Editing Belfast (section)

=== Developing port, radical politics ===
With a commission from [[James VI and I|King James VI and I]], in 1613 [[Arthur Chichester, 1st Baron Chichester|Sir Arthur Chichester]] undertook the [[Plantations of Ireland|Plantation]] of Belfast and the surrounding area, attracting mainly English and [[Isle of Man|Manx]] settlers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beckett |first=J. C. |title=Belfast: The Making of the City |publisher=Appletree Press |year=1983 |isbn=0-86281-100-7 |location=Belfast |pages=15 }}</ref> The subsequent arrival of [[Ulster Scots people|Scottish Presbyterians]] embroiled Belfast in its only recorded siege: denounced from London by [[John Milton]] as "ungrateful and treacherous guests",<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1813 |title=The Answer of John Milton to the Representation of the Presbytery of Belfast, Published at Page 95 of Our Last Number |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30074456 |journal=The Belfast Monthly Magazine |volume=10 |issue=56 |pages=(207–215) 215 |jstor=30074456 |issn=1758-1605 }}</ref> in 1649 the newcomers were temporarily expelled by an English [[Roundhead|Parliamentarian]] army.<ref name=":16">{{Cite book |last1=Connolly |first1=S. J. |title=Belfast 400: People, Place and History |last2=McIntosh |first2=Gillian |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-84631-635-7 |editor-last=Connolly |editor-first=S. J. |location=Liverpool |publication-date=2012 |pages= |chapter=Imagining Belfast }}</ref>{{rp|21}}<ref name=":26">{{Cite book |last=Maguire |first=William |title=Belfast: A History |publisher=Carnegie Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=9781859361894 |location=Lancaster |publication-date=2009 |pages=}}</ref>{{rp|32}} In 1689, Catholic [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] forces, briefly in command of the town,<ref>Childs, John (2007). ''The Williamite Wars in Ireland''. London: Hambledon Continuum, p. 150. {{ISBN|978-1-85285-573-4 }}</ref> abandoned it in advance of the landing at Carrickfergus of [[William III of England|William, Prince of Orange]], who proceeded through Belfast to his celebrated victory on 12 July 1690 at [[Battle of the Boyne|the Boyne]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=King William in Ulster {{!}} Museum of Orange Heritage |url=https://www.orangeheritage.co.uk/king-william-in-ulster |access-date=3 March 2024 |website=Museum |archive-date=3 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240303145641/https://www.orangeheritage.co.uk/king-william-in-ulster |url-status=live }}</ref>

