1834-8-1 Abolition of Slavery, UK

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1834-8-1 Slavery Abolition Act enforced; United Kingdom - HiPo > .

On 1 August 1834 the Slavery Abolition Act came into force in the United Kingdom.

Parliament had outlawed the slave trade in the Slave Trade Act of 1807, but that Act only served to stop the creation of new slaves. It did not address the issue of existing slaves who were already in the colonies.

It was these slaves that the new Slavery Abolition Act sought to address, and it received royal assent in 1833. The Act outlawed slavery throughout the British Empire although the impact took a long time to be felt. There were also some exceptions such as in areas controlled by the East India Company.

A key problem facing the government was what to do with the former slaves. The Act addressed this issue by stating that former slaves over the age of six became ‘apprentices’ and continued to work on the same plantations in largely the same conditions as before. Many of them were only fully emancipated six years later in 1840, although all slaves in Trinidad were fully emancipated ahead of schedule in 1838.

The position of the former slave owners themselves was also addressed in the Slavery Abolition Act. It’s important to remember that the Act effectively stripped slave-owners of their property. The Act therefore compensated the slave-owners for their loss of property. This was done by the Slave Compensation Commission that awarded the equivalent of £17bn in today’s money, funded by the taxpayer, to 46,000 slave owners.

A searchable online database of every slave-owner who was awarded compensation by the Commission is available to view at www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs.

1832 Great Reform Act

.The Great Reform Act 1832: Origins and Opposition | feat UK Parliamentary Archives > .

Great Reform Act - Ending Rotten Boroughs - Bonum >> .

The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major changes to the electoral system of England and Wales. It abolished tiny districts, gave representation to cities, gave the vote to small landowners, tenant farmers, shopkeepers, householders who paid a yearly rental of £10 or more, and some lodgers. Only qualifying men were able to vote; the Act introduced the first explicit statutory bar to women's voting, by defining a voter as a male person.

It was designed to correct abuses – to "take effectual Measures for correcting divers Abuses that have long prevailed in the Choice of Members to serve in the Commons House of Parliament". Before the reform, most members nominally represented boroughs. The number of electors in a borough varied widely, from a dozen or so up to 12,000. Frequently the selection of Members of Parliament (MPs) was effectively controlled by one powerful patron: for example Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk, controlled eleven boroughs. Criteria for qualification for the franchise varied greatly among boroughs, from the requirement to own land, to merely living in a house with a hearth sufficient to boil a pot.

There had been calls for reform long before 1832, but without success. The Act that finally succeeded was proposed by the Whigs, led by Prime Minister Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey. It met with significant opposition from the Pittite factions in Parliament, who had long governed the country; opposition was especially pronounced in the House of Lords. Nevertheless, the bill was eventually passed, mainly as a result of public pressure. The Act granted seats in the House of Commons to large cities that had sprung up during the Industrial Revolution, and removed seats from the "rotten boroughs": those with very small electorates and usually dominated by a wealthy patron. The Act also increased the electorate from about 400,000 to 650,000, making about one in five adult males eligible to vote.

The full title is An Act to amend the representation of the people in England and Wales. Its formal short title and citation is "Representation of the People Act 1832 (2 & 3 Wm. IV, c. 45)". The Act applied only in England and Wales; the Irish Reform Act 1832 brought similar changes to Ireland. The separate Scottish Reform Act 1832 was revolutionary, enlarging the electorate by a factor of 13 from 5,000 to 65,000.

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1815-2-26 Bonaparte Escapes

1815-2-26 Bonaparte escapes exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba - HiPo > .

1815-6-9 Final Act of Congress of Vienna signed, days before Waterloo - HiPo > .

On 26 February 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba and sailed to the French mainland.

On 11 April 1814 Napoleon had agreed to the Treaty of Fontainebleau, in which he abdicated the throne following his defeat in the War of the Sixth Coalition. The Treaty ended his rule of France but allowed him to keep his title as Emperor. He was granted sovereignty of the island of Elba and, following a failed suicide attempt, arrived on the island on 30 May.

