Macro View

1. Treaties

The Treaty of Bucharest


Signed May 28 [the treaty] ends a 6-year war between Russia and the Ottoman Turks, who cede Bessarabia to Russia. Russian forces have occupied Moldavia and Wallachia, and Russia now annexes the most fertile part of Moldavia—a territory between the Prut and Dneister rivers whose population is 90 percent Romanian. The Prut becomes the new Russian-Turkish border, and Russia receives guarantees that her ships can use the Danube for trading purposes.


http://www.answers.com/topic/1812





Before the facts of War, I would like to offer the attempts at peace during this time. When treaties are signed, the world can let out a sigh of relief. Attempts to make peace give people a reminder that sometimes humanity is capable of improving itself. This is what Jimmy Corbett tries to do in the play. He attempts to make a treaty between Ure and the luddites.



2. Wars





One of the most decisive battles of the Napoleonic Wars, Waterloo was fought in a small area (some 10km by 4km) on the main road leading south from Brussels.
It was the first clash of the Titans - Napoleon Bonaparte versus the Duke of Wellington - and it was a win all/lose all scenario.


http://www.napoleonguide.com/battle_waterloo.htm





The War of 1812 was fought between the United States and Great Britain from June 1812 to the spring of 1815, although the peace treaty ending the war was signed in Europe in December 1814. The main land fighting of the war occurred along the Canadian border, in the Chesapeake Bay region, and along the Gulf of Mexico; extensive action also took place at sea.


http://www.gatewayno.com/history/War1812.html



The Battle of New Orleans


The battle was joined during the early-morning hours of January 8, 1815. Poor leadership, confusion on the battlefield, the swampy terrain and American tenacity combined to create a debacle for the British Army. Within an hour after it started, the fight was ended with the surrender of the British on the battlefield. The British suffered an estimated 300 killed and 1,200 wounded while the Americans counted 13 killed and 52 wounded or missing.
In an ironic twist of history, peace between America and Britain had been achieved two weeks earlier with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent. However, news of the event had not reached the shores of America. Despite its lack of impact on the outcome of the war, the battle was an important milestone in America's development. The victory gave the American people pride in their new nation and confidence in its future.


http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/battleofneworleans.htm

Wars shape the lives of people in more ways than one. The loss of lives, land, and freedom can be felt during wars. This allows us to know who was afraid of who at this time. More than fear; who should 'you' look out for? Wars can sometimes unite or break a people under its government.

3. World Health



great strides in modern transportation accelerated the spread of cholera from India in 1816 to the ports of the Philippines, China, Japan, Persian Gulf then north toward the Ottoman and Russian empires killing thousands by 1826.
http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/projects/bluetelephone/html/health.html



R. T. H. Laennec invents the stethoscope in France 1816. This new technology would help in the fight against the single worst disease of the urban landscape, tuberculosis.


http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/projects/bluetelephone/html/health.html

Since a big concern in the play is children's health and whether they can survive, it would be necessary to find out what was plaguing the world at the time, as well as advancements to battle sickness. This information lends itself to practical use by actors. What to be afraid of, what to check for, what to succumb to.

4. Exploration/ Colonization

Never before or since has so much of Earth been discovered in such a brief period of its history. In all, man's compulsion to discover, describe, and catalog his world—as well as conquer it—resulted in a flood of exploration in the 1800s.


http://www.bookrags.com/research/overview-exploration-and-discovery--scit-051/

During the 19th century a succession of Governors General continued the British conquests in India. Some Indian kingdoms were forcibly taken with military might and ruled directly as part of the Indian government. Others were coerced into paying what was in effect "protection" money to be left alone as "independent princely states". http://www.gpmsdbaweb.com/memoir2/Colonialism/Colonialism2.htm

The play takes place during the beginning of ambitious European colonization around the world. To ignore Britain's presence in 3/4 of the known world is to forget how concerned England was with issues not of the mainland. Perhaps money spent on colonization could have been put forth to factory towns and much pain would have been avoided. It is important to know where England's energy and money went.

5. Technology

The United States made some contributions to the early revolution, notably the cotton gin (1793) of Eli Whitney.

Many technologicl advances around the world helped shape this era and drove prosperity. It is important to know which major inventions were developed and how they either made more profit businesses or denied more profit from the worker.

