200 years ago this month a shocking event in Manchester in the north of England

changed Britain forever.

Their sabers were applied to hew away through naked held up hands and defenceless heads.

Men, women and children attending a peaceful protest were brutally attacked by armed militia.

Buckley, Thomas, Sabered and stabbed.

Fylds, William, rode over by the cavalry, Partington Martha, thrown into a cellar, killed on the spot.

It was one of the most important political demonstrations in English history.

While everybody else tried to run away, John Lee's was being beaten almost to death.

I'm Catherine Viner, editor-in-chief of The Guardian, and this is Peter Lou, the massacre that changed

Britain on the BBC World Service.

The early 1800s had been a turbulent time for Britain.

The US War of Independence and the Napoleonic Wars had taken their toll.

Britain may have triumphed at Waterloo a few years earlier, but a combination of factors had left the country in crisis.

Historian Jacqueline Riding.

The nation was in massive debt. You had veterans of the war unemployed and coming home to an already

creaking labour market, a volcanic eruption in what's now Indonesia caused in the summer of 1816, massive failures of

harvests. With wages on the decrease many families struggle to make ends meet,

especially with the introduction of what was known as the corn laws.

No imports could be brought in until the price of corn across the piece was above a certain

price, so it artificially maintained a high level of cost for corn, which maintained income

for the farmers and the landowners, but impacted significantly on those who depended on stuff like bread for their basic food.

The authorities were absolutely frightened stiff that the French Revolution would just hop across the channel and in effect Britain.

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