VictorianAge
1837 Queen Victoria’s accession
1840 Victoria’s wedding to Prince Albert
1877 Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India
England at the time thrived becoming the strongest country in the world. It was known for:
Colonies that included India and Africa, which provided raw materials justified by jingoism or the white men’s burden
2nd industrial revolution: The factories made England the workshop of the world and the first world producer for goods
Navy, which was the best in the world and England had new steamships for transport and trade
Liberalism: free trade market which boosted competition between traders and middleclass self-made men
Reforms that gave rights and a better life to most of the workers
Capitalism and protectionism mostly put on corn (by the Tories), the famous Corn Laws
Scientific discoveries and inventions such as evolution and the telegraph
Great exhibition: Albert wanted to show the world england new products and inventions. Albert had the Crystal Palace built for the exhibition but it was burned down in the 20th century.
Crimean War in Russia of which is remembered tha failure of the Charge of the light Brigade at Balaclava and the importance of Florence Nightingale, known as the lady of the lamp, who lead the nursing team at Scutari Base Hospital and after the war formed an institution to train the nurses.
Chartist movement asked for secret ballot, payment to the politicians which would give everyone a chance to be elected and decrease corruption’s rates, annual elections, universal male suffrage but it wasn’t passed because a lot of people were ignorant so they could be easily persuased and redistribution of electoral districts( each district elected 1 representative in the parliament but it wasn’t based on the number of population so the representatives weren’t proportional)
The government tried to meet the people demands before they devolved into insurrections so they gave vaccination to the poor, made a secret ballot act, made elementary school compulsory and more
The government enlarged the right to vote with three reform acts: one in 1852 which gave the right to vote to middleclass men, one in 1867 which gave the right to vote to skilled working men and one in 1884 which gave the right to vote to all male householders
Victorian compromise: way of thinking by which the rich were on the right and moralizers because they are respectable people with respectable jobs and they propel the country. They were strict about behaviour and judged heavily fallen women. The royal family was considered the picture of morality. At the time talking about sex was absolutely prohibited and frowned upon as being gay was. The upper class thought that the people below them somehow deserved their status in life and so they didn’t want to actually help them but usually played a part in charities and philantropist work because they were really hypocrites.
Utilitarianism: Everything in life must have a purpose and be useful. The aim of the government is to have the most people possible happy because the perfect society in which everyone can be happy is utopic. People can’t be all happy because some are just not meant to be but if someone in society is happy and rich all the others will benefit from it and improve. If you want ot be successful and rich you have to invest in what is useful not what you like.