6. Philosophy

Marx's ideas about the making of capitalist society had their origins in his observation of British industrialization, particularly in Manchester during the 1830s. Marxists went on to argue that the triumph of capitalist organization of production and trade was exemplified most completely in the history of Britain between the accession of George III and the accession of William IV. This process was accomplished by the emergence of the middle class and the creation of an industrial working class from the landless labourers and smaller peasant farmers.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O110-industrialrevolution.html

The French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798-1857) developed a secular religion known as positivism, which emphasized reason and logic. He later systematized it as the Religion of Humanity, complete with priests and a calendar of saints.

http://www.victorianweb.org/philosophy/comte.html

It is important to understand the ways in which people were thinking at this time. What philosophy was popular, and how the people thought new ways of thinking could save them. Marxism clearly came out of a need for solution to a failing economy and the emergence of a new class. This directly affects the people in the play, for the luddites would prefer a marxist type of system.

7. Capitalism (and effects of)

"for the socialists of the 19th century, capitalism was seen as the source of exploitation and economic insecurity for "the working class," who were dependent for their livelihood upon the apparent whims of the "capitalist class."

http://www.fff.org/freedom/0193b.asp

Being that our hero figure and his followers are clashing with the capitalist economy in England, one must look into the good and bad effects of this type of economy in order to agree or disagree with the views of luddites. While all would seem when explaining the freedom of a capitalist economy, there are many variables and effects which all lie in the hands of those who own a business and stand to make a profit off of others.

8. Declarations of Independence

Argentina

"San Martín marches west into Chile in January 1817, a few month's after the formal declaration of full Argentinian independence...The ambitions of many in Buenos Aires are that their city should remain the capital of the entire viceroyalty. But in 1817 this already looks a forlorn hope. Paraguay has resolutely gone its own way in 1811 and by 1814 is a region almost impenetrable to outsiders. Uruguay becomes a battle ground between Argentina and Brazil, until in 1828 both accept it as an independent buffer state between them."

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ac09

"The population of Colombia was estimated at aproximately 800,000 in 1770. It is believed to have crossed the 1-million mark early in the nineteenth century.
In 1811 the populationin parts of Colombia rose up against Spanish colonial rule. A period of armed struggle followed. "Greater Colombia" whose independence was declared in 1819, extended over the former Viceroyalty."

http://www.ddg.com/LIS/aurelia/colhis.htm

This play (story) is about liberation and the freedom of man to work without feeling held down by those at the top. Clearly, at this time in history, many lands around the world were following suit in their own ways and uprising against oppressing powers. Independence seems to be a reocurring theme in the early 19th century and clearly the essence of it is felt across the world, or atleast across the Atlantic.

9. Abolition of Slavery

"The American Colonization Society, founded in 1816, led antislavery protests during the early 1800's. It tried to send freed slaves to Liberia in Africa. The abolitionist Elihu Embree published the first periodicals devoted wholly to the abolition of slavery. He established a weekly newspaper in Jonesborough, Tenn., in 1819 and a monthly publication, The Emancipator, which appeared in 1820."

http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?content_spotlight/aajourney/slavery

"In Britain a group of humanitarian Christians, including Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce (members of the so-called Clapham Sect), argued that if the Atlantic slave-trade were abolished, with its appalling cruelties, plantation owners would treat their slaves more humanely, as being more valuable. They succeeded in getting Parliament to pass a Bill abolishing the British trade in 1807 and at the Treaties of Ghent (1814) and Vienna (1815) Britain agreed to use the Royal Navy to try to suppress the trade, most European countries now supporting the abolition of slavery."
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O48-slavetradeabolitionof.html

Following this theme of liberation, who other than slaves are more fitted to understand what it feels like to be held down and forced to suffer? Africans in Latin, American, and British countries share a big hand in bringing the issues of unfair treatment of man to the powers that be.

10. Factories

"Between 1820 and 1850, the non-mechanized factories supplanted the traditional artisan shops as the predominant form of manufacturing institution. Even though the theory on why and how the non-mechanized factories gradually replaced the small artisan shops is still ambiguous, what is apparent is that the larger-scale factories enjoyed technological gains and advance in efficiency over the small artisan shops."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory#History_of_the_factory

It is important to understand what factories added and took away from communties in order to fathom the drastic changes happening in this era. Where people earned a living and the conditions under which they did is essential for the audience and anyone participating in the production of this play.