#english_history 

Well before the end of the 18th century Britain was as powerful as France. This resulted from the growth of its industries and from the wealth of its large new trading empire.

For the first time, it was the king's ministers who were the real policy and decision-makers.

## Politics
When [[The Stuarts#^d32c01|Queen Anne]] died in 1714, it was not entrily certain that the Protestant ruler of Hanover, [[The Hanoverians|George I]], would become king, as there were still some Tories who wanted James II's second return as James III. But he was reluctant to give up his religion, and unsuccessfully tried to take the throne by force in **1715**, but George's army had little difficulty in defeating **"Jacobites"**, as Stuart supportes were known. ^198a81

Government power was increased because the new king **spoke only German, and did not seem very interested in his new kingdom**. Among the king's ministers was **Robert Walpole,** who remained the greatest political leader for over 20 years. He is considered Britain's first [[Britain's Prime Ministers|Prime Minister]]. He came to power as a result of his financial ability

Walpole skillfully developed the idea that government ministers should work together in a small group - the Cabinet - and expected the ministers who deeply disagreed with other Cabinet ministers to resign. From this basic idea grew another important rule in British politics: that all members of the Cabinet were together responsible for policy decisions. It was he who made sure that the power of the king would always be limited by the constitution, **which was (and still is) not a single document and is not written, but constitutional principles are present in British politics.**

The most important of Walpole's political enemies was **William Pitt "the Elder", Lord Chatham**, who wanted Britain to be economically strong in the world. He had studied French trade and industry and was certain that Britain must beat Francce in the race for an overseas trade empire.

In **1733** France made an alliance with Spain -> Chatham feared that this alliance would give the French advantage. Once Chatham was in the government, he decided to make the British navy the strongest.
[[American Revolution#^d10f4a|War broke out]] in 1756. However, Chatham left Britain's ally, Prussia, to do most of the fighting in Europe, while directing British effort at destroying French trade.
Other important gains were:
1. Acquirement of Quebec in 1759 and Montreal in 1760
2. Victory over the French forces in India

Britain was drunk with victory, and its pride was expressed in a national song [[Rule Britannia]]

However, when George III came to the throne in 1760, he did not wish Chatham to continue an expensive war. In 1763 George made peace with France, leaving Prussia to fight on its own.

## Finance
At the end of the 17th century the government had been forced to borrow money in order to pay for the war with France. So in 1694, a group of financiers who lent to the government decided to establish a bank, **Bank of England**, and the government agreed to borrow from it alone. The Bank had the authority to raise money by printing "bank notes".

At a time when many people had money to invest, there was popular interest in financial matters. People wanted to invest money in some of the trading companies doing buseiness in the colonies. The possibility of high profits, among the other reasons, made the cost of a share in these trading adventures expensive. So expensive, in fact, that in **1720** the **South Sea Company** offered to pay of the government's national debt if it was given monopoly rights to trading in the South Sea. However, when people's confidence in the SSC fell, so did the price of shares, causing a crisis. Robert Walpole was able to bring public confidence by making sure that something like the "South Sea Bubble" could not happen again. This was the first step in making companies responsible to the public for the money which they borrowed by the sale of shares.

In order to pay off the national debt, Walpole put taxes on luxury goods, such as tea (which had become a national drink by 1700), coffee, etc. It had little effect on the national debt, and Walpole became very unpopular.

For the rest of the century, Britain's international trade increased rapidly.