Together with French [[Huguenots]], the Scots introduced the production of [[linen]], a [[flax]]-spinning industry that in the 18th century carried Belfast trade to the Americas.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bardon |first=Jonathon Bardon |title=The Plantation of Ulster |publisher=Gill & Macmillan |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-7171-4738-0 |location=Dublin |pages=322 }}</ref> Fortunes were made carrying rough linen clothing and salted provisions to the [[slave plantation]]s of the [[West Indies]]; sugar and rum to [[Baltimore]] and New York City; and for the return to Belfast [[flax]]seed and tobacco from [[Thirteen Colonies|the colonies]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=McMaster |first=Richard |date=2011 |title=Scotch-Irish Merchants in Colonial America: The Flaxseed Trade and Emigration from Ireland, 1718–1755 |url=http://www.booksireland.org.uk/store/all-departments/scotch-irish-merchants-in-colonial-america-ebook |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522182339/http://www.booksireland.org.uk/store/all-departments/scotch-irish-merchants-in-colonial-america-ebook |archive-date=22 May 2021 |access-date=22 May 2021 |website=Ulster Historical Foundation }}</ref> From the 1760s, profits from the trade financed improvements in the town's commercial infrastructure, including the [[Lagan Canal]], new docks and quays, and the construction of the White Linen Hall which together attracted to Belfast the linen trade that had formerly gone through [[Dublin]]. [[Abolitionism|Abolitionist]] sentiment, however, defeated the proposal of the greatest of the merchant houses, [[Waddell Cunningham|Cunningham and Greg]], in 1786 to commission ships for the [[Middle Passage]].<ref name="Rodgers">{{cite journal |last1=Rodgers |first1=Nini |date=1997 |title=Equiano in Belfast: a study of the anti-slavery ethos in a northern town |journal=Slavery and Abolition |volume=xviii |pages=82–84 }}</ref>[[File:Bastille-day-belfast-1791.jpg|upright=0.90|thumb|left|Volunteer Corps parade down High Street, [[Bastille Day]], 1792|200x200px]]As "Dissenters" from the [[Church of Ireland|established Anglican church]] (with its [[episcopacy]] and ritual), [[Presbyterian Church in Ireland|Presbyterians]] were conscious of sharing, if only in part, the [[Penal Laws against Irish Catholics|disabilities]] of Ireland's dispossessed [[Catholic Church in Ireland|Roman Catholic]] majority; and of being denied representation in the [[Parliament of Ireland|Irish Parliament]]. Belfast's two [[Member of parliament|MPs]] remained nominees of the Chichesters ([[Marquess of Donegall|Marquesses of Donegall]]). With their emigrant kinsmen in America, the region's Presbyterians were to share a growing disaffection from [[The British Crown|the Crown.]]<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Cochrane |first=Feargal |title=Belfast, the Story of a City and its People |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-0-300-26444-9 |location=London |publication-date=2023 }}</ref>{{rp|55–61}}<ref>{{cite book |last=F.X. Martin |first=T.W. Moody |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781856351089/page/232 |title=The Course of Irish History |publisher=Mercier Press |year=1980 |isbn=1-85635-108-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781856351089/page/232 232–233] }}</ref>

When early in the [[American Revolutionary War|American War of Independence]], [[North Channel Naval Duel|Belfast Lough was raided]] by the [[privateer]] [[John Paul Jones]], the townspeople assembled their own [[Irish Volunteers (18th century)|Volunteer militia]]. Formed ostensibly for defence of [[Kingdom of Ireland|the Kingdom]], Volunteer corps were soon pressing their own protest against "taxation without representation". Further emboldened by the [[French Revolution]], a more radical element in the town, the [[Society of United Irishmen]], called for [[Catholic emancipation]] and a representative national government.<ref name="Connolly">{{Cite book |title=Divided Kingdom; Ireland 1630–1800 |first=Sean J. |last=Connolly |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-958387-4 |pages=434–449 }}</ref> In hopes of French assistance, in 1798 the Society organised a republican insurrection. The rebel tradesmen and tenant farmers were defeated north of the town at the [[Battle of Antrim]] and to the south at the [[Battle of Ballynahinch]].<ref name=":11">[[ATQ Stewart|Stewart, A.T.Q.]] (1995), ''The Summer Soldiers: The 1798 Rebellion in Antrim and Down'' Belfast, Blackstaff Press, 1995,{{ISBN|978-0-85640-558-7}}.</ref>

Britain seized on the rebellion to abolish the [[Parliament of Ireland|Irish Parliament]], unlamented in Belfast, and to [[Acts of Union 1800|incorporate Ireland]] in a [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]].<ref name=":25">{{Cite web |last=Bardon |first=Jonathan |date=2012 |title=The Act of Union |url=http://www.actofunion.ac.uk/actofunion.htm |access-date=30 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415061235/http://www.actofunion.ac.uk/actofunion.htm |archive-date=15 April 2012 }}</ref> In 1832, British [[Reform Act 1832|parliamentary reform]] permitted the town its first electoral contest<ref>{{Cite web |title=Belfast {{!}} History of Parliament Online |url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/constituencies/belfast |access-date=10 February 2022 |website=historyofparliamentonline.org |archive-date=10 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220210164506/https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/constituencies/belfast |url-status=live }}</ref> – an occasion for an early and lethal [[Sectarianism|sectarian]] riot.<ref name=":18">{{Cite book |last=Bardon |first=Jonathan |title=Belfast, An Illustrated History |publisher=The Balckstaff Press |year=1982 |isbn=0-85640-272-9 |location=Belfast |pages= }}</ref>{{rp|87}}