经过工业革命的洗礼，维多利亚时期的英国达到工业革命的顶峰，英国的经济文化也至全盛，同时也是向外扩张最疯狂的时期。

                The History of Britain（Part Three）

                               By Robert        Summarised by  Arthur

The Hanoverian/Georgian Dynasty (The House of Hanover)

The house of Hanover (or the Age of Liberty or the Age of reason) is the fifth dynasty so far (as the Victorians weren’t a dynasty, but a time ruled by one ruler). It started with King George I who didn’t like spending money. He was born in Hanover in the (then) Holy Roman Empire. He became the Elector (leader) of Hanover in 1706. After Queen Anne Stuart (last Stuart monarch) died, George (as Queen Anne’s 51st cousin’s son or 52nd relative) came over from Hanover and started his reign. After his coronation on 1714, he officially became king of England. He didn’t like spending money and lived in Kew Palace. This saw the start of the wave of Prime Ministers as the first Prime Minister: Sir Robert Walpole (1st Earl of Orford) was prime minister during that era. After George died in 1727, his son, George II came to the throne and again, didn’t like spending money. He started reign the year his father died. George III (George II’s son) came to the throne after his father died and married Queen Charlotte of. George IV was completely different. He was the oldest child of George III and wife, Queen (Sophia) Charlotte (of Mecklenburg Strelitz who had an relationship with Marie Antoinette) after a plot in Hanover to make her the Queen of England. They lived in his George I’s palace and later moved to the countryside (of course, they walked because going in a horse-drawn-carriage would have to spend money). His successor was his eldest son (George IV) and he was really different from his father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He loved spending and George III decided to give him a little barn house in Brighton to live in until he stopped spending and started saving (and stopped spending). George IV told his father that he thought it was quite small, and that he wanted an extension built. His father said OK and he kept building. So much in fact, that George III nearly died from the shock of the sight of it! He was very fat though he thought of himself as a handsome young chap, though other people saw him as an arrogant, fat idiot. There was lots of weird laws at the time, such as the window tax. Having to vote was also a problem because women and poor, lower class people couldn’t vote. The only way to vote was: If you were a rich man, and you could only vote for the local lord’s son to be MP, you also had to congratulate the son of the lord (obviously). 

The Victorian era

After King George IV died, Queen Victoria came to the throne. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathern. She came to the throne aged 18 and later married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Gotha (the shortened version ‘Saxe-Coburg Gotha became the family’s name) in 1840. Just 21 years later, Albert caught a cold (after taking one of the seven princes out for a walk; they had nine children) and half of that and half worked himself (as he took his royal duties too seriously) to death. Victoria mourned him so much that she became anti-social and wore black clothes for the rest of her life. Eventually, she was persuaded to become social again for the Great Exhibition. The Great Exhibition was a showcase of global products that was displayed in ‘Crystal Palace’ (because it was made of glass). A funny but true story was told that there was Chinese gentleman was standing next to all of the royal people and he was thought to be the Chinese leader. So he was placed next to all of the royalty and next to Queen Victoria. Later was it discovered that he was just a rich ship’s captain! The other leaders tried out his vessel and all agreed that his ship was the best ship they had ever seen and ridden. Queen Victoria had lots of children that later became leaders of Germany, Russia, Yugoslavia and many more.

The Edwardian Era

 After the First World War, Queen Elizabeth was born to George VI.He wasn’t the heir to the throne and he was shy so he and his family lived in a simple house in the countryside (not the one King George III lived in though). The Heir to the throne: Edward VII was his brother but he had abdicated (stop doing his royal duties) to marry Wallis Simpson (an American double-divorcee, being divorced was very rare then so Wallis thought by royal authorities that she wasn’t fit for the throne). This meant that George VI was to be King which was a bad thing for the family because George had a very bad stutter. He fixed it and just in time for his coronation in 1936. One day, when the family was visiting a navy cadet training school, (then) Princess Elizabeth met Prince Charles of Greece (who was then 18 and formerly of Denmark) and they fell in love. In the Second World War (in which Charles was a crew member of a battleship and Elizabeth was a nurse and mechanic) Princess Elizabeth was sent to Africa by his father for half a year to forget about Charles (she had lots of training like that, she even had a little house so small that adults couldn’t even get into to develop her independence) but she couldn’t get him out of mind (though she might have for a couple of minutes). Princess Elizabeth wanted to marry Charles, but her father said no. Elizabeth had such strong love for him, that his father had to say yes (after all, they had developed her independence). After the war, they married and eventually had four children (despite Charles going for training in the Royal Air Force).

Fun Facts!

1. The English anthem was actually French! The anthem was wrote in France and later given to Bonnie Prince Charlie and somehow got lost. After the English defeated the Scottish at the battle of Culloden, King George (who had understood a bit of English then) went to Drury Lane theatre and her the song and thought is was wrote for him! It is now the national anthem of England, New Zealand, Australia, Barbados and Canada (just to name a few).

2. King George I’s personality. He was shy, hated spending money and was the second king of England that couldn’t speak English. He hated parties (because they spend money) and was a hated king as he didn’t care about religion - he just cared about making money but not spending it (so he only cared about business). He also made parliament stronger by not speaking to it. He also made a new type of spin-off government called cabinet (which is 20 or so senior government officials that make decisions). In other words, he was a king that made things better by doing nothing (completely nothing). Though he did improvements to the UK, he was still hated in England.

