VICTORIAN BRITAIN

TOPIC 1 PERIODISATION

The usefulness about the term Victorian
The question of when to begin and end the Victorian period is, similarly, more complicated that it
seems at first glance. The most obvious limits of the Victorian period would be the regnal dates,
(1837-1901). However, regnal periodisations of history have fallen out of favour, largely because
they privilege the lives of a very few individuals to characterize human history (historian Martin
Hewitt has argued in favor to analysing a regnal Victorian period. Other common dates include 1815
(the year briatin defeated napoleon) and 1800.
Victorian Britain was usually considered to be an era with extreme changes from the previous forms
of society because of the Industrial Revolution and the huge growth of the middle class. This was
considered absolutely true until it was challenged in the 1980s, when historians said that there was
no such substantial industrial take-off, that growth was very limited and the notion of a huge
Industrial Revolution was not warranted.
Researches have revealed a very dynamical and commercial society in the 18
th
century. A society
that was very alike to what the 19
th
century was supposed to be. It became very common to talk
about a very long 18
th
which lasted up to the 1830s
Richard Price: Hes one of the historians who has made the most to rethink the Victorian
periodization. Writer of the essay: Does the notion of Victorian still make sense?. Price argues that
a political and social settlement emerged after the Glorious Revolution in 1688 and continued until
at least the 1880s. He states that the coming of the Victorians were not the rupture that previous
historians had claimed. Economic growth was a largely continuous process. Britain possessed a
significant manufacturing component by the late 17
th
century. By the mid-18
th
century most labour
was occupied outside the agricultural sector. Britains economic growth had been extremely slow
during the past three hundred years. It lays less on manufacturing and more in commerce and trade.
The secret of Britains economic growth lay primarily in the network of international trade,
commerce and financial systems and services that came to centre on London from the late 17
th

century. Because of all this, the idea that free-trade is a 19
th
century idea is quite wrong.
There are important lines of continuity within the key features of urban middle class and political life
between the 18
th
and the 19
th
centuries. Origin of a middle class provincial consciousness and
assertive influence lay essentially in the 18
th
century.
Hewitt: Author of Why does the notion of Victorian make sense?. He states that the elements of
their cultural identity were not unique, but the interrelationships they made were indeed unique.
The start of the Victorian perid has been donated by a number of transformations that occurred in
the later 1820s and 1830s. rapuid economic change, undistrial revolution (whch leaded to a class-
based society)political revolution which overthrew the settlement of 1688 and brought the new
middle class to power and a revolution in the government.
The British industrialization was very gradual and uneven. The early 19
th
century economy did not
experience a rapid and wholesale industrial revolution. The focus on a critical change is on the
decade of the 1830s, when economy began to accelerate significantly and when industry frst
became visible. This process involved: The 1832 Reform Act, 1834 New Poor Law, 1835 Municipal
Corporations Act (along Scottish and Irish equivalents). These modifications unleashed a wave of
political modernisation.
The big narratives about the Victorians
Relationship between the Victorian and the Georgian. Relationship between the Victorian and the
modern/Edwardian.
The Georgian period started in 1714 and finished and finished on 1830. It was a period of immense
social change. The Industrial revolution intensified class divisions and the emergence of political
parties such as the Whigs and the Tories. Social reform under politicians such as Robert Peel began
to bring about radical change in areas such as the abolition of slavery, prison reform and the social
justice. Evangelical reform was seen in the church of England.
The Georgian era was more over a period a time of British expansion throughout the world, as there
was continual warfare and the British won all the ward except the American revolution.
The Edwardian era was the regnal of king Edward VII, who was the son of the Queen Victoria. It is
difficult to differentiate these periods as they were overlapping because of the two personalities
sharing an intimate relationship of mother and son. Edwards regnal started in 1901 and finished in
1910. The era was marked by significant shifts in politics as sections of society that had been largely
excluded from wielding power in the past, such as common labourers and women, became highly
politised. Economic and social changes created an environment in which there was more social
mobility. Such changed included more interest in socialism. Inventions made during the Victorian era
became more widespread during this period, such as electricity.
2. POLITICAL CULTURES

Key pieces of legislation
Reform act of 1832: It was an act of Parliament which introduced wide-raging changes to the
electoral system of England and Wales. Calls for this reform were made before 1832, but the
act that finally succeeded was proposed by the Whigs, led by Lord Grey. The act granted
seats in the House of Commons to large cities that had sprung up during the IR and took
away seats that had very small population. It also increased the number of individuals
entitled to vote.
Poor law amendment act of 1834: This amendment passed by the Whigs government of Earl
Grey. Replaced the earlier legislation which was based on the Poor Law of 1601 (its key
points were the following: Impotent poor were to be cared for in a poorhouse; able-bodied
poor were to be set to work in a house of industry; idle-poors or vagrants were to be sent to
a House of Correction or even prison; pauper children would become apprentices)
The Poor Law commission found that the old law was badly and expensively run. The new
law was made out of two key principles: less eligibility and workhouse test (so no outdoor
relief is given, its only available in official institutions.
3. IMPERIAL BRITAIN

The great exhibition and the IR
Key concepts in imperialism:
Informal empire: it is used to describe the extensive reach of British interests into regions
and nations which were not formal parts of the Empire, in that they were not colonies and
were not directly ruled by the British.
Among the most notable elements of the British informal empire was China, which played
an important, if unwilling, role in British imperial trade, and South America, which was a
significant region for British commercial interests and investments.
Informal empire, like many imperial relationships, is difficult to classify and reduce to a
prescriptive definition. In the instance of the British informal empire, the character of the
relationship varied widely. Chinese inclusion in the sphere of British informal empire was
unwilling, and was maintained by the use of direct military coercion the Opium Wars and
through the exertion of great diplomatic pressure. South American governments were often
willing partners in the extension of British commercial ventures, but force was sometimes
used against those who tried to apply protectionist policies (see for example, the Anglo-
French blockade of the River Plate).
Informal empire is an important concept required to adequately explain the reach and
influence of empire, and in the case of the British Empire, is vital to any holistic account of
the British Imperial experience and intrinsic to describing the interests and purposes of the
Empire as a whole. Informal empire, far from being distinctive and separate from formal
empire, is often bound up with formal imperial interests. For example, British informal
empire in China was a product of British formal control of India, resulting from the need to
finance the activities of the British East India Company through the sale of opium to the
Chinese.
In the economic sphere, British informal empire was driven by the free trade economic
system of the Empire. In the so-called "Imperialism of Free Trade" thesis, as articulated by
historians Ronald Robinson and John Gallagher, the British Empire expanded as much by the
growth of informal empire as it did by acquiring formal dominion over colonies.

Furthermore, British investment in empire was to be found not only in the formal Empire,
but also in the informal empire and, by Robinson and Gallagher's account, was indeed
predominantly located in the informal empire. It is estimated that between 1815 and 1880,
1,187,000,000 in credit had accumulated abroad, but no more than one-sixth was placed in
the formal empire. Even by 1913, less than half of the 3,975,000,000 of foreign investment
lay inside the formal Empire.
[2]

Informal empire may assume a primarily economic guise. However, this is not the exclusive
definition or requirement of the term. Strategic considerations or other concerns may bring
about the creation of an imperial influence over a region not formally a component of the
empire.

4. RELIGION AND SCIENCE
5. VICTORIAN VALUES