英美国家概况课文要点---Chapter 5

Chapter 5(1)
1.The Whigs opposed absolute monarchy and supported the right to religious freedom for Nonconformists. The Tories supported hereditary monarchy and were reluctant to remove kings.
2.Whigs stood for (1) a reduction in Crown patronage; (2) sympathy towards Nonconformists; (3) care for the interests of merchants and bankers
3.Tories wanted to preserve the powers of the monarchy and the Church of England. They disliked the Nonconformists and considered them a threat to Church of England's influence on the people; they wanted strict maintenance of law and order and were afraid of mob riot.
4.Radicals,they were greatly influenced by Jeremy Bentham's.
5."Utilitarianism" to achieve "the greatest happiness of the greatest number".
erment and administration should be made as efficient as possible; government should interfere as little as possible with lives of the people as individuals. They advocated laissez faire, a radical idea of gree trade.
7.Farming was an important occupation in England in the 18th century. Village and agriculture were the backbone of the nation.
8.This system drawbacks:(1) it wasted land because of fallow fields and land for paths; (2)
it was wasteful of labour and time; (3) livestock farming was difficult and diseases spread quickly on commons. Winter feed was rarely enough, so animals were usually killed in autumn and their meat was salted; (4) the open field sysytem was a barrier ot experiments.
ndowners replace the small farms cultivated on the "open-field" system by larger, economically more efficient farms with hedge-divided fields.
10.The Enclosure Acts enabled wealthier landowners to seize andy land to which tenants could prove no legal title and to divide it into enclosed fields. A system of crop rotation was introduced. Land could be fully used fodder crops enabled livestock to be kept through the winter months.
11.Seed drill invented by Jethro Tull made arable farming more efficient and more profitable.Selective breeding of cattle, sheep and horses by Robert Bakewell. The idea of encouraging tenants to introduce changes was associated whth Thomas Coke. George III was so enthusiastic about changes at Windsor that he got the nickname "Farmer George".
12.Agricultural enclosure had good as well as bad results:(1) Farms became bigger and bigger units (2) more vegetables, milk,dairy produce were consumed, and diet became more varied.(3)enclosure was a disaster for the tenants evicted from their lands by the enclosures. These peasant farmers were forced to look for work in towns, which rapidly became hopelessly overcrowded. Riots erupted in many areas could not prevent the march of progress, enclosure led to mass emigration New World.(4) a new class hostility was introduced into rural relationships.
13.The Industrial Revolution refers to the mechanization of industry and the consequent changes in social and economic organization in Britain in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Britain was the first country to industrialize because of the following factors:(1) Britain was well placed geographically to participate in European and world trade; (2)
Britain interested in overseas trade and colonies. International trade brought wealth to merchants and city bankers, provided capital in lager quantities for industrialization. (3) the limited monarchy. (4) The main towns were never too far from seaports, of from rivers, which could distribute their products. (5) Many rivers useful for transport and water and steam power. Useful minertal resources.(6) British engineers had sound training as craftsmen.(7) The inventors were trspected. They solved practical problems.
(8) Probably laissez faire and "Protestant work ethic" helped. (9) England, Scotland, and Wales formed a customs union. So the national market was not hindered by internal customs barriers.(10) The enclosures and other improvements in agriculture made their contributions by providing food for the rising population labour for the factories, and some of the raw materials needed by industry.
14. New techniques and water powered machines resulted in organization of industries on
a large scale.
15.Changes occurred earliest and quickest in textiles, especially cotton and silk and in other trades like hardware, pottery and chemicals.
16.The real "revolution" in textiles was in 1770 when power-driven machinery was introduced.(下面的人物和发明的东西要看熟，容易出选择题）
17.Improved transportation ran parallel with production. By the early 19th century, Britain had a road network of some 125,000 miles.
18.As a result of the industrial revolution, Britain was by "workshop of the world".
