Radicalism c1816-32

Luddite Riots: 1811
Luddite Riots; started in Nottingham shire in 1811 when outbursts of men began breaking machinery as they believed the machinery used in the textile industry was depriving them of their livelihood. The machines created cheaper and poorer quality clothes far quicker than the skilled workers before hand. They accused factory owners of underhand practices which undervalued their skill, put them out of work or reduced their wages. Frustrated at the lack of resolution the knitters turned to violent action and a wave of machine breaking, intimidation and rioting. They operated at night time and it was believed to be led by Ned Ludd.

The government response was that of panic and they believed that it was a large threat. 60 men were put on trial for Luddite offences and 3 were hanged for the murder of a man by 4 Luddites. As further offences were committed soldiers were drafted in to keep order after a spate of arrests, trials, transportation and hangings the resistance ended. 

Spa Field Riots: 2nd Dec 1816
2 mass meetings of protesters, led by Thomas Spence who advocated for universal male suffrage, annual general elections and secret ballot. The government grew concerned at the activity of the leaders so placed a spy (John Castle) within the group. Harry Hunt spoke at the second meeting which turned violent with riots. 80 Police were sent in, one man stabbed and a passer by was killed. The 4 leaders were arrested and put on trial. John C was labelled as an agent provocateur and all 4 leaders were set free.

Blanketeers: 10th Mar 1817
 25,000 gathered to march with a petition to the Regent Prince in London (from Manchester). Cavalry broke up the meeting before they could depart, group of around 500 made it away but were attacked by the cavalry.

Peterloo: 16th Aug 1819
St Peters field in Manchester where a group of 60-80,000 of all classes gathered to demand reform of parliamentary representation. Henry Hunt was the speaker there as the 'champion of the people', he argued for the right to vote for all men and women. Was supposed to be a peaceful meeting but cavalry charged the crowd on JP's orders after fear of revolution. This killed 15 and injured 600.

Cato Street Conspiracy: May 1st 1820
A group of middle class people planned to assassinate the British cabinet ministers of Lord Liverpool's government in the name of reform however one was a spy who kept the police all informed who decided to move and arrest 13, 5 executed and 5 sent to Australia.

Queen Caroline Affair: 1820
Caroline of Brunswick had moved away from her husband George IV and wanted to come back to claim her right to the crown however George did not want her to. He got parliament to introduce Acts that removed her rights to claim the crown whilst he also tried to divorce her. Public sympathy went to Caroline and it made George even more unpopular, George then put the pressure on Liverpool to get the public to like him again.

Britain after the French Revolution

State of Britain after the French Revolution

The French Revolution left Britain politically and economically unstable with the government feeling paranoid that a similar revolution would seize the population of Britain.

Nationality and the British Government; Pitt made sure his government was a neutral party, decided they were not financially or diplomatically able to intervene in the events in France. Once France began encouraging revolutions in other European countries Britain's views changed, it made Pitt much more suspicious of supporters and their impact on the public. He passed multiple acts such as the Friendly Societies Act to hopefully prevent the possibility of a revolution. A series of bad harvests worsened the governments fears.

Anti-Revolution and Edmund Burke; Burke was a politician and argued the HOC should not be full of the Kings supporters and began supporting the French Monarchy and the American War of Independence but opposed the French Revolution which confused a lot of people. He thought people didn't have the right to disregard the elected government. He believed in the natural growth of society and not giving in to drastic, chaotic measures especially violence. He began to gain supporters as his predictions became true, lots of these supporters were politically powerful but lots of them took his ideas the wrong way and tried to prevent reforms which he did not endorse.

Pro-Revolution and Tom Paine; He lived in the US and was for the war of independence, he then returned to England and published texts that argued of societies need to break away from the past if it wanted to progress. Supported fundamental rights for all and encouraged democracy in England whilst believing all were equal and the government should represent this. He demanded social reforms such as free education and pensions.  

