Victorian/Edwardian England (1850-1910)

McKay 838-850 Palmer 14.74

Great Britain 1815-1850

1815 1820 1825 1830 1835 1840 1845 1850

-Peterloo Massacre (1819)-Six Acts Passed

-Irish Potato Famine begins

-Corn Laws repealed

(1846)

Chartists issue Six Points (1836)

Great Reform Bill (1832)

Corn Law passed

Mines Act

(1842)

Victorian Era

begins (1837)

First (Irish) Home Rule

bill rejected (1886)

Victorian Great Britain

1850 1860 1870 1884 1890 1900 1920

Gladstone’sGreat Ministry(1868-1874)

Second Reform Bill

extends vote to workers

Forster Education

ActUniversity Tests Act

(1871) removes

religious tests at Oxford and

Cambridge

Reform Bill of 1832

extends vote to middle

class

Compulsory school

attendance in Great Britain

(1876)

Disraeli’s Great Ministry

Great Exhibition in

Crystal Palace (1851)

Government of Ireland Act (1920)

Easter Uprising in Dublin

Victorian Zeitgeist• Values• Hard work, thrift, sobriety, self-reliance, rugged

individualism, family, restraint, separate spheres• Samuel Smiles

– Wrote “Self Help”– Applied Darwinian ideas to society– Advocated that laws could not alter a person’s

behavior, must come from themselves– Low wages would encourage a person to be thrifty,

responsible, etc.• Extreme self confidence

– Viewed British exceptionalism with backdrop of Revolutions of 1848

• Religious– GB experienced a religious revival (1840-1870) among

middle class• 1, 700 new churches built

• Reformers– Bourgeoisie felt it was “God’s Will” that they teach

lower classes to be moral• Temperance Movement

– 33% of all arrest were for drunkenness• Salvation Army (1875)

– Offered help on condition that helped must join religion

Victorian/Edwardian England (1850-1911)• GB was the greatest example of a peaceable

parliamentary government• Queen Victoria (1837-1901) and her reign mark era

of material, literary progress, political stability• most prosperous period in British history• Unprecedented economic growth• Heyday of free trade• New fields of expansion shipbuilding from

wood to iron• By 1870, Britain’s carrying trade enjoyed a

virtual monopoly• Br. engineers were building RRs all over the

world• Br.’s foreign holdings nearly doubled

• Liberal and conservative parties battled over control of government

• Disraeli vs. Gladstone

• 1832 Reform Bill extended vote to wealthy middle class

• 1860s, the lower middle class and working class had grown wanted suffrage

• This era saw the realignment of political parties in the House of Commons:• Tory Party Conservative

Party under Benjamin Disraeli• Whig Party Liberal Party

under William Gladstone

Conservatives vs. Liberals

* William Gladstone, Liberal Prime Minister

1868-1874

1880-1885

1886 1892-

1894

* Benjamin Disraeli, Conservative Prime Minister

1868 1874-

1880

Gladstone and Classic Liberalism(1868-1874) William Gladstone (liberal) 1868-1874

Classic Liberal Reformer Wealthy middle class origins Known for his populist speeches

(whistle stop campaigns) Foreign Policy

Supported a “Little England” foreign policy

believed Britain should look after her own people at home rather than looking to conquer other lands

Imperialism invites war Wars are bad for trade, expensive Supported Irish Home Rule Bill

Domestic Policy “Gladstonianism”

Decrease public spending Supports a meritocracy

Supported reform bills of civil service, entry into military post

Reluctant to extend suffrage to worker

Supported secret ballot in voting Protect democracy/nationalism

through public education Promote peace abroad to help

reduce spending and taxation, and to help enhance free trade & Low tariffs

Gladstone and Classic Liberalism(1868-1874)

“He speaks to Me as if I was a public meeting” Queen Victoria on Gladstone

Disraeli and Conservatism (1874-1880)• Disraeli

• Leader of conservatives & Realpolitik• Italian Jewish origins but raised as Anglican

• “The blank page between the Old and New Testaments

• A dandy• man who places particular importance upon

physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of Self.[

• Foreign Policy– Supports “Greater England”– Promoted British exceptionalism, nationalism &

Imperialism– Acquired control of Suez Canal by buying stock from

bankrupt Isma'il Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt– Royal Titles Act in 1876 made Queen Victoria the

Empress of India– Against Irish Home Rule– Favored protectionism (high tariffs to protect landed

aristocrats)

• Domestic Policy• believed in paternalistic

legislation to protect the weak• Not supporters of business (or

laissez faire)• Passed numerous laws

protecting workers, public health, foods and drugs, factory conditions• Supported Reform Bill of

1867• extended to working

class• Lord Derby (overall

leader of Conservatives) called it a “leap in the dark”

Disraeli and Conservatism (1874-1880)

The Reform Bill of 1867• Disraeli outflanked the liberals

– They had proposed a modest extension of who could vote

• Disraeli 1867 Reform Bill (the Second Reform Bill)– Vote was extended to most workers– extended from 1.5 to 2.5 mil (increase

of 88%)– Lord Derby (overall leader of

Conservatives) called it a “leap in the dark”

– Hoped Conservatives would get credit for inevitable law

– Thought suburban middle class would become more conservative• (They would but not right away)

– Liberals won election of 1868 and put Gladstone in as PM

The Irish Question• What should Great Britain do

with Ireland?• Act of Union 1800 – incorporated Ireland into

the UK during French Rev• Penal Laws– Irish peasants could not

own land and were reduced to tenant farmers

– Land owned by “absentee landlords” who had no motive to improve it

• Potato Famine (1843-46)– Resulted in over 1 million

deaths and millions more emigrating to US, Canada, Australia

– Classic Liberal laisssez-faire

"A family evicted by their landlords" (Source: Lawrence Collection, National Library of Ireland).

Irish Land League• Irish peasants were in permanent debt to

Protestant landlords• Hatred of British rule + growing nationalism

united various Irish republicans, constitutionalists with some British M of P

• Irish Land League (1870s)• Led by Irishman Charles Parnell

• An Protestant Irishman• Refused to buy from landlords who

evicted Catholic farmers• Charles Boycott was 1st to be

ostracized• Led bloc in HOP• Goals: Fair Rent, Fixity of Tenure and Free

Sale • Offered votes to party who supported his

goals• Irish Republican Army• Radicals who wanted complete Irish

independence from UK

Home Rule• Gladstone • Introduced an Irish Home Rule Bill

(1886) & (1893)• Would give Ireland a

Parliament of its own• Did NOT offer Ireland

independence!• This issue split the Liberal

Party• Conservative • became party of industry, laissez

faire, Manchester School and landed wealth

• Labor party • Party of workers, social programs,

government intervention

Home Rule• Home Rule Bill passed 1914

– Enactment put on hold for the duration of WWI

• In the meantime, Protestants (Ulstermen) in northern Ireland objected to inclusion with Catholic majority– backed by British Conservatives

• Irish Republic Army (1919)– Conducted guerilla warfare against British

army– Led by Michael Collins

• Easter Rising (1916)– 7 day insurrection aimed at ousting British

rule• Civil War seemed imminent• Government of Ireland Act (1920)

– Ireland granted dominion status except for the Ulster region (remained within Britain)

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