The XIXth century - ENTERPRISE, IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY, PRUDERY, HIPOCRYSY

Victorian Age

Britain wanted 2 main things in Europe:

1. a “balance of power”which would prevent any single nation from becoming too strong

2. free market in which its own industrial and trade superioritywuold give Britain a clear advantage

• Britain - colonial superpower

• The danger at home (1815 - 1832)

Britain had sold clothes, guns and other necessary war supplies to its allies' armies as well as its own. All these changed when peace came in 1815. There was no longer such a need for factory - made goods, and many lost their job. - general misery, starvation and riots

• “Tolpuddle Martyrs” (1834) - 6 farmers in the Dorset village of Tolpuddle joined together, promising to be loyal to their “union”. Their employer managed to find a law by which they could be punished. Judge found the men guilty. 30,000 workers asked the gonernment to pardon them, but the government, afraid of seeming weak, didn't do so until the “martyrs” had completed part of their punishment. Tolpuddle became a symbol of employers' cruelty, and of the working classes' need to defend themselves through trade union strength.

• “People's Charter” (1838) - demanded rights that are now accepted by everyone

• the vote for all adults

• the right for a man without property of his own to be an MP

• voting in secret (so that people could not be forced to vote for their landlord or his party)

• payment for MPs and election every year (impractical) - demands were refused by the House of Commons

• “The Penny Black Stamp” - introduced cheap postage in 1840, ensuring cheap communnications for everyone

• Robert Peel - the Prime Minister

• he abolished the unpopular Corn Law of 1815, which had kept the price of corn higher than necessary (1846)

• establishing a regular police force for London in 1829 (“bobbies”)

• formed Metropolitan Police - Scotland Yard

In 1815 Queen Victoria opened the Great Exhibition of the Industries of All Nations inside the Crystal Palace in London. The exhibition aimed to show the world the greatness of Britain's industry

• 1851 - the government made the railways companies provide passenger trains which stopped at all stations for a fare of 1 penny per mile

• 1832 - an outbreak of cholera (31,000 people killed)

• 1868 - the 1^st congress of trade unions in Manchester

• Lord Canning, the Tory foreign secretary, used the NAVY to prevent Spain sending troops to her rebellious colonies in South America; he also helped the Greeks achieve their freedom from the Turkish empire

• Lord Palmerstone (1846 - 1865) - Whig, liberal, most important political figure

• he openly supported European liberal and independence movements

• symbol of nationalist

• gunboat diplomacy - polityka zastraszania

• Benjamin Disraeli - the new Conservative leader, was of Jewish origin. In 1860 Jews were for the first time given equal rights with other citizens

• personal friend of the Queen Victoria

• imperialism of Britain

• supported the interests of the landed gentry

• “Co-operative Movement” (1844)

• started by a few Chartists and trade unionists

• its purpose was self - help, through a network of shops which sold goods at a fair and low price, and which shared all its profits among its members

• 1867 - free and compulsory education for children

• more people were able to vote

• Queen Victoria (1837 - 1901) - “self - confidence”; British are upper, ruling class

• she married a German, Pronce Albert of Saxe - Coburg, but he died at the age of 42 in 1861; she couldn't get over her sorrow at his death, and for a long time refused to be seen in public

• he never became a king - Prince Consort

• 1839 - The “Opium Wars”; Britain attacked China and forced it to allow the profitable British trade in opium from India to China - shameful event in British colonial history; Shattered lives

• 1854 - Crimean War; Britain joined the Turks against Russia in order to stop Russian expansion into Asiatic Turkey in the Black Sea area

• Britain defeated Russia

• Reporting shocking truth about war - pictures of victims

• Florence Nightingale - 1^st nurse; “Lady with the Lamp”

• “Indian Mutiny” (1857) - revolt, which became a national movement against foreign rule; British cruelly punished the defeated rebels

• David Livingstone - Scottish doctor, a Christian missionary and an explorer; he discovered areas of Africa unknown to Europeans

• 1890 - rush for land - treaty of European countries, which agreed to divide Africa into “areas of interests”; Britain took most

• 1884 - invasion and take over of Sudan

• 1829 - Irish Catholics were allowed to become MPs

• Jingoism - state of mind; most British strongly believed in their right to an empire, and were willing to defend it against the least threat

• “Potato Famine” in Ireland (1845 - 1847)

• the worst disaster in its entire history; for 3 years the potato crop, which was the main food of the poor, failed

• 1,5 mikkion died from hunger

• great poverty - immigration to the United States

• Charles Parnell - a Protestant Irish MP demanded fuller rights for the Irish people, in particular the right to self - government. When most Irish were able to vote for the 1^st time in 1885, 86 members of Parnell's Irish party were elected to Parliament

• 1870 - I Education Act (William Gladstone) - all children had to go to school

• 1891 - II Education Act - education up to the age of 13

• Robert Owen - a factory owner in Scottland was the 1^st who gave his workers shorter working hours, provided good housing nearby and education for the workers children

• Arthur Cadbury's chocolate factory - other reformer

• William Booth - started a new religious movement, the Salvation Army, to “make war” on poverty

• 1857 - Charles Darwin published “The Origin of Species”

• 1907 - “New Liberal” governments provided free school meals, to improve the health of Britain's children

• the Parliament Act (1911) - the House of Lords lost its right to questioin financial legislations passed in the Commons. Its powers in all other matters were limited. It could no longer prevent legislation but only delay it, and for not more than 2 years - Whigs almost dissapeared

• 1893 - new party (Labour) in Parliament - independent 1874 - data z zajęć

• In July 1914 Austria - Hungary declared war on its neighbour Serbia following the murder of a senior Austrian Archduke in Sarajevo. In August 1914 Germany's attack on France took its army through Belgium. Britain declared war because it had promised to guarantee Belgium's neutrality (Treaty of 1838).

• 1815 - the Corn Laws; gentry became more wealthy, other people became poorer; the laws were designed to protect cereal producers in UK, against competitive less expensive imports; it enhanced the profits and political power of landowners

• Peterloo Battle (Massacre) - 1819 - cavalry charged into a crowd that had gathered to protest economic situation and to demand the reform of parliamentary representation

• Catholics could again hold the public offices

• Reform Bill/Act (1832) - introduced wide - range changes (Lord Grey) to the electoral system; rotten boroughs ended, Britain become urban

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