Friendly Society Act 1973; Passed in 1973 it was the governments response to their paranoia after the French Revolution. It was based on the suspicion of the solidarity between workers, positively it helped the workers' with financial security but negatively it outlawed trade unions which gave them fewer rights. The government realised it would get a bigger profit without trade unions so did not care about workers rights. It is accepted that it was passed just so the government wouldn't have to fund the upkeep of the sick, elderly and poor. The societies gave workers the right to recover funds and claim money from the deceased or bankrupt, allowed them to solve disputes, lead to them rushing paperwork and in the 1800s there were around 30,000 friendly societies. For a while many failed and gained a bad reputation. The overall aim of the societies were to give people a mutual sense of mutual benefit and belonging.

Introduction of the income tax 1798; Introduced by Pitt the younger as an option to help solve some of the many economic problems Britain faced. The purpose was for taxes to be placed on peoples earnings, in one year this raised a total of £6 million. It was first intended as a temporary measure however it was kept in place.

The Combination Acts 1799-1800; These were a series of six acts which restricted freedom of speech and were harsh on the working class. Some of the features included; trade unions were illegal, workers who work together for better wages could be imprisoned and employers combinations were forbidden.

Railways c1840-

• Decreased cost of products which increased the populations
• Industrial revolution advanced
• Factories flourished as they had access to buy and sell
• Increased the demand for coal which increased industry
• London became more important, people travelled for work
• Affected all classes and even farmers could transport good better
• The government had to find money to create these railways
• Gave tones of jobs but had to find the skilled workers to help
• Had to build and organise the railways
• The fast speeds of the trains could cause harm to people causing need for government advertising
• Farmer didn’t want their crops to be damaged and pollution
• Some feared that men and women together on the trains was wrong
• Rivalled canals
• Initial legislation was incorrect

Poor Harvests c1790-1820

• Suffered many bad harvests
• Caused higher prices
• Less money for lower classes
• Manufacturing suffered
• Created national fear that a revolution would be formed like the French revolution which was created from a bad harvest
• Poorer people could no longer rely on bred, adding pressure to the government
• Struggled with a rising population and a returning army
• Made national debt worse as when they had access to trade they didn’t have anything to sell

Napoleonic Wars c1793-1815

• Continuation of the French revolutionary wars
• Napoleon seized power in 1799
• Overthrew the French revolutionary government
• Napoleon defeated at Waterloo and a coalition victory was reached
• Causes reform in Europe
• Government had to uphold Britain, Pitt’s government was seen as weak and called for the later reforms
• Social impacts

1. Increase in patriotism at Waterloo
2. Working class suffering hardships due to high taxes and low wages
3. Couldn’t afford necessities
4. Blamed government for the poor efforts with handling the war
5. Radicalisation in lower classes- Luddites

• Political impacts:

6. Government weak, huge amount of pressure to uphold pride and stability
7. 800,00o British troop ready to fight
8. Pitt had to step down due to illness and Henry Addington became PM, who reintroduced income tax as a war time measure
9. Addington widely denounced and Pitt re-elected May 1804, but was widely known as a bad wartime minister
10. Most MPs disliked, when Pitt died in 06 Lord Grenville took over but was still weak
11. All governments couldn’t handle the pressure of war and failed to have good wartime strategies

• Economic:

12. Trade prevented by napoleon, no imports or exports to tackle the debt
13. Increase in national debt- 1815 £867 million, sinking fund in place
14. Government called for income take to be raised in 1815
15. More money to be spent on war efforts
16. Due to isolation without trade wartime industries flourish and industrialisation continued

The working class and demand for reform

• Continued through the 1810s
• Luddite movement rioted and sabotaged machinery
• Tried to secure minimum wage
• Proved could riots if wanted to

Demands for parliamentary reforms:

• Higher classes only represent
• Pitt proposed a bill to make equal representation but the aristocracy wasn’t going to allow this to happen
• Unrepresentative- rotten boroughs

