Britain In The Xviii Century

Section IV: UK history ( The 18th Century (ampliación)


1. The British navy was of key importante during the 18th century. Why?

Before the end of the 18th century, Britain was as powerful as France because of the development of its industries and its trade. Furthermore, Britain now had the strongest navy in the world, which kept on improving its trade routes while endangering those of itsenemies. It lead to its supremacy into trade.

2. Who had now the power for the first time in Britain?

The king’s ministers, who were the real policy and decision-makers.

3. Trade had both a positive and a negative effect on society. Explain why.

The wealth Britain had reached through trade made possible:

- An agricultural revolution.( Britain: the most advanced economy in the world.
- An industrial revolution.

This was the positive side, but the negative side was that:

- A few people became richer, but many others lost their land, their homes and their way of life.
-Families were driven off the land in another period of enclosure, and they became the proletariat that made Britain’s trade and industrial supremacypossible.
- The invention of machinery ( no old “cottage industries” anymore. Factories replaced them.
- The development of industry ( cities like Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool became growing suddenly.

4. Describe the “triangular trade” routes of Britain in the 18th century.

Britain sent national goods to West Africa, West Africa sent slaves to the New World, and the New Worldsent sugar, cotton and tobacco to Britain.

5. If you had to translate or explain the word “jacobites”, which groups/time periods/regions should you think of? Search information about this.

6. Why did Britain engaged into a war against France at the end of the 18th century?

In France, the misery of the poor and the power of the trading classes led to French revolution in 1789. The Britishgovernment feared revolutionary ideas coming from France spreaded among the discontented in Britain. That’s why Britain tried to avoid this from happening by fighting against Napoleon Bonaparte and defeated him.


7. Why wasn’t James II’s son crowned James III? What did he do then?

James II’s son was a Catholic and he was unwilling to give up Catholicism and accept the Anglican religion,and that’s why he wasn’t crowned James III. Anyway, he tried to win the throne by force.
In 1715 he started a rebellion against George I, but he and his supporters, the English and Scottish “Jacobites”, were defeated. Now the Whigs were allowed to form his government by King George I because of the Tory connection with the Jacobites.

8. Where do current cheques come from?

In the 12th century,during the reign of Henry I, bankers and money dealers had been allowed to give people “promisory notes” signed by themselves that could be handed on as a payment to another person in order to make trade easier. Then, at the end of the 17th century, as Britain needed to borrow money so as to pay for the war with France, a group of financiers who lent to the government set up the Bank of England,which was given authority to raise money by printing “bank notes” like it had been done hundred of years before.

9. Who is Robert Walpole? Why was/is he important in British history?

*(Related to the previous question).
R. Walpole –one of the king’s ministers, considered Britain’s first Prime Minister- came to power as a result of his financial ability. *(Now all the information in q. 8).(...) Here some of his measures:

a. Economical sphere:
People wanted to invest money in some of the companies doing business in the West Indies, the East Indies or in any other newly developing areas. In 1720 the South Sea Company offered to pay off the government’s national debt if it was given monopoly rights to trading in the South Seas.
BUT: suddenly, people stopped trusting the South...