Key Events- The Cato Street Conspiracy (1820)

Context- Conditions in Britain

• Britain was moving from a rural, agricultural nation to one of industry and urbanisation 
• Towns and cities were growing in both size and influence to the point of over taking the countryside
• A rising population and soldiers returning from war abroad meant a shortage in food and jobs at a time where crops were failing as well 
• Industrialisation bought intense and rapid social change- middle class emerging, radicalism etc
• The threat of revolution in Britain was high and this had been shown by the countless uprisings and riots that had occurred over a decade
• The government responded to these with repressive techniques such as the Combination Acts
• This only prompted certain radicals more

The Conspiracy

• Arthur Thistlewood (also involved in the Spa Fields Riots, four years prior) was a radical from the 19th Century
• He led a small group of protesters who demonstrated their anger at the harsh measures being implemented by the government as a way to control the population
• This group became known as the Cato Street Conspirators after the street they were based in
• They aimed to overthrow the government and made plans to assassinate the entire congress at once   
• The authorities received word of their plans and went straight to Cato Street 
• Thistlewood killed a policeman in an attempt to get away but was arrested soon after
• Five of the conspirators were transported, the rest were hanged