History: 1666 to 1900

Twenty questions on the middle stretch of the Life in the UK history chapter: from the Glorious Revolution to the end of the Victorian age.

The four dates this section turns on

1688 and 1689. The Glorious Revolution replaced James II with William of Orange and Mary — and did it without a battle in England, which is where the name comes from. The Bill of Rights of the following year settled what it meant: the monarch must call Parliament, cannot raise taxes or an army without it, and elections must be free. It limited the Crown. It did not give ordinary people the vote, which took another two centuries.

1707 and 1801. Two Acts of Union, and they are asked about separately. 1707 joined England — Wales already included — with Scotland to make the Kingdom of Great Britain. 1801 added Ireland to make the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which is what the country was called until 1922. Neither should be confused with 1603, when the crowns came to one man but the countries stayed separate.

1807 and 1833. The slave trade was abolished in 1807 after two decades of campaigning led in Parliament by William Wilberforce. Slavery itself was abolished throughout the Empire in 1833 — a quarter of a century later, and a different question.

1805 and 1815. Nelson beat the French and Spanish at sea at Trafalgar and died there. Wellington beat Napoleon on land at Waterloo, ten years afterwards. Both fought the same enemy, which is exactly why they get swapped.

The Victorian half

Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901 — long enough that "Victorian" names an age rather than a decade, covering the height of both the Empire and industrial growth.

The questions here cover the Industrial Revolution as an economic transformation rather than an uprising; the Great Exhibition of 1851 in the Crystal Palace; Brunel and the Great Western Railway; Florence Nightingale in the Crimea, and Mary Seacole alongside her; Disraeli and Gladstone as the great political rivals; the Reform Acts that widened the franchise; and Dickens, whose novels did as much as any reformer to make Victorian readers see the conditions in their own cities.

The questions and explanations here are Zestly's own, written from publicly known facts. No text is reproduced from the official handbook, which is a separate copyrighted publication and the only real syllabus.

• Say what the Glorious Revolution was and what the Bill of Rights of 1689 actually established
• Keep the Acts of Union of 1707 and 1801 apart, and both apart from the union of the crowns in 1603
• Distinguish the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 from the abolition of slavery in 1833
• Attach Nelson to Trafalgar and Wellington to Waterloo, and know which was at sea
• Give the dates of Victoria's reign and describe the Industrial Revolution accurately
• Recognise Walpole, Wilberforce, Nightingale, Brunel, Disraeli, Gladstone and Dickens and say what each is known for

Written from publicly known facts of British history, covering the ground the official syllabus sets out for this period: the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679; the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the Bill of Rights of 1689; the Act of Union with Scotland in 1707 and with Ireland in 1801; Sir Robert Walpole as the first Prime Minister from 1721; the Jacobite defeat at Culloden in 1746; the Industrial Revolution; the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and of slavery in 1833, and William Wilberforce's campaign; Trafalgar in 1805 and Waterloo in 1815; the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901 and the extent of the Empire; Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War; the Great Exhibition of 1851; Brunel; Disraeli and Gladstone; the Reform Acts; and Charles Dickens. No wording is taken from the official handbook, which is a commercial copyrighted publication.