COLONIAL EXPANSION
The 18th century saw the actual making of the British Empire. It was the time of another "Hundred Years War" against France. In the 16th century the chief commercial rival and consequently the chief political enemy of England was Spain in the struggle with which England emerged as a nation and a sea power; in the 17th century it was Holland that had to be fought if English supremacy on the seas was to be kept; in the 18th century the same was to be done with France as the chief commercial and therefore political rival.
Between 1702-1712, in an alliance with Austria Holland and Sweden, England got a monopoly right to supply Spanish colonies with slaves.
English ships carried the produce of English industry that was steadily developing, further and further all over the world. There were areas that presented excellent market for such activities on the American continent where the persecution of puritans early in the 17th century and during the restoration time late in the same century had led to the formation of a chain of American colonies on the East coast. The native population was ruthlessly exterminated.
The British Isles came first. Ireland became the first colony of England and, though its Parliament was left in existence it was a protestant body. Ireland should be no more than a market for the growing English industry. Irishmen emigrated to America in thousands.
Scotland agreed to a union and lost its independence at the price of retaining some vestiges of national dignity. The Parliaments were merged but the Act of Union stipulated the independence of Scotland in the domain of church, Law and education. England became Great Britain with its characteristic flag called familiarly the Union Jack.
From 1722 until 1742 politics were dominated by Sir Robert Walpole who was charged with inactivity in the Commons. In 1739 a war with Spain was forced on Walpole. Walpole has been called the first Prime Minister.
In a modern sense this is not true: the crown joined in policy making, and Walpole did not head a government with collective responsibility. But the direction of government affairs by one man and his ensuring their approval by the Commons, more closely approximates to the modern concept of the premier than anything that there had been before. In the war with Spain Walpole attempted to stay neutral and aggressive-minded whigs called "young whigs" overthrew Walpole in 1742 and soon England was in for a period of 2 wars. The Seven Years' war between Britain and France started in 1756. William Pitt was made the government's principal minister. It was in India and North America that most fighting was done. The Seven Years' war laid the foundation of the British In America the English troops occupied important Canadian towns and the Paris treaty of 1763 gave the whole of Canada and all the lands in North America that used to be French possessions, to England. The huge fortunes made by colonial officials bought the owners of the East -India company high titles and seats in the Commons and the House of Lords. The war was won by Britain. British India was on its way to becoming "the brightest jewel in the British crown".
. A group of radical colonists organized protests against Parliament's special taxes so effectively that by 1773 all the taxes had been withdrawn except that on tea. In 1773 a band of activists pitched tea from East India company ships into Boston Harbour. The port of Boston was closed. In 1774 a Congress of the colonies met at Philadelphia and in 1775 war broke out between troops and colonists. On 4 July 1776 the Americans declared their independence, and their army waged war in earnest. In 1778 France, pleased to do something to repay Britain for her humiliation in the Seven Years' War, allied with the US and gave the Americans naval help throughout the war. In 1781 the British army was finally defeated. In 1783 the Treaty of Versailles was signed. It acknowledged the independence of the US. The British defeat in the American War of Independence caused the resignation of the British Minister, Lord North, in 1782 and a decline in royal prestige. The loss of the American colonies was devastating. By 1779 Captain Cook had circumnavigated New Zealand.
The Industrial Revolution
The 18th century was the time of the agrarian revolution. Landowners were allowed to enclose lands. By the middle of the century there was no more common land in England and there were no more yeomen. A numerous army of agrarian proletariats was appearing, hired labourers ready to take up any job. England was becoming a country of big agricultural estates producing food for the growing town population.. The manufacturers of the previous centuries could no longer provide for the growing demand so the need for well-organized industry was imperative. Thus conditions were ripe for the industrial revolution that in a hundred years made England "the workshop of the world". Britain had a good base for industry. She had natural resources: wool, water, coal and some iron ore. As well as natural resources Britain had other advantages. Britain's climate meant that there could be industrial production throughout the year. The stimulus to industrialization was a rapid rise in the population, which was to be fed by increased food production. The growth of commerce gave Britain markets for some raw materials.
Industrialization certainly could not have occurred without technical innovation. The universities and learned societies did not contribute greatly; it was practical men who produced the new ideas.
It was John McAdam (1756-1836) who popularized a cheap road-building technique , known as “macadamisation”. His technique is used to the present day.
The 18th century saw the rapid expansion of the canal system.
Textile manufacture was revolutionized by a series of inventions. John Kay's flying shuttle of 1733 speeded up weaving and the jenny of 1767 made faster spinning possible. In 1787 Edmund Cartwright produced a power operated loom which accelerated weaving.
By the end of the 18th century both sides of the textile industry, spinning and weaving, used water power to operate their machinery. Later coal was used to produce steam power, but though James Watt patented a steam engine in 1782, its application to the textile industry remained experimental until the 19th century.
The natural center of the cotton industry was Lancashire. Woollen manufacture's main center was in Yorkshire.
For a time there was a cotton-textile manufacture in the Scottish lowlands and the well established linen industry of Ulster, in the north of Ireland.
Iron production was revolutionized. The Darby family discovered how to smelt iron by using coke, and in the 1780s Henry Cort devised a method of making a purer iron. The most famous ironmaster of the day was John Wilkinson (1728-1805) who applied iron to the manufacture of almost everything. He produced the first iron boat which floated water pipes for Paris and New York and a more accurate cannon. With Abraham Darby he built the world's first iron bridge.
The National-Liberation Movement in Ireland and the Navy Mutiny
By the late 18th century the national liberation movement of Irishmen had become an important contribution to the activity of democratic forces. The British colonizers were doing their best to fire the religious feelings of the protestants in Ulster. The protestants were encouraged to attack Catholics in their homes; the Catholics resorted to organization. A Dublin lawyer Wolf Zone, whose dream was separation of Ireland from England, headed the movement of "United Irishmen", an organization of bourgeois revolutionaries (1791-1798) started in Belfast. The program included radical reforms and universal suffrage. The republican democrats declared their program for the independent Irish Republic, abolition of aristocratic feudal privileges of the landlords and the Anglican church.
After 1794 the "United Irishmen" had to act clandestinely. In 1797 the leaders were arrested.
The same year was the time of mutiny in the English fleet. Above 40 crews were involved, a central committee was created with Richard Parker, as President. The sailors called him "the red Admiral". The demands economic at first assumed political tinge as the movement grew in scope. Freedom for all Englishmen and a Parliament reform were among the demands.
Pitt's government resorted to a ruse. Satisfaction of demands was promised. The sailors stopped the mutiny. But the government executed Parker and the other leaders while the sailors were sentenced to long-term imprisonment.
In 1798 the Irishmen rebelled, but the rebellion was drowned in blood. In 1801 an Act of Union was passed and Ireland was joined to England losing its independence completely. It was given the right to send a few representatives to the English Parliament. But those members were Protestants since Catholics were deprived of practically every human right.
The attempts of the workers to develop trade union movement in England were cut short. Pitt's government passed the so-called Combination Acts which outlawed unions of workers and threatened severe punishment for participation.
4 July 1776- the Americans declared their independence
1783 -the Treaty of Versailles was signed
