- •Билет 21. The glorious revolution. The bill of rights.
- •Билет 22. The cultural history of the 17th century.
- •Билет 24. The growth of British political system in the 18th century.
- •Билет 25. The colonial wars: the League of Augsburg and of the Spanish Succession.
- •Билет 26. The beginning of the making of the British colonial empire.
- •Билет 27. The Act of Union of 1707.
- •Билет 28. The 1715 and 1745.
- •Билет 34. The Industrial Revolution.
- •Билет 35. The machine production and the population. The Speenhamland Act of 1795.
- •Билет 36. The cultural history of the 18th century.
- •Билет 37. Britain after the war of American independence.
- •Билет 38. Britain and the French Revolution. The wars with France.
- •Билет 39. Britain after Waterloo.
- •Билет 40. The liberal reforms of the 1820’s.
Билет 21. The glorious revolution. The bill of rights.
The Glorious Revolution (The Compromise of 1688, The Revolution of 1688, the Bloodless Revolution) - 1688
1686 – Charles II died. His brother James II became the king. James II was a Catholic, which alienated him from both political parties. He tried to restore Catholicism and absolute monarchy by removing Protestants from the army, colleges and parliament. His Catholicism was a concern to many, but the fact that he had no son, and his daughters were Protestants, was a "saving grace". The throne should have passed to his eldest daughter, Mary, a Protestant. But in June 1688, the king fathered a son James and the prospect of a Catholic dynasty in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland was now likely. Then the crisis came to a head.
Parliamentary leaders decided to depose James II and offer the crown to William of Orange (Dutch Prince) and his wife Mary (James II’s daughter). When William landed in England in 1688, there was no opposition. James II was abandoned by his supporters and escaped abroad (to France, then Ireland). In 1690 he tried to win back the crown, but was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne. The revolution itself was accomplished without any bloodshed and was mainly the work of the Whigs, but the Tories didn’t oppose it. As a result, William III and Mary II were proclaimed joint king and queen. Catholics were denied the right to vote and sit in the Westminster Parliament for over a century and the monarch was forbidden to be Catholic or to marry a Catholic.
The Bill of Rights – 1689
The Bill of Rights is an Act of Parliament which limited the power of the King and strengthened that of Parliament. The King: - is not allowed to control the army and the judges; - is forbidden to dispense with the laws or to suspend them (отказывать и приостанавливать); The Parliament: - controls the finance; - must be called at least once in every 3 years (in 1716 extended to 7, in 1911 fixed at 5 years)
The constitutional monarchy was established as a compromise between the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy. Since 1688 there have been no revolutionary changes in the British system of government, only adjustments have been made to suit the changing conditions.
Билет 22. The cultural history of the 17th century.
Queen Elisabeth’s patronage of arts was limited by the cost of the war with Spain. James I established peace and could afford to be more liberal with the treasure of the kingdom, but he did little to the development of the arts and science. When Charles I came to the throne, a new age of the culture began. Philosophy and Science Francis Bacon(1561-1626) (“The Advancement of Learning”, “Novum Organum”) distinguished between the fields of philosophy and science and insisted on experimental research and inductive reasoning. William Harvey established biology as a science and proved the circulation of the blood. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) (“Leviathan”) – a materialist, maintained that matter and motion are the only realities, mind and soul are matter, God is beyond human knowledge. Added the doctrine of absolutism to materialism (there must be some absolute power to rule the society, not necessarily the king) Literature William Shakespeare (1564-1616) – turned to tragedies, having written most splendid and well-known masterpieces, turned again to romance, and wrote the last four romances in his final period. Others took interest in realism and bourgeois life: Thomas Heywood – “A Woman Killed with Kindness” Thomas Dekker – “The Honest Whore” John Webster – “The White Devil” After the Restoration: John Milton (1608-1674) – poet and writer, polemicist. Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) – the greatest prose writer of the period. Izaak Walton – biographies, “The Compleat Angler” - a celebration of the art and spirit of fishing in prose and verse. Music This age was a great age of lute song. John Downland – his lute music was played and published throughout Europe. John Bull – great master of virginal (клавесин), the first professor of music at Gresham College. In 1625 England was leading musical country, but with the death af the older composers England became more open to the foreign influence – mainly Italian with the new music of Monteverdi (invented opera). The first opera in England was performed in 1656, directed by Sir William Davenant. Architecture Inigo Jones – a professional architect, studied Roman and Renaissance art in Italy. Built a theatre and the Banqueting House in Whitehall, the Queen’s House in Greenwich. + Earl of Arundel – the 1st great patron(меценат) in England, brought English art into Europe. Middle Ages came finally to an end, medieval art mixed with the Italian Renaissance. Fine Arts The influence came from the Netherlands. Sir Nathaniel Bacon – an amateur, remarkable Jacobean painter Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) – Flemish painter of the English Court, made royal portraits.
During the Civil War the theaters were closed until the Restoration, the poetic drama was forbidden, painting and sculpture were not supported by the Court anymore. But the government could not control the provinces, and at fairs and rural entertainments there were perfomances of music and extracts from forbidden drama.
Билет 23. From the glorious revolution to the industrial revolution (1688-1760). General survey of the period. This period created the conditions for establishment of an empire and prepared the way for the Industrial Revolution. Characteristic features of the period: - the struggle between Britain and France for commercial supremacy and world domination, accompanied by colonial expansion in North America and India; - the accumulation of capital in the City of London; - the development of two-party system, the Cabinet form of government and the office of Prime Minister under a long rule of Whigs.
By the beginning of the 18th century the country was ready for the development of capitalism. Basic production was agricultural, but manufacture was wide-spread and prosperous. British markets extended all over the world, capital was accumulating and was invested in manufacture, commerce, agriculture and colonial expansion. The wealth and power of Britain was in hands of the landed aristocracy and the big bourgeoisie, these classes shared their power with the help of the two-party system: the Tories (represent landowning interests) and the Whigs (represent the growing power of capital) struggled for the majority in Parliament and the opportunity to control the monarch.
This period was also a beginning of the making of the British colonial empire, a process connected with numerous wars between Britain and its main rivals and colonial conquests in different parts of the world. The period preceded the Agrarian and Industrial revolutions which led to the disappearance of peasantry as a class and to the establishment of capitalism through decisive changes in agriculture and industry.