1. The Victorian Age (1830-1901) The Victorian Age
Sambourne House, London.
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2. 1837 Queen Victoria comes to the throne
1842 Opening of the
Great Western Railway
1847 Publication of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
The Crimean War
1838 People’s Charter calls for social reforms
1840 Marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert
1843 Charles Dickens publishes A Christmas Carol
1851 The Great Exhibition opens at Crystal Palace
1861 Prince Albert dies; Civil War begins in America
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3. The young life of Victoria
20 June 1837 King William the IV died: the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chancellor knelt to her and told her that she was Queen.
“ I shall ever remember this day as the proudest of my life”
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4. The Victorian Age
The Victorian Age
Queen Victoria ( )
Victoria became queen at the age of 18 (1837); she was graceful and self-assured.
Her reign was the longest in British history (64 years).
Franz Xavier Winterhalter, The young Queen Victoria, (24 years old)
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5. Victoria and Albert
Victoria and Albert married in February They were extremely devoted and had nine children.
When Victoria became so visibly pregnant that she could not appear in official ceremonies, Albert took on her functions. He was her main advisor.
In memory of her beloved husband she had the Albert Memorial (1876) built in London.
Albert supported reform but in December 1861 he died suddenly at the age of 42.

6. Franz Xavier Winterhalter, The young Queen Victoria, 1842
The Victorian Age
1. Queen Victoria
She perfectly embodied the 19th century qualities of middle-class femminity and domesticity with her life centred on the family: they had nine children and their modest family life provided a model of respectability.
During this time Britain changed dramatically.
Franz Xavier Winterhalter, The young Queen Victoria, 1842

7. Schematic View of the Victorian Age
The Victorian age may be divided into three periods and two literary phases
1st period
: general unrest conquests for social improvements and reforms in many fields (education, sanitation, factory regulation, franchise)
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8. Schematic View of the Victorian Age
2nd period
: Years of prosperity
(peace and progress) 1851: the year of the Great Exhibition held by Albert to show the scientific progress common political guide made by liberals and conservatives

9. Schematic View of the Victorian Age
3rd period
: colonial expansion
Why the colonisation?
To solve the problem of the surplus of population at home
To consolidate overseas markets

10. 1st Period Factors of Disruptions: social unrest
(free trade /liberalism: no state intervention)
Exploitation of workers, children, women
The spread of Socialism :Chartism
Militant Trade Unionism
Feminism
Irish nationalism
Crimean War (1854)
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11. Housed in the Crystal Palace, in Hyde Park, 1851
The Great Exhibition
Housed in the Crystal Palace, in Hyde Park, 1851
It had a political purpose
it showed British economic supremacy in the world.
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12. The Victorian Age
The Victorian Age
Crystal Palace
An avant-garde prefabricated structure made of iron and glass, housed in Hyde Park (later destroyed by a fire)
It exhibited goods from all the different countries of the Empire (even a stuffed elephant) and technological inventions: hydraulic presses, locomotives, machine tools, power looms, power reapers and steamboat engines.
The Crystal Palace
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13. The Great Exhibition
Its grandeur does not consist in one thing, but in the unique assemblage of all things. Whatever human industry has created you find there …
… It may be called a bazaar or a fair… It seems as if only magic could have gathered this mass of wealth from all the ends of the earth …
… as if none but supernatural hands could have arranged this, with such a blaze and contrast of colours and marvellous power of effect. (Charlotte Brontë)

14. Railways
In 1804 Richard Trevithick opened up the possibility of making a steam engine move itself.
In 1825 Stephenson created a proper steam locomotive pulling wagons for the first time: he is considered the father of the railways.
‘Railway Mania’: in 1845, 240 acts were passed. This led to the construction of 4600 miles of track.
Stephenson’s
statue
The Royal Albert Bridge, 1856
St. Pancras’ station

15. 5. Victorian London Victorians often revived previous styles.
Classical forms were preferred for civic and public buildings, like government offices, town halls. Gothic ones for ecclesiastical and domestic works
After 1855 the Gothic revival prevailed over the classical faction.
The Victoria and Albert Museum
The British Museum
Buckingham Palace

