Assignments

1) Translate the text paying special attention to historical terminology.

2) Give Ukrainian equivalents to the following:

unremarkable; government; subjugation; Duke of Wellington; threat; ambassador; active service; abrupt; governor; considerable;

3) Give definitions to the following:

to decline; success; allied; forces; to antagonise; strong, authoritative government;

4) Answer the questions on the text:

- What was Wellesley?

- When did his family change their name to Wellesley?

- Who was defeated in the Peninsular War?

- When did Napoleon abdicate?

- Why did Wellington's government fall?

5) Put questions to the underlined words in the text.

6) Speak on this issue adding extra information from other sources.

Interactive content:

http://www.number10.gov.uk/

Unit 17 Feargus O'Connor (c.1796 - 1855)

O'Connor was an Irish-born Chartist leader - the Chartists represented the first attempt to build a party representing the interests of the English working classes.

Feargus O'Connor was born in around 1796 and spent his early life on his family's estates in Ireland. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, became a lawyer and in around 1820 inherited an estate in Cork from an uncle. During agitation for reform in the early 1830s, he emerged as an advocate of Irish rights and democratic political reform. In 1832 he was elected MP for Cork with the help of Daniel O'Connell, leader of the Irish radicals. They later quarrelled and became enemies. O'Connor was an outspoken critic of the Whig government's policies in England and Ireland. In London, he allied himself with popular radicals and after losing his seat in 1835, embarked on a career as a leader of English popular radicalism.

O'Connor toured the country campaigning for political reform, universal male suffrage and better working conditions, particularly in the industrial districts of England and Scotland. He was well-known for his charismatic and incendiary speeches and his efforts laid the groundwork for Chartism. This was essentially an umbrella movement (named after a six point charter of demands) of the 1830s and 1840s which drew together many strands of radical grievance. O'Connor's newspaper 'The Northern Star', which he established in 1837, provided the most effective link between these different strands. O'Connor was identified with the more radical side of the movement and was imprisoned for libel in 1840. The same year, he attempted with little success tounify the Chartist movement and give it direction with the National Charter Association (1840).

From the early 1840s, O'Connor's attention began to shift

to what he believed was working people's alienation from the land. He developed an idea to buy up agricultural estates, divide them into smallholdings and let these to individuals. This developed into the 'National Land Company' (1845 - 1851). The scheme was a disaster and soon went bankrupt. In 1847, O'Connor was elected MP for Nottingham, becoming the first and only Chartist MP. In April 1848 he presided over the last great Chartist demonstration on Kennington Common in south London. After 1848, Chartism went into sharp decline. From 1851, O'Connor's behaviour became increasingly irrational, possibly as a result of syphilis. In 1852 he was declared insane and sent to an asylum in Chiswick. He died on 30 August 1855.

Assignments

1) Translate the text paying special attention to historical terminology.

2) Give Ukrainian equivalents to the following:

smallholdings; groundwork; grievance; enemies; direction; advocate of Irish rights; to quarrel; to embark; suffrage; umbrella movement;

3) Give definitions to the following:

asylum; behaviour; increasingly irrational; alienation; different strands; popular radicalism;

4) Answer the questions on the text:

- Where did O'Connor study?

- Who were O'Connor's allies?

- What newspaper did O'Connor publish?

- When did O'Connor attempt to unify the Chartist movement?

- Was O'Connor declared insane?

5) Put questions to the underlined words in the text.

6) Speak on this issue adding extra information from other sources.

Interactive content:

http://www.cottontimes.co.uk/charto.htm

Unit 18 Victoria (1819 - 1901)

Queen Victoria was the longest reigning British monarch and the figurehead of a vast empire. She oversaw vast changes in British society and gave her name to an age

Victoria was born in London on 24 May 1819, the only child of Edward, Duke of Kent, and Victoria Maria Louisa of Saxe-Coburg. She succeeded her uncle, William IV, in 1837, at the age of 18, and her reign dominated the rest of the century. In 1840 she married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. For the next 20 years they lived in close harmony and had a family of nine children, many of whom eventually married into the European monarchy.

