Activity 1

One of the most notable events in the history of British reform is the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. The massacre occurred when a troop of local militia cavalry attacked peaceful demonstrators gathered on St. Peter's field in the industrial city of Manchester. Take a moment to read more about Manchester in 1819. Now consider some of the economic and social factors that contributed to the climate in which the Peterloo massacre occurred: about the Corn Laws, industrial unrest in early nineteenth-century England, and the plight of one craft group, the handloom weavers. (Other factors contributed to the massacre as well, but these give you a good taste of what was going on in Britain as a whole and in industrial cities like Manchester in the early nineteenth century.) Finally, read about some of the major moderate reformers, radical reformers, and female reformers of the period. Now let's consider the massacre itself. Take a look at this map of St. Peter's Field and a chronology of the event. Read an account of the massacre from a newspaper of the time. Finally, read the following eyewitness accounts of the event by Lt. Col. L'Éstrange of the militia that attacked the demonstrators; the Reverend William Hay; Archibald Prentice, a moderate reformer; and Samuel Bamford, a radical reformer. What happened that day on St. Peter's field? How did the contextual factors about which you read-the Corn Laws, reformist movements, etc-affect what happened? How do the eyewitness accounts resemble and differ from each other? Why do you think the massacre did not result in a broader revolutionary movement resembling those that emerged elsewhere in Europe?

Activity 2

The "July Revolution" of 1830 cast many of the last vestiges of the Old Regime out of France. The new "July Monarchy" of Louis Philippe introduced reforms that benefited many who had been disenfranchised by the reactionary regime of Charles X. One of the most prominent figures in Louis Philippe's government was François Guizot (1787-1874), a member of an elite bourgeois family who served as a top cabinet minister. Read Guizot's Condition of the July Monarchy, 1830-1848. What, according to Guizot, were the conditions by which the July Monarchy came into being? What principles guided the supporters of the July Revolution and those who then assumed top positions in Louis Philippe's government? What were their goals? What ideas did they embrace? What ideas did they reject? Now take a look at the 1830 Constitution of France. How does this constitution embody the principles of the leaders of the July Revolution? How does it resemble and differ from other liberal constitutions you have studied so far?