19."Luddites" supposedly led by Ned Ludd attempted to destroy the hated machines, but were severely punished by the government. The Industrial revolution created the industrial working class, the proletariat, and it later led to trade unionism.
20.The American War of Independence and the French Revolution
21.Political change in England did not come through revolution but through gradual reform. The Whigs returned to power turned their minds to the problem of parliamentary reform.
22.There were several reasons:(1) Power was monopolized by the aristocrats. In the 18th and 19th centuries the Lords had far more influence the Commons were also really "gentry" on edge of aristocracy. Most important ministers were "peers". The commons were elected only by a very small proportion of the population. The vote was a privilege for a small number of male citizens. No females were allowed to vote. Members of Parliament were not paid. (2) Representation of town and country, and North and South was unfair. (3) There were also various so-called rotten or pocket boroughs.
23.Between 1832 and 1884 three Reform Bills were passed. The Reform Act of 1832 (also called the "Greater Charter of 1832') abolished "rotten boroughs", and redistributed parliamentary seats more fairly among the growing towns. Gave the vote to many householders and tenants, based on the value of their property. The New Poor Law of 1843 forced the poor people into workhouses instead of giving them sufficient money to survive in their own homes.
24.There was widespread dissatisfaction with the Reform Act of 1832 and the New Poor Law.
25.In 1836 a group of skilled workers and small shopkeepers formed the London Working Men's Association. It aimed "to seek by every legal means to place all classes of society in possession of equal political and social rights." Leader William Lovett, a skilled worker. They drew up a charter of political demands in 1838, with the intention of presenting it to Parliament. It had six points:(1) the vote for all adult males, (2) voting by
secret ballot, (3) equal electoral districts, (4) abolition of property qualifications for members of Parliament, (5) payment of members of Parliament, (6) annual Parliaments, with a General Election every June.
26.Other working men formed Chartist groups throughout the country.
27.The Chartists could be roughly divided into two groups: the Moral Force Chartists and the Physical Force Chartists. The former headed by William Lovett. The latter headed by Feargus O'Connor, wanted to achieve their purpose by violence.
28.Convention revealed conflicts within the movement and great differences between the Northerners and the men from the Midlands and London.
29.Chartism failed because of its weak and divided leadership, and its lack of coordination with trade-unionism.
30.The Chartist movement was, however, the first nationwide working class movement and drew attention to serious problems. Lenin said that Chartism was "the first broad, really mass, politically formed, proletarian revolutionary movement".
31.The movements were regarded with suspicion by the government as possible centers of revolution. Parliament passed the Combination Acts of 1799--1800 to forbid the formation of unions. These laws were repealed in 1824. The 1825 Act allowed workers to form unions but not to-obstruct workers and employers.
32.An important part of the work of these new unions was restriction of entry to their trades. The New Unionism tried to avoid confrontaions with employers. In 1868 the Trades Union Congress was started; thus began a new phase in which trade unionism had
a national organization capable of coordinating the interests of industrial workers.
33.Trade unions had to fight two opponents employers and the State. The Trade Union Act of 1871 legalized the trade unions and gave financial security. The Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act of 1876 gave unions the right to exist as corporation. Two important developments followed in the last 20 years of the 19th century; the growrh of unions among unskilled workers, the Labour Party.
34.The Labour Party had its origins in the Independent Labour Party, which was formed in January, 1893 and led by Keir Hardie, a Scottish miner. The foundation of an effective party for labour would depend on the trade unions.
35.In 1900, representatives of trade unions, the ILP, and a number of small socialist societies set up the Labour Representation Committee. Promote in Parliament the interests of labour. the Lrc changed its name to the Labour Party in time for the general election which was called for 1906.
36.English colonial expansion began with the colonization of Newfoundland in 1583. The British East India Company in India.
