Georgian era

Period of British history that roughly equates with the time spent on the throne of the ruling dynasty of the Electorate of Hanover (1692- 1837), who reigned in Great Britain (1714-1901). Though the Hanoverians' claim to the British throne was tenuous, and the German monarchs (especially the first, George I) were not always popular with their British subjects, the dynasty was accepted by the Act of Settlement 1701 to ensure a Protestant succession. George I was succeeded by Georges II, III and IV.   

The period was culturally particularly vibrant with the establishment of the British Museum in 1753 and the contributions of men such as Samuel Johnson, William Hogarth, Samuel Richardson and George Frideric Handel. Famous writers of the period include Henry Fielding, Mary Shelley and Jane Austen, as well as the Romantic poets Lord Byron, Robert Burns, William Blake, John Keats, William Wordsworth, Percy Bssyhe Shelley and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The period saw the development of a distinct architectural style characterised by red brick with white woodwork, which was popular in England from approximately 1715 to 1820. 

The Georgian era was also a time of social reform under politicians and campaigners such as Robert Peel and William Wilberforce, who notably fought for the abolition of slavery, prison reform and social justice. On the international scene, the period was marked by both the loss of some of the American colonies in the American War of Independence, as well as the expansion of the British Empire with statesmen and explorers such as Robert Clive (Clive of India) and Captain James Cook. The Duke of Wellington and Admiral Lord Nelson rose to fame during the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). In the aftermath of the wars there was a period of social discontent and unrest, however, with the spread of the Luddite movement, the Peterloo massacre in Manchester in 1819 and the Cato Street Conspiracy in 1820.