Overview
Under the Hanoverians, cabinet government matured — Robert Walpole is counted the first prime minister (1721–1742). Victory in the Seven Years’ War (1763) made Britain the leading colonial power, but the American colonies won independence by 1783.
Key developments
James Watt’s improved steam engine, canals, and the first factories set off the Industrial Revolution. In the wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France, Nelson destroyed the enemy fleets at Trafalgar (1805) and Wellington won at Waterloo (1815).
End and transition
Industrial cities and reform agitation outgrew the old order; the Reform Act of 1832 began widening the franchise. William IV died in 1837 and the crown passed to the eighteen-year-old Victoria.