3. Britannia. This was a thing that appeared with the Hanoverian era. It showed liberty (freedom) and it is now one of the pictures on the £1 and 50p coins. Everyone felt free so they criticized government, the rich, fashion and the royal family and did many wrong things. Such as the ‘bright’ idea of the opium (a drug made from poppies) trade in China. It also attracted a lot of foreign people to come to England.

4. The ‘Coffee Shops’. It is similar to using the local Starbucks as an office (while you have a nice cup of coffee). In the Georgian trade, all you needed was to have an idea. So you had a type of cargo and you needed money to rent a boat so you went to the ‘Jonathan’s Coffee House’. There, it was full of investors (it is now called the ‘London Stock Exchange’). Then to rent a boat, you had to go to the ‘Baltic Coffee House’ and that was full of ship owners or ship captains which you could pay them some money if they are going to where you want to trade. Then, you needed insurance, so you go to the ‘Lloyds Coffee house’ and get insurance. After you have been to all of the ‘Coffee houses’, you could then go to the trade place.

5. The place where Queen Elizabeth got the message that she was to be Queen. The place that she got the message that her father had died was when she was on a trip to Africa. She was in (or making) a tree-house in an oak tree, It was also in the case of the other Queen Elizabeth. She was sitting in an oak tree when she got the news that Henry VII (her father) had died!

6. Another Coincidence! On the day of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, word had just come in from Nepal that Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay had just conquered Mount Everest!

关键词：

奴隶贸易 Slave Trade

John Newton 约翰·牛顿，英格兰圣公会牧师。之前从事大西洋上的贩卖奴隶的生意，在信基督教并放弃其生意之后，写出了著名的赞美诗《奇异恩典》Amazing Grace。

“John Newton ：I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”

不列颠东印度公司 (East India Company) 是一个股份公司。公元1600年12月31日，英格兰女王伊丽莎白一世授予该公司皇家特许状，给予它在印度贸易的特权而组成。它于东印度贸易的垄断权长达两个世纪。随时间的变迁，东印度公司从一个商业贸易企业变成印度的实际主宰者。在1858年被解除行政权力为止前，它还获得了协助统治和军事职能。

鸦片战争：Opium War

工业革命: The Industrial Revolution。开始于十八世纪六十年代，通常认为它发源于英格兰中部地区，是指资本主义工业化的早     期历程，即资本主义生产完成了从工场手工业向机器大工业过渡的阶段。工业革命是以机器取代人力，以大规模工厂化生产取代个体工场手工生产的一场生产与科技革命。

乔治三世，1760年10月25日登基为大不列颠国王及爱尔兰国王，至1801年1月1日后因大不列颠及爱尔兰组成联合王国而成为联合王国国王，直到1820年驾崩为止。乔治三世漫长的统治，见证了其王国与大片欧洲大陆进行的一连串军事冲突。在他的统治初期，大不列颠在七年战争中击败法国，并使大不列颠压倒欧洲各国、成功支配着北美洲及印度地区。不过，随着大不列颠在美国独立战争的战败，乔治三世在美洲失去了大量殖民地，这些殖民地的独立最终促成美国立国。此后，乔治三世参与了一连串的反法战争，反抗拿破仑及革命后的法国，这些战争最后以拿破仑在1815年被击败而作结。

美国独立战争（American War of Independence, 1775年—1783年），是英国与准备独立的美利坚及法国这个欧洲强国之间的一场战争。这场战争主要是始于北美十三殖民地为了对抗英国压迫性的经济政策，但后来却因为法国加入战争对抗英国，而使战争的范围远远超过英属北美洲之外。因此，英国决定与当地的印地安人结盟，以增加势力。在独立战争初期，英国能够充分利用皇家海军船坚炮利的优势控制十三殖民地的沿海城市，但对于如何控制内陆地区、及应对盘据内陆、熟悉地形、骁勇善战的殖民地民兵却束手无策。随着法国海军在切萨皮克海战大捷夺得制海权，英军于1781年的约克镇之围城战役中惨败投降，并于1783年被逼签订《巴黎条约》承认美国独立。

波士顿倾茶事件（The Destruction of the Tea in Boston），是1773年在英国殖民地麻省首府波士顿发生的一场政治抵抗运动，由殖民地的民间反抗组织“自由之子”领导并行动，反对英国政府在殖民地征税并借此控制殖民地政府，以及反对英国东印度公司利用法案垄断北美的茶叶进口贸易。1773年12月16日，在抗议的最后一天，亲英派总督哈钦森（Thomas Hutchinson）仍坚持拒绝遣返英国东印度公司的茶船，因此数十名或上百名自由之子成员趁夜色登船将全数茶叶抛入海水毁掉。波士顿倾茶事件是美国革命进程中的关键事件。事件发生后，英国政府采取了一系列强硬措施，引发殖民地的连串反抗行动。对抗接连升级，并导致1775年美国独立战争爆发。

维多利亚女王（Queen Victoria，1819年5月24日－1901年1月22日），1837年6月20日即位为联合王国女王。维多利亚是肯特与斯特拉森公爵爱德华亲王之女。爱德华与其父乔治三世皆于1820年去世，维多利亚在母亲萨克森-科堡-萨尔费尔德公主维多利亚的严格监督下成长。1837年，因为父亲三个长兄生前都未留下婚生子，年仅18岁的维多利亚继承王位。

《国王的演讲》（The King's Speech）2010年上映，在第83届奥斯卡金像奖中获得12项提名，并勇夺最佳影片、最佳原创剧本、最佳导演及最佳男主角四项大奖。本片讲述的是现任英女王伊丽莎白二世的父亲，乔治六世国王治疗口吃的故事，根据英国历史真实故事改编而成。