A global power, 1714 to 1901

20 stops106 facts

Two unions, a machine age and an empire. The Act of Union of 1707 makes one kingdom of England and Scotland, and the Act of 1800 adds Ireland. Meanwhile how things are made changes entirely — spinning mills, canals dug to carry goods, and people moving into the towns — while Britain fights France for a generation and ends it at Waterloo in 1815. Trading slaves in British ships becomes illegal in 1807, and the Emancipation Act follows in 1833. By 1851 and the Great Exhibition the country is rich, industrial and imperial, and the argument at home has turned to who is allowed to vote.

What is in this era

  1. Union with ScotlandThe Act of Union of 1707, George I chosen as king in 1714, Robert Walpole as first Prime Minister, and Culloden in 1746.
  2. Scotland After the UnionHow Scotland kept its own church, courts and schools, the failed Jacobite challenge, and Robert Burns, the Scottish poet known as The Bard.
  3. Bonnie Prince Charlie and BurnsCharles Edward Stuart's rising and the Highland Clearances that followed it, and the Robert Burns song sung every Hogmanay.
  4. The EnlightenmentAdam Smith and David Hume, the two Scottish thinkers of the Enlightenment the test asks about, and what each of them is known for.
  5. The Industrial RevolutionHorse-driven spinning mills, canals in the middle and north of England, and Sake Dean Mahomet, who came in 1782 and opened a coffee house in 1810.
  6. Arkwright, Bessemer and TradeWhat the Industrial Revolution was, Arkwright and his carding machine, Mahomet and shampooing, the Bessemer process, and Captain Cook mapping Australia.
  7. Factory Life and Company RulePoor working conditions in the Industrial Revolution, the East India Company in India, and when Arkwright and Sake Dean Mahomet were born and Mahomet eloped.
  8. The slave trade and its abolitionTrading slaves in British ships or from British ports became illegal in 1807, and the Emancipation Act followed in 1833.
  9. Trafalgar and WaterlooThe American colonies declare independence in 1776, Nelson wins at Trafalgar, and Wellington ends the war with France at Waterloo in 1815.
  10. The Union Flag and the union with IrelandThe first Union Flag in 1606, the Act of Union with Ireland in 1800, and the two memorials to Nelson: his column and HMS Victory.
  11. Wellington and the Union FlagThe Duke of Wellington's defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, Ireland's union with Great Britain in 1801, and the three crosses of the Union Flag.
  12. The Flag and the ColoniesThe crosses of St Andrew and St Patrick, why the Welsh dragon is not on the Union Flag, and the colonists and revolution that led Britain into new wars.
  13. The Victorian AgeVictoria becomes queen in 1837, the Corn Laws go, factory hours for women and children are limited, the Great Exhibition opens, and Nightingale reaches Turkey.
  14. The Great Exhibition and NightingaleThe Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, the Nightingale Training School, the Great Western Railway, the Irish famine, and the size of the British Empire.
  15. Victoria and the EmpireThe size of the British Empire under Queen Victoria, the length of her reign, the Corn Laws, the Stephensons who pioneered the railway engine, and Brunel.
  16. Brunel and British IndustryBrunel's Portsmouth roots, Britain's share of the world's iron, coal and cotton, the reach of the Empire, the end of the Crimean War and Nightingale's school.
  17. Winning the right to voteThe Reform Acts of 1832 and 1867, the start of the Boer War in 1899, votes for women over 30 in 1918, and equal votes at 21 in 1928.
  18. Pankhurst and the VoteThe Chartists' campaign, the Acts giving married women their own earnings, Pankhurst's Women's Franchise League, the Boer War, and Kipling's Nobel Prize.
  19. Chartists and SuffragettesThe Reform Act of 1832 and the seats it gave to towns, Emmeline Pankhurst's WSPU, suffragette tactics, and Kipling's birth in India.
  20. Key Dates for the VoteEmmeline Pankhurst's birth, the 1870 change for married women's earnings, the Boer War's end, Kipling's birth, and 1918 for women over 30.

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