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TheGeorgian era was a period inBritish history from 1714 to 1837, named after theHanoverian kingsGeorge I,George II,George III andGeorge IV. The definition of the Georgian era is also often extended to include the relatively short reign ofWilliam IV, which ended with his death in 1837. The subperiod that is theRegency era is defined by the regency of George IV as Prince of Wales during the illness of his father George III.[2] The termGeorgian is typically used in the contexts of social and political historyand architecture. The termAugustan literature is often used forAugustan drama,Augustan poetry andAugustan prose in the period 1700–1740s. The termAugustan refers to the acknowledgement of the influence of Latin literature from the ancientRoman Republic.[3] The termGeorgian era is not applied to the time of the two 20th-century British kings of this name,George V andGeorge VI. Those periods are simply referred to asGeorgian.[4]
When Victoria became Queen in 1837 the Georgian era was followed by theVictorian era. The Victorians emphasized moral earnestness and propriety, as well as industrial and scientific progress and scientific advancement. There was a growing tension between faith and doubt and more Realism in literature and art (moving away from Romantic idealism).[5]
Historians have largely focused on politics, the firstBritish Empire, and warfare during the Georgian era.[6][7][8]
On the positive side, George I's accession secured the Protestant succession and prevented a Catholic restoration under the"Old Pretender" James Stuart. The result was constitutional continuity after the turbulent Stuart period. The king's limited English and disinterest in day-to-day British affairs left a vacuum that was filled by the rise of modern parliamentary democracy. This enabledRobert Walpole to seize the initiative and emerge as Britain's first de facto Prime Minister; his new style of cabinet governance filled the royal vacuum.[9] The British economy tripled in size in the 18th century but growth was only 12% during 1720 to 1740.[10][11] There was some expansion of trade and commerce, building on the financial innovations of the previous decades. TheSouth Sea Bubble of 1720 was a brief setback but it also led to improved financial regulation. The consolidation of Whig party dominance brought political stability and supported policies favoring commercial interests and religious toleration for Protestant dissenters.[12][13]
On the negative side, the king was widely disliked as a foreigner who was far more interested in Hanover than in Britain. This fueled dissent and strengthened theJacobite plans to overthrow the Hanoverians.[14] Corruption was widespread, as exemplified by the South Sea Bubble scandal that financially ruined many investors--the king himself lost heavily in it. The king's bitter relationship with his son (the future George II) created political factions and instability at court, weakening the monarchy's prestige. George was ridiculed by many of his British subjects as unintelligent and wooden.;[15] His mistreatment of his wife, Sophia Dorothea, became something of a scandal.[16] His Lutheran faith, his overseeing both the Lutheran churches in Hanover and theChurch of England, and the presence of Lutheran preachers in his court caused some consternation among his Anglican subjects.[17]
The political history of the 18th century has been covered in numerous scholarly studies, mostly focused on the struggle between the Crown and Parliament.[18][19][20][21][22][23]
When the wars with France ended in 1815, political parties were not yet sharply defined nor well organized. In Parliament, and to a lesser extent around the country, there were loose political coalitions that people at the time, and historians today, call "Whigs" and "Tories."[24][25][26]
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The era marked immense social change in Britain, with theIndustrial Revolution intensifyingclass divisions,[27] increasing urbanization[28] and prompting the emergence of rivalpolitical parties like theWhigs andTories.[29]
In rural areas, theAgricultural Revolution saw huge changes in the movement of people and the decline of small communities, as well as the growth of the cities and the beginnings of an integratedtransportation system. Nevertheless, as rural towns and villages declined and work became scarce there was a large increase inemigration to Canada, theNorth American colonies, and other parts of theBritish Empire.
