The Victorian Age
Historical and Social Background
Queen Victoria, with her 63 years on the throne, is one of the longest reigning British monarchs. In 1877 she was also proclaimed as Empress of India. Her reign from 1837 to 1901 is named the Victorian Era or Victorian Period. This period coincides with the peak years of the British Empire.
Whole groups of citizens were exported to populate foreign parts of the world. North America, Australia, South Africa and Ireland are examples of settler colonies. In addition, trader colonies such as India, Nigeria and Jamaica were established. One trading company of great importance to the Empire was the East India Company. It was founded in 1599 and secured India as a colony, actually governing there until 1858. During the industrialisation of Britain, the trading colonies developed into providers of cheap raw materials for its industries.
By 1900 Britain ruled about a quarter of the world, in both land and population. It was the biggest empire the world had ever seen, and it was said that the sun never set on the British Empire.
The 19th century saw British colonial expansion in Africa. Slave trade and then commercial activities spread to Egypt and Sudan. South Africa was more difficult to control because of hostility from the Afrikaaners (Dutch settlers) which led to the Boer Wars.
Australia was initially colonised as a penal settlement for criminals.New Zealand was colonised in 1840, followed by Hong Kong in 1841 which, along with Singapore, became the greatest ports in Asia. One of the Queen's proudest possessions was India, which was directly ruled by the British crown in the second half of the 19th century.
British rule over the country continued well into the 20th century.
Queen Victoria reigned from 1837, when she was only 18, to her death in 1901. She's Britain's second longest reigning monarch after Queen Elizabeth II.
During her reign Britain became the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world. People from every social class had strong feelings of pride and patriotism and the key words for the period were optimism, respectability and modernity.Britain was also one of the few countries to remain relatively untroubled by the revolutions which affected many European countries in the 1800s.
Victoria fell in love with her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha when he visited Britain in 1839. They got married in 1840 and had 9 children over 21 years.
The Queen was the target of eight attempts to kill or assault her during her lifetime.
Victoria, with the assistance of Albert, created a newly visible constitutional monarchy.Prince Albert died at the age of 42. The Queen was inconsolable with grief and wore mourning for the rest of her life.
This age was one of economic expansion, social reform and cultural change for Britain. The process of expansion did not come, however, without complications, so that the age presented numerous complexities and contradictions.
The Victorian Age is conventionally divided into three distinct phases.
The Early Victorian Period (1832-1848) was a time of intense industrialisation, economic depression and social conflict as well as of reforms.
1839
1834
1833
1848
1832
1846
1847
Ten Hours' Act
End of Chartism
First Reform Act
Poor Law AmendmentAct
People's Charter
Factory Act
Repeal of the Corn Laws
The Mid-Victorian Period (1848-1870) witnessed increasing prosperity, rising standards of living, and the establishment of middle-class values as the leading principle for the whole country.
1851
1862
1853
1867
1866
1870
Education Act
Mines Act
Crimean War
Sanitary Act
Second Reform Act
Great Exhibition
In the Late Victorian Period (1870-1901) the powerful contradictions of the era exploded, causing a decline in self-assurance. From the last decade of the century, it became fashionable among the intellectuals to despise whatever might be defined as "Victorian".
1876
1872
1871
1884
Empress of India
Third Reform Act
Ballot Act
Trade Union Act
Licensing Act
Emancipation of Religious Sects
The political parties of the period
The Victorian Age was dominated by two main political parties, the Whigs and the Tories. Both parties changed their names during the period: the Whigs became known as the Liberal Party and the Tories as the Conservative Party.
William Gladstone was one of the leaders of the Liberal Party, while Benjamin Disraeli was the main leader of the Conservative party. They were both Prime Ministers.
The final years of the Victorian age were politically absorbed by the many problems connected to Irish Home Rule and the complicated path towards a political settlement between England and Ireland.
Workers' rights and Chartism
Although the class system was never questioned, the working class began to demand more rights, especially the right to vote. The First Reform Bill of 1832 had excluded them by giving the vote exclusively to property owners. The workers began to organise themselves into a movement to demand the vote for all men. This movement became known as Chartism because of the petitions, or charters, they presented to the government. Theirs was a hard battle which was finally won in 1884 when the Third Reform Bill gave the right to vote to all male workers - labourers, farmers and miners. Only in 1918, however, the right to vote was extended to all men, regardless of their occupation.
- Universal suffrage: the right to vote for all men over the age of 21, apart convicts and those declared insane
- No property qualification: abolishing a rule which dictated MPs had to own a certain value of property in order to stand for election
- Annual parliaments: to prevent corruption in a system where governments could remain in power as long as they had a majority
- Equal representation: proposing the division of the UK into 300 districts of an equal population, replacing a system of wildly mismatched constituencies
- Payment of members: before MPs were paid, the career was only really viable to members with immense personal wealth, who didn’t need to work
- Vote by ballot: to replace the existing ‘show of hands’ system and introduce secret voting to prevent intimidation and corruption
Women
The prevailing ideology of the time portrayed women as "angels of the home". A woman was expected to be the perfect mother, wife and hostess. Many intellectual women rebelled against this imposed stereotype and they were often helped by male intellectuals who fought for more equality between the sexes. Working-class women, however, had quite a different life, working long hours to provide enough food for their children.This century produced many women novelists, even if they felt they needed a male pseudonym (George Eliot). More equality was also given in reforms but the right to vote in general elections would not be granted until 1928.
