HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT OF «GULLIVER’S TRAVELS»
23 octubre 2010 by KSENIIA
In general, from the very beginning, we can say that during Jonathan Swift’s lifetime (from 1667 to 1745) England was a powerful and rich empire, though there were internal political problems arising now and then during the 17-18th centuries.
To start with, during the Elizabethan period, the English fleet defeated the Spanish Armada. Continuing the competition with Spain, the English went to Americas where their first colony was founded by Walter Raleigh in 1585 and called Virginia. In the East England was competing with the Dutch and French. With the East India Company, which was formed initially to trade with the East Indies, England ended up trading mainly with China and the Indian subcontinent. Later on, England will continue the process of colonization and expansion throughout the world.
In 1642-1646 the Civil War broke out between the supporters of the king Charles I and those of the Parliament, with an interwoven part of a wider war of the Three Kingdoms that included Scotland and Ireland. As the result Charles I was captured and beheaded in 1649. The kingdom was replaces with the Commonwealth with Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector ruling the country.
In 1658 Cromwell died and after his son’s resignation the period of Restoration followed with Charles II returning from France to take the throne as a new monarch. According to the new constitution, the king and the Parliament should rule together, though it was not fully put into practice until the next century. The court was holding power.
At that time the Royal Society (a learned society for science) was founded that led to the encouragement of arts and sciences.
In Parliament two factions appeared: the Tories and the Whigs, the former being royalists and the latter – liberals.
In 1685 Charles died, and his brother James II (a Roman Catholic) mounted the throne. Despite his promise to maintain the political and religious status quo and protect the Church of England, he started reintroducing Roman Catholicism that resulted in the threat of “popery”. When he had a male hair it became clear that the crown would pass to him, a Roman Catholic, rather than to the king’s Anglican siblings.
Though initially the Tories supported James II, in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 some of them, together with the Whigs, deposed him and invited his daughter Mary with her husband William, Prince of Orange, to become monarch. However, for the next 100 years England would feel constant threat from France, threat of an invasion that would restore Stuart, and thus Roman Catholic, rule. During the rule of George I in 1715 and then under the reign of George II in 1745 two Jacobites’ rebellions took place, supported by France. However, in 1745 the Jacobites were forced back and slaughtered at the battle of Culloden, effectively ending the conflict forever.
In 1707 after the agreement between the parliaments of England and Scotland was achieved, the two countries joined in political union, thus becoming the Kingdom of Great Britain. However, some institutions as law or church of each remained separate.
Under the newly created Kingdom of Great Britain, science and engineering were flourishing. It helped much to establish the famous British Empire, which became the largest in history. It originated in the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the 16-17th centuries, and by 1922 it covered more than 34 million square kilometres, almost a quarter of the Earth’s total land area. British Empire turned into the foremost global power.
Of course, there were many domestic changes as well. In the 18th century the Industrial Revolution started together with other socioeconomic and cultural changes. The result was industrialised agriculture, manufacture, engineering and mining, as well as new and pioneering road, rail and water networks to facilitate the expansion and further development of the Empire.
Good paper. It is well structured, quoted and developed but I think you should cut the posts off so that the reader could read better. Anyway, I think you should pass the paper with a 7.