Scarica L'era Vittoriana in Inghilterra e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! When William IV died, his niece Victoria (daughter of his younger brother Edward) became the queen of England at 18 years old in 1837 and reigned for 64 years. Hers was the second longest reign in British history, she gave her name to a whole era, an extraordinary period of economic, technological and scientific progress, social reforms and expansion, with the reaching of the apex of the British Empire's expansion, possessing of the Earth thanks to the colonies (largest empire ever ⅕ existed in human history). She also became empress of India, which was considered the jewel of England. Slave trade was abolished in 1833 but England made his fortune by exploiting slavery, which started at the end of 17th century. From the colonies England imported raw materials like cotton, grown by slaves in the plantations of the South of the USA, and silk, spices and chocolate from India. In 1840 she married Prince Albert, a German prince, and they fell in love even if it was a combined marriage, in fact it proved to be a happy marriage. He was her counselor, he helped and advised her in ruling the empire and for that he was given the title of Prince Consort, underlining his official and important role in the country. They had 9 children and 34 grandchildren that got married with people of the other European monarchies through combined marriages and for that she was called the grandmother of Europe. In the National Portrait Gallery, where the portraits of the most important figures of England are kept, there are portraits of Prince Albert but also family life portraits. In fact the royal family embodied the model of the perfect family, the sense of respectability and the sense of honour. So the royal family was a source of inspiration and model to the families of the middle and upper class. When Albert died in 1861 she started to wear black dresses and for about 10 years she stayed away from the public. Prince Albert was also a great lover of culture, in fact he became a patron of Arts, supported technological development and agricultural reform and promoted many cultural events such as the Great Exhibition of London of 1851, where every country could show its products and power. It took place in the Crystal Palace, an engineering work of art made of glass and iron, built in Hyde Park. After the exhibition it was dismantled and rebuilt somewhere else in London, but then he was destroyed by a fire. At the exhibition England could show to the world all its economic and industrial power, all the most recent technological innovations and new machines. In fact at that time England was the most powerful country of Europe, and from the colonies came plants, animals and objects that people had never seen. An age of reform - Technological progress In the 1830s the "age of reform" started with the Great Reform Act of 1832, which had redistributed the electoral seats from the small villages in the countryside to the large urban areas. There was also an extension of the right of vote to almost all the middle class. 1832: vote to almost all male members of middle classes 1867: vote to all settled male tenants 1884: vote to males in rural and mining areas 1918: universal male suffrage and vote to women over 30 1928: vote to all adult women 1969: minimum voting age from 21 to 18. It was also a period where the interest in sciences, culture and arts grew so much. In fact there was a great interest in culture and in building new museums, so at that time the most British museums were founded, like Victoria and Albert Museum, the science museum and the natural history museum. Museums were free in England, because everyone must have the right to enjoy art. In the middle years of the 19 century England experienced a second wave of industrialisation. 1860 -> first railway (London – Brighton) 1863 -> first underground station was built - steamships But the Victorian age was an age of great contradictions since on the other hand there was extreme poverty because factory workers were still exploited and living a life where they couldn’t enjoy the factory products. Workhouses were instituted with the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and they were run by the Church. They turned to be jail-like places, where factory workers were living in poverty, in appalling conditions, with hard work and a poor diet, wearing uniforms and where families were split. The idea was to make life hard in the workhouses so that factory workers would be active and work hard to look for a job in order not to end up in these places, so they wouldn't rely on public assistance. In fact, according to the Puritan view, poverty was considered a consequence of laziness. Victoria also had to face important problems during her reign: Chartism was a radical movement born in 1848, in the first years of Queen Victoria's reign, whose members were called chartists because they asked for 6 points listed on a chart presented to the parliament. They didn't obtain anything and the chartist movement failed and slowly declined, but it paved the way for the future social and political parliamentary reforms. They asked for: universal male suffrage, secret ballot (it could be controlled if it wasn't secret), payment for members of parliament (only the aristocrats could take part in the parliament because they could live without being paid since they were rich. While middle class men couldn't afford to leave their jobs to have political representation in parliament).
