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Because the fear of the French and local rebellions, Enland and Ireland came closer and had an act of Union in1801.That provided that Ireland would have in the United Kingdom about a one-fifth of representation of Great Britain.
In 1829, the "Catholic Emanicipation Act" declared that Catholics and the Protestants should have the same voting and other rights. Now Catholic Irish people were able to attend the "House of Lords" and the "House of Commons".
The aim of the nineteenth century was to give equal rights to Protestants and Catholics, and to improve the farmer`s social and economic situation.
In the first half of the 19th century Daniel O`Conell though to give equal rights to Catholics. 1840 he organised mass demonstrations and for a while he was sucessful. But he began to get worried that the demonstrations would lead to puplic disorder and eventually cancelled them. This lost him his popularity.
Most Irish people lived on farmes. Their main diet was potatos. In 1845, because of bad weather the poteto-crop failed. This lead to famine in rural areas. England supplied grain, but there were distribution problems and, whereas the towns had enough food many country people starved. Asa consequence many people emigrated to Norther America or industriel cities. A further and even greater famine occured in 1849. The result of the combined famine were:
- 1 million irish people emigrated
- 1,5 million people died of starvation
Evictions were widespread and cottages were demolished by landlords to prevent other impoverished tenants from occupying them.
In 1870 there was a further land reform. Many Catholics were given their own land. Now, most Catholics wished to have a parliament in Dublin as an opposit to London. This craeted tension with many of the Protestant "Anglo-Irish" who, did not wish to see any change.
In 1912 when the demand of Home Rule was granded, the Protestants of northern Ireland refused to abide by the new law and killed it. They prefered British rule because they were afraid of being dominated by a Catholic majority on the island.
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