Queen Victoria

Child Labour

The use of working-class children to provide much of the labour force for the Industrial Revolution was merely an expansion and extension of an already long-established practice of working-class children employed by farmers or artisans. The working conditions were highly debated.

On one hand, children worked under deplorable conditions and were being exploited by the industrialists. “Parish apprentice children” were some of the first children to be brought into the factory setting, who had been taken in by the government and placed in orphanages, and were not paid  for the work they did; the compensation in basic needs was considered enough and in many cases just barely enough to survive on.

On the other hand, some were looking at the value that came from the labor provided by these children. In many cases these were the factory owners and managers who benefited from the labor. They would argue that the children’s employment was beneficial to “the child, family, and country ".

The new social order that the Industrial Revolution brought, made the children became part of the workforce because they were young and easily taught while being obedient and respectful of authority, while some affirm that Child labour was the crucial ingredient which allowed Britain's Industrial Revolution to succeed. But, of course, in those times, the concept of childhood  was nule,  and authoritarianism  was seen different, child labour not being the only example, but also can be seen in education. Based on today’s standards and Children's rights, it would not be considered acceptable for children to be working, but that was the result of the debate that started because of child labour in factories and mills in the Industrial Revolution.

Industries: Cloth, coal, iron and metal.

.The main industries in England were the cloth, the coal and iron; and the metal industry. All of them were facing difficulties regarding the processes employed for production so it was essential to improve technology at that time. As people strated to buy more goods,  textile traders began to look for faster and cheaper ways of producing clothes

The greatest innovation for the difficulties in  cloth production was the invention of a the spinning wheel. In 1764, the Spinning Jenny was invented by James Hargreaves, which he patented in 1770. It was the first practical spinning frame with multiple spindles. The jenny worked by first clamping down on the fibres, and then by drawing them out, followed by twisting.

  In the other two great English industries, coal and iron, there was an equal need for technological improvement. Because of the rise of industrialization, there was an incredible demand for coal and iron. People used to find iron and coal and they deliberately uprooted them, but then the task turn almost impossible since they had to go deeper. The invention that solved this problem was the steam pump developed by Savery and Newcomen, which was then perfected in 1712.

  Finally, the most vital of English industries was the metal trade. Up to that moment, iron had always been smelted by charcoal, but all the forests were being destroyed.  The metal industry seemed to be in a period of crisis and many people were trying to discover new ways of smelting coal. Fortunately, the Darbys of Coalbrookdale discovered that they could use coke for smelting instead of charcoal.Thanks to this process, England started to lead the world in the industrial revolution.

 To conclude, the first part of the eighteenth century was a period in which people began to realize that there was a need for a change so as to improve the production in the different industries. Several inventors worked really hard to develop new methods and machines that would optimize and facilitate the production. These inventions had a profound effect on England’s invention and they marked the process of industrialization which had already begun and turned England into the leading industrial nation of the period.

Riots: The Riot Act

Particularly in London, mini-riots took place on almost every public occasion; like elections, fairs, and executions; where the poor caused window-smashing and looting. The Riot Act aimed to prevent this kind of tumults and riotous assemblies in a time of wide spread social disturbance, giving them an hour to disperse.

The most important riots that preceded the Riot Act were The Sacheverell Riots in 1710 and the Coronation Riots in 1714, both against George I’s government. Passed by British Parliament in 1714, the Act enabled local enforcement to approach a group of a dozen or more people that showed signs of being unlawfully and tumultuously assembled. Not only the Act had to be read out loud to take effect, but also the rioters took it as a provocation and that made the riot and chaos to spread.

Therefore, the riots continued throughout 1715, where the mobs, that consisted mostly of Tories, set Dissenting Chapels on fire while they chanted ‘No Hanoverian, No Presbyterian Government’. The government arrested the leading Tories to prevent them to rise thanks to the Riot Act.

Although the Riot Act was practiced until 1919 and did prevent the Jacobite Rising in 1715, it was unsuccessful at controlling disturbances because of its impracticality: at times, it was unclear if the  Riot Act had actually been read .As to the use of force, rioters often believed that the military could not use force until one hour had passed since the reading of the proclamation. In spite of its impracticality many jurisdictions that have inherited the tradition to this day, and the expression "to read the Riot Act" remains in common use in the English language.

The consequences of the Napoleonic Wars.

Emperor of France with a limitless ambition and considered one of the greatest commanders in history, Napoleon Bonaparte wanted to create a wide empire trough all Europe ruled autocratically by a dynasty founded by him. Among many, the long lasting effects of the Napoleonic Wars were caused by the ideology of nationalism.


 As Napoleon expanded the French Empire, he took over many countries and led them to find an overpowering sense of nationalism that spreaded throughout Europe, and countries created their own idea of what a citizen was, specially Germany,  that created strict citizenship laws, those being a key cause to the World Wars.


Many treaties that Napoleon attempted to create caused later effects. The treaty between France and Austria signed during Napoleon's reign later affected the Treaty of Versailles.   After he got taken out of power, and the countries he had taken over got their freedom back, those countries didn't want to let other people into their  countries. Tensions began to build, and exploded when  Franz Ferdinand, Duke of Austria, was assassinated by a Serbian rebel, causing World War One. 


Overall, both World Wars were essentially caused by Napoleon's reign and the events that took place after he died.  The events that took place during twentieth century Europe were the biggest effects of Napoleon's reign. The nationalism that Napoleon caused can be seen in the Nazis rise to power. These  events made the world as it is now, and without Napoleon, none of these things would have been set into motion.