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The 1800s: The Age of Reform under Queen Victoria

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The 1800s: The Age of Reform under Queen Victoria

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The Victorian period encompassed years of unprecedented economic, technical and political expansion and dramatic social changes. The Victorians perceived their world as rapidly changing. The working class, women, and people of color were agitating for the right to vote and rule themselves. Reformers fought for safe workplaces, sanitary reforms, and universal education. Victorian literature reflects these values, debates, and cultural concerns. Let's explore this amazing century!

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Also known as The Great Reform Act, it was a law passed by Parliament which gave the vote to middle class men. The American War of Independence and the French Revolution made it clear that social conditions in England needed to improve to prevent another revolution. Because of this, Lord Grey formed a Whig government and in 1832 the Reform Bill law was passed. This act granted seats in the House of Commons to large cities that had raised in population during the Industrial Revolution like Manchester and Birmingham (from around 366,000 to 650,000). In addition, it removed seats from 'rotten boroughs (cities able to elect an MP despite having very few voters)'. In other words, the 1832 Reform Bill was a political recognition that Britain had become an urban society and not one entirely ruled by the rich.

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During the British Empire era, the slave trade was considered one of the most valuable profits of the Triangular Trade. However, during the 1780s slavery reached its highest point, and many slaves were exposing their living conditions or manifestating. Apart from that, some of the plantations where slaves worked were overproducing, and this caused plantation owners to lose more than what they earned. Society and the church were also important, as people started to see slavery as something cruel and against God´s rules. Finally, because of The Reform Act (1832), more Whigs could be part of The House of Commons. They expanded the project presented in 1807, and now anyone could own slaves. Because of this and due to the hard work of abolitionists `The Slavery Abolition Act´ was finally passed.

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In the Victorian period, many new laws were created to improve work conditions. One of them was a new Poor Law, it was created in 1834. The reform's aim was that poor people lived in workhouses for long periods of time. These were reformed and transformed into horrible places. People had to work from the early morning until late at night and there was barely enough food to keep people alive. The sexes were separated, so families were divided. Many families tried to avoid the workhouses and they moved to towns.

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Queen Victoria (from 1837 to 1901) Castillo

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Queen Victoria (from 1837 to 1901) Castillo

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Queen Victoria's reign lasted 63 years, being one of the longest British reign in history. Nowadays, it is known as the Victorian Era and stands out for its significant political, social, and economic changes in Britain and around the world.

The Queen married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha for love and also to strengthen the alliance between Britain and Germany. They had nine children and most of them married into other European royal families. Queen Victoria became known as the "Grandmother of Europe" thanks to the fact that her descendants were spread throughout Europe. This family connection played a significant role in shaping the geopolitics of Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

During her reign, the British Empire expanded to its greatest territorial extent, controlling territories in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. Her era is often associated with cultural, social, and political developments.

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May 14, 2016 - Vintage Images, DIY Tutorials & Craft Projects

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Workers Revolt: The Tolpuddle Martyrs (Petenatti)

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Workers Revolt: The Tolpuddle Martyrs (Petenatti)

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In 1834, six farmworkers in the Dorset village of Tolpuddle joined together, promising to be loyal to each other. Their employer didn't approve their union and found a law that he could use to punish them. A judge was specifically chosen to find the six men guilty, and they did. Soon after, in London, 30,000 workers gathered to ask for the pardon of the government. The government didn't listen to the workers and refused to drop the charges until they completed, at least, a part of the punishment. Tolpuddle became a symbol of employers' cruelty and a reason for the working classes
to defend themselves through trade union strength.

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In 1844, the British Parliament passed an act that protected the working class children and improved their conditions of work in factories. This act was called The Factory Act, it was an important law in the history of family legislation. This Act stated that no child under the age of nine could work, employers must have an age certificate for their child workers, children of nine to thirteen years could only work no more than nine hours a day and from thirteen to eighteen, woman included, no more than twelve hours a day and finally children weren’t allowed to work at night. Regarding education this Act stated that children should have at least two hours of school each day. And lastly, in a matter of safety conditions children weren’t allowed to clean machines while it was in motion and all dangerous machinery should be fenced off.

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The Corn Laws (1815-1846) were a compilation of regulations settled by the Government to the imports of grain and cereal in order to protect the interests of the local landowners against a cheaper foreign market. They lasted up to 1846 when revoked by Conservative Prime Minister Robert Peel. The laws accomplished their purposes, but it made the average British population's life harder because the prices of bread and other products sharply rose, and the available food was limited.

