-
Period: to
Miscellaneous
Derby horse race track and races established.
The Polonaise was made popular = coatlike dress, fitted bodice with a full skirt, draped in front from the waist and caught up on either side at the back, the petticoat showed prominently & was elaborately decorated, quilted, or embroidered.
French Revolution 1789. -
Period: to
Literary Figures & Events
1782 Coleridge entered Christ’s Hospital in London, where he completed his secondary education.
1787 Wordsworth attended St. John’s College, Cambridge but hated it.
Mary Wollstonecraft published Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787). 1788 she began working as a translator for the London publisher = Mary: A Fiction
William Godwin (Mary's future husband & baby daddy) began writing about atheism, anarchism & personal freedom. Helped spark English Romantic Literary Movement. -
Gordon Riots
Catholic Relief Act of 1778 meant Parliament gave civil rights to British Roman Catholics, but Anti-Catholic prejudice was still powerful in Britain since the Reformation in the 16th century (Roman Catholicism = political absolutism and persecution). The Protestant Association (Scotland; Lord George Gordon) was the movement & when it reached London, riots ensued for 8 days with more than 300 people killed, and more damage done to property than would be done in Paris during the French Revolution. -
Great hurricane of 1780
More than 20,000 people were killed across the Antilles islands in the eastern Caribbean Sea. European naval forces were impacted because they had been concentrated in the Caribbean during the American Revolution (40 French vessels sunk). -
Period: to
Losing the American Revolution
Britain learned of General Charles Cornwallis’s surrender in America at the Battle of Yorktown. A new Administration was taking office during peace talks with America & acknowledging their independence aka British defeat in the Treaty of Paris. -
Period: to
On the rise...
Britain’s economic recovery after the war was rapid and dramatic.
So-called Industrial Revolution (horrific work conditions).
Population steadily growing/expanding/breeding at a rate of 7 million people per decade. -
On the bright side...
Britain made peace with its European enemies when land had to be divied up. Britain recovered other West Indian islands lost during the war (Gibraltar). Holland gave Britain freedom of navigation in its spice islands and an important trading base in India. -
William Pitt, the Younger
This youngster (24!) becomes Prime Minister, supported by King George III. Pitt cleaned up nation: reduced national debt ($405,000,000 @ end of Amer Revol) by millions in less than 10 yrs (by increasing tax revenue). Reduced smuggling and fraud. Reorganized depts; more efficiency. Dealt with Canada. In office when men were shiped to Australia. Passed India Bill in 1784 which established a board of control regulating Indian affairs and the East India Company. Signed the Triple Alliance in 1788.
