Preview Starting Points Map: European Possessions Main Idea / Reading Focus

Reforms, Revolutions, and War Section 1


Preview

• Starting Points Map: European Possessions

• Main Idea / Reading Focus

• Social and Political Reforms

• Victorian Era Voting Reforms

• Quick Facts: British Reforms

• Changes in the British Empire

Reforms in the British Empire


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Reading Focus

• How did social and political reforms change life in Britain during the early 1800s?

• What reforms helped to shape the Victorian Era?

• What changes transformed the British Empire?

Main Idea

During the 1800s Great Britain passed many democratic reforms that changed the way people lived and worked.

Reforms in the British Empire


During the 1830s industrialization led to rapid changes in British society, and some began to call for social and political reform.

• Growing prosperity of working, middle classes led to greater demands for political reform

• 1800, landowning aristocrats made up most of Parliament

• Some industrial cities had no representatives at all

• Only wealthy male property owners could vote; public office restricted to men of wealth

Industrial Revolution• 1830s, demands for reform

too strong to ignore

• Liberals challenged old aristocratic, conservative order

• Reform Act of 1832 gave industrial cities representation

• Also gave voting rights to middle-class men who owned certain amount of property

• Women excluded from voting

Reform Act of 1832

Social and Political Reforms


Reaction to Report

• As result of Sadler’s report, Parliament passed Factory Act, 1833

• Act limited working hours of children in textile factories, made it illegal for teenagers to work more than 12 hours per day

• Children between ages 9 and 13 had to receive two hours schooling per day

Sadler and the Factory Act

• While Parliament debated Reform Act, one member investigated treatment of children in Britain’s textile factories

• Michael Sadler showed harmful conditions endured by child workers

• Report noted physical mistreatment, long hours, low wages


New Laws

• 1833, Parliament abolished slavery in Great Britain, all British Empire

• Government compensated slave owners depending on how many they freed

• Parliament also passed new public health and crime laws

Parliamentary Reaction

• People’s Charter rejected; Chartists gained wide popular support, staged uprisings; large revolt, 1848

• Chartists did not see immediate results but many reforms passed eventually

Chartism

• 1839, group called Chartists worked for voting rights for all men

• Name from People’s Charter, petition sent to Parliament demanding voting rights, secret ballot, annual elections, pay for representatives in Parliament

Other Reforms


Compare

How did the demands of Chartism compare to the voting reforms passed in 1832?

Answer(s): 1832 voting reforms redrew borough lines, extended vote to many middle-class property owners, gave parliamentary representation to many industrial towns, but not to industrial workers; Chartists called for additional reforms, extending the vote to all men, vote by secret ballot, annual elections, payment of representatives in Parliament


In 1837 Queen Victoria became the ruler of Great Britain. The Victorian Era lasted until 1901. It was a time of great change, including voting reforms that made the country more democratic.

• 1868–1885, two influential prime ministers, William Gladstone, Benjamin Disraeli, elected several times

Disraeli and Gladstone

• Gladstone, Liberal party, took more progressive approach to solving society’s problems

• Disraeli, Conservative party, wanted to preserve traditions of past

Liberal vs. Conservative • Disraeli put forth

new reform bill to extend voting rights to more working men; passed 1867

• Another law created the secret ballot; discouraged bribery, intimidation

Male Suffrage

Victorian Era Voting Reforms


• Disraeli argued that if a woman could be queen, she should be able to vote

• Tried to add women’s suffrage to 1867 reform bill but did not succeed

• Suffragists tried but made little progress for nearly 40 years; lobbied, signed petitions, educated public

1867 Reform Bill

• 1800s, women not seen as equals to men; could not own property, not legal guardians of their children

• Many women thought right to vote would increase power in society

• Queen Victoria against women’s suffrage, called it “mad, wicked folly”

Question of Rights

Women’s Suffrage


Women’s Social and Political Union

Early 1900s, women grew more frustrated with slow pace of suffrage movement

• Emmeline Pankhurst, founder of Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) said, “You have to make more noise than anybody else.”

• Government continued to ignore issue of women’s suffrage– WSPU adopted destructive tactics

– Many suffragists went to prison

• 1918, Parliament granted vote to women over age 30 – By 1928 voting rights for British women were on the same basis

as British men.



Summarize

What reforms were passed during the late 1800s?

Answer(s): voting rights expanded for men, secret ballot created


During the years of the famine, about 1 million people starved, and about 1.5 million others emigrated—many to the United States.

Beyond Britain, people living in other parts of the British Empire were also moved by the spirit of reform. In the mid-1800s people in Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand took steps to rule themselves.

• 1801, Ireland joined United Kingdom

• Some Irish hated British rulers, particularly British landlords who had power to evict Irish farmers

• Policies created to help British industry hurt Irish agriculture

Ireland

Changes in the British Empire

• Mid-1800s, potato crop failed several times, left many with no food, no income

• Potatoes Irish peasants’ main food source; famine swept Ireland

• Without money to pay rent, many evicted from homes

Potato Famine


Exports

• Ireland continued to export food through famine years

• Shipments left Irish ports for England under heavy guard by British soldiers

• British officials believed interfering with trade would harm British economy

Self-Government

• Parliament debated several bills to grant home rule to Ireland, 1800s

• None of them passed

• Ireland did not receive limited self-government until 1920

Resentful of British Rule

• Famine left many Irish more resentful of British rule than ever

• 1860s, many Irish began to fight for change

• Some wanted independence, others home rule within United Kingdom

Ireland


Colonies

• Britain’s colonies in Canada very different

• Some mainly French-speaking, others mainly English-speaking

Unity

• 1838, Lord Durham sent as governor-general to Canada

• Wanted colonies to unite, form “great and powerful people”

Rebellions

• Diversity created lack of unity, led to calls for reform

• 1837, rebellions in Canadian colonies convinced British reform necessary

Dominion

• 1867, Parliament granted colonies power to govern selves

• Canada become dominion, self-governing colony; continued to expand westward

Canada


New Zealand• British government made agreement with local Maori people, land in

exchange for self-rule

• New Zealand became a dominion of Great Britain

• 1893, New Zealand became first country to give women the vote

Australia• Since 1700s, Britain had used Australia as place to send criminals

• Mid-1800s, other colonists began to settle there, attracted by copper, gold deposits

• 1901, Britain granted self-rule to Commonwealth of Australia; established own parliament but remained part of British empire


Compare and Contrast

How did self-rule come about in Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand?

Answer(s): potato famine left Irish resentful, 1920: limited self-rule; 1867: British granted some Canadian colonies self-rule; Australia granted self-rule; Maoris in New Zealand exchanged land for self-rule

Documents

Preview Starting Points Map: European Possessions Main Idea / Reading Focus