THE VICTORIAN AGE - AN INTRODUCTION

Queen Victoria ( 1837 - 1901 ) - her reign was a period of

progress and prosperity for the country, a period of great
expansion and reform but also a period of social turmoil, of
poverty, long working hours and inadequate wages, of
colonialisation and colonial wars - `an age of contrasts and
contradictions.`
Firstly, her reign saw important developments in technology,
transportation, manufacturing and comerce - as a result of the
scientific and technological progress it had been involved in
since the end of the 18th century. Britain became the first
industrialised country in the world!
Industrialisation brought with it new markets but also a rapid
and somehow chaotic change as towns and cities expanded very
rapidly.
Technological advances:
- the invention of the telegraph and of the intercontinental cable
(telephone was invented in 1876 by A.G. Bell) ;
- the generalisation of steam power (the steam engine was
invented in the 18th century by James Watt), steam hammer,
steam turbine, steam loom, steam plough ;
- the birth of the steam locomotive and of the railway networks;
- stimulated communication: a boom in mail services and
exchange;
- lowered transport costs: the first underground railway system
`The Metropolitan`, was introduced in London in 1860.
Technological advances which increased the urbanization
standards:
- the electric lamp;
- the commodity industry was changed by the introduction of the
vacuum cleaners;
- the war industry `thrived` after the invention of the automatic
guns: e.g: `the shall gun and the Winchester gun`.
Medical advances:
- the stethoscope (invented in 1817);
- microscopes had improved sufficiently to allow examination of
micro-organisms;
- the practice of surgery also modernized with the invention of
anaesthesia in the late 1840s;
- the X-ray technology was invented in 1895 by a German
physicist, W.C.Roentgen;
- tuberculosis, cholera and typhus widespread among the poor.
Britain`s leading role as an economic and industrial power
achieved its apogee in `the Great Exhibition of 1851` - in the
Crystal Palace of London, where goods from all over Britain and
the rest of the Empire were on display.
Geopolitically:
It is the age of the British Empire, which occupied one third of
the world. By the end of Victoria`s reign, the British Empire
extended over about one-fifth of the earth`s surface and almost a
quarter of the world`s population at least theoretically owed
allegiance to the `queen empress`.
The British Empire extended in:
-Asia: Afghanistan, Tibet, the whole of India, Hong-Kong;
-Africa: Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa;
-New Zealand: Australia and Canada.
Sociologically:
It is the age of the middle-class.
The middle-class owners of property were considered to be the
heroic protagonists of progress. Their values included hard
work, strict morality, social reform and pragmatism. It is also
the age of the working class - the mining and mental working
classes were created by the Industrial Revolution, but not only
adults were working at the time but children as well.
Reform Bills were passed:
- `The Factory Acts` (1833-1878) eliminated child labour;
- poor laws, such as the `Poor Law Amendment`, created the
workhouses or prisons.
Politically:
- the Victorian state was a liberal and non-interventionist state;
- it was dominated by the mercantile regulations of the free
market;
- it was based on the political doctrine of `laissez-faire`, the
theory or system of government that upholds the autonomus
character of the economic order, believing that government
should intervene as little as possible in the direction of economic
affairs.
The liberal legislation was double-edged:
- `protectionist` for the capitalistic, entrepreneurial class and
impoverishing or even oppressive towards the working class;
- the two parties which opposed one another in the Parliament
were the Liberals and the Conservatives;
- the first (under the guidance of W.E.Gladstone) managed to
pass through the Parliament the first liberal laws which
completely changed the voting qualifications: all the male
owners of property worth at least 10 pounds in annual rent were
given the right to vote ( the Reform Bill of 1832);
- their number was doubled after the Reform Bill of 1867;
- the1884 Bill brought about the `universal male
enfranchisement`;
- the Married Women`s Property Act (1882): gave married
women the right to separate ownership of property of all kinds;
they had the right to sue and be sued, they were liable for their
own debts; they were given custody of minor children. By the
end of Victoria`s reign, women could take degrees at twelve
universities!
Culturally:
- the Victorian age witnessed a period of mass literacy
-modernization of education;
- novels and long works of non-fiction were published in serial
form, fostering a distinctive sense of a community of readers;
- Victorian novels build a tension between social conditions and
the aspirations of the hero or heroine;
- 1870: `Education Act` opened the way to generalised literacy
Britain;
- Oxford and Cambridge (1871) were democratic
(generalisation of the education).
Education:
- was torn between the old and the new liberal models;
- the university has in the centre `philology` that gives another
kind of independence (something that develops the spirituality).
Property:
- in 1846: the old Corn laws were repealed, which had offered
protectionist tariffs for British agriculture;
- in 1860: free trade.
In 1830, the Catholic`s emancipation meant the modernization
of the British polity: now capable of making allowance for other
than its own Reformed, Anglican political formations.
The Chartist Movement (1836-1854): beyond the middle-class
modern paradise there reigned supreme social chaos.
The Victorian masses demonstrated in the streets and sent
petitions of rights (charts). They signed with nicknames
(an increased number) -`1840Chart`.
This prolonged street demonstration reminds one of the long
demonstration for democracy in Bucharest, in the University
Square, 1990.
Under Chartist inspiration, they were organised strikes.