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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1779 | - 1779: Spain declares war on Britain hoping to regain territories lost in 1763
- 1779: First iron bridge built, over the River Severn by John Wilkinson
- 1779: Abraham Darby completes the first iron bridge across the Severn at Coalbrookdale
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| 2 | 1780 | - 1780: Holland declares war on Britain hoping for rich pickings.
- 1780: The English Reform Movement - until now, only landowners and tenants--freeholders with 40 shillings per year or more--allowed to vote, and in open poll books
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| 3 | 1782 | - 1782: Gilbert's Act establishes outdoor poor relief - the way of life of the poor beginning to alter due to industrialisation - New factories in rapidly expanding towns required a workforce that would adjust to new work patterns
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| 4 | 1783 | - 1783: Parliament demanded an end to the war, largely due to its expense. The Prime Minister, now Lord North, resigned and, on 3 September 1783, treaties were signed at Versailles. Britain retained Canada and the West Indian Islands but the thirteen rebellious states were formally recognised as the United States of America.
- 1783: Cornwallis surrenders at the battle of Yorktown
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| 5 | 1784 | - 1784: Canada : New Brunswick created - With the arrival of so many Loyalists from American colonies, New Brunswick is created as a separate colony with an elected assembly.
- 1784: Pitt's India Act - the Crown (as opposed to officers of the East India Company) has power to guide Indian politics
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| 6 | 1785 | - 1785: Sunday School Society founded to educate poor children (by 1851, enrols more than 2 million)
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| 7 | 1788 | - 1788: First slave carrying act, the Dolben Act of 1788, regulates the slave trade - stipulates more humane conditions on slave ships
- 1788: First convicts (and free settlers) arrive in New South Wales
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| 8 | 1789 | - 1789: The French Revolution begins - storming of the Bastille
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| 9 | 1792 | - 1792: Repression in Britain (restrictions on freedom of the press) - Fox gets Libel Act through Parliament, requiring a jury and not a judge to determine libel
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| 10 | 1793 | - 1793: Execution of Louis XVI of France - England declares war on France (1793-1802)
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| 11 | 1794 | - 1794: Abolition of the slave trade in North America, not slavery - Widely ignored and not enforced
- 1794: The prosecutor for Britain, Lord Justice Eyre, charges reformers with High Treason - he argued that, since reform of parliament would lead to revolution and revolution to executing the King, the desire for reform endangered the King's life and was therefore Treason
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| 12 | 1795 | - 1795: Great English Famine after crop failure. Speenhamland Act proclaims that the Parish is responsible for bringing up the labourer's wage to subsistence level.
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| 13 | 1798 | - 1798: 1798- 1802 First war with Napoleon - Feb-Oct: The Irish Rebellion; 100,000 peasants revolt; approximately 25,000 die - Irish Parliament abolished
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| 14 | 1800 | - 1800: Union of Great Britain and Ireland - Union Jack official British flag
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| 15 | 1801 | - 1801: First census puts the population of England and Wales at 9,168,000 - population of Britain nearly 11 million (75 per cent rural)
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| 16 | 1805 | - 1805: Battle of Trafalgar - Nelson Killed in Action
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| 17 | 1806 | - 1806: First colonists leave Britain for South Africa
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| 18 | 1807 | - 1807: Abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire
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| 19 | 1813 | - 1813: Printed Parish Registers introduced for Baptisms and Burials
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| 20 | 1815 | - 1815: The Corn Laws - Cereals could not be imported into Britain until the domestic price reached eighty shillings a quarter. This price meant that cereals and bread were more expensive than they needed to be and this caused considerable agitation
- 1815: Battle of Waterloo
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| 21 | 1819 | - 1819: First Factory Act - limiting those aged nine and above to a twelve hour day.
- 1819: Peterloo massacre in Manchester
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| 22 | 1820 | - 1820: George IV King of England 1820 - 1830
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1779 - 1827 (48 years)