For the get down several centuries of Britain’s existence, much of the earth used London every bit a bridgehead for invasion. But subsequently the Industrial Revolution, when the British Empire reached the peak of its power, London instead became a bridgehead for England to invade much of the world.
The metropolis had grown alone to a greater extent than powerful since it became England’s capital. The bulk of British wealth in addition to mightiness became concentrated inward southern England and, to a lesser extent, the Midlands, Britain’s most fertile areas. The Greater London surface area was past times far the richest in addition to most populous merely because it was a merchandise hub for the province and, past times extension, the residuum of the world. By 1700, the city’s population had grown to unopen to 500,000 people. (The adjacent largest metropolis inward Britain, Bristol, had most 30,000 people, in addition to the northern cities were pathetic in addition to sparsely populated, much how they ever had been.)
But every bit Britain became the British Empire, London took on fifty-fifty to a greater extent than importance. In some ways, London was the British Empire. And its ascension tin endure attributed to 2 primary developments. The get down was the Glorious Revolution inward 1688 – the final successful invasion of Britain past times a unusual power. The installation of William III the next twelvemonth brought political stability the likes of which England had never seen. This stability enabled Britain to consolidate command over the British Isles. In 1707, Scotland in addition to the Kingdom of England (comprising England in addition to Wales, which the English linguistic communication conquered inward 1284) were joined into the Kingdom of Great Britain, in addition to inward 1801, fearing Irish Gaelic collaboration amongst France, Republic of Ireland was brought into the novel political entity: the United Kingdom of Great Britain in addition to Northern Ireland of Britain in addition to Ireland. With the institution of English linguistic communication command over the whole of the British Isles, i of the neat weaknesses of Britain had at final been overcome, in addition to the phase was laid upwards for Britain to projection mightiness rather than to defend against it. Crucially, this meant London no longer had to fearfulness the consequences of unusual conquest. More then than whatever other fourth dimension inward British history, it was secure.
But the far to a greater extent than consequential evolution was incidental. Britain went from existing on the border of human culture to existence perfectly placed betwixt the Old World in addition to the New – in addition to London, existence Great Britain’s primary port, reaped the lion’s part of the benefits. It was buffered past times H2O from threats arising inward mainland Europe, in addition to it was the launching pad for forays into the unknown. It was hence able to invest its newfound wealth heavily into the evolution of the best navy inward the world, which non alone made its isle fortress fifty-fifty harder to laid upwards on but also gave the U.K. an immense wages inward the global contest for regal power.
As all this was happening, an industrial revolution was taking identify within Great Britain. Advances inward agricultural applied scientific discipline enabled people about the earth to alive longer. The resultant population smash raised postulate for virtually all goods. The consequences were many. At first, English linguistic communication farmers who worked inward cottage industries could non continue upwards amongst demand, then huge factories were created to continue pace. Farmers inward southeast Britain began to instruct out their homes for the cities – at first, mainly London – to attempt amend paying jobs. By 1801, London had a population of 960,000. By 1911, it had a population of vii million. In short, London was at the vanguard of this economical revolution.
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