During the years 1811-1918 many popular protests occurred throughout Britain. Two of the main protests that happened throughout this time period include; Luddism and The Swing Riots. Their significance, how far they challenged the authorities and how successful their challenge was in bringing change to Britain is mainly down to opinion.
The Luddites were a radical social movement that were active during the nineteenth century. They protested against the new machines that were introduced into factories during the Industrial Revolution. They began protesting in Nottinghamshire however, the protests soon spread throughout the Northern part of England to Lancashire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire, this shows that they were gaining significance. The Luddites used tactics such as, destroying machinery and sending threatening letters with death threats signed by “Ned Ludd”. The Luddites were a very effective group and some of their protests included up to 100 men, they also destroyed £100,000 worth of property in 14 months and in some places new machinery wasn’t even introduced due to fear that the Luddites would destroy it. Luddism was the first large-scale and open display of radical dissatisfaction through the machine breaking which occurred in the form of riots. These were isolated incidents and the movement was strongest in 1812. The government however reacted strongly to these protests and treated them seriously; as a result they sent thousands of troops to the areas where there had been trouble. However there were few arrests and executions of the Luddites, this can be linked to the fact that they were protected by local communities. In 1812 the parliament made machine breaking a capital offence and 17 men were executed in 1813.
The Captain Swing Movement was active during the years 1830 to 1831. The group was made up of farm workers, which is similar to The Luddites as they were also working class. Captain Swing was the name that appeared at the end of threatening letters during protests in England, thus the group being named Captain Swing and the swing riots. During the Swing Riots threshing machines were smashed up, petitions were made for an increase in wages and the movement spread throughout the East and South of England. The government’s reaction to these riots was harsh as they feared a revolution would occur similar to what happened in France. The authorities also feared that the rural revels would join the urban workers. This then led to a change in the way the government dealt with Swing Rioters and more extreme sentences occurred – 19 were executed, 505 transported and 644 imprisoned. This Movement was similar to the Luddites in that swift and harsh sentencing from the authorities reduced the effectiveness of the protest movement.
Overall, this shows that both radical movements were significant to challenging authority, however not effective enough overall.