divorce her after his accession in 1820 (Caroline died in 1821).

Because of the crown’s debts, George IV was in a weak position in

relation to his Cabinet of ministers. In 1829, he was forced by his
ministers, much against his will and his interpretation of his coronation
oath, to agree to Catholic Emancipation. By reducing religious
discrimination, this emancipation enabled the monarchy to play a more
national role.
As for George IV’s younger brother, William IV (1830-37), his reign
was marked by the Reform crisis, which started with the Great Reform
Bill (1832) that abolished the worst abuses of the electoral system and
represented the capitulation of English landed gentry to the middleclasses.
Queen Victoria (1837-1901) is associated with Britain’s great age of
industrial expansion, economic progress and, especially, empire. At her
death, it was said, Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun never
set.
Throughout the early part of her reign, she was very much influenced
by her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, who took an active
interest in the arts, science, trade and industry; the project for which he is
best remembered was the Great Exhibition of 1851 (the Crystal Palace).
After his death, the queen could not get over her sorrow and refused to
appear in public for a long time, which caused newspapers to criticise her
and to question the value of monarchy. Eventually, her advisers
persuaded her to take a more public interest in the business of the
kingdom and she became extraordinarily popular.
With regard to home policy under Queen Victoria, due mention
should be made of the ‘Little England’ policy supported by the Liberal
Prime Minister William Gladstone. It implied avoiding foreign
entanglements, supporting the Home Rule for Ireland, and promoting the
Third Reform Bill (1884) which virtually provided manhood suffrage.
In terms of foreign policy, several major aspects are worth expanding
upon. On the one hand, reference should be made to the English
involvement in the Crimean War (1854-56). Britain feared that Russia
would destroy the weak Ottoman Empire, which controlled Turkey and the
Arab countries, and that would change the balance of power in Europe,
putting Britain’s sea and land routes to India in danger. Unfortunately, the
British Monarchy
British History and Civilisation 35
outmoded and inadequate British army was defeated (see the famous
Charge of the Light Brigade).
An important contribution to alleviating the terrible sufferings of the
British troops was that of Florence Nightingale and her band of nurses
who reformed the medical and sanitary conditions in the army and paved
the way for women’s entry into the medical profession a few years later
(Elizabeth Garrett Anderson – 1877).
On the other hand, Queen Victoria was a very strong supporter of the
Empire, which brought her closer to some of her Prime Ministers, i.e.,
Benjamin Disraeli and the Marquess of Salisbury. The former, in
particular, promoted a Conservative ‘Big England’ policy aimed at
enhancing British prestige throughout the world. (1875 – the purchase of
the Suez Canal; 1876 – Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India.)
Nonetheless, even under Queen Victoria, there were troubles in the
British Empire that foreshadowed the decrease in power of the British
colonisers. Thus, in India, the unwise treatment of Indian soldiers resulted
in revolt in 1857 (‘The Indian Mutiny’). This Sepoy rebellion quickly
became a national movement against foreign rule, led by a number of
Hindu and Muslim princes. Both the British and the Indians behaved with
great violence, and the British cruelly punished the defeated rebels. India
was removed from the political jurisdiction of the East India Company and
was placed under the Crown, but that did not help the relations between
the British and the Indians to recover. The feeling of distrust and distance
between the colonisers and the colonised would grow into the Indian
independence movement of the twentieth century.
In Africa, the interest in slave trade caused the British to use
Christianity as a tool for building a commercial and political empire. That
brought them in conflict with other European settlers, like the Dutch ‘Boers’
from South Africa who were defeated only with great difficulty in 1899-
1902. (In 1906, self government was set up in South Africa.)
In Canada, Australia, New Zealand, from the 1840s onwards, as a
result of the rapid increase in population in Britain, many British settlers
were called for the development of colonies. The new comers took over
the land to the detriment of the populations which already lived in the three
countries. In Canada, most of the natives were pushed westwards, and
those not killed became part of the ‘white’ culture. In Australia, most of the
aboriginal inhabitants were killed, and only few survived in the central
desert areas. In New Zealand, the Maori inhabitants suffered less, but they
still lost most of their land. These white colonies were, in time, allowed to
govern themselves on condition they accepted the British monarch as their
head of state.
As part of her colonial policy, Britain was also engaged in the war
with China (1857-58) and interfered in the American Civil War,
supporting the Southern Confederacy between 1861-65.
By the end of the 19th century, Britain controlled the oceans and
much of