen’s Compensation Act creates fund to pay for industrial injuries after arbitration (August).

1898

Britain leases the New Territories in Hong Kong from China for 99 years (June).

Battle of Omdurman is won by Herbert Kitchener, winning control of The Sudan (September).

Kitchener proceeds to Fashoda, where he meets with French major Marchand.

1899

Efforts to resolve disputes in South Africa include a set of meetings between President Kruger and Lord Milner (May).

Hague Conference on peace and disarmament (May).

Boer War begins (October).

British troops suffer early defeats (December 10–15), and Redvers Buller is replaced by Lord Roberts (Lord Kitchener is chief of staff).

1900

As Boer War continues, Ladysmith is relieved (February).

Labour Representation Committee formed by varied socialist and union elements, dedicated to electing MPs sympathetic to workers.

Relief of Mafeking (May) brings widespread celebration in Britain.

General Frederick Roberts annexes the Transvaal (September).

General election is called “khaki election” as it is held in the middle of war; Conservatives want to exploit deep divisions within the Liberal Party over the war, but they actually lose a few seats (October).

1901

Queen Victoria dies; she is succeeded by her eldest son Edward VII (January).

The Commonwealth of Australia is formed. British concentration camps are publicized: in

fighting guerilla war, the British army had rounded up women and children and burned Boer farms; some 20,000 died of disease and malnutrition in the camps, a number far greater than the total losses on the battlefield.

1902

Anglo-Japanese Alliance is signed (January). London School of Economics opens.

Boers sue for peace (March) and treaty signed at Vereeniging (May); British sovereignty is recognized by the Orange Free State and Transvaal, and a British payment of £3 million is promised to repair war damage.

Lord Salisbury resigns, A. J. Balfour becomes prime minister (July).

Education Act (Balfour Act) passes; school boards abolished, replaced by local education authorities, empowered to provide secondary education (December).

The Taff Vale Railway is to receive £23,000 in a judgment for damages against the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (December).

1903

Irish Land Purchase Act (Wyndham’s Act). Wireless news service between New York and

London begins (March).

Joseph Chamberlain announces his plan for “imperial preference,” challenging the orthodoxy of free trade (May). He resigns from the cabinet to promote the idea nationally (September).

The Women’s Social and Political Union is founded by Emmeline Pankhurst (October).

1904

First electric train runs between Liverpool and Southport (March).

Entente between Britain and France resolves old colonial conflicts, especially over claims in Africa (April).

First ocean-going turbine steamship launched in Belfast (August).

Russian fleet sinks two English trawlers off the Dogger Bank, claiming that they appeared to be Japanese torpedo boats (October).

1905

Unemployed Workmen Act; registers established by local government boards (August).

Sinn Féin (“ourselves alone”) founded in Dublin (November).

Balfour resigns; Liberal government is formed under Henry Campbell-Bannerman.

Anglo-French military and naval conversations (December).

1906

General election produces a Liberal landslide of 400 seats and an overall majority of 84. There are 29 Labour MPs elected as well (January).

HMS Dreadnought is launched (January).

Boer War Commission estimates the cost of incompetence and corruption at over £1 million (August).