The Victorian Era
28th June 1838 – Queen Victoria
The eighteen year-old Princess Alexandrina Victoria became Queen when her father, William IV, died. She quickly adapted to her new duties and became well schooled in matters of state. She married her cousin, Prince Albert Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840 but he died young of typhoid twenty-one years later. They did however raise nine children between themselves. Queen Victoria reigned for sixty-nine years and oversaw drastic changes in Britain and its culture. The House of Lords lost a lot of influence during her reign, there were wars overseas, and poverty in Britain became a national problem. However, Queen Victoria also was monarch during the beginning of national policing, many new inventions, a global increase in trade, and a restructuring of society thanks to the industrial revolution.
1804-1881 Benjamin Disraeli
A favourite politician of the Queen, due to cleverly applied flattery, Benjamin Disraeli was a Conservative Prime Minister. He began life as a writer, producing successful novels. When moving into politics, he initially began his career as a radical but soon turned to the more steady ground of the Conservative Party. He won the elections four times as leader, and was responsible for Britain's half stake in the Suez Canal. This proved vital for the British economy. Disraeli also proclaimed Queen Victoria as Empress of India in 1876. His government was voted out in 1880 after wars against the Zulu and in Afghanistan led to rising taxes.
1800 – 1850 Dark Satanic Mills
As capitalism became a driving force in economic growth so did the construction of even more industry. There were many more jobs available and the population increased at a faster rate. For those who owned businesses or had high status roles within them, life improved. For those who were unskilled and were employed as manual workers, life did not change for the better. Working conditions were very poor and without regulations in place to protect employees, many people were exploited and forced to live and work in terrible conditions. In the low income areas of the city, people lived in slums which had no sanitation or adequate plumbing. The people lived side by side in makeshift communities within the criss cross network of packed terraced housing. Those who did not find work would end up in a workhouse where they would be given lodgings and food in exchange for full time labour. The quality of these places ranged from generous to harsh. This was the largest change in social security since the poor laws introduced by Elizabeth I.
1842 – Annual Income Tax
During the Napoleonic Wars against France the British economy was strained to break. Much of the country endured poverty and the wages of the armed forces were in jeopardy. After a threat of mutiny from the Royal Navy, urgent action was taken to ensure the money was available. Parliament ran a one off income tax payment for the nation in 1799 and again in 1803. This helped to fund the expensive wars. After 1842, the tax was introduced on an annual basis and has remained in place ever since.
1845 – 1851 The Potato Famine
Ireland had been living largely as a vassal state to Britain in which large portions of wealth had to be paid in tariffs. The Irish economy was largely based on farming potatoes. During 1845 a disease became to infect potatoes across Europe. This affected nearly a third of people in Ireland which put a heavy strain on the farmers. The British made sub-standard grain available in small quantities but mainly left the Irish to make do. Over a million Irish died of starvation and a further two million were placed in workhouses.
1854 – 1856 The Crimean War
In the Crimean Peninsula, which is now called Ukraine, the British were fighting the Russians. This is because Russian forces invaded Crimea which at the time was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. France and Britain allied with the Ottoman Empire to force the Russians back. During the war, the terrible conditions for soldiers were brought to light in The Times by a journalist called William Howard Russell. This forced government to invest in the armed forced to bring conditions up to an acceptable standard. Female nurses began working in the armed forces for the first time. Two famous nurses who were pioneers in female medical equality at this time were Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole.
1859 Theory Of Evolution
Charles Darwin spent many years researching various species of animal in the Galapagos and comparing them to similar species on neighbouring islands. His studies brought him to conclude that each species is related to the other and only through many years of separation had they become significantly different. Adaptations in nature had been recorded before however Darwin speculated that this effect could lead to huge changes if applied to geological timescales. In his book, The Origin of the Species, Charles Darwin for the first time described how one type of creature can become another over time through continual adaptations. As the theory discredited the religious story of creation, Darwin was not popular for his discovery. His later book, The Descent of Man, speculated the way human beings had been created via higher apes. Evolution and human origins from animals are now accepted theories for which the evidence is continually being added to.
1827 – 1912 Joseph Lister
After graduating in medicine from The University of London in 1852, Lister began to conduct research into post-operation deaths. Infection rates were high and mortality was almost as high. At the time the idea of infection was backed up with claims of “bad air”. Lister had studied the work of Louis Pasteur and decided to apply his theories to operation wounds. Where as Pasteur had used heat, Lister tried chemicals. He noticed that carbolic acid would deodorise raw sewage, and as the bad smell was associated with bad air, he linked the two theories together. When Lister began to use carbolic acid on his surgical tools and on the surgical wounds he'd created, the infection rate decreased significantly. Florence Nightingale had established a new school of nursing which began to teach his methods. Now we know Joseph Lister as the inventor of antiseptic.
1870 Irish Land Act
The Irish people were seriously oppressed by British law and the public were unsatisfied with the government's leadership there. William Gladstone became Prime Minister in 1868 on the promise of a resolution of this issue. At this time, Ireland was largely in poverty and although the famine had ended, many still had very little. His first move was to remove the Anglican Church of Ireland which was receiving money from the Catholic church in tithes. The land act which followed the next year gave more rights to tenants making it harder for landlords to exploit them. Gladstone also released government funding to give tenants the ability to buy the land they live on. This led to an unfortunate outpouring of anger towards the landlords which became violent. New laws were passed to halt this. It was the first time that Irish common folk had proper rights guaranteed by Britain.
1870 Elementary Education Act
During the industrial revolution, many working class people were unschooled. Numeracy and literacy among labourers and their families was low. In 1833 the Factory Acts rules that employers are obliged to educate the families of their employees however this did not reach far enough to reduce education poverty in Britain. Other developed nations such as France has pioneered education reforms and Britain had fallen behind. William Forster MP brought forward the Elementary Education Act in 1870 which made schooling compulsory for all children between the ages of five and thirteen. In Scotland the laws were applied in 1872 while in England it wasn't until 1880 when the laws became enforced.
1880 – 1902 The Boer Wars
Imperial British forces annexed parts of South Africa in order to curb the aggressive expansion of the Boers, descendants of Dutch settlers. Because of the gold and diamond mines the territory lines were a topic of serious contention. Transvaal province was part of the newly captured British territory and their cultural leaders opposed the British. An army was eventually called into force and in 1880 a ten week battle took place which saw the British defeated and pushed back. There was then a sustained peace between Anglo-Boer relations which lasted until 1899. More gold and diamonds were discovered in a part of Transvaal that was in dispute. The Boer way of life relied on slavery and exploitation of workers which the British used as their leverage for more military action. The Boers had been preparing for another invasion and had upgraded their army. This caused the British to suffer more heavy losses. The British army retaliated by using a scorched earth policy, burning farms and homesteads as they went. They also used concentration camps to house Boer sympathisers in which thousands died. A British victory was won by guaranteeing eventual Boer authority and a gift of £3 million for reconstruction work.
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