3 The historical prevalence of violent disorder
Large-scale public protest, often rowdy and sometimes violent, has always been a part of British society. It is a mistake to associate public protest and disorder solely with criminality, however. Historians have contended, particularly prior to the introduction of modern democracy, that both may serve as a rational and legitimate means of expressing popular opinion.
Figure 4: Troops defend the Royal Exchange during the Spa Fields Riot (1816) [Description: Black and white engraving: soldiers in full uniform with rifles stand watch behind a high fence. Behind the fence is an angry crowd bearing a banner trying to get in] Source: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/riotous-mob-of-spencian-philanthropists-during-the-spa-news-photo/929211244?adppopup=true
Protests could be prompted by economic pressures (over wages, or the price of bread, for example) but could also be political (seeking greater democracy or complaining about unpopular government policies). At times demonstrations which ended in riots were driven by religious dissent and on some occasions the actions of the police themselves were a contributing factor.
How should we interpret this long history of violent dissent in Britain? Should the story we tell be one of gradually diminishing popular violence and the emergence of a more stable social order? Or should it be one of a relatively orderly Victorian and Edwardian period, followed by an emergence of large-scale public unrest in the later twentieth century associated with rapid social change? The activity below will help you to form your own answer to these questions.
Activity 2 The historical prevalence of riot and public violence
Look at the following historical timeline of riots in Britain. It includes riots of ‘national significance’. Some of these are disorders which took place across various locations in the country at roughly the same time (like the 2011 riots you read about earlier). These are obviously of ‘national significance’. Others took place in just one location, but due to their scale or severity were reported nationally and shook the nation (like the Gordon Riots in London in 1780).
As you examine the timeline, read the labels attached to each riot/disorder and consider the following questions:
What do you notice about the frequency, size and location of riots over time? Are they becoming more or less common? Bigger or smaller? More or less violent?
We can do interactive timelines. Here is one we made for another course: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=140643§ion=1.1 (although we can now have them embedded on the page).
Discussion
Periodic outbreaks of public violence, with many different initial causes, have been a constant aspect of British history. However, public disorder has become less lethal, in part due to changes in the way demonstrations and riots have been policed.
In the following sections you will learn about the ways in which the police have sought to quell and control public disorder in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.