Key Features

• Daily Life: Work

  • Population increased from around 2.5 million(1500) to almost 6 million by 1750
  • Most people lived and worked in the countryside
  • Wool industry still important but spinning and weaving still carried out in people's homes
• Daily life: Food and farming

  • In 16th and 17th century bad harvest still lead to famine
  • Several famines in Britain in 1590's and 1620's
  • 18th Century- new techniques in farming meant there was enough food for everyone despite increasing population
• Religion and science: The Reformation

  • By 1600, England was Protestant- Period known as reformation
  • Church- Under control of monarch, monasteries had fallen into ruin
  • Religious belief was still important in people's daily life
• Religion and Science: Beliefs

  • New inventions and advances in technology
  • Most people still believed in Old ideas: God , four humours, miasma
  • Also believed in witches as cause of disease and bad harvest
• Towns and trade: Growing towns

  • By 1750, towns had grown as many people moved there for work
  • Some areas of towns were overcrowded, although minor compared to later changes in 1750 and 1900
  • 20% of people lived in towns
• Towns and trade: New products

  • Growth of coal mining lead to more use of coal in towns
  • Rise in international trade- led to growth of ports such as Bristol
  • 17th Century- England established its first overseas colonies in North America- Began to trade across the Atlantic Ocean in:

  1. Enslaved people 2. Metal goods 3. Sugar 4. Tobacco

  • New spices and fabrics came from India
• Power and People: Parliament

  • Was a period of huge change in the monarch's power- Civil war(1642-1648) between Royalist( loyal to James I) and Parliament
  • King executed 1649
  • Monarchy was eventually restored in the 1600- Parliament was more powerful than it had been in Middle Ages
  • Only around 3% of population had a say in choosing MPs
• Power and people:

  People were still in social hierarchy, although it had started to break down slightly by 1750
• Power and People: Nobles

  • Owned vast amounts of land
  • Held a lot of power and sat in house of Lord's
• Power and people: Genrty

  • Class of wealthy landowners, although with smaller estates than nobles
  • Were often MP's or justices of the peace(responsible for maintaining law and order in a county)
• Power and people: Merchants, lawyers and doctors

  • Part of a growing class of people who earned their wealth in other ways other than owning land
  • Usually had important roles in town authorities, as mayors or aldermen(people who assisted mayors in running towns or cities)
• Power and people: Commoner

  • including yeomen, craftsmen and labourers
  • Many people continued to live in poverty
  • No longer unfree peasants who were connected to their Lord as villeins had been in the medieval times