BOME

Timeline: Political & Economic History of Great Britain from the Civil War to the Twentieth Century

(with an Emphasis on the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries)
(from Glenn Everett, Associate Professor of English, University of Tennessee at Martin)

1642-6
The Great Civil War
1642
Charles I (Stuart; Anglican) captured. Queen Henrietta Maria and Charles, Prince of Wales,
escape to France.
1649
Charles I beheaded.
1649-60
The Interregnum; the Commonwealth established.
1653
Oliver Cromwell (Puritan) becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth.
1658
Oliver Cromwell dies; his son Richard attempts to succeed him.
1660
The Restoration. Charles (II—Anglican) returns from France and takes the throne.
1681-5
Parliament does not meet. Court holds power.
1685
Charles dies; his brother James (II; Roman Catholic) succeeds him. Threat of "popery."
1688
James, Prince of Wales born. This means the crown will pass to him, a Roman Catholic, rather
than to the King's Anglican siblings.
Glorious (i.e., bloodless) Revolution. James flees to France and is deposed, because his
daughter Mary and her husband William, Prince of Orange, have been invited by Parliament to
share the crown. Executive ! power lodged with William. Balance of power shifts finally from
Court to Parliament.
1688-1788
For 100 years, till the death of Bonnie Prince Charlie, England feels the threat of an invasion
from France which would restore Stuart (Jacobite), and thus Roman Catholic, rule. In fact,
Jacobite risings occur twice during this period, in 1715 and 1745.
1694
Mary dies; William (III) sole ruler.
1701
James II dies in France. Act of Settlement directs succession, should Anne die childless, to the
(Protestant) House of Hanover--unless "the Old Pretender," James (son of James II) or, later,
Bonnie Prince Charlie, "the Young Pretender," would ! abjure Roman Catholicism. (See the
chart of kings and queens.)
1702
William dies; Anne (Mary's Anglican sister) succeeds.
1707
Act of Union between Scotland and England.
1702-13
War of the Spanish succession.
1713
Peace of Utrecht.
1714
Anne dies; Dynastic crisis; George I (of Hanover) succeeds unopposed.
1715
Jacobite rebellion.
1720
Charles Edward Stuart (a.k.a. Bonnie Prince Charlie or the Young Pretender) born in France to
James (the Old Pretender).
South Sea Bubble.
1721-42
Robert Walpole Prime Minister.
1727
George I dies; George II crowned.
1733
John Kay's flying shuttle.
1745
Jacobite rising in support of Bonnie Prince Charlie.
1754
Anglo-French war begins in North America.
1756-63
Seven Years' War.
1757
Clive captures India from the French.
1758
first threshing machine.
1759
British Museum opens.
1760
George II dies; his grandson crowned George III.
French surrender Montreal to the British.
Wedgewood opens pottery works.
1763
Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years' War. France cedes Canada and the Mississippi Valley to
Britain.
1764
Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny.
1769
Arkwright invents a spinning machine.
1771
Arkwright's first spinning mill.
1773
Boston Tea Party.
1774
Priestly isolates oxygen.
Accession of Louis XVI of France.
1775
American Revolution begins.
Watt's first efficient steam engine.
1776
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations.
American colonies declare their independence.
1778
Rousseau and Voltaire die.
1779
first steam powered mills. Crompton invents spinning "mule."
1781
Cornwallis surrenders to Washington at Yorktown, Va.
1782
Lord North resigns; full Parliamentary gvernment restored.
1783
Peace treaty signed in Paris between Great Britain and the United States.
1785
Cartwright builds power loom.
1786
Coal gas first used for lighting.
1787
Warren Hastings impeached.
1788
Bonnie Prince Charlie dies in France.
1789
Bastille falls; French Revolution begins.
Bentham, Introdution to the Principles of Morals (see utilitarianism).
1791-2
Paine, The Rights of Man.
1792
Reign of Terror in France.
1793
Louis XVI executed in France. England and France at war.
Godwin, Political Justice.
1794
Execution of Robespierre ends the Reign of Terror.
1796
Invasion of England threatened.
1798
Battle of the Nile.
Malthus, Essay on . . . Population.
1799
Napoleon named First Consul of France.
1801
Union of Great Britain and Ireland.
1804
