Scarica L'Età Vittoriana (1837-1901) e più Appunti in PDF di Filosofia solo su Docsity! The VICTORIAN AGE (1837-1901) The Victorian age took its name from Queen Victoria. She came to the throne at the end of the first industrial revolution. The modern urban economy of manufacturing industry and international trade took over from the old agricultural economy. Britain has become the most powerful nation in the world. The urban poor were perceived as a potential danger, steps were taken to incorporate portions 0f the working classes into society through a series of reforms and progressive policies. Britain had become a nation of town dwellers. Workers found themselves in less favourable circumstances. In industrial towns and cities, the minority property- owning class generally occupied up to 50% of the available land. The poor were forced into overcrowded slums. Cheap materials were often used to construct new buildings. All these problems were multiplied by the large number of people living in small spaces. These unsanitary led to the spread of deadly diseases. The first reform bill of 1832 excluded the working classes. In 1836 emerged the Chartist movement, whose goal was to gain political rights for the working classes. It contained six points: - Votes for all men - The secret ballot - Abolition of the poverty qualification for candidates seeking election - Payment for members of parliament - The establishment of electoral districts equal in population - Annual elections for parliament. The people’s charter was rejected three times over a period of 10 years. The plan was to deliver it to parliament after a peaceful mass meeting. The petition was rejected, and this marked the end of Chartism. The Victorian period saw the expansion of Britain’s empire all over the world, and this expansion was due to the need to protect trade routes to and from India, the Jewel in the crown of the empire. The Indian mutiny led to the closure of the company and administration of Indian territories was taken over by the British government. Queen Victoria was declared Empress of India. Britain annexed South Africa, Egypt, Burma, Malaysia, and Afghanistan. Victorian compromise The Victorian age was a complex era, it was an age of progress and great social reforms, it was also characterised by poverty, injustice, and social unrest. The Victorians were moralists, they faced many problems. The idea of being respectable distinguished the middle from lower class. Respectability was a mixture of both morality and hypocrisy. The family was a patriarchal unit, the husband represented authority and the women concerned the education of children and the managing of the house. Sexuality was generally repressed. City life in Victorian Britain Britain had become a nation of town dwellers due to its industrial development. The majority of Victorian city poor lived in unhealthy slum districts overrun by disease and crime. THE LATE VICTORIAN PERIOD The late Victorian period was influenced by William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli. Gladstone served as Prime minister four separate times, he moved to the liberals and was a great advocate of free trade. His main political opponent was Disraeli, a popular Tory and novelist who was Jewish. He was twice prime minister; he played a central role in the creation of the conservative party. He was able to secure working- class support for the Tories. Gladstone and Disraeli advocated a policy of gradual incorporation of the working class. They supported the elementary education act, which gave all the children the right to a basic education and the trade union act which made unions legal. The ideology of reform led to the formation of the independent labour party. Then, the elementary education became free and the school- leaving age was raised to twelve. The Victorians were responsible for some innovations, like modern democracy, feminism, the unionisation of workers, socialism, and Marxism. John Stuart Mill had tried and failed to obtain the vote for women in the electoral reform. The national union of women’s suffrage societies was superseded by the more radical women’s social and political union led by Emmeline and Christabel, also known as the suffragettes. ACROSS THE ATLANTIC United States become an industrial power because the cities were raised, and railroads constructed and there was innovation in productive technology. When Abraham Lincoln was elected president, seven states seceded to form the confederate states of America. This led to the American civil war. The initial aim of the union war was to preserve economic interests. The southern plantation economy was dying. -CHARLES DICKENS Charles Dickens published Oliver Twist and Hard Times. He was the first person who decided to speak about the society during the Victorian age. Oliver Twist (1837-1839)