In England, the evangelical movement inside and outside theChurch of England gained strength in the late 18th and early 19th century. The movement challenged the traditional religious sensibility that emphasised a code of honour for the upper class, and suitable behaviour for everyone else, together with faithful observances of rituals.John Wesley (1703–1791) and his followers preached revivalist religion, trying to convert individuals to a personal relationship with Christ through Bible reading, regular prayer, and especially the revival experience. Wesley himself preached 52,000 times, calling on men and women to "redeem the time" and save their souls. Wesley always operated inside the Church of England, but at his death, his followers set up outside institutions that became theMethodist Church.[30] It stood alongside the traditionalNonconformist churches, Presbyterians, Congregationalist, Baptists, Unitarians, and Quakers. The Nonconformist churches, however, were less influenced by revivalism.[31]
The Church of England remained dominant in England but it had a growing evangelical, revivalist faction, the "Low Church". Its leaders includedWilliam Wilberforce andHannah More. It reached the upper class through theClapham Sect. It did not seek political reform, but rather the opportunity to save souls through political action by freeing slaves, abolishing the duel, prohibiting cruelty to children and animals, stopping gambling, and avoiding frivolity on the Sabbath; they read the Bible every day. All souls were equal in God's view, but not all bodies, so evangelicals did not challenge the hierarchical structure of English society.[32][page needed] As R. J. Morris noted in his 1983 article "Voluntary Societies and British Urban Elites, 1780-1850," "[m]id-eighteenth-century Britain was a stable society in the sense that those with material and ideological power were able to defend this power in an effective and dynamic manner," but "in the twenty years after 1780, this consensus structure was broken."[33] Anglican Evangelicalism thus, as historian Lisa Wood has argued in her bookModes of Discipline: Women, Conservatism, and the Novel After the French Revolution, functioned as a tool of ruling-class social control, buffering the discontent that in France had inaugurated a revolution; yet it contained within itself the seeds for challenge to gender and class hierarchies.[34]
Catholic emancipation was a series of Parliamentary actions that reduced and finally removed almost all of the restrictions onRoman Catholics in Britain and Ireland, culminating in theRoman Catholic Relief Act 1829. Many restrictions had been imposed by theAct of Uniformity, theTest Acts and thepenal laws. Requirements toabjure (renounce) the temporal and spiritual authority of thepope andtransubstantiation placed major burdens on Roman Catholics. Emancipation would allow them to vote and hold office.
According to Norman Lowe, The crisis stemmed from the grievances of Catholics in Ireland. They comprised about 90% of the population, were barred from sitting in Parliament and holding important government offices. Protestant not only held the power, they owned most of the land in Ireland, which they leased out to Catholic farmers. The Irish Catholics felt betrayed, as theAct of Union 1800 had been agreed upon with the promise of granting Catholics full political rights—Catholic Emancipation. King George III (and later his son King George IV) refused to assent, citing his Coronation Oath to uphold the Protestant religion.[35] The new campaign for emancipation was led byDaniel O'Connell, an Irish Catholic landowner and barrister. He founded theCatholic Association in 1823, which quickly became powerful, funded by a "Catholic rent" of a penny a month from members, including poor peasants, and supported by Catholic priests. The Association focused on electing pro-emancipation Protestant candidates in by-elections. Inthe County Clare Election of 1828, the crisis came as O’Connell stood against the pro-emancipation Protestant MP,Vesey Fitzgerald, in a by-election. Although as a Catholic he could not legally take his seat, O'Connell won a triumphant victory, demonstrating the immense Catholic support and the potential for scores of Catholics to win seats at the next general election. This electoral victory created a severe political crisis. There was a fear of widespread violence or even civil war if O'Connell and the potential Catholic MPs were prevented from taking their seats. It also raised the possibility that Catholic MPs might establish a separate parliament in Dublin, leading to the break-up of the Union between Britain and Ireland.[36][37]
Horrified by the prospect of civil war, the Duke of Wellington –Britain’s leading general and now prime minister, andRobert Peel hisHome Secretary reversed their longstanding opposition to emancipation.[38] They decided to concede because they were convinced that only this could avert major conflict. Peel skillfully had the bill for Catholic emancipation passed in the Commons, and Wellington forced its way through the House of Lords. King George IV reluctantly agreed, so in April 1829 emancipation became official.[39] Catholics were now permitted to sit in both Houses of Parliament and hold all important nationwide offices of state, with a handful of exceptions (they could not be king or queen or top official in Ireland). However, as a measure to limit O'Connell's influence, the government simultaneously raised the property qualification for voting. This disenfranchised over 100,000 Catholic voters in Ireland. Even so O'Connell still won re-election. Wellington and Peel gave the Catholics their main goal and prevented a civil war, but their treatment of O’Connell and the disenfranchisement of many Catholic tenant farmers angered the Irish Catholics. Likewise the Protestants were angry. Peel and Wellington's "betrayal" of their traditional anti-Catholic principles led to a deep split within the Tory coalition. alienating the right-wing 'Ultras' and much of the Tory press. In the next decade Catholic Emancipation was a model for reformers that showed the unwritten British constitution could be changed peacefully by a powerful pressure group from outside Parliament (the Catholic Association). This weakened the Tories and paved the way for the Whigs to come to power in 1830 with their own plans for major parliamentary reform.[40][41]
