history paper 3

• War breaks out in 1689


  • The Catholic majority had been treated badly by the English for centuries
  • The Catholic majority support James when he is replaced by William of Orange in 1688
  • William's enemy, Louis XIV, sends French troops to Ireland to support James
• William and his Williamite army win the war

  • His troops break the Jacobite siege of Derry
  • James flees after the Battle of the Boyne (even though there was no clear winner)
  • The Battle of Aughrim is a clear victory for the Williamite army
  • The Treaty of Limerick ends the war and takes away Catholic land and their military and political power
• The Protestant Ascendancy rule Ireland

  • They were Protestant and have English heritage
  • They were rich and powerful and based at Dublin Castle. Politicians appointed by William
  • They discriminate against Scottish Protestants in Ireland (Presbyterians) because of their social class and form of Protestantism
  • But even the Protestant Ascendancy are treated as a colonised, second class people by the British
• William III ordered the Massacre of Glencoe


  • The Scottish parliament supported William III but the Highlanders supported James and launched a Jacobite rebellion
  • William said he would forgive Highlanders whose chiefs swore allegiance to him
  • Alasdair MacIain of the McDonald Clan was a day late and Williamite soldiers massacred 38 clan members and 40 more died of cold and hunger
• The Darien Scheme failed

  • It was in Panama, a region already controlled by the Spanish. Scotland could not compete the Spanish or convince the local Tule people to work with them
  • The scheme did not have English support – William was annoyed that interfered with his negotiations with the Spanish and the East India Company saw the scheme as a threat
  • The settlers were not prepared for the conditions; they argued and many died or abandoned the settlement
• The Scottish Parliament agreed to a union with England in 1707


  • The English wanted to reduce the risk of war with Scotland and ensure James Edward Stuart (James II's son), known as the 'Old Pretender' would not be supported to become King
  • The English offered to give Scotland greater trader freedom, to write off its debt from the Darien scheme and bribed Scottish politicians
  • A rebellion by Jacobites in 1708 and the Old Pretender in 1715 both failed but showed many Scots were angry
  • William kept an army in Scotland to prevent future rebellions and Highlanders felt they were ruled by a colonial power and had bad living conditions. There were regular protests.
  • Scotland's economy began to boom as they were able to benefit from the British Empire
• Reasons people left Britain

  • Banishment: 1,259 Scottish rebels petitioned for transportation to the Americas to avoid execution. They became field workers
  • Convict transportation: 50,000 men, women and children convicted of crimes were sold to tobacco plantations for seven years under the 1718 Transportation Act. They were often vagrants or gypsies
  • Volunteer indentured servants: opted into slavery for seven years and hoped to build a better life. ¼ did not survive the seven years
  • Ulster Scots (Protestants): moved from Scotland to Ireland as it had better weather and soil and the English gave them attractive offers to move there after the Treaty of Limerick
  • Adventurers: left to trade in Asia and the Caribbean and became mercenary soldiers in European wars
• Britain benefited from the end of the Royal African Company's monopoly on the trade in enslaved Africans


  • The RAC had been given a royal charter which gave the Stuart Royal family a cut of its profits and protected it from competition
  • In 1698 merchants and businessmen ended the monopoly and allowed independent companies to join the Atlantic/triangular trade. Britain's profits soared
  • The slave trade was a new system of chattel enslavement where slaves became their owner's property and had no rights
  • Britain won the asiento through the Treaty of Utrecht and could now sell slaves to the Spanish colonies in South and Central America
  • Plantations farmed by slaves in the Americas grew tobacco, cotton and sugar and the sale of this made Britain rich
• Threats to Britain's profits from slavery

  • Resistance by African rulers and captured Africans in Africa
  • Uprisings on slave ships. There were 500 rebellions such as on the Clare in 1729 and the Little George in 1730
  • Piracy: ex-members of the Royal Navy were unemployed once the War of the Spanish Succession ended and with too few jobs available and low wages, thousands turned to piracy
• Britain needed to increase the number of African slaves on plantations

  • At first indentured white workers were preferred as they spoke the same language as owners, were half the price of Africans and worked harder as they hoped for a better future when freed
  • However, African slaves proved better value as they adjusted better to the climate, were more skilled, cheaper to keep, easier to identify when they ran away, lived longer, could be punished harsher etc.
• Plantocracies


  Societies controlled by and for the planets and backed up by military force and the law
• The plantation system

  • The government in London supported plantocracies because they provided raw materials, new markets, work opportunities and money through taxation
  • The plantation system was successful as slaves produced large profits over a lifetime, plantations with slaves earned more profit than those without slaves and the plantation system was an example of highly organised production lines.
  • The plantation system was not a complete success as slaves were not paid and so did not have motivation to work hard, they could not be fired and regularly rebelled and free European labour would have been more effective.
• The East India Company grew to dominate trade in India

  • It originally had a monopoly of trade through a royal charter and set up trading posts to trade spices and textiles with Britain in return for gold and silver
  • The EIC went to war with its Dutch, French and Mughal competition. Although it lost the war with Emperor Aurangzeb, it set up a factory that became a major base in Calcutta
• The EIC grew, despite attempts from parliament to reduce its power

  • William III renewed its royal charter (although parliament said he did not have this power)
  • Parliament set up a rival company and closed down the EIC, but the EIC bought up all the shares in the new company and continued to trade
  • The demand for luxury items from Britain increased the EIC's profits and share price. It also grew rich by selling tea, spices and textiles to Britain and opium to China
  • The EIC offered employment opportunities to British people
  • The EIC dominated India as the Mughal Empire weakened. It was granted a firman by the new Mughal emperor to trade all over India for a small annual fee
• Britain modernised its economy to invest in the empire

  • William III needed to invest in his army and navy so that the empire could grow and make Britain rich
  • He created the Bank of England to raise a loan of £1.2 million – this became the National Debt. Rich investors loaned the money to parliament and got interest and an annual fee.
  • The new banking system allowed other companies to borrow money and plan long-term projects and this kick-started the industrial revolution
  • Credit (borrowing money) allowed people to engage in speculation – investing in companies for short term profit
  • The South Sea Company collapsed and many lost their life savings because its shares were inflated too high and investors quickly sold their shares and created panic
• The empire made Britain wealthy and was a globalised system


  • There was a boom in trade due to the new goods available
  • Plantations, the slave trade and trade with Asia was very profitable
  • New jobs were created in Britain
• How the empire affected British working lives

  • British workers produced tools for plantations and chains for slaves, guns traded for Africans and by the navy. Clothing, spirits, ropes, candles, pots etc were exported to the Americas. Herring and cod was sent from Somerset to America for slaves
  • Dock workers unloaded goods imported to Britain
  • Clerks, accountants, lawyers, administrators worked around the empire
  • Slave ports in Bristol, Liverpool and London became very wealthy
• The empire brought new ideas to Britain

  • Men socialised, did business and exchanged ideas in coffee houses. There were 551 licensed coffee houses in 1734
  • The Tory Party was established to represent the landowning gentry
  • The Whig Party was established to represent to new class of wealthy merchants
  • Broadsheet newspapers and coffee houses spread new ideas about freedoms of thought and belief and scientific research brought new understanding of the natural and physical world
  • Africans were often depicted as inferior to justify their enslavement. The idea that Europeans were superior to Africans was known as plantocracy racism
• The empire bought new consumer habits to Britain

  • Asian styles became more popular and commodities like Asian tea, furniture, textiles and porcelain became popular
  • As more people wished to use sugar and tobacco, plantation owners bought more slaves. They produced more goods, which lowered the price and increased demand further