Editing History of the United Kingdom (section)

===Postwar reaction: 1815–1822===
====Repression by reactionary landed elites====
The postwar era was a time of economic depression, poor harvests, growing inflation, and high unemployment among returning soldiers. As industrialisation progressed, Britain was more urban and less rural, and power shifted accordingly.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Briggs |first=Asa |title=The Age of Improvement, 1783–1867 |date=1959 |author-link=Asa Briggs}}</ref> The dominant Tory leadership, based in the declining rural sector, was fearful, reactionary and repressive. Tories feared the possible emergence of radicals who might be conspiring to emulate the dreaded [[French Revolution]]. In reality the violent radical element was small and weak; there were a handful of small conspiracies involving men with few followers and careless security; they were quickly suppressed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Evans |first=Eric J. |title=Britain Before the Reform Act: Politics and Society 1815–1832 |date=2008 |isbn=978-1-13-481603-3 |edition=2nd |pages=1–27 |publisher=Routledge |author-link=Eric J. Evans}}</ref> Techniques of repression included the suspension of Habeas Corpus in 1817 (allowing the government to arrest and hold suspects without cause or trial). Sidmouth's [[Gagging Acts]] of 1817 heavily muzzled the opposition newspapers; the reformers switched to pamphlets and sold 50,000 a week. In reaction to the [[Peterloo Massacre]] of 1819, the Liverpool government passed the "[[Six Acts]]" in 1819. They prohibited drills and military exercises; facilitated warrants for the search for weapons; outlawed public meetings of more than 50 people, including meetings to organize petitions; put heavy penalties on blasphemous and seditious publications; imposing a fourpenny stamp act on many pamphlets to cut down the flow on news and criticism. Offenders could be harshly punished including exile in Australia. In practice the laws were designed to deter troublemakers and reassure conservatives; they were not often used. By the end of the 1820s, along with a general economic recovery, many of these repressive laws were repealed and in 1828 new legislation guaranteed the civil rights of religious dissenters.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ziegler |first=Philip |title=Addington |date=1965 |page=350}}</ref>
====Weak monarchs====
[[George IV]] was a weak ruler as regent (1811–1820) and king (1820–1830). He let his ministers take full charge of government affairs, playing a far lesser role than his father, George III. The principle now became established that the king accepts as prime minister the person who wins a majority in the House of Commons, whether the king personally favours him or not. His governments, with little help from the king, presided over victory in the Napoleonic Wars, negotiated the peace settlement, and attempted to deal with the social and economic malaise that followed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Baker |first=Kenneth |date=2005 |title=George IV: a Sketch |journal=History Today |volume=55 |issue=10 |pages=30–36}}</ref> His brother [[William IV]] ruled 1830 to 1837, but was little involved in politics. His reign saw several reforms: the [[poor law]] was updated, [[child labour]] restricted, [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833|slavery abolished]] in nearly all the [[British Empire]], and, most important, the [[Reform Act 1832]] refashioned the British electoral system.<ref>[[Brock, Michael]] (2004) "William IV (1765–1837)", ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', (2004) {{doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/29451}}</ref>
====Foreign affairs====
There were no major wars until the [[Crimean War]] of 1853–1856.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Black |first=Jeremy |title=A Military History of Britain: From 1775 to the Present |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-27-599039-8 |pages=74–77 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |author-link=Jeremy Black (historian)}}</ref> While Prussia, Austria, and Russia, as absolute monarchies, tried to suppress liberalism wherever it might occur, the British came to terms with new ideas. Britain intervened in Portugal in 1826 to defend a constitutional government there and recognising the independence of Spain's American colonies in 1824.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kaufmann |first=William W. |title=British policy and the independence of Latin America, 1804–1828 |date=1951 |publisher=Archon Books |isbn=978-0-208-00351-5 |ol=22086116M |author-link=William Kaufmann}}</ref> British merchants and financiers, and later railway builders, played major roles in the economies of most Latin American nations.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Britain and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History |date=2005 |isbn=9781851094363 |editor-last=Kaufman |editor-first=Will |pages=465–468 |ol=8969943M |editor-last2=Macpherson |editor-first2=Heidi Slettedahl}}</ref> The British intervened in 1827 on the side of the Greeks, who had been waging the [[Greek War of Independence]] against the Ottoman Empire since 1821.

====Whig reforms of the 1830s====
The [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig Party]] recovered its strength and unity by supporting moral reforms, especially the reform of the electoral system, the abolition of slavery and emancipation of the Catholics. [[Catholic emancipation]] was secured in the [[Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829]], which removed the most substantial restrictions on Roman Catholics in Britain.{{Sfnp|Woodward|1962|pages=325–330}}

The Whigs became champions of Parliamentary reform. They made [[Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|Lord Grey]] prime minister 1830–1834, and the [[Reform Act 1832]] became their signature measure. It broadened the franchise slightly and ended the system of [[rotten and pocket boroughs]] (where elections were controlled by powerful families), and gave seats to new industrial centres. The aristocracy continued to dominate the government, the Army and Royal Navy, and high society.{{Sfnp|Woodward|1962|pages=325–330}} After parliamentary investigations demonstrated the horrors of child labour, limited reforms were passed in 1833.

[[Chartism]] emerged after the 1832 Reform Bill failed to give the vote to the working class. Activists denounced the 'betrayal' of the working class and the 'sacrificing' of their interests by the 'misconduct' of the government. In 1838, Chartists issued the People's Charter demanding manhood suffrage, equal sized election districts, voting by ballots, payment of MPs (so poor men could serve), annual Parliaments, and abolition of property requirements. Elites saw the movement as pathological, so the Chartists were unable to force serious constitutional debate. Historians see Chartism as both a continuation of the 18th-century fight against corruption and as a new stage in demands for democracy in an industrial society.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chase |first=Malcolm |title=Chartism: A New History |date=2007}}</ref>

In 1832, Parliament abolished slavery in the Empire with the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833]]. The government purchased the slaves for £20,000,000 (the money went to rich plantation owners who mostly lived in England), and freed the slaves, especially those in the Caribbean sugar islands.{{Sfnp|Woodward|1962|pages=354–357}}

====Leadership====
Prime Ministers of the period included: [[William Pitt the Younger]], [[Lord Grenville]], [[Duke of Portland]], [[Spencer Perceval]], [[Lord Liverpool]], [[George Canning]], [[Lord Goderich]], [[Duke of Wellington]], [[Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|Lord Grey]], [[Lord Melbourne]], and [[Robert Peel]].