|
|
|
History > 20th, 19th century
British empire, England, Ireland, Scotland, UK
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 1927
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1801-1922
Irish free State 1922
British empire
Timeline in pictures
Afrikaners with bolt-action rifles during the second Boer War.
Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A picture of Johannesburg on the eve of the Boer war G Monday 26 October 2015 10.24 GMT Last modified on Monday 26 October 2015 10.38 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/26/
The Boer War begins October 11 1899
A Boer picket on Spion Kop, Ladysmith during the Boer War.
Photograph: Van Hoepen/Getty Images
A picture of Johannesburg on the eve of the Boer war G Monday 26 October 2015 10.24 GMT Last modified on Monday 26 October 2015 10.38 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/26/
The second Boer war was fought from October 1899 to May 1902 between British and Afrikaner settlers in the Transvaal and Free Orange State.
The peace treaty led to the founding of a united South Africa in 1910.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/26/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/britain/vic_boer_war.shtml
https://www.npr.org/2019/08/07/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/26/
https://www.theguardian.com/news/1899/nov/17/
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1899/oct/13/
1898
Sudan
Battle of Omdurman
In 1898, (...) a whole panoply of British officers (including Winston Churchill) who would later fight in Europe were on hand for a battle at Omdurman, in Sudan.
The 50,000 Sudanese they faced were armed only with spears, swords and antiquated rifles.
In a few hours, the six Maxim machine guns of the far smaller Anglo-Egyptian force fired half a million bullets, leaving nearly 11,000 Sudanese dead and some 16,000 wounded, many fatally.
The battle determined the outcome of a war in less than a day.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/29/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/29/
1897
Benin City, originally called Edo, was once the capital of a pre-encounter African empire in what is now southern Nigeria.
It was one of the oldest states in west Africa, dating back to the 11th century.
At the height of the scramble for Africa, the “Benin expedition” of 1897 led to British troops punitively sacking the ancient city after it defied the British empire by imposing customs duties.
The city’s walls – at the time the world’s largest earthworks created in the pre-mechanised era and four times the length of the Great Wall of China – were razed.
The city was burned to the ground and its treasures looted.
Much of Benin’s artworks and artefacts were taken to Britain where many were auctioned as war booty or gifted to museums across Europe.
Hundreds of the stolen artefacts still reside in museums, galleries, universities and private collections across the UK.
The Benin bronzes, in particular, remain the subject of demands for repatriation.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/11/
Benin was crushed, its treasures stolen as if its people had produced nothing and knew nothing.
The destruction of Benin City happened at the most irrational period in the history of the empire, when Britain competed with the French, Germans and Belgians to grab as much of the African continent as possible.
Between 1880 and 1902 Britain seized Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, the Sudan and Rhodesia;
it established possession of South Africa and controlled eastern Africa from the Cape to the Suez Canal, fulfilling - partly - the megalomaniac dreams of imperialists such as Cecil Rhodes and Joseph Chamberlain.
The attack on Benin took place in the year of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, Empress of India.
The Daily Mail, voice of popular imperialism, had been founded the year before.
A year later Rudyard Kipling published The White Man's Burden: "Take up the White Man's Burden/ Send forth the best ye breed." https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2003/sep/11/2
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/11/
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2003/sep/11/2
late 19th century / early 20th century > Suffragettes
British battles
The Egypt War of 1882
The importance of Egypt to Britain rose dramatically after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
At a stroke there was a new route from Europe to the Far East that halved the journey time between Britain and India.
At this point Egypt was developing rapidly along western lines, but the following decade saw increasing tension between Britain and Egypt, resulting in the British attack on Egypt in 1882.
This gallery looks in detail at the war of 1882 and its conclusive engagement, the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir.
The causes of war
From 1805 Egypt had been nominally part of the Ottoman (Turkish) empire, but it was effectively ruled by a dynasty established by the strong and modernising ruler Muhammad Ali.
By 1869, it had benefited from years of investment (much of it British and French) in irrigation, railways, cotton plantations and schools.
By 1876, however, its ruler the Khedive Ismail Pasha had run up debts of almost £100 million.
