Timeline 1650 - 1850
We suggest that you research and create your own timeline to understand the international, national and local politics at this time.
CRVs were encouraged to create their own time line, so that they could fit events and developments into the dates of the project 1650 - 1850
The project timespan was chosen to start at the time of the British capture of Jamaica and the development of plantations using a workforce of enslaved Africans. By this time the North American colonies began to turn away from indentured servitude and instead rely on chattel slavery. The Spanish and Portuguese had been trading with West Africans to purchase Africans to work on their South African plantations and in their mines since 1444.
The project timespan continues through from the days when the Welsh woollen cottage industry produced cloth to meet local needs, but was also exporting wool and cloth through Shrewsbury to London for sale to international merchants. The increase in demand for this trade saw packhorses carrying lengths of Welsh cloth to Shrewsbury or later directly to Liverpool. The rise of mechanisation of the industry took away the potential for local work and along with increased rents and taxes this forced families in Mid Wales into poverty. The abolition of the Slave Trade and later the abolition of slavery meant that Welsh Plains was no longer the prefered fabric and the production ceased by 1850.
Joy produced this timeline:
1655 Britain claimed Jamaica from the Spanish - this was the time of the Parliamentarian rule under Oliver Cromwell
1660 Charles II is restored to the throne
1666 Great Fire of London destroys two-thirds of the city
1672 Royal African Company is established to regulate the African slave trade
1699 80% of those living in the Caribbean are African slaves
1707 Act of Union of England and Scotland is ratified
1737 Richard Pennant born, owner of Penrhyn estate, six sugar plantations in Jamaica, and hundreds of enslaved African workers. He was a staunch anti-abolitionist
1747 Liverpool overtakes Bristol as Britain's busiest slave trading port
1760 Tacky leads the first major slave rebellion in Jamaica
1771 'Factory Age' begins with the opening of Britain's first cotton mill
1772 Slavery is effectively outlawed in England
1774 Methodist John Wesley publishes 'Thoughts Upon Slavery' and the Abolution Movement starts in Britain
1775 American War of Independence begins
1787 First fleet of convicts sails from Britain to Australia
1788 First edition of 'The Times' of London is published on 1st January
1789 French Revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille
1791 Parliament rejects William Wilberforce's bill to abolish the slave trade
1801 Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Ireland were formally joined under the Act of Union to create the United Kingdom in 1801.
1807 The Slave Trade was abolished
1808 Richard Pennant died after year camaigning against the abolition of the slave trade
1811 - 1812 Luddite protesters attack industrial machinery in protest against unemployment
1838 Newtown, Montgomeryshire - the first great Chartist demonstration in Wales was held on 10 October
Click HERE for a more detailed time line reflecting an interest in the shared history between Wales and Jamaica bringing together information from various sources.
Or click HERE for the BBC Empire and Sea Power History timeline
This is Liz's timeline and its under development:
NB Google: Wikipedia "List of wars: 1500-1799" if you want to see how much animosity there was in Europe at this time!
1619 ? First enlaved Africans taken to the New World
1642 start of English Civil War
1644 Battle of Montgomery in English Civil War
1649 Abolition of Monarchy in England: Charles 1 executed and replaced by the "Commonwealth" led by Oliver Cromwell
1654 Jamaica captured by the British from the Spanish. Giffard Pennant, Master of the Horse for the British armed force stays to protect this new asset from the Spanish. Then he stays to develop what became very lucrative plantations. He was probably wise not to return to Wales!
Interesting quote from David Starkey: The task therefore after the death of the military dictator, Oliver Cromwell, and the collapse of his hated regime under his incompetent son Richard, was to put Humpty Dumpty back together again and reunite King and Parliament, legislative and executive.
This was achieved in the Glorious Revolution of 1688/89 and its aftermath. And Britain – now properly so-called after the legislative Union of England and Scotland in 1707 – embarked on a glorious age of imperial expansion abroad and spreading prosperity at home."
1688/89 the Glorious Revolution - restoration of the Monarchy with James a Catholic, then William and Mary (James Protestant daughter.
1707 Union of England and Scotland (Wales already part of "England")
1776 American Declaration of Independence (18 of 54 signatories thought to be Welsh)
1815 Peace in Europe after Waterloo
1819 - the Chartists?
1832 first of the Reform Acts that led to "one man, one vote" in 1884
1839-43 Rebecca Riots
1849 North Wales Railway opened