16. An area of 4 million people
The British Empire
During the reign of Queen Victoria,
Great Britain
ruled over a wide and powerful empire.
An area of 4 million people
more than
400 million squares miles.
British Empire throughout the World,
19th century, Private Collection

17. The growth of the British Empire
England grew to become the greatest nation on the earth  “The sun never sets” in 24 hours on British soil
(one fifth of the world’s territory was governed by the British)

18. Australia and New Zeland
The British Empire
1887 Golden Jubilee
1897 Diamond Jubilee
Blue countries already belonged to the UK
Orange new conquered lands
Boer war 1886
Hong-Kong
1841
Egypt
1882
Australia and New Zeland
1902
1877
Empress of India
1884
Sudan
1899
Burma

19. The British Empire After the 1857 Indian Mutiny
India came under direct rule
by Britain
Queen Victoria was crowned
Empress of India in 1877.

20. The British also occupied
The British Empire
The British also occupied
Australia and New Zealand
parts of China – including Hong Kong in 1841
Burma in 1886
Egypt in 1882
Sudan in 1884
South Africa in 1902, after the Boer War

21. The British Empire The Victorians believed that
the ‘races’ of the world
were divided by physical
and intellectual differences;
some were destined to be
led by others;
it was an obligation imposed by God on the British
to impose their superior way of life, their institutions,
law and politics on native peoples.

22. Rudyard Kipling: The White Man’s Burden
A poem written in 1899 to give advice to
the United States on the occasion of the
annexation of the Philippines
It contains the author’s famous phrase,
‘the white man’s burden’
The bard of the English Empire and came to symbolise the belief in the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race.
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23. GENERALLY: A stable political period
Queen Victoria always reigned constitutionally, respecting the decisions of parliament The queen reigned, representing the country, with the stabilizing function of a mediator above party politics She was beloved by her people, a model of respectability, hard word and sense of duty Parliament actually ruled the country
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24. A stable political period
The Victorian Age
A stable political period
Two main parties
The liberals (ex whigs) and the Conservatives (ex tories) alternated in power
The liberals (Gladstone) were more interested in domestic policy and reforms (also home rule for Ireland, even if Parliament rejected this bill for three times)
The Conservatives (Disraeli) were more interested in foreign policy and colonial expansion (the most necessary thing for the nation’s greatness)
But both parties carried out reforms to better the situation of the country
Gladstone=
Ireland
1869 = equality of all religions
1870 = facilitation of peasant ownership of land to avoid agrarian agitation
1870= Education Act (need of elementary education)
1880 =Compulsory Elementary Education Act
1871= Trade Unions
1872 = Secret Ballot
1884= Third Reform Bill
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25. An age of social and political reforms
The Victorian Age
An age of social and political reforms
After the 1st Reform Bill (1832) workers still not represented in parliament – Bitterly disappointed, they turned to CHARTISM ( )
People’s Charter mainly for:
universal male suffrage
secret ballot
payment for MPs.
Abolition of property qualification to become MP
Too advanced ideas at this time
→ THE MOVEMENT FAILED.
Only result = Repeal of Corn laws (which imposed high tariffs on imported grain and resulted in a high cost of bread)
Corn laws= they had defended the priviledge of the landed gentry. High price for bread.
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26. A stable political period An age of SOCIAL AND POLITICAL REFORMS
The Victorian Age
A stable political period
An age of SOCIAL AND POLITICAL REFORMS
1832: The First Reform Act granted the vote to almost all male members of the middle-class (owners of a certain amount of property)
1833: The Factory Act regulated child labour in factories. (children = no more than 8 hours a day ;
people under 18 = not more than 11/12 hours a day)
1834: Poor Law Amendment established a system of workhouses for poor people.
1847: Ten Hours’ Act (not more than10 hours for everybody)

