1801-1899: An Eventful UK Century Quiz

England and Wales had been united since the 16th century, and the 1707 Acts of Union added Scotland, creating Great Britain. The Acts of Union 1800 referred to the two separate bills, one in Ireland and one in Great Britain, which created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The first meeting of the new parliament was in January, 1801. The bills sorted out the technical details of things like finances, military arrangements, political structure of the new parliament, and religion.

The latter proved somewhat controversial, as the Church of England and the Church of Ireland were combined into the United Church of England and Ireland, with the Church of Scotland retaining its independence. However, many Irish Catholics had expected that their religion would no longer bar them from being able to sit in parliament, and that was a major reason behind their support for the union. King George III, however, refused to allow this, as he contended it would breach his coronation oath to uphold the Church of England's supremacy. It too an act of parliament (the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829) to make it possible for Roman Catholics to be members of parliament.

The provisions of these acts have been amended over time in Great Britain, most notably in recognition of the changing situation in Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State was recognised, with the island having been divided into Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland in 1921. Northern Ireland seceded from the Irish Free State and rejoined the Union, now known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Much of the first part of the 19th century saw the United Kingdom, along with a number of other European powers, engaged in a series of wars against the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte's military prowess had first been displayed during the French Revolution, starting in 1792, and his ambitions expanded when he became emperor in 1804. In 1814, he was defeated and sent in exile under the Treaty of Fontainebleau to the Mediterranean island of Elba. He managed to escape and returned to the mainland for one last campaign, often called the Hundred Days, during which time he raised an army to face his enemies.

The main military opposition during this campaign came from two leaders: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher led a combined Prussian and Saxon army, while Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, led troops from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick, and Nassau. Napoleon, who had not had time to raise more than about 125,000 men, faced roughly the same number of men when he attacked Wellington on 18 June, but after a series of engagements which made this one of the bloodiest days on the entire Napoleonic Wars period, was unable to withstand the arrival of Blücher's men. Although Wellington later said that it was a close thing, and he was nearly defeated before the Prussians arrived, the final result was a devastating defeat for Napoleon, who was forced to abdicate four days later, and sent into his final exile on the remote island of St Helena.

The Metropolitan Police Act 1829 (or, to give its full name, An Act for improving the Police in and near the Metropolis) was the act of parliament that established the Metropolitan Police, widely considered the first modern police force in the United Kingdom. Because the bill was introduced by (later Sir) Robert Peel, the home secretary at the time, his name became associated both with the bill and with the members of the consequent police force, who became known as bobbies or peelers.

Their headquarters were established in a building in Whitehall Place whose main public entrance was on a street called Great Scotland Yard - whose name was based on the historical fact that Scottish representatives had their establishments there. Over time, the name Scotland Yard came to be applied not only to the building, but also to the actual police force. When the headquarters were moved to a new building in 1890, it was imaginatively designated New Scotland Yard. Subsequent moves to new premises (in 1967 and in 2016) retained that name.

On 20 June 1837, the death of her uncle, William IV, without a direct heir meant that Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent acceded to the throne, becoming the last member of the House of Hanover to hold that position. (The Hanover part of William's rule went to another branch of the family.) She went on to rule for over 63 years, adding the title of Empress of India (which she never visited) to her name in 1876.

The Victorian era is associated with massive expansion of the British Empire, along with the nation's leadership in the industrial revolution, and in associated scientific endeavours. It also saw steady progress away from monarchical power, and increased power given to the House of Representatives (moving control of government away from the aristocracy and towards the populace more widely). There were also a lot of wars - both as part of colonial expansion, and with other colonial powers striving for dominance against each other - conflicts which were to culminate in The War to End All Wars, now referred to as World War I, early in the 20th century.

The Great Famine, also known as the Irish Potato Famine, refers to a period from roughly 1845 until 1852 during which widespread disease of the potato crop on which that country depended led to mass starvation. As disease ravaged the weakened communities, many managed to emigrate to seek a new life, often in the United States. Roughly a million people died, and another million emigrated - about a quarter of the population in 1840.

The devastation caused by potato blight was due to a number of factors. Obviously, the nation's dependence on a single crop was an issue, but just as important were the social factors behind that dependence, which included a high rate of absentee landlords, living in England and using their Irish estates as a resource to exploit. Of particular impact were the evictions of tenants who could not pay their rents when the farms they were operating failed to produce a crop. There were already significant tensions between the Irish natives and the English; this period when English aid was seen as inadequate and half-hearted left a deep-seated hostility in many parts that was to find expression in the Irish rebellions that eventually led to Irish independence from the UK in the 20th century.

As mentioned earlier, the Victorian era involved a lot of warfare, including the Crimean War (1853-1856). This dispute basically had to do with the declining power of the Ottoman Empire, the expansion of Russia, and the concerns about the delicate European balance of power. Russia 'started things' with a demand that they be given control of the Orthodox populace living in the (Islamic) Ottoman Empire. They then attempted to claim control of territory that corresponds roughly to modern Bulgaria and Romania. France, the United Kingdom and Sardinia supported the Ottomans, and joined them in attacking the Russian forces on the Crimean peninsula, which included Russia's main access the the Black Sea at Sevastopol.

