Why Some Forms of Opposition Were More Successful than Others in the Period 1798-1921
The Act of Union, 1801. Ireland was to be joined to Great Britain into
a single kingdom, the Dublin parliament was to be abolished. Ireland
was to be represented at Westminster (all were Anglicans), the
Anglican Church was to be recognised as the official Church of
Ireland, no Catholics were to be allowed to hold public office and
there was to be no Catholic Emancipation. Immediately we can see from
this that any form of opposition would be to destroy this act.
Fundamentally it destroyed all catholic rights and forced them to
renounce their Catholic faith and take on a Protestant one.
In Ireland Daniel O'Connell developed a reputation for his radical
political views. By the early 1920's the Irish people started to
listen to O'Connell's views and he gathered a large group of
supporters. O'Connell had many aims in his political career.
O'Connell's goal was to repeal against the act of union. When the Act
of Union was passed in 1801 it did not help the Irish. It simply
brought problems and distrust to the Irish people. O'Connell organised
a meeting to discuss the repeal of the Act of Union, three quarters of
a million Irish turned up. They were known as 'Monster Meetings'. We
can see that O'Connell successfully created an Irish nation movement
and completely changed the British view of the Irish. The British now
had a certain amount of respect for the Irish and even feared and
threatened their movement. This support from the people could show us
the later success that O'Connell has in his opposition, as a movement
without opposition would ultimately ...
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...d in the cruellest yet effective way
possible. Collins achievements were many: he helped fight the British
to a stalemate by changing the rules of warfare and setting up an
intelligence network to rival the Empire's. He helped negotiate a
treaty, which gave Ireland the first stepping stone to become a
Republic, and oversaw Ireland's turbulent transition to democracy. His
achievements were, however, not without a price. He precipitated the
bloody War of Independence against the British and the treaty deal
brought back from London split the country into two fiercely opposing
halves and plunged the country into the throes of a traumatic civil
war. Thus ultimately opposition needed to be well organised and have
enough support to succeed, constitutional nationalism had this through
its methods of working through the system.
The failure of the home rule bill in 1886 was due, to a large extent, to the tactical mistakes made by gladstone, such as the failure to unite his party and his underestimation of conservative opposition towards the bill. However, it could also be argued that other factors, such as the sectarian nature of Irish society and subsequent opposition in Ulster also played a major role in the failure of the Home Rule Bill and thus inevitable regardless of Gladstone’s actions.
This subject proved to be extremely effective because: firstly religious liberalism united the party more firmly then most other issues; as champions of the Established Church, the conservatives would be obliged to defend the institution; and lastly it was a relatively guaranteed reform because: only 12% of the Irish population was Anglican by religious belief; and the Liberal party still held a majority in the house of commons due to the 1865 election. The passing of there first reform in Gladstone’s first ministry meant a lot to the Liberal party and Gladstone himself saw it as an immense personal triumph. Two other reforms were passed involving Ireland, in 1970 the first Irish Land Act was passed this included the introduction of the three F’s: fair rent, free sale and fixity of tenure.
In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circlue of our felicities.” (Jefferson, 1801) This idea echoed far beyond it’s time and into the minds and hearts of the Populist’s, and became the center and the driving force of the Progressive era. During the gilded age railroads were being built, Industrialization was rising, the population of United States was increasing dramatically; and corporate businesses were becoming extremely powerful. The gilded age was known for its corruption and business domination, it wasn’t until the Populist movement when people started to fight back and also not until the Progressive movement when people started changing the government system.
When the Democrats rose to power in the White House, they replaced most of the people in offices with their own people (the common man). These people were illiterate and incompetent. This system of rewarding political supporters with jobs in the government was known as the "spoils system."
During the political upheaval in the Revolutionary era, writers would write mostly about the politics of the war. Although in past times people would mostly write about the troubles they faced during the time, the Revolutionary changed the way writers would persuade others. In the past most times, the authors would strictly use facts or strictly write to the select few but everything changed when the colonist faced a Revolutionary War.
middle of paper ... ... n that after nearly seven hundred years of attempted domination, the British oppression of the Irish had deprived them of all but the bare necessities of survival, and caused such destitution that when the potato famine struck, the poor could not avoid the worst privations, given the social and political conditions controlling their lives. The British government’s ineffectual attempts at relieving the situation played a major role in worsening the situation; they allowed prejudice and State and individual self-interest, economic and religious dogma to subjugate even the least consideration for humanity. Ultimately British politicians bear considerable blame because they were not prepared to allocate what was needed to head off mass starvation, and they as the parent government did nothing to protect its subject people.
