Riot or Revolution? - Task 3: When was Britian at its most revolutionary, what factors caused this and how close to an overthrow did the country come?
You are going to provide a summary of how revolutionary Britian was during this period by plotting your results onto a graph and using this to answer a number of key questions.
Step 1:
Print the worksheet Activity 2 sheet 1(Living Graph). The bottom axis represents a timeline of dates between 1800 and 1850. The vertical axis refers to how revolutionary Britain seemed to be getting.
Refer back to the score you gave for the events, individuals or groups referred to in this enquiry. Then plot each score in turn on the graph, for example if you gave John Bellingham (who killed Prime Minister Spencer Perceval) the score of six, then plot a cross on the graph above 1812 and opposite six on the vertical axis.
When you have plotted all the scores on the graph, join up the crosses to make a line going across it.
Step 2:
With a partner consider the answers to the following questions;
- When did Britain seem most revolutionary?
- When did Britain seem least revolutionary?
- Which events, individuals or groups were only concerned with what was going on in the countryside?
- Which events, individuals or groups were only concerned with what was happening to industrial workers?
- Was Britain most revolutionary when economic conditions were at their worst?
- Which was the single most revolutionary event, group or individual? Why?
- Which was the least revolutionary event, group or individual? Why?
- How close did the government come to being overthrown in a revolution?
- Overall how revolutionary was Britain between 1800 and 1850?
Step 3:
Put yourself into the shoes of one of the groups who were prepared to use force to change Britain, for example a Radical in 1820 or a 'Physical Force' Chartist in 1848. Carefully plan what you would have needed to have done to start revolution and seize power from the government.
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