G.M Trevelyan - SHE - Chapter XV
[alert-success] COBBETT'S ENGLAND- I
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[alert-primary] THE WARS WITH FRANCE AND ITS RESULTS [/alert-primary]
[alert-primary] THE WARS WITH FRANCE AND ITS RESULTS [/alert-primary]
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The period called Cobbett’s England comprises the major events of the
Wars with Frace 179301815, Waterloo of 1815, Peterloo of 1819 and the Reform
Bill of 1831 to 1832. The French Revolution was
France's most important political event in the 1800s. The French King at the
time, Louis XIV, was stubborn and cruel, and he didn't care about the suffering
of the French people. So, the people did not like the way the King was acting,
and this led to the French Revolution. France got rid of its monarchy and
became the French Republic. It started with the breaking open of the State
Prison at Bastille in 1789.
Classes and the War
During the Napoleonic
Wars, England was the most important country in getting rid of Napoleon. She
was Napoleon's most determined lover, and when her allies were forced to make
peace, she often had to carry on the war by herself. She had a lot of money, which
she used to help her allies. For most English people, the war years, especially
between 1806 and 1815, are full of misery and humiliation. The population was
growing very quickly, but there wasn't enough food to meet the needs of the
growing number of people.
Prices went up a lot, but
wages didn't go up at the same rate. Because of this, the working classes
needed help from the Poor Law authorities to stay alive. In 1815, the Corn Law
was passed to protect farmers from competition from other countries. It said
that foreign corn couldn't be brought in until the price of British corn went
up by a quarter. But almost all of the money from this high price went to the
landlords, and the workers' lives got worse as a result. During his "rural
rides," William Cobbett saw the new signs. The war was hard on the poor.
England after the war
After the war with France,
the prices of coal and iron went down. Half a million soldiers, sailors, and
other people were kicked out of the military, which made England's unemployment
rate go up. England brought in corn to lower the price of it.
So, in 1846, Robert Reel
got rid of the Corn Law. In England, there were a lot of protests, and at St.
Peter's Field, a cavalry charge was ordered. "The Battle of Peterloo or
the Manchester Massacre" was the name for this event. The English army and
navy became national institutions after the French Revolution. When Lord Nelson
won the Battle of Trafalgar, he showed that the English Navy was the best. Lord
Wellington showed that the army was the best when he beat Napoleon at the
Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
The Results
The poor in England rose up for Parliamentary
Reform in order to find a way out of their problems. In 1832, the First Reform
Bill was passed. People thought that the way members of the Parliament were
chosen needed to be changed. After the French Revolution, the navy and army
were put under the control of the government.
In conclusion, the French
Revolution was a call to freedom. Burke and Paine were two of the most extreme
English thinkers. Burke didn't like how violent the Revolution was. In his book
"Reflections on the French Revolution," he didn't give the spirit of
the Revolution much thought.
Paine's "Rights of
Man" praised the French cause and supported the "right of the people
to change the government whenever they want." The English navy and army
gained more respect after the Battle of Trafalgar and the Battle of Waterloo.
The French Revolution led to the rise of Romanticism.
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