The Georgian period saw continual warfare, with France the primary enemy. Major episodes included theSeven Years' War, known in America as theFrench and Indian War (1754–1763), theAmerican Revolutionary War (1775–1783), theFrench Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802), theIrish Rebellion of 1798, and theNapoleonic Wars (1803–1815). The British won most of the wars except for the American Revolution, where the combined weight of the United States, France, Spain and the Netherlands overwhelmed Britain, which stood alone without allies.[42]
The loss of the13 American Colonies was a national disaster. Commentators at home and abroad speculated on the end of Britain as agreat power. In Europe, thewars with France dragged on for nearly a quarter of a century, 1793–1815. Britain organised coalition after coalition, using its superb financial system to subsidise infantry forces, and built up its Navy to maintain control of the seas. Victory over Napoleon at theBattle of Trafalgar (1805) and theBattle of Waterloo (1815) underAdmiral Lord Nelson and theDuke of Wellington brought a sense of triumphalism and political reaction.[43]
The expansion of empire in Asia was primarily the work of the BritishEast India Company, especially under the leadership ofRobert Clive.[44]Captain James Cook was perhaps the most prominent of the many explorers and geographers using the resources of the Royal Navy to develop the Empire and make many scientific discoveries, especially in Australia and the Pacific.[45] Instead of trying to recover the lost colonies in North America, the British built up in Asia a largely new Second British Empire. That new empire flourished during theVictorian andEdwardian eras which were to follow.[46]
The era was prosperous as entrepreneurs extended the range of their business around the globe. By the 1720s Britain was one of the most prosperous countries in the world, andDaniel Defoe boasted:
While the other major powers were primarily motivated towards territorial gains, and protection of their dynasties (such as the Habsburg and Bourbon dynasties, and theHouse of Hohenzollern), Britain had a different set of primary interests. Its main diplomatic goal (besides protecting the homeland from invasion) was building a worldwide trading network for its merchants, manufacturers, shippers and financiers. This required a hegemonicRoyal Navy so powerful that no rival could sweep its ships from the world's trading routes, or invade the British Isles. The London government enhanced the private sector by incorporating numerous privately financed London-based companies for establishing trading posts and opening import-export businesses across the world. Each was given a monopoly of trade to the specified geographical region. The first enterprise was theMuscovy Company set up in 1555 to trade with Russia. Other prominent enterprises included theEast India Company, and theHudson's Bay Company in Canada. The Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa had been set up in 1662 to trade in gold, ivory and slaves in Africa; it was re-established as theRoyal African Company in 1672 and focused on the slave trade. British involvement in each of the four major wars, 1740 to 1783, paid off handsomely in terms of trade. Even the loss of the 13 colonies was made up by a very favourable trading relationship with the new United States of America. British gained dominance in the trade with India, and largely dominated the highly lucrative slave, sugar, and commercial trades originating in West Africa and the West Indies. China would be next on the agenda. Other powers set up similar monopolies on a much smaller scale; only the Netherlands emphasized trade as much as England.[48][49]
Mercantilism was the basic policy imposed by Britain on its colonies.[50] Mercantilism meant that the government and the merchants became partners with the goal of increasing political power and private wealth, to the exclusion of other empires. The government protected its merchants—and kept others out—by trade barriers, regulations, and subsidies to domestic industries in order to maximise exports from and minimise imports to the realm. The government had to fight smuggling, which became a favourite American technique in the 18th century to circumvent the restrictions on trading with the French, Spanish or Dutch. The goal of mercantilism was to run trade surpluses, so that gold and silver would pour into London. The government took its share through duties and taxes, with the remainder going to merchants in Britain. The government spent much of its revenue on a large and powerful Royal Navy, which not only protected the British colonies but threatened the colonies of the other empires, and sometimes seized them. The colonies were captive markets for British industry, and the goal was to enrich the mother country.[51]
