Summary Chapter 3

FROM THE GUNPOWDER PLOT TO GLOBAL WARMING

The execution of a king

In 1605 Guy Fawkes hid under the houses of Parliament, 20 barrels of gunpowder. He and 4 other men planned to blow up King James I. Fawkes was a Roman Catholic and he was angry because he thought that the king's laws were unfair to people of his religion. He was arrested the next day and this was the end of the 'gunpowder plot'.
When James son Charles became king in 1625, he wanted the king to be more important than the Government. It wanted a protestant England, so Charles I tried to close it and to govern the country alone.
The civil war began inn1642. It divided the country between the Royalists (supported the king) and the Parliamentarians (supported Oliver Cromwell). Finally Cromwell won and in 1649 Charles I was beheaded.

Christmas is cancelled

From 1649 to 1660, there was no king or queen in England. Cromwell took an army to Ireland, where they killed many Irish soldiers and sent people as slaves to the Caribbean. He also gave land in Ireland to this soldiers. Cromwell's actions were the starts of the twentieth-century problems between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland.

Plague, Fire and Revolution

Cromwell died in 1658 and in 1660 Charles II (his son) became king. He was popular in his reign because there were two terrible events. The first was the 'Great Plague' (1664). It killed about 20% of the population of London. The second was the 'Great Fire of London' (1666). It destroyed many buildings in the capital and they had to be rebuilt.
When Charles died the new king was James II and he was Catholic. So the Parliament was unhappy with him and it invited a Dutch Protestant, William of Orange to invade the country. He was married with Mary (James' sister). James went to France and they became king and queen.
In 1745 'Bonnie' Prince Charlie took an army from Scotland to Derby in the middle of England. Finally his army lost .

England + Wales +Scotland + Ireland

Anne (James II's daughter) became queen in 1702. During her reign, two political parties developed in Parliament: the Whigs and the Tories. This was the start of the modern British political system. There were to important acts. The Act of Settlement (1701) said that no Roman Catholic could be king or queen. The Act of Union (1707) said that England and Scotland were one country.

Next king was George I (protestant). It was the start of the Georgian Age in Britain. During the reign of George III, Britain lost colonies in America but the British colonized Australia and British power grew in India.

In 1727 Robert Walpole became the first British prime minister.

In 1801 the government introduced the Act of Union with Ireland.

After Napoleon took power in France at the beginning of the 17^th century, Britain and France were at war. There were two heroes: Admiral Nelson (defeated French at the battle of Trafalgar) and the Duke of Wellington (defeated Napoleon's armies at the battle of Waterloo).

The Industrial Revolution

At the end of the 18^th century, the Industrial Revolution began in Britain. The invention of new machines changed the way that people lived. They began to move from the country to find work in the factories in big cities.

In 1825 the world's first railway was opened.

The Industrial Revolution made Britain rich. It also created problems. Living conditions for the workers were very crowded and unhealthy. Factory owners grew rich. The factory wasn't safe and children had to work so there wasn't school for them. Coal was the main fuel of the revolution.

The Victorian Age

In 1834, an eighteen year old woman called Victoria became queen of Britain. Later, she became Empress of India. She fell in love with Albert, a German prince, and after his death she kept his memory alive. Her face was on the first postage stamps and her statue was places in all parts of the British Empire. During her reign many British people became world-famous: Alexander Graham Bell, Charles Darwin, Lewis Carol...

There were many changes in the society:

-using children as workers became illegal

-education became free for everyone

-industrial cities were made safer and healthier

-the railway covered the whole country

-Science advances

-British Empire grew to include parts of Africa and Asia.

-Britain dominated the seas and became a strong navy

Queen Victoria government had many problems. There was the 'Great Potato Famine' in Ireland. A disease killed the potato plants about 1 million Irish people died because they had no food. Other people went to America.

From 1854 to 1856 there was a war with Russia when more than 20.000 soldiers died. Then Indian soldiers attacked their British officers in the Indian mutiny. Then the British took the control.

Britain changed greatly during the Victorian Age. At the end of the period, there were electric lights, telephones, the London underground and many things became modern.

The twentieth Century

During the twentieth century , Britain went through more changes. The population grew from about forty million to six million. The country was involved in two world wars (1914-1918 and 1939-1945) and in other wars too. Technological and scientific progress had a huge effect on life in the UK and Ireland. The relationship between Great Britain and Ireland changed. After the Irish War of the Independence the south of Ireland became independent from Britain. The Northern Ireland stayed in the UK; so the island was divided.

After the second world war, some countries of Asia and Africa from the British empire became independent.

In 1960,there was a great social change. Teenagers had more freedom, the role of women began to change and the rules of society were relaxed. This was the time of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. This years are also know as ' the swinging sixties'.

The British Isles saw many other important changes in the second half of this century. Margaret Thatcher was the first British female prime minister, North Sea oil was discovered, the Channel Tunnel (joins Britain to the rest of Europe), a multi-racial society developed and Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales became more independent.

Into the Twenty-first Century

Britain continues to change. The Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly make those nations more independent. People face the problem of global warming. From 2008 there have been economic problems in all the nations of British Isles because of the world recession. A new UK government with two parties that share power. The Olympics of 2012 were celebrated in LDN.