BY GUILLERMO ADVINCULA PREVISTERO- JANETT LOZAN SAMAN

THE VICTORIAN ERA

QUEEN VICTORIA

The Victorian era of the United Kingdom was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901.[1] The reign was a long period of prosperity for the British people, as profits gained from the overseas British Empire, as well as from industrial

improvements at home. Some scholars extend the beginning of the period—as defined by a variety of

sensibilities and political games that have come to be associated with the Victorians—back five years to the

passage of the Reform Act 1832.

Victoria's reign, the longest in the history of British monarchs during his reign followed political, cultural,

economic, industrial and scientific, likewise witnessed a series of epidemics, riots, discoveries and social changes

POPULATION IN THE VICTORIAN ERA

The Victorian era saw the biggest change in England’s history, with the population rising from 13.897 million in 1831 to 32.528 million in 1901. The two main factors that affect a population are - fertility rates and mortality rates

POLITICS• The era is often characterized as a long period of peace, known

as the Pax Britannica, and economic, colonial, and industrial consolidation, temporarily disrupted by the Crimean War, although Britain was at war every year during this time. Towards the end of the century, the policies of New Imperialism led to increasing colonial conflicts and eventually the Anglo-Zanzibar War and the Boer War. Domestically, the agenda was increasingly liberal with a number of shifts in the direction of gradual political reform and the widening of the voting franchise.

• During the early part of the era, the House of Commons was headed by the two parties, the Whigs and the Tories. From the late 1850s onwards, the Whigs became the Liberals; the Tories became the Conservatives

SOCIALS INSTITUTIONS Before the Industrial Revolution, Britain had a very rigid social structure consisting of three

distinct classes: the Church and aristocracy, the middle class and working class, the poorest.

The highest class was known as the aristocracy. It included the Church and the nobility, having great power and wealth.

The middle class comprised the bourgeoisie, the working middle class. They were factory owners, bankers, shopkeepers, merchants, lawyers, engineers, businessmen and other professionals. These people were sometimes extremely rich, but under normal circumstances they did not get privileges, which they resented. There was a huge difference between the middle and lower classes.

The British lower class was composed of two sectors: the "working class"and "poor" (those not working, or did not regularly, and receiving public charity); performing various types of activities, including work factories, sewing, cleaning chimneys, mining, and other works.

The poorest class and the average had to bear higher taxes. This class was eighty-five percent of the population but owned only fifty percent of the land

Industrialization changed the class structure dramatically at the end of the eighteenth century; there was a greater social division. The "sunken people" were more likely to be exploited

The government was a constitutional monarchy headed by Queen Victoria. Only the nobility could rule

The Gothic Revival in architecture became ever more significant during the period, leading to the Battle of the Styles between Gothic and Classical ideals. Half of the century saw the Great Exhibition of 1851, the first World's Fair, which showed the best innovations of the century. The advent of photography, which was exhibited at the Great Exhibition, resulted in significant changes in Victorian art

CULTURE

EVENTS

• In 1840, New Zealand becomes British colony, in accordance with the Treaty of Waitangi.

• • In 1842 a law was passed prohibiting women and children working in coal mines, iron, lead and tin.

• • In 1849 two thousand people died in a cholera epidemic.

• • In 1851 the Great Exhibition (the first Universal Exhibition) was held in the Crystal Palace, with great success and international attention.

• • In 1859, Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species, which produced great religious doubts

• In 1861 Prince Albert died and Queen Victoria refused to go out in public for many years and when he did it was wearing a hat instead widow of the crown.

• • In 1888, a serial murderer known as Jack the Ripper killed and mutilated several prostitutes in the streets of London, creating a global coverage by the media and hysteria. Newspapers used the deaths to draw attention to the plight of the unemployed and to attack police and political leaders. The murderer was never caught, and the affair contributed to the resignation of Sir Charles Warren.

• • In 1891 education became free for all children under 10 years

ENTERTAINMENT• The Popular forms of

entertainment varied by social class. Victorian Britain, like the periods before it, was interested in literature, theatre, the arts music, drama, and opera were widely attended

• Another form of entertainment involved 'spectacles' where paranormal events, such as hypnotism, communication with the dead

• Natural history becomes increasingly an "amateur" activity. Amateur collectors and natural history entrepreneurs played an important role in building the large natural history collections of the nineteenth and early twentieth century’s

An important development during the Victorian era was the improvement of communication links. Stage coaches, canals, steam ships and most notably the railways all allowed goods, raw materials and people to be moved about, rapidly facilitating trade and industry. Trains became another important factor ordering society, with "railway time" being the standard by which clocks were set throughout Britain. Steam ships such as the SS Great Britain and SS Great Western made international travel more common but also advanced trade, so that in Britain it was not just the luxury goods of earlier times that were imported into the country but essentials such as corn from the America and meat from Australia. One more important innovation in communications was the Penny Black, the first postage stamp, which standardized postage to a flat price

regardless of distance, sent.

TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING

HEALTH AND MEDICINEMedicine progressed during Queen Victoria's reign. Although nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, had been proposed as an anesthetic as far back as 1799 by Humphry Davy, it wasn't until 1846 when an American Dentist named William Morton started using ether on his patients that anesthetics became common in the medical profession. In 1847 chloroform was introduced as an anesthetic by James Young Simpson. Chloroform was favored by doctors and hospital staff because it is much less flammable than ether, but critics complained that it could cause the patient to have a heart attack.] Chloroform gained in popularity in England and Germany after Dr. John Snow gave Queen Victoria chloroform for the birth of her eighth child (Prince Leopold). By 1920, chloroform was used in 80 to 95% of all narcoses performed in UK and German-speaking countries.

POVERTY• Part of Charles Booth's poverty

map showing the Old Nichol, a slum in the East End of London. Published 1889 in Life and Labour of the People in London. The red areas are "middle class, well-to-do", light blue areas are “poor, 18s to 21s a week for a moderate family”, dark blue areas are “very poor, casual, chronic want”, and black areas are the "lowest class...occasional labourers, street sellers, loafers, criminals and semi-criminals".

CHILD LABOUR

Children as young as three were put to work. In coal mines children began work at the age of 5 and generally died before the age of 25. Many children (and adults) worked 16 hour days. As early as 1802 and 1819, Factory Acts were passed to limit the working hours of workhouse children in factories and cotton mills to 12 hours per day. These acts were largely ineffective and after radical agitation, by for example the "Short Time Committees" in 1831, a Royal Commission recommended in 1833 that children aged 11–18 should work a maximum of 12 hours per day, children aged 9–11 a maximum of eight hours, and children under the age of nine should no longer be permitted to work. This act, however, only applied to the textile industry, and further agitation led to another act in 1847 limiting both adults and children to 10 hour working days

PROSTITUTION

Beginning in the late 1840s, major news organizations, clergymen, and single women became increasingly concerned about prostitution, which came to be known as "The Great Social Evil". Estimates of the number of prostitutes in London in the 1850s vary widely (in his landmark study, Prostitution, William Acton reported that the police estimated there were 8,600 in London alone in 1857).

VICTORIAN ERA VIDEO (2 CLICS IN THE CENTER)

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