Workhouses
Workhouses were places where poor people who had no job or home lived. They earned their keep by doing jobs in the workhouse. There were also orphaned (children without parents) and abandoned children, the physically and mentally sick, the disabled, the elderly and unmarried mothers.
A workhouse provided:
a place to live, a place to work and earn money, free medical care, food, clothes, free education for children and training for a job.
Women, children and men had different living and working areas in the workhouse, so families were split up. They could even be punished if they tried to speak to one another!
The education the children received did not include the two most important skills of all, reading and writing, which were needed to get a good job.
The poor were made to wear a uniform. This meant that everyone looked the same and everyone outside knew they were poor and lived in the workhouse. Children could also be sent to work in factories or mines.
Evolution and Darwinism
The theories of evolution caused one of the most dramatic controversies in the Victorian Age. When Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published in 1859, his ideas had been already circulating for years. Darwin proved that a series of changes existed by which species survive if and when they adapt themselves to the environment. Those which do not adapt adequately gradually become extinct. Darwin's book immediately received an outraged response from the Church of England as it challenged the faith in divine creation. Darwin was accused of blasphemy but his work soon became a bestseller. However, Victorian consciousness was shaken in its confidence on the position of God, the world and manking, triggering pessimism about inexorable progress. Towards the end of the century, the theory of evolution influenced the structure and organisation of the realist novel. The characters that at the end of the novel attain wealth or marry do not simply succeed in adjusting to the social environment but seem to be involved in a process of society's "natural selection".
The beginning of the United States
During the early years of the 19th century new settlers in America began to occupy the southwest areas and extensively farm cotton, sugar and tobacco. To do this they depended on slaves for labour. By 1804 many northern states began to abolish slavery, as public opinion began to condemn it worldwide, but the southern states wanted it to continue.
In 1860 Abraham Lincoln won the presidential elections also because of his strong opposition to slavery. The southern states saw secession as their only option. Eleven southern states left the Union and formed the Confederacy. This division resulted in the Civil War which broke out in 1861 and lasted until 1865 when the South surrendered. The slaves were freed but prejudices did not stop and Lincoln's assassination was evidence of the on-going tensions.
The Victorian Age - Historical & Social Background
MRP
Created on November 22, 2017
Start designing with a free template
Discover more than 1500 professional designs like these:
View
Essential Business Proposal
View
Project Roadmap Timeline
View
Step-by-Step Timeline: How to Develop an Idea
View
Artificial Intelligence History Timeline
View
Microlearning: When to Use Chat, Meetings or Email
View
Magazine dossier
View
Microlearning: Graphic Design
Explore all templates
Transcript
The Victorian Age
Historical and Social Background
Queen Victoria, with her 63 years on the throne, is one of the longest reigning British monarchs. In 1877 she was also proclaimed as Empress of India. Her reign from 1837 to 1901 is named the Victorian Era or Victorian Period. This period coincides with the peak years of the British Empire.
Whole groups of citizens were exported to populate foreign parts of the world. North America, Australia, South Africa and Ireland are examples of settler colonies. In addition, trader colonies such as India, Nigeria and Jamaica were established. One trading company of great importance to the Empire was the East India Company. It was founded in 1599 and secured India as a colony, actually governing there until 1858. During the industrialisation of Britain, the trading colonies developed into providers of cheap raw materials for its industries.
By 1900 Britain ruled about a quarter of the world, in both land and population. It was the biggest empire the world had ever seen, and it was said that the sun never set on the British Empire.
The 19th century saw British colonial expansion in Africa. Slave trade and then commercial activities spread to Egypt and Sudan. South Africa was more difficult to control because of hostility from the Afrikaaners (Dutch settlers) which led to the Boer Wars.
Australia was initially colonised as a penal settlement for criminals.New Zealand was colonised in 1840, followed by Hong Kong in 1841 which, along with Singapore, became the greatest ports in Asia. One of the Queen's proudest possessions was India, which was directly ruled by the British crown in the second half of the 19th century.
British rule over the country continued well into the 20th century.
Queen Victoria reigned from 1837, when she was only 18, to her death in 1901. She's Britain's second longest reigning monarch after Queen Elizabeth II.
During her reign Britain became the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world. People from every social class had strong feelings of pride and patriotism and the key words for the period were optimism, respectability and modernity.Britain was also one of the few countries to remain relatively untroubled by the revolutions which affected many European countries in the 1800s.
Victoria fell in love with her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha when he visited Britain in 1839. They got married in 1840 and had 9 children over 21 years.