6 Acts 1819

• Series of 6 acts preventing freedom of speech
• Aim to control the poorer people to prevent a French revolution in Britain
• Made trade unions illegal so they had fewer rights
• Workers couldn’t work with another to get more wages or fewer hour
• Strict laws if rules were broken, face fines or 2-3 months imprisonment
• Taken back in 1824 due to strikes
• Training prevention Act: prohibited training the use of weapons to prevent violence
• The seizure of arms act: gave JPs and magistrates the rights to seize weapons found during home searches
• Seditious Meetings Act:
• The Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act
• The Misdemeanours Act
• The Newspapers Stamp Duties Act

The Friendly Society Act c1793

• A response to preventing a revolution in Britain
• Used friendly societies to help workers financially but also to outlaw trade unions giving the workers fewer rights
• The government got bigger profits without trade unions
• 30,000 friendly societies by the 1800s
• Aimed to provide a sense of belonging

The French Revolution c1789

The French revolution 1789:

• Created political instability within Europe, Pitt declared Britain neutral until France began to encourage rebellion in the rest of Europe
• Pitt believed the internal strife would preoccupy the French
• Caused a rival of political activity in the Britain from the middle class

1. Fox referred to it as victory for democracy
2. Edmund Burke warned it would end in bloodshed and a military dictatorship, he believed in society organically growing not being forced to change with chaos and violence
3. Tom Paine an advocate for the American War of Independence supported the right that everyone should be able to vote and felt the British government should reflect this. He wanted a democratic revolution.

• People called for political reforms and the government had to respond to avoid a revolution
• Angry mobs gathered inspired by the French
• Pitt made reforms (combination acts) and had little sympathy for workers
• Caused conflicting opinions

The British Political System c1783

William Pitt was the youngest British Prime Minister who at age 24 came into office in 1783-1801 and 1804-1806. His father was William Pitt the Earl of Chatham and a previous PM. Some of his achievements include an act that gave the government control over the East India Trading Company and therefore control over India he also united the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland. 

Economically he helped the country with his skills for finance, he negotiated new tariffs with France and he targeted smuggling which was a huge loss of tariffs and illegal goods. Economically, Pitt was faced with huge problems such as a national debt that was twenty times the annual revenue and national bankruptcy was a very strong possibility. To combat this he introduced taxes that were mainly focused on goods that the rich owned. He also aimed to reduce government spending significantly in the belief that government activities should be regulated by paid professionals. The effects of his economic policies included confidence being restored in the £, national debt worries ended, Anglo-American trade quadrupled and later managed to subsidise European armies to fight France. However most of his successful work was undone by the lengthy French wars which again drove England near to bankruptcy and severe international debt.  

Politically he also had significant achievements such as; recognising Americas independence with the Peace of Versailles, he also identified 30 'rotten boroughs' (areas not represented in Parliament as their land owner controls the MP and the voters) and tried to eradicate them. 

Pitt was supported in his term by King George III who pushed for many of Pitts political policies through the Kings court. George was also liked by the public as he had both a respectable reign but also a successful personal life, remaining loyal to his wife and bringing up his children well. His mental deteriorated towards the end of his reign leading to many problems with his grasp of power. His power in Britain wasn't as controlling as previous monarchs due to the Glorious Revolution where Parliament supporters overthrew the current monarch to introduce a constitutional monarchy where power was divided between monarch and Parliament. The American War of Independence occurred towards the end of his reign where Britain lost 13 of its colonies in the US. Although the government was criticised of the way they ran the war Pitt did manage to drastically improve the situation. His economic policies restored trade with the US to the levels before the war and doubled trade and connections with the rest of Europe eventually leaving Britain in a better economic state than before the war, so much so that Britain could sustain multiple armies to fight in France.

The state of Britain politically at this time was greatly argued about as it was not clear that Britain was entirely a democratic nation. Some people argue that it was a democratic state as there was a system that allowed people to vote for people in Parliament as well as the Constitutional Monarchy that meant the crown no longer had unrestricted power and instead shared it with the government. However there were also arguments that Britain was not a democratic nation, mainly it was said not to be because the amount of people who actually had the vote was under 10% of the population. This also meant the system was extremely corrupt as locals frequently bribed or threatened the people in their area who could vote, especially in places such as Rotten Boroughs.