The Glorious Revolution and Gradual Formation of Constitutional monarchy

At the end of 1688 James II fled the country; Parliament passed the crown of England governor Holland William III of Orange, married to a daughter of James II, Mary.

This palace coup, known as the Glorious Revolution, marked the end of an age-old struggle between King and Parliament. Parliament gave the new king Declaration of Rights (or the Bill of Rights), according to which the monarch in England could not, without the consent of Parliament to make laws, collect taxes from the people and call the army. The declaration stressed that people have the right to depose unworthy king and replace it with another, and change the order of succession.

Thus, in England established a regime of parliamentary monarchy, in which the government is responsible to Parliament and not to the king. Often the monarchy in England called constitutional (due to the priority of the law to the will of the king), which is formally incorrect, since the constitution in the strict sense of the word (as a set of basic laws of the country) in the UK no.

The revolution was crucial to the development of capitalism in England. Through Parliament, a number of laws that contributed to the development of a new capitalist order. Was crushed by the power of the old aristocracy, destroyed absolutism. The country has emerged civil society. Proclaimed the English Revolution and the bourgeois political principles of freedom and a new economic order formed the basis of modern industrial civilization.

In the XVII century. leading role in Russian politics played parliament, still consisting of an elected House of Lords and House of Commons, the country's population. But of 5.5 million inhabitants of the kingdom enjoyed the right to vote only 250 thousand from half the population of London in Parliament sent only four deputies.

British lawmakers are divided into two political parties. Tori different adherence to the royal authority, defended the inviolability of royal rights and the inviolability of the existing order. Whigs defended in all disputes parliament and advocated various reforms: in the economy, the state and church structure. More William III began to form his cabinet representative of the party which had a majority in parliament. In 1714-1760 gg., In the reign of George I and George II, expressing the interests of the bourgeoisie dominated the Whigs. Then, during almost the entire 60-year reign of George III, the ruling party were Tories.

In 1707 parliament legalized union of England and Scotland. The state became known as Britain. Was the beginning of the British colonial empire. In the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) and in subsequent conflicts England managed to significantly undermine the power of her rival France.

For two and a half centuries in the country occurred agrarian revolution, which resulted in the concentration of land in the hands of large owners, the disappearance of the peasantry and the widespread use in agriculture labor wage workers. Developed characteristic of the English countryside at the time the pyramid: the landlord, tenant farmers, farm laborers. Great landowners created conditions for increasing grain production, leading to lower prices even for him. -

Destruction of different kinds of restrictions at the time of the Revolution contributed to the rise of industry. K, in the middle of the XVIII. in England, the conditions are ripe for the industrial revolution, ie, the transition from factory to factory, machine production. John Kay, the weaver and the mechanic, invented in 1733 loom. In 1765, James Hargreaves weaver from Lancashire invented a mechanical spinning wheel, which both worked 15-18 spindles. In 1769, Richard Arkwright patented a machine driven by a waterwheel. All these inventions have caused the rise in labor productivity and were the starting point of the industrial revolution.

From among the bourgeoisie stood owners of large enterprises. Industrial capitalism began to separate from the shopping. Productivity growth does not improve the situation of workers. On growing like mushrooms factories, there was no health and safety.

So, as a result of the victory, revolution in England established a new, capitalist system, which became the most important features of the domination of commodity production and exchange manufactory factory. Actively forming new, opposing classes - the bourgeoisie and salaried workers. The core values ​​of the society proclaimed: diligence, frugality, courtesy, discretion, honesty, thrift.