Industrialisation and the people 1783-1885

The Governmental response  Oppressive and suppressive measures to unrest Supportive and reformative measures to unrest (Mainly Sir Robert Peel’s work) ·       The Six Acts: WAKE UP! Jesus, this cabinet man 1.      Seditious Meetings Prevention Acts 2.      The Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Acts  3.      Newspaper and Stamp Duties Acts  4.      Training Prevention Acts 5.      Seizure of Arms Acts  6.      The Misdemeanours Acts ·       Strictening of Game Law  ·       Repealed income tax, leading to a significant increase in indirect taxes   ·       Violent use of Calvary to physically end peaceful protests   ·       Factories Act   ·       Truck Act   ·       Relief Act   During this period the empire is booming, everything around was developing and changing apart from social justice.  The spiral into revolution continued, it was fuelled by the ever-growing economy and power, by the lack of change in society and the increased governmental enforced ce

Event: Queen Caroline Affair  Date: June 1820 Key individuals:  Queen Caroline Prince Regent  "Go back to Italy or I will call in the big guns, you Brunswick B**CH!" What was it? ·       5 th  June 1820 Queen Caroline returned from living in Italy for the past 6 years and demanded her crown  ·       George IV was determined to divorce his estranged wife, Caroline of Brunswick, so he made the HOL to make laws that would annul the royal marriage  Why did it contribute to the social unrest? ·       Public sympathised with Caroline  ·       If the Public disliked the king it posed an issue for the government as it brings up the issue with the constitutional monarchy and made the public have less faith in the crown  ·       In turn the affaire placed a buck tonne of pressure on Lord Liverpool

Event: Cato Street Conspiracy  Date: 1820 Those double yellows is what caught them out  Key individuals:  Arthur Thistlewood What was it? ·       It was a plot to murder all of the cabinet and Lord Liverpool ·       The plotters fell into a police trap and 13 of them were arrested  ·       This was a decade after the assassination of Spencer Percifield  ·       5 individuals were executed and 5 were sent to Australia  ·       The conspirators were the Spenceans, a group set up in the name of Thomas Spence  ·       It was an act of pure revolution    Evaluating the event: ·       This event was different in many ways, it was the first violence intended event. However, it was undertaken by middle class civilians and it was only a small section of extreme radicals, their views were not representative of the country in the same way that the other events were

Event: Peterloo Date: 16 th  August 1819 Key individuals:  Henry Hunt What was it? ·       Working class gathered at St Peter’s Field in Manchester to protest against the Corn Laws and listen to Henry Hunts address, he was after universal suffrage and equal representation  ·       Magistrates didn’t like the gathering and feared it may turn violent so authorised the king’s cavalry to charge at the crowd of 60,000-80,000 people demanding parliamentary reform  ·       15 people were killed  ·       600 people were injured ·       This event, the Blanketeers and the Spa Field Riots encouraged the workers to stand up, encourage a national feeling of revolution and unrest An excellent watch, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Peterloo-DVD/dp/B07JLMBD65/ref=sr_1_1?s=instant-video&ie=UTF8&qid=1546100634&sr=8-1&keywords=peterloo

"please stop, your blankets scare me" Event: Blanketeers  Date: 10 th  March 1817 Key individuals:  set ground work for the Luddites What was it? ·       Demonstrations organised in Manchester by many Lancashire weaver  ·       They planned to march to London and petition the Prince Regent  ·       It was an act of protest against the Habeas Corpus Act but it was more of an assault against the king rather than the government 

Event: Spa Field Riots Date: 5 th  November, 8 th  December 1816 I don't get it, why riot when you have a Spa and a Field? Just chill people honestly  Key individuals:  John Castle - a government spy that infiltrated the Spenceans but may have been an agent provocateur Henry Hunt  Arthur Thistlewood  What was it?  ·       8 th - 10,000 attended a peaceful protest in which Henry Hunt would give a petition to the Prince Regent requesting electoral reform  ·       15 th - another mass meeting at Spa Field, London, in which the Spenceans planned to encourage rioting in order to seize control of the government by taking the tower of London and the Bank of England  ·       Arthur Thistlewood and three other Spenceans leaders were arrested but let go due to John Castles involvement