Exercises from page 229 – The Napoleonic Wars

READ/ANSWER

• Where did Britain decide to fight against Napoleon’s France?
- Since British navy was stronger than French one, Britain decided to fight against France at sea and defeated the opposing fleet off Cape Trafalgar thanks to the great lead of Admiral Horacio Nelson.

• Where was Napoleon defeated?
- Napoleon was totally defeated in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium.

• What were the consequences of the Napoleonic Wars?
- As a consequence of the victory against Napoleonic France, Britain gained the Cape of Good Hope, Trinidad, Singapore, Ceylon and Malta, but even so Britain suffered the enormous costs of the war.

• What were the social conditions in Britain after the wars?
- After the Wars Britain was left in bankruptcy, shattered by revolutions fed by the problem of starvation.

• What was welcomed by the Romantics in 1807?
- In 1807 Romantics welcomed the abolition of slave-trading that had been expressed in their works for many years.

• What were the Luddite riots?
• The Luddite riot was a revolt in 1779 in which Ned Ludd smashed a power-loom for making stockings. It was one of many machine-breaking consequent to the inhuman working conditions in factories and the increasing unemployment which followed the introduction of machines.

• What happened in 1819?
- In 1819 in Manchester would have took place a peaceful pro-democracy and anti-poverty protest, but the authorities, afraid of the possible results of the demonstration, sent there many soldiers which attacked the crowd killing eleven people own wounding four hundred people. This episode became famous with the name of Peterson Massacre.

• What changes occurred in the political situation around 1830s?
- In the period after the Napoleonic Wars, Prince Regent and successively his brother ascended the throne with the names of George IV and William IV. Their reigns prepared Britain to a new age of reforms that would follow in the so called Victorian Age.