The Victorian Age 1837-1901
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The Victorian Age 1837-1901 Interactive timeline 1837 1838 1839-42 Accession People’s Charter calls First Opium War of Queen for social reforms and against China Victoria universal male suffrage TIMELINE 1840 1845 1846 1851 1853-56 Queen Victoria Irish Repeal of Great Crimean marries Prince Potato the Corn Exhibition War Albert of Saxe- Famine Laws Coburg-Gotha 1856-60 1857 1859 1860 Second Indian Charles Darwin’s The Republican Opium War Mutiny On the Origin candidate Abraham of Species is Lincoln wins published the presidential election 1861-65 1863 1865 1867 1869 1870 American First section Assassination Second Reform The Suez Canal Education Civil War of London of President Act extends the opens and the Act Underground, Lincoln right to vote to Union Pacific establishes the world’s first some sections Railroad connects the basis of underground of the working the East and West elementary railway, opens classes coasts of the USA education 1877 1884 1899-1902 1901 Victoria Third Reform Second Boer War: Queen becomes Act extends the British against Victoria Empress voting to all male Dutch settlers dies of India householders in South Africa 2 1. The Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, London, was unveiled by King George V in 1911 as the symbolic hub of the British Empire. The centrepiece by Sir Thomas Brock features the white marble figure of Queen Victoria surrounded by the symbols of her reign: Truth, Justice and Motherhood. Above her is the gilded statue of Victory, with Constancy and Courage at her feet. 2. St Pancras Station in London is one of the wonders of Victorian engineering and a magnificent example of Gothic architecture. Built to connect London with England’s major cities, it was opened in 1868. The renewal of the station at the beginning of this century adapted it to modern international trains and routes without altering its original beauty. A. B. The accession of Queen The Victorian Age was a period Victoria gave monarchy a of widespread acceptance of a certain new image of duty. National middle-class morality, mirrored pride and optimistic faith in the royal family; however, in the last in progress were celebrated decades there was a growing sense in the Great Exhibition. of uncertainty and doubt. AN OVERALL VIEW 1 C. D. E. The rest of Europe experienced revolutions in The building of a Reading was a 1848. There was serious discontent in Britain, but network of railways national leisure pursuit. the government was able to avoid revolution through over the whole country Industrialisation had made compromise. Parliamentary reforms satised not only distributed goods literacy a necessity and the middle classes but the working class was still without but also moved people and a national education a voice, except for the Chartist movement. united the nation. system provided it. F. G. H. British foreign policy was based In the USA the gap between the industrial North and During the on free trade and liberalism. the agricultural South widened as settlers moved west Victorian Age China was forced to open to and the question of slave owning split the nation in the the British British trade, and the Crimean Civil War. The Confederate South was defeated by the Empire achieved War was fought to keep Russia out Unionist North and slaves were freed. Though free, its greatest of the Ottoman Empire and India. black Americans faced poverty and discrimination. expansion. STUDY SKILLS 18 The Cornell note-taking system 19 How to answer oral questions 20 How to write a commentary 21 How to go from text to context 22 How to give your personal response 23 How to compare and contrast different authors 2 24 How to develop a topic 3 History and Culture 5.1 1837-1861 The dawn of the Victorian Age VOCABULARY: Queen Victoria POLITICS AND SOCIETY When Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837,shewasjust18yearsold.Shewastorule 1 MATCH the highlighted words for almost 64 years and gave her name to an about politics and society in age of economic and scientific progress and the text with their meaning. social reforms. Her own sense of duty made her 1 the act of voting ............................................ the ideal head of a constitutional monarchy: 2 strict discipline over a group she remained apart from politics and yet provided stability. In 1840 she married Prince ................................................................................................ Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. They had nine 3 change to a piece of legislation children and their family life provided a model ................................................................................................ of respectability. Prince Albert was a clever 4 ................... extreme scarcity of food man and Victoria relied more and more on 5 admitted to the right of voting his advice and help. In 1857 she gave him the ................................................................................................ title of Prince Consort, in recognition of his 6 removed from power ............................ importancetothecountry. 7 document defining the rights of a group .............................................................. An age of reform 1 8 self-governing urban The 1830s had seen the beginning of what was communities ..................................................... tobecalledan‘ageofreform’.TheFirstReform Workhouses were mainly run by the Church. 9 managed ................................................................ Act (1832), also called the Great Reform Act Religion was a strong force. In industrial 10 obtained ................................................................... (→ 4.3), had transferred voting privileges from areas the nonconformist Churches, such as the small boroughs, controlled by the nobility Methodists, promoted study and abstinence and the gentry, to the large industrial towns, from alcohol. like Birmingham and Manchester. The Factory COMPETENCE: READING Act (1833) had prevented children aged 9 to Chartism AND ORGANISING 13 from being employed more than forty-eight In 1838 a group of working-class radicals INFORMATION hours a week, and no person between 13 and drew up a People’s Charter demanding equal 18 could work more than seventy-two hours electoral districts, universal male suffrage, 2 BEFORE reading the text, a week. The Poor Law Amendment Act (1834) a secret ballot, paid MPs, annually elected look at the Cornell note- had reformed the old Poor Laws, dating from Parliaments and abolition of the property taking page in the Study Skill reference section and create Elizabeth I, with the creation of workhouses, qualifications for membership. No one in a similar page to complete as institutions where the poor received board power was ready for such democracy and you read. andlodginginreturnforwork. the Chartist movement failed. However, their influence was later felt when, in 1867, the Workhouses and religion Second Reform Act enfranchised part of the STUDY SKILL The Cornell Life in the workhouses was appalling on urban male working class in England and Wales note-taking system, p. 418 account of their system of regimentation, hard for the first time and, in 1872, the secret ballot work and a monotonous diet. The poor had to was introduced with the Ballot Act. wear uniforms and their families were split. This apparent hard line was due in part to an The Irish Potato Famine optimistic faith in progress and to the Puritan Bad weather and an unknown plant disease virtuesofhardwork,frugalityandduty.The from America caused the destruction of potato idea behind the workhouses was that awareness crops in 1845. Ireland, whose agriculture 1. Franz Xaver Winterhalter, Queen Victoria, of such a dreadful life would inspire the poor to depended on potatoes, experienced a terrible 1859. London, Buckingham Palace. try to improve their own conditions. famine, during which a lot of people died and 4 5. The Victorian Age Key ideas COMPLETE the key ideas. Queen Victoria’s reign was characterised by economic and scientific 2. Women’s Dining Hall at St Pancras and social Workhouse in London, 1893. Queen Victoria gave to the country Parliamentary reforms granted voting privileges to the andimprovedthe working conditions of Chartism was a 2 asking for the extension of the right many emigrated, mostly to America, in search Foreign policy to vote to all male adults of a better life. The Irish crisis forced the Prime Steel steamships expanded the Victorians’ Minister, Sir Robert Peel, to abolish the Corn world even further. In the mid-19th century, Laws in 1846. These laws imposed tariffs on England was involved in the two Opium Wars A terrible famine was caused imported corn, keeping the price of bread against China, which was trying to suppress the by and artificially high to protect the landed interests. opium trade. The First Opium War (1839-42) a was fought between China and Britain, while Technological progress the Second Opium War (1856-60), also known The development of the In the mid-years of the 19th century, England as the Anglo-French War in China, was fought greatly experienced a second wave of industrialisation by Britain and France against China. England changed the landscape and which brought economic, cultural and gained access to five Chinese ports and control people’s lives architectural change. While European of Hong Kong. monarchies were toppled by revolutions in ThemostlucrativecolonyoftheBritishEmpire Britain avoided 1848, England avoided the revolutionary wave. was India. In 1857 widespread