Why did Britain lose Hanover? (Short Animated Documentary)

when king james vi of scotland inherited the english throne he made it his top priority to unify the two kingdoms into one entity he failed but his descendant queen anne would be the one to succeed when in 1707 the act of union created the kingdom of great britain in 1801 there would be a second unification with ireland to create the united kingdom this was undertaken by king george iii who wanted to stop ireland from drifting away yet as this act was being drafted george was also the ruler of another state the kingdom of hanover located here in what's now germany and despite britain and hanover sharing the same rules for over 120 years the two never unified which raises the question why why didn't hanover join the united kingdom and why did the two eventually go their separate ways so first a bit of background in 1714 when queen anne who had no heirs opted out of living the british throne passed to her closest protestant relative george the first the elector of hanover he swiftly moved to britain because that's where the money and the power were and the two kingdoms were thereafter run separately but with the unified foreign policy from the beginning though the two domains were seen as very separate entities by both sides hanoverian culture was very different to britain's and there was very little in the way of shared history between them in the same way that england and scotland had furthermore from the perspective of hanover the electors leaving the country and running it mostly from london meant that local leaders felt that had largely been reduced to a british puppet state and in britain leaders there didn't exactly have high opinions of hanover eva it was seen as an autocratic liability since it had previous disputes with sweden france and prussia that britain would now have to take a side in furthermore george the first and the second were largely disliked in britain since they were seen as being too foreign and too fond of hanover george iii had the opposite problem and despite raining for like ever he never visited hanover and it was during his reign that the electorate of hanover was conquered and disestablished by napoleon and after his defeat there was a lot of opposition in hanover to the restoration of the british monarchy there in the end though george's representatives won out and not only was hanover in large but it was also made a kingdom with george as its first monarch although not long after this his son would succeed him as george iv so with the same king in charge of the two states was there any formal attempt to unite the two nope and the reason for this was that britain was a quickly liberalising country with established limits on royal and noble power whereas hanover was not and in the wake of the napoleonic wars few european nations were in favor of such liberalizing movements many hanavarians felt that they were german and wished to distance themselves from british meddling and during the reign of william iv the rift between the two nations grew british prime minister the earl grey pressured the king to force hanover to implement liberal reforms these were rejected and to many it became clear that now the union was dead because william didn't have any children and as such the nation's different succession laws would see different monarchs succeed the throne in britain the throne would pass to victoria and in hanover it would pass to ernest augustus because under salic law no girls allowed and so in 1837 when william died the two kingdoms went their own separate ways the british were by and large glad that hanover wasn't their problem anymore and the hanoverians were glad that they could finally pursue their own destiny without foreign interference something which they would proudly do for 29 whole years before being conquered by russia and british influence there would be forever gone barring its occupation by them in the wake of the second world war i hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching with a special thanks to my patrons james bissonette kelly money maker corso wolf adam stalter jerry landon jordan longley rod d martin wyan hockey gustav swann spencer lightfoot captain cydog winston k wood boogerly wiggly marvin cassow aaron the white words about books podcast communion matthew shipley max and flaudio alex schwinn maggie patzkowski marcus asner the mug wappa corey turner anthony beckett copper tone spinning three plates charles the first ben evanson and scottish trekkie

Channel: History Matters

Views: 1,717,888

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Id: Ko4xqTv6I-w

Length: 3min 34sec (214 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 20 2022