House of Windsor

The house name Windsor was adopted in 1917, during World War I. It was changed from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha because of wartime anti-German sentiment in the United Kingdom.

Name	Portrait	Birth	Marriages	Death	Succession right
George V George Frederick Ernest Albert 6 May 1910 – 20 January 1936		3 June 1865 Marlborough House son of Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark	Mary of Teck St James's Palace 6 July 1893 6 children	20 January 1936 Sandringham House aged 70	Son of Edward VII
Edward VIII Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David 20 January – 11 December 1936 (abdicated)		23 June 1894 White Lodge son of George V and Mary of Teck	Wallis Warfield Simpson Château de Candé 3 June 1937 no children	28 May 1972 Neuilly-sur-Seine aged 77	Son of George V
George VI Albert Frederick Arthur George 11 December 1936 – 6 February 1952		14 December 1895 Sandringham House son of George V and Mary of Teck	Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon Westminster Abbey 26 April 1923 2 children	6 February 1952 Sandringham House aged 56	Son of George V
Elizabeth II Elizabeth Alexandra Mary 6 February 1952 – present		21 April 1926 Mayfair daughter of George VI and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon	Philip of Greece and Denmark Westminster Abbey 20 November 1947 4 children	Incumbent	Daughter of George VI

Supliamentary reading

American Colonies

Thirteen Colonies

Colonies are the areas of the world that at one time were part of the British Empire. The Thirteen Colonies were the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America founded between 1607 (Virginia) and 1733 (Georgia). They began collaborating at the Albany Congress of 1754 to demand their rights and set up a Continental Congress that declared independence in 1776 and formed the states of the United States of America.

Those 13 colonies were: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

Each colony developed its own system of self-government. Residents of these colonies were mostly independent farmers, who owned their own land and voted for their local and provincial government. Benjamin Franklin, in 1772, after examining the wretched hovels in Scotland surrounding the opulent mansions of the land owners, said that in New England "every man" is a property owner, "has a vote in public affairs, lives in a tidy, warm house, has plenty of good food and fuel, with whole clothes from head to foot, the manufacture perhaps of his own family." Following a series of protests in the 1760s and 1770s, these colonies united militarily in opposition to Great Britain and the rule of King George III with the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775. In 1776 they declared their independence and formed a new nation, the United States of America.

Before independence, the thirteen were part of a larger set of colonies in British America. Those in the British West Indies, Newfoundland, the Province of Quebec, Nova Scotia and East and West Florida remained loyal to the crown throughout the war. However, their geographical isolation and the dominance of British naval power precluded any effective participation.

British settlers did not come to the American colonies with the intention of creating a democratic system, yet by doing without a land-owning aristocracy they created a broad electorate and a pattern of free and frequent elections. The colonies were independent of each other before 1774 as efforts led by Benjamin Franklin to form a colonial union through the Albany Congress of 1754 had failed. The thirteen all had well established systems of self-government and elections based on the Rights of Englishmen, which they were determined to protect from imperial interference.

Mercantilism was the basic policy imposed by Britain on its colonies. Mercantilism meant that the government and the merchants became partners with the goal of increasing political power and private wealth, to the exclusion of other empires. The government protected its merchants—and kept others out—by trade barriers, regulations, and subsidies to domestic industries in order to maximize exports from and minimize imports to the realm. The government had to fight smuggling—which became a favorite American technique in the 18th century. The goal of mercantilism was to run trade surpluses, so that gold and silver would pour into London. The government took its share through duties and taxes, with the remainder going to merchants in Britain.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 882