Fighting in Crimea continued from September 1854 until the Russians were finally forced to agree to end it with the Treaty of Paris (1856), signed on 30 March 1856. (Paris was the location of a number of treaties over the years - literally dozens of them, including the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolutionary War.) Russia was given back control of Sevastopol, for commercial activity, but forbidden to base warships there. The part of the Ottoman Empire which had been invaded at the start of the war became independent states, and the Orthodox Church gained control over the Roman Church for Christians in the Ottoman Empire.

The FA, as it is known for short, is the oldest football association in the world, having been the governing body for the sport in England (and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man) since its founding on 26 October 1863. Football, which came to be known as association football to differentiate it from other games involving balls and feet, later found that name shortened to soccer, by which name the game is recognised in North America (and some other parts of the world where a local game is familiarly called football). While the London-based group forming the FA was clear on the difference between their game and the competition, rugby, there was not universal agreement on all rules. Sheffield Rules differed from London Rules, and some competitions used a hybrid set of rules. It was not until the Football Association Cup (usually known as the FA Cup) was established in 1871 that a single set of rules emerged - since all English teams (amateur or professional) were eligible to play in that competition, they needed to agree on a single set of rules.

The FA (which does not use a national designation in its name, as a constant statement that it was the first) oversees all aspects of the game within its remit, although it does not actually run all the competitions. As a member of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) it is intimately involved in the decisions that determine the Laws of the Game. These rules have evolved from those first instituted by the FA and adopted by later associations as they joined to form international associations. And, of course, they run the World Cup every four years. A number of sports, such as cricket, have a competition that includes World Cup in their title, though as this is THE World Cup, it needs no sport included in its name. The English team won this massive international competition in 1966, and came fourth in 1990 and 2018. The 2026 World Cup saw them finish in third place.

The Industrial Revolution, which saw the development of industrial (as opposed to cottage) textiles manufacturing in England starting near the end of the 18th century, expanded rapidly during the 19th century, and saw widespread exploitation of the labor of women and children. A series of laws, called the Factories Acts, were passed to establish minimally acceptable working conditions, but they were poorly enforced for decades.

The Factories Act 1847 (with some amendments in 1850 and 1853 to close loopholes) was groundbreaking in its attempt to establish a universal working day. The original only applied to women and children aged 13-18, requiring that they work no more than 63 hours a week (to be reduced a year later to 58 hours). The bill did not require that this be extended to male workers, but the practicalities of running a factory meant that they were included, and this marked the culmination of nearly twenty years of popular (and clerical) agitation on the issue.

It may or may not have been coincidence (historians differ on the economic and social factors) that the use of child labor in industry declined steadily during the second half of the 19th century, following the successful implementation of this act.

Meridian is another name for the lines of longitude that run between the North and South poles. In order for everyone's nautical records, maps, etc. to be mutually intelligible, it is important that everyone know the basis of measurement. In other words, one of the lines of longitude must be declared the prime meridian, with an angular value of 0. All other lines of longitude can be described in terms of how many degrees away they are from the prime meridian - measured in degrees to the east or to the west, until reaching the antipodal meridian, 180. Every country set up their own prime meridian, with 0 running through some precise location, such as their national astronomical observatory. In 1851 George Biddell Airy established the English one at the Greenwich Observatory.

In 1884 the International Meridian Conference held in Washington DC decided that the meridian passing through the Greenwich Observatory would be used internationally as 0. The French, who abstained from voting on the resolution, continued to use the Paris meridian as 0 for several decades.

During the second half of the 20th century, satellite measurements showed that the original measurements made by George Biddell Airy in 1851 to locate the meridian were slightly off, and a new prime meridian, called the International Reference Meridian, was established. At Greenwich, the prime meridian marker set up in 1884 is now known to be about 102 metres (335 feet) west of the proper location. This may not sound like much to you, but for a GPS, the difference really matters!

During the 19th century, the United Kingdom engaged in a number of conflicts in various locations on the African continent. The Boers, Afrikaans-speaking descendants of Dutch settlers in the area now known as South Africa, had seen their territory infringed on in this process. The First Boer War (1880-1881) had resulted in the establishment of a Boer state that was self-governing but with British control of external affairs. The Second Boer War (1899-1902), fuelled by British immigrants arriving in search of gold during the Witwatersrand Gold Rush, saw the Boers seeking complete independence, but resulted in establishment of several British colonies that formed the Union of South Africa (self-governing, but part of the British Empire) in 1910.

The name for this conflict depends on where you live. It is often just called the Boer War, since it was much more significant than the earlier conflict - so if you see that term, you know this is the one they mean. In South Africa it is officially called the South African War, although historically it was known as the Anglo-Boer War. Its Afrikaans names include Afrikaans versions of these, as well as 'Tweede Vryheidsoorlog' (Second Freedom War) and Engelse oorlog' (English War).

The Second Boer War involved a number of battles which have been memorialised in books and film (such as the siege of Mafeking and the battle of Sion Kop), but it was the guerilla warfare stage of the conflict, following the British capture of Pretoria, that included many of the most controversial events. These included a scorched earth policy to deter fighters, and the establishment of concentration camps to keep civilians from assisting them, both of which led to significant civilian deaths. This war also saw the first British war crimes prosecutions. Six officers, including the Australian Harry 'Breaker' Morant, were tried for multiple offenses involving killing either fighters who had surrendered or non-combatant civilians. Their punishments ranged in severity from execution down to expulsion from the army.