37.In the late 18th century Britain acquired vast, underpopulated territories: Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
38.After the Seven Years' War between Britain and France, Canada was ceded to Britain by the 1763 Treaty of Paris. French rights were guaranteed by the Quebec Act of 1774. The canada Act of 1791 divided Canada into Upper Canada where the British had settled, and Lower Canada populated by the French. The British North America Act of 1867 established Canada as a dominion. The four founding provinces were Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. The others entered later.
39.Australia was first discovered by the Dutch in the early 1600s. Captain James Cook discovered Botany Bay and claimed the east coast region for Britain, naming it New South Wales(1770)
40.The gold rushes brought more people to Australia, and in 1901 the six self-governing colonies were united in one dominion the independent Commonwealth of Australia.
41.New Zealand was sighted by the Dutch seaman Abel Tasman in 1624, and named for the Netherlands province of Zeeland. Treaty of Waitangi(1840) made the country a separate colony(1841). It achieved self-government in 1852, became a dominion under the British crown in 1907 completely independent in 1931.
Chapter 5 (2)
1.The establishment of the British East India Company in 1600 was a case of economic penetration. The India Act of 1784 set up a "Board of Control" to supervise the Company.
2.By 1819 the British conquest of India was almost complete. In 1857 the native troops of the Bengal army of the East India Company mutinied because of (1) resentument at the reforms of ancient Indian institutions carried out by the British; (2)fear of forcible
conversion to Christianity; (3) the issue of cartidges greased with cow-fat, which offended Hindus, or pig-fat, which offended Muslims. the control of India passed to the British Crown in 1858, and Queen Victoria became Empress of India in 1877.
3.The Dutch East India Company established a settlement at Cape Town in 1652.
4.At the begining of the 19th century British possessions were confined to forts and slave trading posts on the West coast. OVer the 19th century the interior of Africa was gradually discovered and colonized by Europeans. By 1900 more than 9/10 had been colonized. Britain led the way in this race to take over the fertile and productive areas of Africa.
5.Britain was also involved in the North East in Egypt and the Sudan. French engineers built the Suez Canal(苏伊士运河）
6.Britain launched a war of aggression against China in 1840,occupied Hong Kong in 1841. Treaty fo Nanking (1842)China ceded Hong Kong to Britain.
7.By 1900 Britain had built up a big empire, "on which the sun never set". It consisted of
a vast number of protectorates, Crown Colonies, spheres of influence, and self-governing dominions; and it included 25% of the world's population and area.
8.During World Was I Britain lost over a million people, most of them under the age of 25. Apart from the loss of manpower, there had been considerable disruption of the economy and society.
9.The First World Was had great effects on British society.
10.In 1926 a general strike paralyzed the country. In 1936 Edward VIII succeeded his father George V but abdicated.
11.Sir Winston Churchill received massive popular support as a war leader and led his country to final victory in 1945. Britain suffered far fewer military casualties in the Second World War than in the First. Britain, having devoted her entire strength to the war, was left gravely impoverished. She lost one-quarter of her national wealth and entered upon a period of economic and financial difficulties.
12.The foundations of the welfare state was laid during these years, providing free medical care for everyone and financial help for the old.
13.In 1951 the Conservatives under Winston Churchill were retruned to power. When George VI died in 1952, Princess Elizabeth was crowned Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey. By the mid-1950s things were definitely looking up. Herold Macmillan, the Conservative prime minister, declared in 1957 that people had "never had it so good". The 1960s were the Swinging Sixties, the permissive age. In January, 1973, Britain finally became a full member of the European Economic Community.
14.The 1970s also saw the growth of nationalism in Wales and Scotland.
15.The election of 1979 returned the Conservative Party to power and Margaret Thatcher became the first woman prime minister in Britain.
16.Mrs Thatcher firmly believed in self-reliance and what has come to be known as privatization. It included the return to private ownership of stateowned industries, the use of monetarist policies to control inflation, the weakening of trade unions, the
strengthening of the role of market forces in the economy, and an emphasis on law and order.Mrs Thatcher was finally removed in Novemeber, 1990.。