Most of the companies earned good profits, and enormous personal fortunes were created in India, but there was one major fiasco that caused heavy losses. TheSouth Sea Bubble was a business enterprise that exploded in scandal. TheSouth Sea Company was a private business corporation supposedly set up much like the other trading companies, with a focus on South America. Its actual purpose was to renegotiate previous high-interest government loans amounting to £31 million throughmarket manipulation and speculation. It issued stock four times in 1720 that reached about 8,000 investors. Prices kept soaring every day, from £130 a share to £1,000, with insiders making huge paper profits. The Bubble collapsed overnight, ruining many speculators. Investigations showed bribes had reached into high places—even to the king. The future prime ministerRobert Walpole managed to wind it down with minimal political and economic damage, although some suffering extreme loss fled to exile or committed suicide.[52][53]
The beginning of the Georgian era witnessed rioting byJacobite andHigh Church mobs in protest against the Hanoverian succession and which included attacks on theDissenters' places of worship. These included the 1714coronation riots, which occurred on the day of George I's coronation, and theriots of 1715. In response, Parliament passed theRiot Act, which granted the authorities greater powers to put down rioting.[54][55]
Although religious toleration was extensive by the standards of continental Europe, hostility to religious minorities was widespread in Britain during the eighteenth century and sometimes expressed itself in rioting.[56] TheJewish Naturalisation Act 1753 was repealed a year after it had been passed because of widespread opposition and the 1780Gordon Riots in London were directed against Catholics after thePapists Act 1778 removed some of their legal disabilities. During the 1791Priestley Riots in Birmingham, the mob targeted Dissenters, including the prominent RadicalJoseph Priestley.[57]
TheBlack Act 1723, sponsored by Robert Walpole, strengthened the criminal code for the benefit of the upper class.[58] It specified over 200 capital crimes, many with intensified punishment. The crime of arson, for example, was expanded to include of burning or the threat of burning haystacks. The legal rights of defendants were something different from today. For example, suspects who refused to surrender within 40 days could be summarily judged guilty and sentenced to execution if apprehended. Local villages were punished if they failed to find, prosecute and convict alleged criminals, due to the increase in crime at the time.[59]
With the ending of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, Great Britain entered a period of greater economic depression and political uncertainty, characterised by social discontent and unrest. TheRadical political party published a leaflet calledThe Political Register, also known as "The Two Penny Trash" to its rivals. The so-calledMarch of the Blanketeers saw 400spinners andweavers march fromManchester to London in March 1817 to hand the Government a petition. TheLuddites destroyed and damaged machinery in the industrial north-west of England. ThePeterloo Massacre in 1819 began as a protest rally which saw 60,000 people gathering to protest about their living standards. It was quelled by military action and saw eleven people killed and 400 wounded. TheCato Street Conspiracy of 1820 sought to blow up theCabinet and then move on to storm theTower of London and overthrow the government. This too was thwarted, with the conspirators executed ortransported to Australia.[60][61]
Historians have long explored the importance of the Scottish Enlightenment, as well as the American Enlightenment,[64] while debating the very existence of the English Enlightenment.
English historianPeter Gay argues that the Scottish Enlightenment "was a small and cohesive group of friends – David Hume, Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, and others – who knew one another intimately and talked to one another incessantly".[65] Education was a priority in Scotland, both at the local level and especially in four universities. The Enlightenment culture was based on close readings of new books, and intense discussions that took place daily at such intellectual gathering places in Edinburgh asThe Select Society and, later,The Poker Club as well as within Scotland'sancient universities (St Andrews,Glasgow,Edinburgh andAberdeen).[66] Sharing thehumanist andrationalist outlook of theEuropean Enlightenment of the same time period, the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment asserted the importance of human reason combined with a rejection of any authority that could not be justified by reason. In Scotland, the Enlightenment was characterised by a thoroughgoingempiricism and practicality where the chief values were improvement, virtue, and practical benefit for the individual and society as a whole. Among the fields that rapidly advanced were philosophy, economics, history, architecture, and medicine. Leaders includedFrancis Hutcheson,David Hume,Adam Smith,Dugald Stewart,Thomas Reid,William Robertson,Henry Home, Lord Kames,Adam Ferguson,John Playfair,Joseph Black andJames Hutton.[67][page needed]
