Hamlet wrote:
Hmmmm, obviously nobody has a clue what The GRA, did and it's importance.
Not unexpected, but I would have thought somebody might have known a bit about it to make an educated guess.
I'll hazard a guess. My knowledge of the GRA is admittedly a bit weak, based on James Burke and the recent book by Norman Davies.
My understanding is that this was enacted under duress, so I'm curious if London and etc. might not have developed more revolutionary tendancies. There was a powerful grassroots pressure by economic changes in the countryside, industrialization and and old social structures that had created a large class of disenfranchised, formerly well-off farmers who were pouring into the major cities, and were in a nasty mood. Emigration to the Americas, Australia, etc. had alleviated some of this pressure but wasn't enough unto itself. The GRA tried to mollify these malcontents with a democraticization of legal and social standards, as well as through what Burke calls a propaganda campaign to provide common social outlets (like sport) and public hygene awareness efforts for socialization and venting pent-up aggression. He also implies that this may have been a sort of ethno-genesis for the modern English, as the GRA effects were one of the first common experiences that were universal in Britain, transcending regions and defining "Englishness" for the masses.
I wonder, had the GRA been defeated, would Britain have experienced a far more violent 19th century with Russian-style peasant rebels? Perhaps Marx's grave in London would have more significance today? (It was primarily because of the GRA that Marx wrote that Britain and the U.S. would likely never require a revolution, instead reforming their way to Communism.) Would the likes of the brilliant Benjamin Disraeli, a Jew, have been able to lead Britain later in the 19th century? Would 19th century Britain have, like the rigidly class-oriented Soviet Union of the 20th century, have come apart and unwound by itself, its vast empire gobbled up by other predatory powers? Who would that have left to challenge the rising Germany? Would India and all of Iran become Russian? Would an Afrikaans-speaking South Africa still exist today? Rhodesia/Zimbabwe? etc.?