Editing Acts of Union 1800 (section)

==Background==
Before these acts, Ireland had been in [[personal union]] with England since 1542, when the [[Parliament of Ireland|Irish Parliament]] had passed the [[Crown of Ireland Act 1542]], proclaiming King [[Henry VIII]] of England to be [[King of Ireland]]. Since the 12th century, the King of England had been technical overlord of the [[Lordship of Ireland]], a papal possession. Both the Kingdoms of Ireland and England later came into personal union with that of [[Kingdom of Scotland|Scotland]] upon the [[Union of the Crowns]] in 1603.

In 1707, the [[Kingdom of England]] and the Kingdom of Scotland were united into a single kingdom: the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]]. Upon that union, each House of the [[Parliament of Ireland]] passed a congratulatory address to [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]], praying her: "May God put it in your royal heart to add greater strength and lustre to your crown, by a still more comprehensive Union".<ref>Journals of the Irish Commons, vol. iii. p. 421</ref> The Irish Parliament was both before then subject to [[Poynings' Law (on certification of acts)|certain restrictions]] that made it subordinate to the [[Parliament of England]] and after then, to the [[Parliament of Great Britain]]; however, Ireland gained effective legislative independence from Great Britain through the [[Constitution of 1782]].

By this time access to institutional power in Ireland was restricted to a small minority: the [[Anglo-Irish]] of the [[Protestant Ascendancy]]. Frustration at the lack of reform among the Catholic majority eventually led, along with other reasons, to a [[1798 Rebellion|rebellion in 1798]], involving a [[French expedition to Ireland (1796)|French invasion of Ireland]] and the seeking of complete independence from Great Britain. This rebellion was crushed with much bloodshed, and the motion for union was motivated at least in part by the belief that the union would alleviate the political rancour that led to the rebellion. The rebellion was felt to have been exacerbated as much by brutally reactionary loyalists as by [[Society of United Irishmen|United Irishmen]] (anti-unionists).{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}

Furthermore, [[Catholic emancipation]] was being discussed in Great Britain, and fears that a newly enfranchised Catholic majority would drastically change the character of the Irish government and parliament also contributed to a desire from London to merge the Parliaments.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}

According to historian James Stafford, an Enlightenment critique of Empire in Ireland laid the intellectual foundations for the Acts of Union. He writes that Enlightenment thinkers connected "the exclusion of the Irish Kingdom from free participation in imperial and European trade with the exclusion of its Catholic subjects, under the terms of the 'Penal Laws', from the benefits of property and political representation." These critiques were used to justify a parliamentary union between Britain and Ireland.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Stafford|first=James|chapter=The Enlightenment Critique of Empire in Ireland, c. 1750–1776|date=2022|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/case-of-ireland/enlightenment-critique-of-empire-in-ireland-c-17501776/90D8FE772F7476552F18DC1CEED72360|title=The Case of Ireland: Commerce, Empire and the European Order, 1750–1848|pages=23–58|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-009-03345-9}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Name
! Flag
! Population<br />
! Population<br />(%)
! Area<br />(km<sup>2</sup>)
! Area<br />(%)
! Pop.&nbsp;density<br />(per&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>)
|-
| align=center| [[Kingdom of Great Britain]]
| [[File:Flag of Great Britain (1707–1800).svg|border|70px]]
| align=right| 10,500,000
| align=right| 65%
| align=right| 230,977
| align=right| 73%
| align=right| 45.46
|-
| align=center| [[Kingdom of Ireland]]
| [[File:Royal_Standard_of_Ireland_(1542–1801).svg|border|70px]]
| align=right| 5,500,000
| align=right| 35%
| align=right| 84,421
| align=right| 27%
| align=right| 65.15
|-
| align=center| '''[[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]]'''
| align=right| [[File:Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg|border|70px]]
| align=right| '''16,000,000'''
| align=right| '''100%'''
| align=right| '''315,093'''
| align=right| '''100%'''
| align=right| '''50.78'''
|}