The Queen was the target of eight attempts to kill or assault her during her lifetime. Victoria, with the assistance of Albert, created a newly visible constitutional monarchy.Prince Albert died at the age of 42. The Queen was inconsolable with grief and wore mourning for the rest of her life.
This age was one of economic expansion, social reform and cultural change for Britain. The process of expansion did not come, however, without complications, so that the age presented numerous complexities and contradictions.
The Victorian Age is conventionally divided into three distinct phases.
The Early Victorian Period (1832-1848) was a time of intense industrialisation, economic depression and social conflict as well as of reforms.
1839
1834
1833
1848
1832
1846
1847
Ten Hours' Act
End of Chartism
First Reform Act
Poor Law AmendmentAct
People's Charter
Factory Act
Repeal of the Corn Laws
The Mid-Victorian Period (1848-1870) witnessed increasing prosperity, rising standards of living, and the establishment of middle-class values as the leading principle for the whole country.
1851
1862
1853
1867
1866
1870
Education Act
Mines Act
Crimean War
Sanitary Act
Second Reform Act
Great Exhibition
In the Late Victorian Period (1870-1901) the powerful contradictions of the era exploded, causing a decline in self-assurance. From the last decade of the century, it became fashionable among the intellectuals to despise whatever might be defined as "Victorian".
1876
1872
1871
1884
Empress of India
Third Reform Act
Ballot Act
Trade Union Act
Licensing Act
Emancipation of Religious Sects
The political parties of the period
The Victorian Age was dominated by two main political parties, the Whigs and the Tories. Both parties changed their names during the period: the Whigs became known as the Liberal Party and the Tories as the Conservative Party.
William Gladstone was one of the leaders of the Liberal Party, while Benjamin Disraeli was the main leader of the Conservative party. They were both Prime Ministers.
The final years of the Victorian age were politically absorbed by the many problems connected to Irish Home Rule and the complicated path towards a political settlement between England and Ireland.
Workers' rights and Chartism
Although the class system was never questioned, the working class began to demand more rights, especially the right to vote. The First Reform Bill of 1832 had excluded them by giving the vote exclusively to property owners. The workers began to organise themselves into a movement to demand the vote for all men. This movement became known as Chartism because of the petitions, or charters, they presented to the government. Theirs was a hard battle which was finally won in 1884 when the Third Reform Bill gave the right to vote to all male workers - labourers, farmers and miners. Only in 1918, however, the right to vote was extended to all men, regardless of their occupation.
Women
The prevailing ideology of the time portrayed women as "angels of the home". A woman was expected to be the perfect mother, wife and hostess. Many intellectual women rebelled against this imposed stereotype and they were often helped by male intellectuals who fought for more equality between the sexes. Working-class women, however, had quite a different life, working long hours to provide enough food for their children.This century produced many women novelists, even if they felt they needed a male pseudonym (George Eliot). More equality was also given in reforms but the right to vote in general elections would not be granted until 1928.
Workhouses
Workhouses were places where poor people who had no job or home lived. They earned their keep by doing jobs in the workhouse. There were also orphaned (children without parents) and abandoned children, the physically and mentally sick, the disabled, the elderly and unmarried mothers.
A workhouse provided: a place to live, a place to work and earn money, free medical care, food, clothes, free education for children and training for a job.
Women, children and men had different living and working areas in the workhouse, so families were split up. They could even be punished if they tried to speak to one another! The education the children received did not include the two most important skills of all, reading and writing, which were needed to get a good job. The poor were made to wear a uniform. This meant that everyone looked the same and everyone outside knew they were poor and lived in the workhouse. Children could also be sent to work in factories or mines.
Evolution and Darwinism
The theories of evolution caused one of the most dramatic controversies in the Victorian Age. When Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published in 1859, his ideas had been already circulating for years. Darwin proved that a series of changes existed by which species survive if and when they adapt themselves to the environment. Those which do not adapt adequately gradually become extinct. Darwin's book immediately received an outraged response from the Church of England as it challenged the faith in divine creation. Darwin was accused of blasphemy but his work soon became a bestseller. However, Victorian consciousness was shaken in its confidence on the position of God, the world and manking, triggering pessimism about inexorable progress. Towards the end of the century, the theory of evolution influenced the structure and organisation of the realist novel. The characters that at the end of the novel attain wealth or marry do not simply succeed in adjusting to the social environment but seem to be involved in a process of society's "natural selection".
The beginning of the United States
During the early years of the 19th century new settlers in America began to occupy the southwest areas and extensively farm cotton, sugar and tobacco. To do this they depended on slaves for labour. By 1804 many northern states began to abolish slavery, as public opinion began to condemn it worldwide, but the southern states wanted it to continue.
In 1860 Abraham Lincoln won the presidential elections also because of his strong opposition to slavery. The southern states saw secession as their only option. Eleven southern states left the Union and formed the Confederacy. This division resulted in the Civil War which broke out in 1861 and lasted until 1865 when the South surrendered. The slaves were freed but prejudices did not stop and Lincoln's assassination was evidence of the on-going tensions.