In spite of the Khedive's sale of his 45% holding in the Suez Canal to Britain for £4 million in 1875, Egypt was heading for financial ruin. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/battles/egypt/
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/battles/egypt/
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) PM 1868 PM 1874 to 1880
Myth-making … Benjamin Disraeli.
Photograph: Jabez Hughes/Getty Images
Disraeli by David Cesarani review – the Jewish prime minister and antisemitism G Saturday 11 June 2016 11.00 BST Last modified on Saturday 11 June 2016 13.37 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/11/
Benjamin Disraeli
Politician, novelist and bon viveur, Benjamin Disraeli was a man with many interests, but it was as a Conservative politician that Disraeli achieved lasting fame.
PM for almost 7 years, he initiated a wide range of legislation to improve educational opportunities and the life of working people.
Benjamin ‘Dizzy’ Disraeli was the son of Isaac, a Jewish Italian writer, and had an Anglican upbringing after the age of 12.
With Jews excluded from Parliament until 1858, this enabled Disraeli to follow a career that would otherwise have been denied him.
https://www.gov.uk/government/history/
https://www.gov.uk/government/history/past-prime-ministers/
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/11/
1878-1881
Afghanistan
Second Anglo-Afghan War
July 27, 1880
Battle of Maiwand
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/wiltshire/hi/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Maiwand
1878-1881
Afghanistan
Second Anglo-Afghan War
1878
Britain invade Afghanistan
Sir Louis Cavagnari, British envoy to Afghanistan, photographed on his way to Kabul in July 1879.
Two months later he was killed during an Afghan uprising in Kabul.
This led to the war of 1879.
Photograph: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis, via Getty Images
The Empire Stopper The foreign powers that have tried to control Afghanistan since the 19th century have all suffered for the effort. Now the U.S. is digging back in. NYT AUG. 29, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/29/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8151294.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4926628.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/wiltshire/hi/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/29/
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/
1877
The Transvaal Republic is annexed to the British Empire
https://www.theguardian.com/news/1877/may/10/
1875
Public Health Act
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/38-39/55/contents
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/27/
1867
Representation of the People Act
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/30-31/102/contents
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/apr/15/
1858
The Great Stink
The Great Stink was an event in Central London in July and August 1858 during which the hot weather exacerbated the smell of untreated human waste and industrial effluent that was present on the banks of the River Thames.
The problem had been mounting for some years, with an ageing and inadequate sewer system that emptied directly into the Thames.
The miasma from the effluent was thought to transmit contagious diseases, and three outbreaks of cholera before the Great Stink were blamed on the ongoing problem with the river. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stink - 1 July 2021
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stink
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/06/30/
1857-1858
India
The Indian Mutiny
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/empire/indian_rebellion_01.shtml
Robert Peel 1788-1850
British Conservative statesman who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–35 and 1841–46) and twice as Home Secretary (1822–27 and 1828–30).
He is regarded as the father of modern British policing, owing to his founding of the Metropolitan Police Service.
Peel was one of the founders of the modern Conservative Party. 27 December 2020 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Peel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Peel
https://www.theguardian.com/news/1850/jul/06/
1845 - 1850s
The Irish famine / The Great Hunger
The great Irish potato famine of the 1840s claimed a million lives
https://www.theguardian.com/books/1999/jul/10/
http://vassun.vassar.edu/~sttaylor/FAMINE/ILN/Mortality/SkibFuneral.gif - broken link
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/trollope/famine2.html
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/28/
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/aug/10/
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2011/sep/22/
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2011/may/08/
https://www.theguardian.com/books/1999/jul/10/
The British Empire / British dominions
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/library/british_empire.shtml
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1834/aug/02/
British Imperialistic Anthem
Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory, and more
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/
Queen Victoria r. 1837-1901 (1819-1901)
The Victorian age
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/britain/vic_boer_war.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/britain/o_victorians.shtml
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1901/jan/23/
Crimea, 1854
British battles
The Crimean War
In Britain, the Crimean War is principally remembered for three reasons:
the Charge of the Light Brigade, maladministration in the British army, and Florence Nightingale.
However, this war, fought by an alliance of Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia against Russia, is far more complex.
Many wars have been fought on the grounds of the strategic importance of a region;
many wars have been fought over religious differences.
The Crimean War was the result of both factors.