Napoleon declared Emperor.
1805
Battle of Trafalgar.
1809
Napoleon captures Vienna.
1811
Prince of Wales named Regent to act for George III, now insane.
1811-12
Luddite riots in the North and the Midlands. Laborers attack factories and break up the machines
which they fear will replace them.
1812
Napoleon invades Russia.
1812-14
War of 1812 between England and the United States.
1814
Treaty of Ghent ends Anglo-U.S. War.
England and allies invade France.
Napoleon exiled to Elba.
1815
Napoleon escapes Elba; begins the "Hundred Days."
Battle of Waterloo; Napoleon exiled to St. Helena in the South Atlantic.
Corn Laws passed.
1817
David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy.
1819
"Peterloo" massacre of Corn Law protestors.
1820
George III dies; succeeded by Prince Regent as George IV.
1821
Napoleon dies.
1822
Classical Tripos established at Cambridge.
1823
London Mechanics Institute founded.
1827
Thomas Arnold appointed to Rugby.
1829
Catholic Emancipation Act.
Peel establishes the Metropolitan Police.
1830
George IV dies; his brother William IV succeeds.
Manchester - Liverpool Railway (first in England).
1832
First Reform Bill: adds £10/year householders to the voting rolls and reapportions Parliamentary
representation much more fairly, doing away with most "rotten" and "pocket" boroughs. Adds
217,000 voters to an elec! torate of 435,000.
1833
Slavery abolished throughout the British Empire.
Factory Act.
1834
New Poor Law.
Houses of Parliament burn down.
Late 1830s
First of the Parliamentary "Blue Books"—facts and figures about England compiled by the
Royal Commissioners.
1836-48
Chartist movement.
1837
William IV dies; succeeded by his niece, Victoria.
1838
Regular Atlantic steamship service begins.
1839
Free Trade League founded.
1840
Queen Victoria marries her cousin Albert, who becomes Prince Consort.
Penny post started.
S.F.B. Morse invents the telegraph.
Grammar Schools Act.
1842
Chartist Riots.
Copyright Act.
1845-6
Potato Failure in Europe; starvation in Ireland. Corn Laws (which had kept up the price of grain)
repealed.
1848
Revolutions in Europe.
Queen's College (for women) founded in London.
1849
Gold discovered in California and Australia.
1850
Telegraph cable laid under English Channel.
1851
Great Exhibition ("Crystal Palace").
Population of United Kingdom at 21 million.
1853-6
Crimean War.
1855
Livingston discovers Victoria Falls.
Civil Service Commissioners appointed.
1860
Garibaldi takes Naples; unification of Italy.
1861
Albert dies; Victoria retires into mourning.
1861-5
American Civil War.
1862
Bismarck becomes Prussian premier.
1866
Italy defeated by Austria.
Telegraph cable laid under the Atlantic.
1867
Second Reform Bill (Disraeli's): enfranchises many workingmen; adds 938,000 to an electorate
of 1,057,000 in England and Wales.
South African diamond fields discovered.
Fenian rising in Ireland.
1869
Suez Canal opened.
Union Pacific Railway completed in U.S.
1870-1
Franco-Prussian War.
1871
University Tests Act removes religious tests at Oxford and Cambridge.
Trade unions legalized.
Newcastle engineers strike for a nine-hour day.
Germany unified.
1873
Population of the United Kingdom at 26 million (France 36 million).
1876
Victoria named Empress of India.
Edison invents the phonograph.
Compulsory school attendance in Great Britain.
1877
Transvaal annexed.

1882
Triple Alliance (Germany, Italy, and Austria).
Married Women's Property Act enables women to buy, own, and sell property, and to keep
their own earnings.
1883
"Oom Paul" Kruger named president of the South African Republic.
Fabian Society founded.
1884-5
Third Reform Act and Redistribution Act extend vote to agricultural workers; electorate tripled.
1886
First (Irish) Home Rule bill rejected.
1887
Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.
1890
Parnell--O'Shea divorce case ends Parnell's influence; no Home Rule for Ireland.
1894
Dreyfus trial in France.
1895
U.S. equals the U.K.'s industrial output.
1897
Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
1898-99
Spanish-American War.
1899-1902
Boer war.
1901
Victoria dies; Edward Prince of Wales succeeds.
1903
U.S. acquires Canal Zone from Panama.
1904
Entente Cordiale (England and France).
1905
Revolution in Russia.
1914-18
The "Great War" (World War I).

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