On her accession, Victoria adopted the Whig prime minister Lord Melbourne as her political mentor. In 1840, his influence was replaced by that of Prince Albert. The German prince never really won the favour of the British public, and only after 17 years was he given official recognition, with the title of Prince Consort. However, Victoria relied heavily on Albert and it was during his lifetime that she was most active as a ruler. Britain was evolving into a constitutional monarchy in which the monarch had few powers and was expected to remain above party politics, although Victoria did sometimes express her views very forcefully in private.

Victoria never fully recovered from Albert's death in 1861 and she remained in mourning for the rest of her life. Her subsequent withdrawal from public life made her unpopular, but during the late 1870s and 1880s she gradually returned to public view and, with increasingly pro-imperial sentiment, she was restored to favour with the British public. After the Indian Mutiny in 1857, the government of India was transferred from the East India Company to the Crown and in 1877, Victoria became

Empress of India. Her empire also included Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, and large parts of Africa. During this period, Britain was largely uninvolved in European affairs, apart from involvement in the Crimean War (1853 - 1856).

In 1887, Victoria's Golden Jubilee and, 10 years later, her Diamond Jubilee were celebrated with great enthusiasm. Having witnessed a revolution in British government, huge industrial expansion and the growth of a worldwide empire, Victoria died on 22 January 1901 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.

Assignments

1) Translate the text paying special attention to historical terminology.

2) Give Ukrainian equivalents to the following:

involvement; expansion; accession; subsequent withdrawal; to rely; to express; to witness; growth; few powers; sentiment;

3) Give definitions to the following:

harmony; lifetime; constitutional monarchy; worldwide; to recover; recognition;

4) Answer the questions on the text:

- Who were Victoria's parents?

- Who was Victoria's political mentor? When was his influence replaced?

- When did Victoria become Empress of India?

- What territories did British Empire include?

- Where did Victoria die?

5) Put questions to the underlined words in the text.

6) Speak on this issue adding extra information from other sources.

Interactive content:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/launch_vt_victorian_room.shtml

Unit 19 George V (1865 - 1936)

George V's embodied diligence and duty and sought to represent his subjects, rather than define government policy as his predecessors Victoria and Edward had.

George was born on 3 June 1865 in London, the second son of the Prince of Wales. When George was 18 he went into the Royal Navy, but the death of his elder brother in 1892 meant he had to leave a career he enjoyed, as he was now heir to the throne. He married his elder brother's fiancée, Princess Mary of Teck, and they had six children. In 1901 George's father became king and in May 1910, George himself became king. His reign began amid a constitutional crisis over the government's attempt to curb the power of the House of Lords. After the Liberal government obtained the king's promise to create sufficient peers to overcome Conservative opposition in the Lords (and won a second election in 1910), the Parliament Bill was passed by the Lords in 1911 without a mass creation of peers. 1911 also saw George's visit to India, the only king-emperor to make the journey.

Public respect for the king increased during World War One, when he made many visits to the front line, hospitals, factories and dockyards. In 1917 anti-German feeling led him to adopt the family name of Windsor, replacing the Germanic Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

After the overthrow of the Russian Tsar in 1917, the post-war world saw the toppling of monarchies all over Europe, many of them related to the British royal family. The king's relationship with parts of the British Empire changed too. The 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, and subsequent civil war, resulted in the setting up of the Irish Free State in 1922, which became a dominion, while the six northern counties remained part of the United Kingdom. The Statute of Westminster of 1931 meant dominion parliaments could now pass laws without reference to United Kingdom laws. This paradoxically increased the monarchy's importance, since the dominions (no longer subordinated to one supreme parliament at Westminster) were now linked through common allegiance to the crown. India gained a measure of self-governance in 1935.

In 1924, George readily accepted the first Labour government. In 1931 the international economic slump caused a political crisis in Britain. The king promoted the idea of a coalition national government of Labour, Conservatives and Liberals, which was eventually formed.

In 1935, the King celebrated his Silver Jubilee, an occasion of great public rejoicing. He died on 20 January 1936 and was succeeded by his son Edward.

Date: 2015-02-16; view: 1200