The causes of war
During the years leading up to the Crimean War, France, Russia and Britain were all competing for influence in the Middle East, particularly with Turkey.
Religious differences were certainly a catalyst in the Crimean War.
Control of access to religious sites in the Holy Land had been a cause of tension between Catholic France and Orthodox Russia for a number of years and in 1853, the conflict came to a head with rioting in Bethlehem, which was then part of the Ottoman empire ruled by Turkey.
A number of Orthodox monks were killed during fighting with French monks.
Tsar Nicholas I blamed the Turks for these deaths. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/battles/crimea/
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/battles/crimea/
1840,1846
The Corn Laws
https://www.economist.com/unknown/1843/08/05/
https://www.economist.com/unknown/1843/08/05/
https://www.economist.com/unknown/1843/08/05/
https://www.economist.com/unknown/1843/08/05/
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/28/
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2011/may/09/
https://www.theguardian.com/news/1840/jan/20/
Irish emigrants
The story of Irish immigration to America during the 19th century
Ireland’s 1845 Potato Blight
Anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic sentiments
Racial tensions
The Irish Famine: 1845-9
"Potato crop fails in Ireland sparking the Potato Famine that kills one million and prompts almost 500,000 to immigrate to America in the next five years." http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/immig/irish8.html
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/famine.html
1839-1842
Afghanistan
First Anglo-Afghan war
The Massacre of Elphinstone's Army was a victory of Afghan forces, led by Akbar Khan, the son of Dost Mohammad Khan, over a combined British and Indian force led by Major General William Elphinstone, in January 1842. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_Elphinstone%27s_Army
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8151294.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/making_history/making_history
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/
1839-1842
Afghanistan
First Anglo-Afghan war
1839
The British invade Afghanistan
The First Anglo-Afghan War broke out when Britain invaded Afghanistan because she feared Russian encroachment into Central Asia.
The British were eventually routed and the 16,000 strong army forced to flee Kabul in the winter of 1841.
Only one man survived the retreat. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8151294.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8151294.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/making_history/making_history
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/
The "People's Charter," drafted in 1838 by William Lovett
Chartism or The Chartist Movement
The Chartist Movement 1838-1848
The Poor Man's Guardian
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/hist3.html http://www.victorianweb.org/history/chartism7.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/chartist_01.shtm
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/jul/24/
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/jul/27/
1833
Abolition of Slavery Act
https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/apr/15/
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jan/25/
1830
Tasmania
Liffey Falls massacre
In 1830, in response to conflicts between colonisers and Indigenous people, Governor George Arthur called for every British man to form a human chain across Tasmania to capture and kill Aboriginal people.
More than 2,200 settlers, military, police and convicts joined in.
“The Black Line” was the largest force assembled against Aboriginal people anywhere in Australia.
Those captured were forcibly removed to Flinders Island in Bass Strait, where many later died.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/jun/22/
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/jun/22/
The Peterloo Massacre Manchester August 16, 1819
A contemporary political cartoon of the Peterloo massacre.
Photograph: The Art Archive/Rex/Shutterstock
Public re-enactment to mark 200th anniversary of Peterloo massacre G Tue 23 Jul 2019 16.31 BST Last modified on Wed 24 Jul 2019 08.11 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/23/
over-zealous local magistrates sent armed soldiers to disperse a peaceful public meeting in support of universal suffrage.
At least 11 people were killed.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/02/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2007/08/15/ http://www.victorianweb.org/history/riots/peterloo.html
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/23/
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jan/04/
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/02/
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/aug/15/
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/aug/13/
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/jul/24/
1811-1816
The Luddites
After the end of the French Wars, it became increasingly clear that England was suffering from great social, economic and political upheavals.
These problems collectively became known as the 'Condition of England Question'.
Many of these problems would have occurred eventually but had been speeded up by the effects of the French Wars on the country.
Most of the major changes were the direct result of the French Wars.
Others came from natural growth and change.
The distress and discontent caused by these enormous changes were manifested in a series of events in the period 1811-19.
One of these was the upsurge in Luddism.
Luddites were men who took the name of a (perhaps) mythical individual, Ned Ludd who was reputed to live in Sherwood Forest.
The Luddites were trying to save their livelihoods by smashing industrial machines developed for use in the textile industries of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire.
