5.3. The events after 1660.

5.3.1. When Charles II became king he promised general pardon, and religious toleration, which was received with a burst of national enthusiasm. In May 1660 monarchy was restored in England. The period of 1660 – 88 is known as the Restoration. It is characterised by a struggle for power between the feudal aristocracy and the bourgeoisie and gentry which had secured a dominant position in the society during the revolution. The feudal aristocracy was dreaming of a complete return to the pre-revolutionary days, while the bourgeoisie desperately tried to retain the privileges gained during the revolution.

5.3.2. Nobody can say that England did well in the period of Restoration. There happened the Great Plague (1665 – 1666) and the Great Fire of London (1666), and the country was losing a lot in the sphere of foreign policy. In this period we can see the beginning of what we now know as the modern political system of Great Britain. The two political parties appeared at that time – the Tories and the Whigs. Later they turned into the Conservative and Liberal parties. The Whigs was a rude name for cattle driv­ers. The Whigs were afraid of an absolute monarchy and of the Catholic faith. The other party, which opposed the Whigs, was nicknamed Tories, which is an Irish name for thieves. The Tories, who were natural inheritors of the Roy­alists of the Civil War, supported the Crown and the Church. The Revolution of 1688 deposed James in favor of his nephew, William of Orange. William was a Dutch protestant noble who had married James’ daughter Mary.

5.3.3. In the XVII century Britain's main rivals were Spain, Holland and France. There was a competition in trade between England and Holland. Colonizing foreign lands was important for economic development. Britain did not have as many colonies abroad as Spain or Holland, but it had greater variety. Britain had twelve colonies on the east coast of North Amer­ica which were started with the help of John Smith early in the XVII century. In the West Indies it had new colonies where sugar was grown. Besides, by this time Britain's East India Company had established its first trading set­tlements in India, on both the west and east coasts. There were many colonial wars which led to the emergence of the British colonial empire. It eventually reached the farthermost corners of the world, like Australia discovered by Captain James Cook.

5.3.4. The XVII century is known as the period of the Enlightenment in England. Great scientists worked at that time such as Isaac Newton. The writers and scholars Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe and Samuel Johnson contributed to the development of the literary language. The architect of London, Sir Christopher Wren is noted for his St. Paul's Cathedral and dozens of other structures. The Enlightenment saw the development of humanitarian thought. Individuals like the poet and painter William Blake created their own artistic philosophies.

5.4. The Industrial Revolution.

5.4.1. By the middle of the XVIII century industry began to use coal for changing iron ore into good quality iron or steel. This laid the foundation for the Industrial Revolution. This made Britain the leading iron producer in Europe. Increased iron production made it possible to manufacture new machinery for other industries. In the middle of the century other countries were buying Brit­ish uniforms, equipment and weapons for their ar­mies.

5.4.2. The industry most often associated with the Industrial Revolution is the textile industry. A series of extraordinary innovations reduced and then replaced the human labor required to make cloth. British inventor John Kay created a device known as the flying shuttle, which partially mechanized the process of weaving. The British inventor and industrialist James Hargreaves had invented the spinning jenny, a machine that spins a number of threads at once. The most important results of these changes were enormous increases in the output of goods per worker. A single spinner or weaver, for example, could now turn out many times the volume of yarn or cloth that earlier workers had produced.

5.4.3. James Watt, a laboratory assistant from Scotland, developed a new type of steam engine. At first the engine was used only for stationary work, but later on it was modified by George Stephenson to drive locomotives. In 1825 the first railway was built. The development of technology was advanced further by outstanding engineers like Isambard Brunel. He was responsible for building more than 1,600 km of railway in the West Country, the Midlands, South Wales, and Ireland. His approach to engineering was always creative. Brunel Junior is best remembered for his outstanding contribution to marine engineering. Later in life, he designed three huge ships. The Great Eastern built in 1858 is probably the most well-known of the three. It was the largest steamship in the world in the second half of the XIX century.

5.4.4. The social consequences of the Industrial Revolution were dramatic and far-reaching. English society was breaking up into 2 basic classes – the owners of factories (the capitalists) and the workers (the proletarians). While the owners gained profits the working conditions were terrible and the wages were very small. Hand-workers were losing their jobs to the new machines. The enclosure movement created an abundant labour supply. Thousands of peasants became landless and ruined and were forced to migrate to the growing towns where they were consumed by the growing industry.