The very existence of an English Enlightenment has been debated by scholars. The majority of textbooks and standard surveys make no room for an English Enlightenment. Some European surveys include England, others ignore it but do include coverage of such major intellectuals asJoseph Addison,Edward Gibbon,John Locke,Isaac Newton,Alexander Pope andJoshua Reynolds.[68]
According toDerek Hirst, the 1640s and 1650s saw a revived economy characterised by growth in manufacturing, the elaboration of financial and credit instruments, and the commercialisation of communication. The gentry found time for leisure activities, such as horse racing and bowling. In the high culture important innovations included the development of a mass market for music, increased scientific research, and an expansion of publishing. All the trends were discussed in depth at the newly establishedcoffee houses.[69][70] Education was also a priority in England. English institutions expanded rapidly, including the formation of theRoyal Society, which is the oldest national scientific institution in the world.[71]
Roy Porter argues that the reason for the neglect was the assumption that the movement was primarily French-inspired, that it was largely a-religious or anti-clerical, and it stood in outspoken defiance to the established order.[72] Porter admits that after the 1720s, England could claim thinkers to equal Diderot, Voltaire or Rousseau. Indeed, its leading intellectuals, such asEdward Gibbon,[73]Edmund Burke andSamuel Johnson were all quite conservative and supported the standing order. Porter says the reason was that Enlightenment had come early to England, and had succeeded so that the culture had accepted political liberalism, philosophical empiricism and religious toleration of the sort that intellectuals on the continent had to fight for against powerful odds. The coffee-house culture provided an ideal venue for enlightened conversation. Furthermore, England rejected the collectivism of the continent, and emphasized the improvement of individuals as the main goal of enlightenment.[74]
The British sponsored numerous scientists who made major discoveries in the small laboratories.Joseph Priestley investigated electricity. ChemistHenry Cavendish identified hydrogen in 1772.Daniel Rutherford isolated nitrogen in 1774, while Priestley discovered oxygen and ammonia. Antiquarians and archaeologists mapped the past.[75] In medicine, in 1717Lady Mary Wortley Montagu introduced inoculation against smallpox to Britain, and by 1740 it was in wide usage.Guy's Hospital was founded in 1721; theRoyal Infirmary of Edinburgh in 1729;Queen Charlotte's maternity hospital in 1739 and theMiddlesex Hospital in 1745. Asylums for the mentally ill were established, notably Bethel Hospital in Norwich (1713); a ward for incurable lunatics at Guy's Hospital (1728); and lunatic hospitals in Manchester (1766) and York in (1777)—York was the first to be called an asylum.[76]
High culture flourished during the Georgian era.[77] Georgian society and its preoccupations were well portrayed in the novels of writers such asDaniel Defoe,Jonathan Swift,Samuel Richardson,Henry Fielding,Laurence Sterne,Mary Shelley andJane Austen, characterised by the architecture ofRobert Adam,John Nash andJames Wyatt and the emergence of theGothic Revival style, which hearkened back to a supposedgolden age of building design.
The flowering of the arts was most vividly shown in the emergence of theRomantic poets, principally throughSamuel Taylor Coleridge,William Wordsworth,Percy Bysshe Shelley,William Blake,John Keats,Lord Byron andRobert Burns. Their work ushered in a new era of poetry, characterised by vivid and colourful language, evocative of elevating ideas and themes.[78][page needed]
The paintings ofThomas Gainsborough, SirJoshua Reynolds and the youngJ. M. W. Turner andJohn Constable illustrated the changing world of the Georgian period – as did the work of designers likeCapability Brown, thelandscape designer.
Fine examples of distinctive Georgian architecture are Edinburgh'sNew Town,Georgian Dublin,Grainger Town inNewcastle upon Tyne, the Georgian Quarter ofLiverpool and much of Bristol andBath.
The music ofJohn Field,Handel,Haydn,Clementi,Johann Christian Bach,William Boyce,Mozart,Beethoven andMendelssohn was some of the most popular in England at that time.
The height of theGrand Tour coincided with the 18th century and is associated with Georgian high society. This custom saw young upper-class Englishmen travelling to Italy by way of France and the Netherlands for intellectual and cultural purposes.[79] Notable historianEdward Gibbon remarked of the Grand Tour as useful for intellectual self-improvement.[80] The journey and stay abroad would usually take a year or more. This would eventually lead to the basis for the acquisition and spread of art collections back to England as well as fashions and paintings from Italy.[79] The custom also helped popularise themacaroni style that was soon to becomefashionable at the time.[81]
Historians debate the exact ending, with the deaths of George IV in 1830 or William IV in 1837 as the usual marker. In most social and cultural trends, the timing varied. The emergence of Romanticism and literature began as early as the 1780s, but religious changes took much longer and were incomplete until around a century later. The 1830s saw important developments such as the emergence of theOxford Movement in religion and the demise of classical architecture. Victorians typically were disapproving of the times of the previous era. By the late 19th century, the "Georgian era" was a byword for a degenerate culture.[82]Charles Abbey in 1878 argued that the Church of England:
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