 The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 had resulted in periods of famine and chronic unemployment , exacerbated by the introduction of the first of the Corn Laws . By the beginning of 1819 , the pressure generated by poor economic conditions , coupled with the relative lack of suffrage in Northern England , had enhanced the appeal of political radicalism . In response , the Manchester Patriotic Union , a group agitating for parliamentary reform , organised a demonstration to be addressed by the well @-@ known radical orator Henry Hunt . 
