The Victorian Age: A Period of Great Energy and Social Change in 19th Century Britain, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica The Victorian Age: A Period of Great Energy and Social Change in 19th Century Britain e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! VICTORIAN AGE (1837-1901) The Victorian Age was a long and complex period. On one hand it was a time of great energy; on the other one, it was a time of increasing unrest which inspired several forms of reaction against materialism and ugliness of Industrial civilization. The Victorian Age started in 1837 with the accession to the throne of Queen Victoria, the last descendant of the Hanover, who inaugurated the longest period of monarchy in Great Britain (66 years), before Elizabeth Il (67 years until now). This historical period ended in 1901 with the death of Queen Victoria and so started the Modern Age. Historical and social context 1. From a political point of view an important role was given to the Prime Ministers, such as Walpole, Gladstone and Churchill. Today the English Prime Minister is Teresa May. There were some new political parties which were born from the ancient Whigs and Tories: the Conservatives (Tories) protected the upper class, while the Liberals (Whigs) were in favour of the middle class, in fact then they created the Labour Party, that contributed to the rise of socialism. This party was made by the workers who organized the movement of the Chartism, in order to have their representative in Parliament and to get the Universal Male suffrage with the First Reform Bill (1838). Then thanks to the Second Reform Bill (1867) the right to vote was given to men who lived in cities, so only rich men could vote. Finally, the right to vote was extended even to men who lived in countries with the Third Reform Bill (1884), but we have to wait the Franchise Act (1918) to get the same right for women, after the agitation of the Suffragette: in fact, this reform gave the right to vote to women over 30 years old. 2. In this period a lot of Social Reforms were emanated to protect the lower class, such as: -Ten Hours Act (1847): the hours of work in factories were reduced from 15 to 10 hours. Moreover, the wages of workers increased; -Mines Act (1842): forbade that children and women worked in factories; -Education Act (1891): the education became compulsory for children, in order to save them from their exploitation in factory. Before this act, only children who belonged to upper classes could attend school. 3. Under the reign of Queen Victoria, the Empire stretched from West Canada to New Zealand in the coast. The heart of this new colonisation was India, in fact Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India in 1876; it remained under the British influence until 1947 when Gandhi brought India to get its independence. 4. With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Great Britain wanted to extend their territories in Africa: so, this is the period of the Great Exploration whose main leader was Laurence Livingstone. 5. In the same period in America burst the Civil War (1861- 1865) between the South and the North: the South defended the free exchange and the slaves’ work, while the North asked for a protectionist policy and was against the exploitation of slaves. The Civil War ended in favour of the North that was supported by the American President Abraham Lincoln. In order to abolish slavery, he was inspired by a sentence taken from the Declaration of the American Independence that said: “AII men are created equal” (Congress of Philadelphia, 4 July 1776). The situation became critic when the President was murdered in 1865. 6. As an effect of the Industrial Revolution, London became one the most important cities of Europe: in fact, Queen Victoria