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19th Century England

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Title: 19th Century England


1
19th Century England
  • An Era of Reform

2
Civil Unrest Absent
  • While most European nations faced civil unrest in
    the mid-19th century (Rev. of 1848), England
    solved her problems with reform efforts.

3
Why Reform?
  • England was not without social problems, BUT
  • English aristocrats accepted reform
  • Industrialization had created a strong, wealthy
    middle class determined to gain corresponding
    political power
  • Early reforms often dealt with matters of
    interest to the middle class
  • Victorian compromise
  • Workers were excluded from the political process
    and were often cruelly exploited.

4
Background
  • Tory administration (Castlereagh) responsible for
    defeat of Napoleon
  • Conservative policies favored the aristocrats and
    angered the common citizens.
  • Serious economic problems due to huge military
    expenditures made during the wars and large-scale
    postwar industrial unemployment.

5
Corn Laws 1815
  • English farmers faced disaster due to cheap,
    continental imported grains.
  • Hurt the landed aristocracy (already threatened
    by the growing econ. clout of the middle class
    factory owners)
  • The poor loved the cheap prices
  • Tory Parliament passed the corn laws, putting an
    import tariff on foreign grains

6
Responses
  • The poor rioted against the higher prices and the
    middle class formed the Anti-Corn Law League SO
  • Coercion Acts of 1817
  • suspended habeas corpus, providing for
    arbitrary arrest and punishment
  • Drastically curtailed freedom of the press and
    public mass meetings

7
Peterloo Massacre 1819
  • Public continued to protest
  • Peaceful public meeting in Hyde Park broken up by
    the police
  • 4 killed and hundreds wounded
  • Public (poor and middle class) was outraged!!!

8
Six Acts 1819
  • In response to public protest Parliament passed
    the 6 Acts.
  • Revoked freedom of the press, speech and assembly
  • Strengthened police powers and police brutality
    okd
  • Flimsy arrests became the norm.

9
1820
  • Cato Street Conspiracy
  • Extremists plotted to blow up the entire British
    cabinet
  • Elections of 1820
  • Younger more liberal Tories and some Liberal reps
    won Parliamentary seats
  • Even English aristocrats were frightened by the
    loss of their civil liberties
  • This led to an era of reforms

10
Victorian Era (1837-1901)
  • Queen V succeeded her uncle King William IV at
    age 18 and married her cousin, Prince Albert.
  • Encouraged reforms
  • Accepted by the aristocrats because together with
    the middle class, they all preserved their own
    interests at the expense of the poor
  • Middle class controlled the House of Commons and
    the aristocracy controlled the army, House of
    Lords, and the Church of England

11
Great Reform Bill of 1832
  • Annulled the Enclosure Acts
  • No more new enclosures
  • Redistricting
  • No more rotten boroughs
  • Suffrage for factory owners those paying large
    rents, as well as the traditional aristocratic
    voters
  • Ended the era of squirearchy
  • Major shift in political power

12
Reform Legislation
  • Slave Act of 1833
  • Factory Act of 1831 (Age 9)
  • New Poor Law of 1834 (workhouses)
  • Municipal Reform Law of 1835 (officials to reside
    in the city limits for at least 5 years prior to
    their election to the city councils)
  • Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846
  • Due to fear of revolution

13
Chartism
  • Workers were astounded that all of these reforms
    failed to bring them prosperity and political
    power.
  • Chartism became their solution
  • Linked the solution of their economic plight to a
    program of political reform
  • Petitioned Parliament to adopt the 6 points of
    their Great Charter

14
Chartism
  • Demands included
  • Universal Male Suffrage
  • Secret ballot for voting
  • Elimination of property qualifications for
    members of Parliament
  • Salaries for MPs
  • Annual elections for Parliament
  • Redistricting to create equal electoral districts
  • Demands were perceived as dangerously radical for
    their day

15
Failure of Chartism
  • Chartism as a whole failed
  • Supporters were split between those who favored
    violence and those that advocated peaceful
    tactics
  • The return of prosperity and lower food prices
    coupled with slow but steady wage increases in
    the 1850s and 1860s robbed the movement of
    momentum

16
Lord Palmerston
  • Dominant political power in England from 1850-65
  • Variety of positions included Foreign Secretary,
    Home Secretary, and Prime Minister
  • Preoccupied with colonial problems in China and
    India and British interests in the Am. Civil War
  • Sepoy Rebellion
  • 2nd Opium War
  • Little Attention to domestic affairs

17
Realignment of British Political Parties
  • Tired of Palmerstons blunders, the Whigs and
    Tories reorganized to defeat him.
  • Tories became the Conservative Party
  • Whigs became the Liberal Party

18
Reform Prime Ministers
  • Palmerston died in 1865
  • Disraeli (Tory) and Gladstone (Whig) alternated
    with one another, sharing power for most of the
    rest of the century
  • Both were reformers

19
Gladstone (1809 1898)
  • Budget Expert (orig. Chancellor of the Exchequer)
  • Supported free trade and fiscal responsibility
  • Supported Irish Home Rule
  • Wanted extension of democratic principles to
    include a greater of the British population

20
Disraeli (1804 1881)
  • Wanted an aggressive foreign policy
  • Favored the expansion of the British Empire,
    particularly in Africa
  • Supported the extension of the franchise to
    include the working class

21
Great Reform Bill of 1867
  • Promoted by Disraeli
  • Redistribution of Parliamentary seats to provide
    more equitable representation
  • Extended the vote to include all adult male
    citizens who paid 10 pounds or more rent
    annually.
  • Almost all men over 21 could now vote
  • 1868 Liberal majority elected by new
    electoratelasted for next four terms.

22
Liberal Reforms
  • Ballot Act of 1872 (secret ballot)
  • Civil Services Reform Act of 1870 (civil service
    exams)
  • Education Act of 1870 ( for schools all over
    England, even in poor areas)
  • University Act of 1870 (no religious tests for
    admission)
  • Representation of the People Act of 1884 (all
    males over 21 could vote redistricting created 1
    rep per 50,000 citizens

23
Disraelis Reforms
  • Food and Drug Act (regulated sale and quality of
    food and drugs)
  • Public Health Act (govt standards for sanitation)

24
Whos Left Out???
  • Women!!! Particularly after the 1867 great
    reform bill.
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