A global power, 1714 to 1901

18 stops95 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 RevolutionThe spinning mills driven by horses, the canals dug to carry goods, and the arrival in Britain of Sake Dean Mahomet in 1782.
  6. Arkwright, Bessemer and TradeWhat the Industrial Revolution was, Arkwright's carding machine, Mahomet's shampooing, the Bessemer process, factory conditions, and the East India Company.
  7. 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.
  8. Trafalgar and WaterlooThe American colonies declare independence in 1776, Nelson wins at Trafalgar, and Wellington ends the war with France at Waterloo in 1815.
  9. 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.
  10. Wellington and the Union FlagLord Wellington's defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, Ireland's union with Great Britain in 1801, and the three crosses of the Union Flag.
  11. 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.
  12. The Victorian AgeVictoria becomes queen in 1837, the Corn Laws are repealed, the Great Exhibition opens in 1851, and the Crimean War brings Florence Nightingale to Turkey.
  13. The Great Exhibition and NightingaleThe Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, the Nightingale Training School, the 1847 factory hours law, the Great Western Railway, and the Irish famine.
  14. Victoria and the EmpireThe size of the British Empire under Queen Victoria, the length of her reign, the Corn Laws, and the Stephensons who pioneered the railway engine.
  15. Brunel and British IndustryIsambard Kingdom Brunel's engineering, how much of the world's iron, coal and cotton Britain produced, and the lands the British Empire came to cover.
  16. 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.
  17. Pankhurst and the VoteThe Acts giving married women their own earnings, Emmeline Pankhurst's Women's Franchise League, the Boer War, and Kipling's Nobel Prize in 1907.
  18. Chartists and SuffragettesThe Chartists' campaign for working-class votes, the Reform Act that ended pocket boroughs, Pankhurst's WSPU, suffragette tactics, and Kipling's birth in India.

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