Scarica L'età vittoriana e le riforme sociali in Inghilterra e più Dispense in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! INGLESE- THE VICTORIAN COMPROMISE AND THE VICTORIAN NOVEL THE DAWN OF THE VICTORIAN AGE Queen Victoria Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837 and she had only 18 years old. She ruled for almost 64 years and she gave her name to an age of economic and scientific progress. In 1840 she married prince Albert, who was a very clever man, and they had nine children. In 1857 she gave him the title of Prince Consort. An age of reform During the 1830s there were some important reforms, so this period was called the age of reform. The First Reform Act or Great Reform Act had transferred voting privileges from the small boroughs to the large industrial towns. We also had the Factory Act which established that children aged 9 to 13 couldn’t be employed more than forty-eight hours a week, and that person between 13 and 18 couldn’t work more than seventy-two hours a week. The Poor Law Amendment Act had reformed Elizabeth I’s old Poor Laws. Workhouses and religion The life in the workhouses was frightening because it was characterized by hard work and strict discipline and these features were due to an optimistic fate in progress and to the puritan virtuous of hard work, frugality and duty. The aim of these workhouses was to provide a chance of economic and social improvement for the poor and they were mainly controlled by the church. Furthermore, known conformist churches, like the Methodists, also favored study and abstinence from alcohol. Chartism Chartism was a group of radicals who belonged to the working class and demanded more democratic rights and, in particular, the universal male suffrage. However, this movement failed because of its great democratic ideals, which were premature at the time but their influence can be pointed out in the second reform act in 1867, which gave the male working class the right to vote, and in the ballot act, which introduced the secret ballot in 1872. The Irish potato famine In 1845 bad weather and an unknown plant disease caused a potato famine in Ireland. Because of the fact that the Irish agriculture depended on potatoes, the emigration rate and the death rate increased and the prime minister Robert Peel had to abolish the corn laws, which made the price of bread very high. Technological progress In the middle of the 19th century, there was the second industrial revolution in England which caused many changes in the English economy, culture and architecture, as England also avoided revolutions. In 1851 there was the Great Exhibition, whose aim was to show England’s power and which caused an increasing interest in exhibitions, which also produced many investments in museums, such as the Natural History Museum or the Science Museum, whose entrance was free. Meanwhile, in 1860 the building of the London underground began and the development of railways allowed to transport people and goods and also allowed the middle classes to live in the suburbs instead of the city center. Foreign policy In this period England was involved in various international wars. Between 1839 and 1860 it took part in the first opium war, which was fought between China and Britain, and the second opium war which was fought by Britain and France against China. After these wars England controlled some Chinese ports and Hong Kong.