First I want to say that both beginnings of the French and Russian Revolutions have two major similarities, Economic crisis and Constitutional Monarch governments. Second I think that all revolutions have three stages. I think the French Revolution did go through the three stages but I don’t think that the Russian Revolution had the same three stages. I think in the French Revolution you can clearly see the liberal in the Constitution of 1791, the radical in the Constitution of 1793, and the conservative in the Constitution of 1795. In the Russian Revolution the stages are hidden in February and October Revolutions and the their Civil War.
Effectiveness of the Tory and Whig Arguments Prior to the American Revolution In the eighteenth century, the American Revolution played a vital role in determining the future of the American colonies. Prior to the Revolution, propagandas from both the Tories and Whigs influenced the choices that Americans make. Both sides exchanged attacks and accusations in their publications, while also presenting realistic evidence and logical reasoning to back their doctrine and arguments. Two of the many documents preceding the Revolution are especially interesting in terms of their structure of presentation.
This suggests that they had negative relations with the government and authorities because their voices were not being listened to and they weren’t equally represented in the government’s policy decisions. Riot was a tactic employed to get their voices heard but there was a fine line between being listened to and retribution for their actions. For example, before the Oxfordshire rising in 1596, the people of Oxfordshire appealed to Lord Norris and other members of authority to help resolve the issue of dearth in the area. However, Lord Norris did little to help improve the situation and further appeals took place until the rebels resulted to riot in the hope of change. However, the rising against enclosure largely failed due to the lack of support, as only a handful of men turned up to support the rebels cause. Additionally, what gave rebellions the scale and force they had, such as the Pilgrimage of Grace, was the combination of supressed local grievances which had built up over time as they had not been effectively dealt with. For example, if someone heard a rumour about a potential uprising they may have become involved to express their personal grievances which may have been repressed in the past but had not achieved the outcome the rebels wanted. The Pilgrimage of Grace was caused by a combination of factors,
After settlements were established, farmers opposed the government. The farmers united to form their opposing union that would lead their opposing movement and solve their common problems that they had with economic distress and railroads. The grange and farmers´ alliances surged with the quest to get the government to support them. The rise of the populist party caused a scare and panic to other government groups, but it didn´t last, the populist party collapsed.
During the 1920’s there were many controversial issues. There was a concern about declining moral and ethical values, which led to restrictions such as prohibition for example. The concern about these issues seemed most intense when they pertained to religion. In situations like these it always seems necessary to place the blame somewhere. One particular group on which this blame was emphasized happened to be the immigrants. Irish Catholic immigrants were a main focus of discrimination in many ways.
Americans detested the rapidly increasing political power that Catholic voters had. It was claimed that Irish Catholics only voted for the party that their political leader/priest told them to vote for. This could be seen as a threat to democracy. This shows that the problems around immigrants caused the Whig collapse and the start of the breakdown of the political system, which weakened the country in the lead up to the breakout of the war. Another Whig failure was their 1852 election, where they were actively pro-catholic, which was a mistake as it made traditional Whigs reluctant to vote.
Democracy in the United States became prominent in the early to mid 19th century. Andrew Jackson, the 7th president of the United States, was inaugurated in 1829 and was best known as the person who mainstreamed democracy in America. Because he came from a humble background, he was the “genuine common man.” (Foner, pg. 303) He claimed he recognized the needs of the people and spoke on behalf of the majority [farmers, laborers]. However, critics of Jackson and democracy called him “King Andrew I” because of his apparent abuse of presidential power [vetoing]. These critics believed he favored the majority so much that it violated the U.S. constitution, and they stated he was straying too far away from the plan originally set for the United States. Because of the extreme shift of power to the majority, the limiting of rights of the few [merchants, industrialists] and the abuse of power under Jackson’s democracy, the foundational documents set in the constitution was violated, and the work of the preceding presidents were all but lost.
The development of the early republic of the United States of America had many influence from ideas on liberty, equality of men, and God-given rights to mankind. These ideas were formed during many outbreaks of riots, resistance of laws passed by British government, and the yearning for independence. All of these ideas caused many revolutions to form, dismantle of the old American government, and the formation of the one that still exists today. The ideas that came from the American Revolution helped influence the founding fathers into how to form the constitution. The French revolution also had some say in the making of the US government. Revolutionary activity and ideas helped the founding fathers form the government that we still live under today.
The Whigs' Lack of Political Success in the Period 1783-1815 There are a number if contributing factors, both long and short term that led to the downfall of the Whig party in the years 1783-1815. Firstly, the Whig party itself had alienated themselves from the King, George III. Unlike Pitt, whose success derived directly from the Kings favour, the Whigs had continued to express their views against royal patronage. The Whigs believed the power of the monarch should be reduced and made no attempt to hide their ambitions, during the regency crisis, that the King would not recover. The Whigs had hoped with the King replaced by the Prince of Wales they would soon be propelled into office.