The 1790s was encapsulated by the English Georgian era, which took place between 1714 and c. 1830-1837. The period is primarily named after the four Hanoverian Georges who consecutively inherited the throne, George I-IV, and also often includes the short reign of William IV. It precedes the Victorian era, where Queen Victoria would take the throne from her uncle William after his death by heart failure. The Kingdom of Great Britain, during the Georgian era, was quickly becoming a dominating trade centre mostly due to its expanding empire, setting up many trading companies while simultaneously establishing new colonies in Australia and New Zealand, to add to colonies in America, Ireland, India and the Caribbean.
The Georgian era witnessed extensive social change in England. It was during this period that the rival political parties the Tories and the Whigs emerged, with the former being the conservative party and the latter being liberal in comparison. Class division intensified, as did urbanization due to the Industrial Revolution beginning just 30 years previously.
Major historical events were also occurring in England. The London Monster, responsible for an estimated 52 violent attacks on women, was finally arrested, bringing an end to the so-called "Monster mania" propagated by the media. The Methodist Church was created following the death of preacher John Wesley in 1791. The Act to Abolish the Transatlantic Slave Trade would be passed in British Parliament in 1807, although this would not begin to come into effect until the 1833 Slavery Abolishion Act was passed, and only applied to enslaved people in the Caribbean.
Major historical events were also taking place around the world. In the newly established United States of America, Thomas Jefferson was being made the first Secretary of State in 1790, while Benjamin Franklin would die of pleurisy aged 84. Over in Africa, a major earthquake and tsunami hit Algeria, killing at least 3,000 in the city of Oran. In Europe, the United States of Belgium containing modern-day Belgium and the south of the Netherlands, was briefly created and disbursed within 1790. It was an attempt to gain independence from Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, but Joseph's brother and successor Leopold II swiftly took back control of the area by the end of the year.
France, having assisted the Americans in gaining independence from the British monarchy, was working its way up to revolution and disposing of its own monarchy. King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette would famously be beheaded in 1793, where France established themselves as a Republic, which it remains today.
One significant aspect of the Georgian era was the duel, a popular method of settling disputes in the Georgian era and previous time periods. Originating in the medieval period, most of the world preferred to duel with rapiers, as did Shakespeare's Hamlet and Laertes in their duel/ after the deaths of Polonius and Ophelia. England and America, however, duelled with pistols. Alexander Hamilton famously dueled Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr in 1804, after Hamilton refused to endorse Burr for Presidency. The aim was not necessarily to kill your opponent, but to gain 'satisfaction' that the dispute had been settled, Duels very rarely actually took place, as most disputes were solved amicably.
Duels had begun to fall out of fashion in the 1770s in England due to more effective police force being introduced. The act of duelling had been illegal for many decades previously to the Georgian era, although authorities often turned a blind eye to it, especially if no fatality occurred. Since the printing press was more commonplace in this period, disputes were often settled through writing and publishing instead. Duels between women were very rare, and the vast amount of duels were performed by men against men. The last duel in England took place in the Victorian era in 1852, where the surviving man was convicted of manslaughter.