Lecture 9

à Victorian Age in Britain

Victorian period in Britain is the years of Queen Victoria’s reign in Britain (1837-1901).

Victoria was crowned Queen at the age of 18. She was a Hanover. Aged 21 Victoria married her
German cousin Albert in 1840. On her marriage to Albert, Victoria stopped calling herself a
Hanoverian and became a Saxe-Coburg after her husband’s family. Albert took an active interest
in political life of the country as well as in the arts, science, trade and industry; the project for
which he is best remembered was the Great Exhibition of 1851, the profits from which helped to
establish the South Kensington museums complex in London. Victoria was deeply in love with
her husband and their marriage was blessed with 9 children. After Albert died she sank into
depression, aged 42, in 1861. She had lost a devoted husband and her principal trusted adviser in
affairs of state. For the rest of her reign she wore black for which Victoria was nicknamed “the
Widow of Windsor”.

The Victorian era witnessed changed in politics, social life, great progress in medicine and
public health, which helped to improve the lives of working people. It 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.

The Irish Famine. Although Ireland grew large quantities of wheat and other crops, most of this
food was exported to enrich absentee landlords, many of whom were living in England. About
half of Ireland’s eight million people survived almost entirely on potatoes (in British English the
Irish are sometimes referred to as “potato queens”). Blight (disease) ruined the potato crop in
1845 and again in 1846, causing terrible suffering. Repeal of the Corn Laws, to allow the import
of cheap corn form America, came too late to save people. The Great Famine killed almost one
million Irish people, while one million more emigrated to America. The famine, and Britain’s
slowness to act, added to bitter Irish hatred for the British.

Politics in Victorian era. Politics in Victorian era was highly influenced by two Prime Ministers
– Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone. Benjamin Disraeli was a Conservative prime
minister keen on expanding the British Empire. Thus, he bought the Suez Canal built by France
and the Turkish rulers. It secured British control of the most vital trade waterway to the East.

Politics in the later part of Queen Victoria’s reign were dominated by William Gladstone who
served four terms as prime minister. Unlike Disraeli, Gladstone was not interested in expanding
the British Empire; he was more interested in social reforms at home. In 1876 he helped to
amend the Parliamentary Reform Bill and doubled the number of people able to vote. For the
first time the vote was extended to almost all the working classes including two million
agricultural laborers. Women, however, still had no vote. Gladstone also supported
improvements in the provision of education. More schools were built and education finally
became free and compulsory for all children up to 13 years of age.

During Victoria’s long reign, direct political power moved away form the sovereign. Despite this
decline in the Sovereign’s power, Victoria showed that a monarch who had a high level of
prestige and who was prepared to master the details of political life could exert an important
influence. It was during Victoria’s reign that the modern idea of the constitutional monarch,
whose role was to remain above political parties, began to evolve. But Victoria herself was not
always non-partisan and she took the opportunity to give her opinions, sometimes very
forcefully, in private.
The Chartists. Despite the Reform Act of 1832, the vast majority of people still had no vote –
and because of this no say in the running of the country. Chartism was a movement calling for
political reform. Its name was based on the people’s Charter of 1838. The six points of the
Charter were: votes for all adult males; voting by secret ballot; elections for Parliament every
year; Mps should be paid a salary and should not have to own property; all constituencies should
be the same size. There were many Chartist demonstrations, however, even despite the petition
having two million signatures of support, the movement faded because of weak leadership. But
most Chartist demands were eventually met and these helped to form the parliamentary system
in place today.

Growth of the Empire. By the end of Queen Victoria’s reign, Britain had gained more overseas
lands and taken over more peoples than any other nation in history. Britain’s empire included
countries in every continent and islands in every ocean including colonies in the Caribbean,
Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Because the empire covered both hemispheres, it was
known as “the empire on which the sun never sets”. Though Britain had lost the American
colonies in 1783, a number of overseas territories became part of the empire after the defeat of
Napoleon in 1815 – India, Australia (as a penal colony), Canada among them. Strategic harbors
such as Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Singapore and Aden came into British hands, and vital trading
routes, such as the Cape Route (via the tip of South Africa) to India, or the Suez Canal (via
Egypt) to the spice and rubber plantations of southeast Asia were also controlled by Britain.
British boats constantly patrolled countries belonging to the British Empire.

Queen Victoria, herself Empress of India since 1876, was a keen supporter of a foreign policy
that pursued colonial expansion and upheld the empire, but not at any cost. As more and more
British and Irish people immigrated to countries within the Empire, so these lands were gradually
given more freedom to govern themselves. Many colonies, notably Canada, Australia and South
Africa, became known as domination rather than colonies and allowed to govern themselves, but
they still remained closely linked to Britain.

Medicine. The cholera epidemic of 1854 that killed more than 50 000 people spurred people to
fight the disease by improving sanitation. Methods of sanitation and cleanliness in military
hospitals were developed by Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War. In London the work
improving sanitation was entrusted to the engineer Joseph Bazalgette who was to provide a
system of sewers which would not only drain off surface rainwater, but also take household
sewage.

A Board of Health was created in London which organized street cleaning, the building of
pavement and the development of proper sewers.

Modern hospitals were built. In 1899 the School of Tropical Medicine was started. Medical
pioneers Manson and Rose identified the mosquito had created malaria, which was of significant
benefit to people in the British colonies.

Edward Jenner was an English doctor who helped to make people immune to smallpox. Free
vaccination was made available in 1840.

Another modern step for modern medicine was the use of painkillers. In the 1840s, a Scottish
doctor Sir James Simpson put patients under chloroform vapor to ease childbirth pains. Queen
Victoria was given it during the birth of her eight children.

In the 1860s Joseph Lister developed chemical disinfectants to make everything that came into
contact with a wound antiseptic. Lister began to practice antiseptic surgery in Glasgow in 1865.
Feats of engineering. Development of the Industrial revolution of the 18th century gathered pace
in Victorian era. To carry heavy loads of goods canals (which were known as “navigations”)
were started to be built. Roads and railroads had also become more efficient. During the 1840-s
trains became the chief form of transport for passengers, freight, post and newspapers – which
helped to speed up a revolution in communications.

London’s underground system – Metropolitan District Railway – was the world’s first. The line
was opened to passengers in 1863. The trains were steam locomotives that burned coke as fuel,
and getting rid of the smoke form under the ground proved to be a major problem. The first
electric underground railway opened in 1890.

Sea transport was revolutionized by steamships made of steel rather than iron which were
stronger and lighter.

Social changes. The increase and success of industry meant that the middle classes grew in
numbers and these people had more money to spend. They built large elaborate houses that were
filled with china and glass ornaments and paintings. Middle class women were expected to
manage the household, with servants, including a cook and possibly a butler and coachman.
They would not have a job, apart from helping charities because it was not considered
“respectable”. As the middle classes employed servants this gave more women leisure time to try
new sports, such as archery, tennis and croquet.

For the wealthy, fashions reflected increasing prosperity; women wore crinolines. Later women
wore a bustle at the back. Men wore frock coats and winged collars. In the 1860s walking-sticks
with silver knobs also became popular. Children from wealthy Victorian families saw little of
their parents except at tea-time.

For working class children life was very hard. Most poor children did not go to school as they
were expected to work. There was virtually no help for the unemployed, sick, old or poor at this
time. People either starved, begged in the streets or were sent to the local workhouse.

The enormous difference between the wealthier Victorians and the poverty of the working class
stirred many social reformers to start voluntary organizations.