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two parties dominated the political scene:

THE LIBERAL: led by Gladstone

THE CONSERVATIVE: led by Distraeli

This two political leaders alternated as Prime Minister until the end of the century

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The early Victorian decades was being replaced by:

a growing sense of uncertainty.

a fast-growing population (the middle classes had risen to become 25% of the population).

more people living in towns than in the country.

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In the last decades of the 19th century, the British Empire achieved its greatest expansion. It was the largest empire ever seen:

it extended from Canada to considerable areas of India, Australia and New Zealand, and small portions of South America and South Africa.

it occupied an area of four million square miles and was inhabited by more than 400 million people.

The expansion of the empire was often regarded as a mission: the white man’s burden. This implied:

the patriotic belief in the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race.

a difficult combination of duty to spread Christian civilisation, and encourage toleration and promotion of commercial interests.

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The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and colonisation attempts by Scotland during the 17th century.[1] At its height in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was the largest empire in history and, for a century, was the foremost global power.[2] By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23 per cent of the world population at the time,[3] and by 1920, it covered 35.5 million km2 (13.7 million sq mi),[4] 24 per cent of the Earth’s total land area. As a result, its constitutional, legal, linguistic, and cultural legacy is widespread. It was described as “the empire on which the sun never sets”, as the sun was always shining on at least one of its territories.[5]

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Conservative Party

Disraeli’s government passed some acts to improve living conditions in towns:

• 1875: Artisans’ and Labourers’ Dwellings Act (to clear the slums and provide housing for the poor).

• 1875: Public Health Act (provided sanitation and running water).

• 1878: Factory Act (limited factory working hours.)

Liberal Party

Gladstone’s government passed:

• 1870: Education Act(established a national system of primary education).

• 1871: Trade Union Act (legalised the unions of workers).

• 1872: introduction of a secret ballot.

• 1884: Third Reform Act (extended the right to vote to all male householders).

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From the 1870s, trade with India became increasingly important:

1875: Disraeli purchased more shares in the Suez Canal Company to protect Britain’s route to the East.

1877: Queen Victoria was given the title of Empress of India.

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By the 1870s in South Africa the British controlledtwo colonies: Cape Colony and Natal, while the Boers (Dutch settlers) had two republics: Transvaal and Orange Free State.

• In 1877 Britain took over Transvaal, but the Boers rebelled and the Boer Wars (1880-

1881; 1899–1902) broke out.

• War ended in 1902 with a British victory.

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• The late Victorian Age (1861–1901) was characterised by growing pessimism.

• Pessimism regarded scientific achievements, industrialisation, sexuality and religion.

• Intellectuals and artists expressed doubts about: the stability of Victorian society, protested against the harm caused by industrialism in everyday life and in the environment.

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He expressed his theories in his treatise Das Kapital (1867, 1885, 1894).

He aimed at transforming Britain into a socialist state through revolution.

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1884: the Fabian Society was formed, a middle-class socialist organisation: it aimed at transforming Britain into a socialist state through gradual reforms.

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1893: Independent Labour Party was set up.

it was a non-Marxist socialist political party.

it attracted both male and female intellectuals.

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In the 1870s Herbert Spencer applied Darwin’s theory of natural selection to human society.

the survival of the fittest.

the poor and oppressed deserved no compassion.