Victorian era

The Victorian era refers to the political and social period during the reign of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death in 1901. Many scholars extend the beginning of the era to 1832, when the social forces that would come to define the time began to take hold. The era was a time of dramatic change and rapid development for Great Britain in almost all areas of industry, economy, and society, and the population increased drastically. These developments in turn influenced many other nations. By the end of the Victorian era, Great Britain had solidified and expanded its position as a leading world power.

In the early Victorian period, from 1832 until 1848, Great Britain opened its first national railway and launched its first Reform Parliament. The early years were also a time of economic distress. The mid-Victorian period, spanning from 1848 until 1870, was mostly a time of prosperity, hopefulness, and stability. The later period of the Victorian era, from 1870 until its close in 1901, was when the costs of the heady years of British expansion became increasingly evident, as Great Britain was faced with mounting threats to its military and economic domination; it also overlapped with the prosperous Gilded Age of the United States and the Belle Époque of mainland Europe.

Brief History

The Victorian era was a period of remarkable change for Great Britain—and for much of the world—as the nation embarked on rapid colonial expansion across large portions of Africa, Asia, and the West Indies. The new territories made Great Britain the leading center of world power, with London often considered to be at the hub of all Western civilization. The brisk pace of London’s growth during that time to more than 6.5 million people by the end of the Victorian era was a testament to the effects of industrialization, which moved life away from agriculture and land ownership and toward urbanization and sustainability through trade and manufacturing.

The swift and significant transformations happening across all spheres of society eventually began to alter the country’s collective mood. The Victorian era began with an underlying confidence and optimism that propelled the economic explosion, geographic expansion, and broad-based prosperity. The general confidence was supported by deep-rooted dedication to hard work and respectability, family values, religious conformity, and social deference. Over time, however, doubts about Great Britain's ability to sustain its growth and maintain its leadership position began to cause general uncertainty and trepidation that became more prevalent as the era came to a close.

In terms of politics, Victorians believed strongly in the superiority of their government and embraced efforts to export it throughout Africa, Asia, and the rest of the world. While new political movements such as socialism and liberalism began to spread during the Victorian era, British supremacy—especially as a sea power—was largely unchallenged. The period was largely marked by extended peace throughout Europe, broken only by the Crimean War from 1854 to 1856.

During the era’s peak, both work and leisure expanded considerably. Great Britain's national railway network provided enhanced travel and leisure opportunities for the increasingly work-focused urbanites in London and other major cities. Visits to seaside resorts were common during the height of the Victorian era, as were outings to races, sporting events, and other attractions. Literacy rates soared at this time as well, bolstering both labor and leisure endeavors and catapulting the novel into mass popularity. Many works of Victorian literature later came to be regarded as classics and helped to establish the sensibilities of the era.

Science benefited from enlightened thought during the Victorian era, particularly in the area of medicine. In addition to pharmacological breakthroughs such as anesthetics and antiseptics, medical specializations increased and significant developments were achieved in surgery and hospital facilities.

Advances in science and industry, political reform, and increased leisure time had many profound social impacts, most notably the beginning of the rise of the middle class. Although British society remained stratified and with significant disparity between the poor and the aristocracy, economic success began to bring political power to those in between. Some middle-class merchants and businesspeople even became more wealth than some members of the traditional upper classes, challenging long-held social roles. Still, rigid social codes and rules of morality dominated society. Women in the Victorian era were often particularly subject to limiting ideals of the household and motherhood, although, in contrast to later stereotypical depictions of the time, some women did earn wages, take political action, and become active in society.

Overview

The first part of the Victorian era, from roughly 1832 until 1848, was a time marked by great economic and political disparity. It was during these years that the nation’s rail system was greatly enhanced and Great Britain's first Reform government ruled Parliament, but the time still saw considerable economic distress and social upheaval. Even though the Reform Act of 1832 extended voting privileges to the nation's lower middle classes and redistributed parliamentary representation, breaking the monopoly on power long held by conservative landowners, the country continued to face economic woes that could not be easily solved. In the early 1840s, the life expectancy of a working person in one of the country’s key industrialized cities, such as Manchester or Birmingham, was only about twenty years, due to poor working conditions. With much of the country still unable to vote, the increasing numbers of working poor became even more downtrodden as workhouses, poorhouses, and orphanages came to be used as inexpensive sources of disposable labor. The result was that while many citizens experienced exceptional prosperity, others became poorer and more debilitated as part of a spreading underclass in British society. By the end of the early Victorian period, important economic reforms and a system of free trade were introduced.

The middle years of the Victorian era, extending from 1848 until 1870, were not completely devoid of the early era’s woes, but they did come to represent a period of overall prosperity and social satisfaction. During this time, the expansion of the British Empire significantly improved trade and economic conditions for much of the population. It was also a time when the general populace embraced developments in science, technology, and industry, with the collective vigor prodding new advances and inquiry. With the enhancements to the railroads during the mid-Victorian era, it was possible to journey from London to Glasgow in just one day. A new paving system and an evolved stagecoach system made travel to and from all corners of Great Britain possible. Reformist efforts to make it illegal to travel or work on Sunday for religious observance were quashed as discriminatory.

At this time, there was a wide range of belief within the Church of England, broadly characterized as High Church versus Low Church. High Church Anglicans sought to return to the ceremony and pomp of the old Church of England. The Low Church, on the other hand, was made up largely of Methodists and Evangelicals located in urban centers who preached biblical perfection and promoted enthusiasm in religious works. In the middle was the Broad Church, the mainstream Church of England that tended to be liberal and tolerant of a variety of approaches to faith and worship.

The final years of the Victorian era, from 1870 until 1901, reflected changing outlooks about British colonialism, industrialization, and scientific advancement. Rebellions and war in the colonial territories made the English population increasingly sensitive to the costs of British expansion and empire. A number of events challenged the notion of Great Britain's everlasting prosperity as a world power. One event was the rise of Otto Von Bismarck’s unified Germany and its threat to British naval and military might. Another event was the expansion of the American grain industry, which drove down the price of British grain. Out of the growing discontentment arose socialist movements and calls for women’s suffrage, the latter of which was achieved in the early decades of the twentieth century.

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