Some Luddites were active in Lancashire also.
They smashed stocking-frames and cropping frames among others.
There does not seem to have been any political motivation behind the Luddite riots; equally, there was no national organisation.
The men merely were attacking what they saw as the reason for the decline in their livelihoods. http://www.victorianweb.org/history/riots/luddites.html
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/riots/luddites.html
18 June 1815
Battle of Waterloo
Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/battle_waterloo_01.shtml
Spencer Perceval 1762-1812
Spencer Perceval is best remembered as the only British prime minister to be assassinated.
A professional lawyer, he made his mark as by holding down the senior posts of Solicitor-General and Attorney-General.
An admirer of William Pitt the Younger, he was politically conservative and an active Anglican, opposing Catholic emancipation.
In later life he became an expert on Biblical prophecy and wrote pamphlets relating prophecies that he had discovered.
When the Duke of Portland put together a coalition of Tories in 1807, Perceval served as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons.
With Portland old and unwell, Perceval was effectively the chief minister, and even lived at 10 Downing Street.
In 1809, Perceval formally succeeded the Duke of Portland as prime minister.
It was a difficult time due to the upheavals of the Industrial Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, and the final descent of George III into madness.
His government also suffered from the absence of most of the senior statesmen of the period.
He had to serve as his own Chancellor after obtaining six refusals of office.
After two years his government had survived much longer than predicted amidst a severe economic depression.
Indeed, it began to seem that the situation of his government looked as if it was set to improve.
But Perceval’s administration ended dramatically on 11 May 1812, when he was shot dead in the lobby of the House of Commons on his way to attend an inquiry into the recent Luddite riots.
The assassin was John Bellingham, a merchant who had incurred business debts in Russia. http://www.number10.gov.uk/past-prime-ministers/spencer-perceval/
https://www.gov.uk/government/history/past-prime-ministers/
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/may/06/
1807
British empire
Legislation abolishing the slave trade
Abolition of the Slave Trade / Slave Trade Act
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/derby/content/articles/2007/03/02/
17th and 18th centuries
Parliament and the British Slave Trade
Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries Parliament significantly shaped the progress and development of the transatlantic slave system.
The Act of Parliament to abolish the British slave trade, passed on 25 March 1807, was the culmination of one of the first and most successful public campaigns in history https://www.parliament.uk/slavetrade
https://www.parliament.uk/slavetrade
Horatio Nelson 1758-1805
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/nelson_horatio.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/nelson_1.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/french_threat_01.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/protest_reform/british_french_rev_01.shtml
1805
The Battle of Trafalgar
The battle took place in the Atlantic Ocean off the southwest coast of Spain, just west of Cape Trafalgar, near the town of Los Caños de Meca. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Trafalgar
Horatio Nelson
Napoleon Bonaparte
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/britain/geo_battle_trafalgar.shtml
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nelson/
1760-1840
Industrial Revolution, Dudley, West Midlands
The Black Country, to the west of Birmingham, stood on the thick, rich coal seams which were to power Britain to the forefront of manufacturing nations.
Close to the pleasant hills of south Shropshire, this region of some 20 expanding small towns, each specialising in a particular metal trade, was the first sizeable industrial landscape in the world.
By the middle of the 19th century, it was producing more than a fifth of the country’s iron, supplying the cast-iron pillars for the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851, the US’s first steam locomotive, and the anchors for such mighty vessels as the Titanic and Brunel’s SS Great Britain.
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/feb/14/
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/feb/14/
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state that existed between 1801 and 1922.
It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland into a unified state.
The establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 led to the country later being renamed to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1927, which continues to exist in the present day (27 December 2020)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
The Acts of Union 1800 (sometimes referred to as a single Act of Union 1801) were parallel acts of the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland which united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland (previously in personal union) to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
The acts came into force on 1 January 1801, and the merged Parliament of the United Kingdom had its first meeting on 22 January 1801. - 27 December 2020 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acts_of_Union_1800
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acts_of_Union_1800
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aip/Geo3/40/38/contents
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/ireland1.html
Related > Anglonautes > History > Ancient Britain - early 21st century
Ancient Britain - Early 21st century England, United Kingdom, British Empire
Northern Ireland > 20th century > The Troubles
|
|
|