The abolition of the Corn Laws led the way to a new era of free trade in Britain, and was a result of the middle class riots. Furthermore, it perfectly illustrated the changes in society and power-hold: the power no longer belonged to the ruling landowners class but to the emerging 19th century middle class of industrialists and traders.

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In the first half of the 19th century, poor sanitation, inadequate housing, and contaminated water supplies prevailed in Britain due to urbanization and industrial growth. Edwin Chadwick published a report that highlighted the disastrous living conditions of the urban poor and establishing a link between unsanitary conditions and disease. Thanks to his efforts, the Public Health Act was established marking the beginning of significant public health reforms like a central board of health, local boards of health in cities, and building regulations

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The Crystal Palace Exhibition (1851) Venegas

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The Crystal Palace Exhibition (1851) Venegas

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Prince Albert and The Royal Commission planned the exhibition. It was a giant glass and iron building in London that showed Britain's superiority over the rest of the nations. Scientific and technological marvel works of art and craftsmanship from the world worked in the Construction of The Crystal Palace, which showed the cutting-edge technology of the day, like electric telegraphs, microscopes, and early submarine, steam engines, and more. This Palace became very famous, and more than six million people visited it.

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The Indian Mutiny was a revolt in India in 1857 (finished in 1859) that became a national movement against foreign rule, led by a number of Hindu and Muslim princes. The revolt was fed by resentments reforms, harsh land taxes, the summary treatment of some rich landowners and princes, and scepticism about the improvements brought about by British rule.

The immediate result of the Mutiny was a general housecleaning of the Indian administration. This introduced a more personal note to the government and removed the unimaginative commercialism that had lingered in the Court of Directors. The financial crisis caused by the mutiny led to a reorganisation of the Indian administration’s finances on a modern basis. The Indian army was also extensively reorganised.

Another significant result was the beginning of the policy of consultation with Indians. Also, there was the effect of the mutiny on the people of India themselves. Traditional society had made its protest against the incoming alien influences, and it had failed. The traditional structure of Indian society began to break down and was eventually superseded by a Westernised class system, from which emerged a strong middle class with a heightened sense of Indian nationalism.

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The Queen's Book "Our Life in the Highlands" (1868) Manriquez

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The Queen's Book "Our Life in the Highlands" (1868) Manriquez

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After the death of her beloved husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg in 1861, Queen Victoria fell down into a great depression and refused to be seen in public. This caused several problems since newspapers started to criticize her and to query the value of the monarchy.
However, in 1868, Queen Victoria won back her popularity by publishing her own diary. She called it Our Life in the Highlands. It had drawings and personal information about her marriage with Prince Albert at Balmoral. The public loved this book since it was the first time they knew something private about the life of a monarch. Swiftly, Queen Victoria was viewed favourably as she referred to Prince Consort as Albert or Bertie and wrote about her servants as if they were members of her family. With this book, she managed to get the respect of the increasingly democratic British.

Bibliography:
McDowall, D. An Illustrated History of Britain. Longman, 2006, pp.144-145.

Royal Museums Greenwich. (n.d.). A Royal Love Story. Retrieved on 22 October, 2023 from https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/queen-victoria-prince-albert#:~:text=On%2010%20February%201840%2C%20Queen,James%20Palace%20in%20London.

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In the United Kingdom under the premiership of William Gladstone, the Third Reform Act (1884) and the Redistribution Act of the following year were laws which further extended the suffrage in Britain after the Derby Government's Reform Act (1867). Taken together, these measures extended the same voting qualifications as existed in the towns to the countryside, more than doubling the electorate in the counties. The bill was introduced by Gladstone on the 28th of February in 1884. It was initially rejected by the House of Lords on the 17th of July, but passed a second time and gained Royal Assent on December 6th of that year.

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State Intervention in Education (1891) Vadalá

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State Intervention in Education (1891) Vadalá

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In 1891, the Free Education Act provided for the state payment of schools per week to help and support poor children to attend school. Indeed, further legislation extended the age of compulsory from 11 to 13 years old for both sexes. Compulsory education was also extended to disabled children, deaf and blind ones under the Elementary Education in special schools.
From this Act on, poor children continued working outside school hours, but parents were sure that their kids were able to be educated without wondering if they could afford the payment for that education.