27. 3. An age of social and political reforms
TheVictorian Age
3. An age of social and political reforms
1867: The Second Reform Act gave the vote to all working men in the towns (miners and agricultural workers were excluded)
1870 : Elementary Act ( necessity of state primary education)
1880 : Compulsory Elementary Education Act
1871: Trade Union Act legalised trades unions (they helped workers, still not represented in parliament.
1875: Public Heath Act to provide sanitation and clean water (to limit epidemics of cholera and typhoid)
1884: The Third Reform Act granted the right to vote to all male workers (+ secret ballot, payment of MP’s)

28. The Rights of Women or Take Your Choice (1869)
The Victorian Age
The Victorian Age
4. The woman’s question
1869 = Elizabeth Stanton  The National Women’s Suffrage Movement (Suffragette movement) = an organization set up by the women who were fighting to get the right to vote (quite violent, alienating the sympathy of many)
Women’s suffrage did not happen until 1918.
Suffragettes
The Rights of Women or Take Your Choice (1869)
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29. The Victorian Age
Socialist movements
At the end of the century the idea of socialism spread out among radical intellectuals who founded the FABIAN SOCIETY (1884) (from Fabius Maximus the temporizer = gradual reforms, not revolution, people were to be persuaded) (G.B.Shaw = the theatre of ideas)
1906 = a socialist branch of the liberal party became the LABOUR PARTY (fighting for the workers’ rights)
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30. 3. Charles Darwin and evolution
Charles Darwin published
On the Origin of Species.
Charles Darwin
His theory of natural selection discarded the version of creation given by the Bible, it seemed to show that the strongest survived and the weakest deserved to be defeated.
Stress on the godless element of chance involved in evolutionary
variation.
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31. 3. Charles Darwin and evolution
1871: The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex
Theory of evolution
all living creatures have taken their forms through a slow process of change and adaptation in a struggle for survival;
favourable physical conditions determine the survival of a species;
unfavourable ones determine its extinction;
man evolved, like any other animal, from less highly organised forms, namely from a monkey.
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32. Positive aspects of the age
The Victorian Age
The Victorian Age
Positive aspects of the age
YEARS OF PROSPERITY ( )
THE WORKSHOP OF THE WORLD
Economical progress:
Free Trade
world market dominated by British goods/products (wollens from Yorkshire, cotton from Lancashire, metal products (iron and steel) from Sheffield, Birmingham); Banking/insurance/shipping (London)
In 1901 the Usa became the leader, but Britain remained the first in manufacturing.
Britain’s economy challenged by the the cheaper wheat from the American praires and the importation of refrigerated meat from Argentina.
Workers in a Tobacco Factory
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33. Positive aspects of the age
The Victorian Age
The Victorian Age
Positive aspects of the age
Industrial revolution: factory system emerged; for the first time in Britain’s history there were more people who lived in cities than in the countryside.
Technological advances: introduction locomotives; building of a network of railways (goods easily transported, people travelled for work and leisure; the middle classes started living in the suburbs; newspapers easily distributed; The building of London underground began in 1854; steel steam ships more quickly transported goods overseas
Workers in a Tobacco Factory
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34. Negative aspects of the age:
The Victorian Age
Negative aspects of the age:
High cost in human terms
Pollution in towns due to factory activity.
Homeless Boys (1880)
London in 1872

35. Negative aspects of the age
The Victorian Age
Negative aspects of the age
Slums, Lack of hygienic conditions:
houses were overcrowded (whole families in ONE room), most people lived in miserable conditions; poor houses shared water supplies.
Ceaseless Work – 12 hors a day, 6 days a week
Working children - Brutal exploitation: thousands employed in textile factories, in mines as trappers (4/5 year-olds) or as beast of burden (older children) , as chimney sweepers (about 5 years old, often sold by their parents, the smaller the better, to clean the soot – They died of illness or stuck inside, smothered by the soot or the smoke. NB: a typical English tradition, not used in other countries where man operated ropes or machines were used)
Workhouses – the very poor (hard job, little food, a place to sleep)