Throughout the nine months and twenty-one days that he remained on Elba, Napoleon observed with interest the unfolding situation in France under the restored Bourbon king. Meanwhile he implemented a series of social and economic reforms to improve the situation on the island.

It was Napoleon’s confidence in the likelihood of a popular revolt in his favour that led to him leaving the island. Furthermore the Great Powers were distracted by internal disagreements at the Congress of Vienna. The ships from the British Navy that were supposed to ensure Napoleon was unable to escape his exile were not in the area when, on 26 February, he left the island and headed for the French mainland on board the brig Inconstant accompanied by almost a thousand troops.

Napoleon’s arrival in France was greeted with enthusiasm. After landing at the coastal town of Golfe-Juan on 1 March, he quickly secured support from a small army with whom he marched to Paris. His arrival on 20 March led Louis XVIII to flee the city and heralded the start of a period of Napoleonic government that became known as the Hundred Days.

On 9 June 1815 the ‘Final Act’ of the Congress of Vienna was signed, nine days before Napoleon’s final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

The Congress was chaired by Metternich, the Austrian principal minister, and led by the ‘Four Great Powers’ of Austria, Russia, Britain, and Prussia alongside France. In total over 200 states were represented in some way at the Congress, making it the largest diplomatic event of its time. However, the key terms were discussed and decided by the Great Powers in informal meetings.

The Congress met with the purpose of reviewing and reorganising Europe after the Napoleonic Wars. By doing this, the Great Powers hoped to achieve a lasting peace. Having first met after the defeat and surrender of Napoleonic France in 1814, the meetings continued in spite of the renewal of hostilities following the period known as the Hundred Days in which Napoleon returned from exile and took back control of France.

The Final Act of the Congress set in place a map of Europe that remained largely unchanged for the next forty years, and which laid the foundations for the First World War. Historians and politicians in the later 19th Century even criticised the attendees for focusing more on achieving a balance of power than on maintaining peace.

The Final Settlement largely ignored the emerging nationalist sentiments in parts of Europe, and this exclusion was particularly heavily criticised by later commentators. Although nationalist movements were a key factor in the disputes and conflicts that emerged later, it’s important to remember that the Congress did succeed in its primary aim of securing wider European peace for the best part of a century.

Highland Clearances 1815+

.In Our Time: The Highland Clearances - BBC > .

The Highland Clearances (Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal, the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in the period 1750 to 1860.

The second phase (c.1815–20 to 1850s) involved overcrowded crofting communities from the first phase that had lost the means to support themselves, through famine and/or collapse of industries that they had relied on (such as the kelp trade), as well as continuing population growth. This is when "assisted passages" were common, when landowners paid the fares for their tenants to emigrate. Tenants who were selected for this had, in practical terms, little choice but to emigrate. The Highland Potato Famine struck towards the end of this period, giving greater urgency to the process.

Agriculture in the Highlands had always been marginal, with famine a recurrent risk for pre-clearance communities. Nevertheless, population levels increased steadily through the 18th and early 19th centuries. This increase continued through nearly all of the time of the clearances, peaking in 1851, at around 300,000. Emigration was part of Highland history before and during the clearances, and reached its highest level after them. During the first phase of the clearances, emigration could be considered a form of resistance to the loss of status being imposed by a landlord's social engineering.

The eviction of tenants went against dùthchas, the principle that clan members had an inalienable right to rent land in the clan territory. This was never recognised in Scottish law. It was gradually abandoned by clan chiefs as they began to think of themselves simply as commercial landlords, rather than as patriarchs of their people—a process that arguably started with the Statutes of Iona. The clan members continued to rely on dùthchas. This different viewpoint was an inevitable source of grievance. The actions of landlords varied. Some did try to delay or limit evictions, often to their financial cost. The Countess of Sutherland genuinely believed her plans were advantageous for those resettled in crofting communities and could not understand why tenants complained. A few landlords displayed complete lack of concern for evicted tenants.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Clearances .

Highland Clearances, 1750+ ..