VICTORIAN ERA

a new start
Popa Marina-Ioana
Petre Diana Teodora
 Introduction
 Asyou probably already realized the key , the most significant
personality who influenced / represented this era is Queen
Victoria who ascended the throne at age 18 following the
death of her uncle, William IV, is Britain’s second-longest
reigning monarch (surpassed by Queen Elizabeth II). At just 4-
feet-11-inches tall, her rule during one of Britain’s greatest
eras saw the country serving as the world’s biggest empire,
with one-fourth of the global population owing allegiance to
the queen.
 Culture and civilization
 Victorian era, in British history, the period between approximately 1820 and
1914, corresponding roughly but not exactly to the period of Queen Victoria’s
reign (1837–1901) and characterized by a class-based society, a growing
number of people able to vote, a growing state and economy, and Britain’s
status as the most powerful empire in the world.
 During the Victorian period, Britain was a powerful nation with a rich culture.
It had a stable government, a growing state, and an expanding franchise. It
also controlled a large empire, and it was wealthy, in part because of its
degree of industrialization and its imperial holdings and in spite of the fact
that three-fourths or more of its population was working-class. Late in the
period, Britain began to decline as a global political and economic power
relative to other major powers, particularly the United States, but this decline
was not acutely noticeable until after World War II.
 Empire
 The idea that Britain’s foreign policy during the period was one of isolation is often
misunderstood or overestimated. As the empire expanded, British soldiers in fact
fought wars in almost every year of Victoria’s reign.
 The empire over which the sun never set consisted not only of the colonies of
conquest and settlement – with India the jewel in the imperial crown – but also of a
vast informal empire of free trade, within which British investors and traders
dominated foreign markets.
 By the 1880s, when Britain responded to international competition by scrambling for
new colonies in Africa alongside its European rivals, imperialism had become a matter
of national policy. In 1901 the British Empire extended over about one-fifth of the
earth’s land surface.
 At the same time, empire had become a source of pride for most British people, and
its influence was felt in daily life in numerous ways: the increasing range of raw
materials and foods available; the prevalence of members of the armed forces and
colonial service in Victorian society; and the great many people who went to sea,
emigrated, or had relations who did.
Intellectual progress
 Georgian and Victorian Britain saw, arguably, more extraordinary
intellectual progress than any previous age since ancient Greece. The
advances achieved in science, technology, engineering and medicine
were staggering.
 This was an age that changed the way human life was perceived. Great
scientific leaps often resulted in a crisis of religious faith. Yet it was
also an age that saw the greatest burst of church building and
foundation of charitable institutions since the Middle Ages.
 Victorian culture, particularly its art and architecture, was often rather
conservative in its outlook – perhaps understandably. This was, after all,
a society in the grip of more convulsive, complex and disturbing change
than had been experienced by any previous culture in human history.
Innovations
 Many of the intellectual and cultural achievements of this period are still with us today. Here is a
timeline of innovations and events that helped define the Victorian Era.
 July 25, 1837: The first electric telegraph is sent between English inventor William Fothergill
Cooke and scientist Charles Wheatstone, who went on to found The Electric Telegraph Company.
 Sept. 17, 1838: The first modern railroad line, the London-Birmingham Railway, opens, starting the
steam-powered railway boom and revolutionizing travel.
 May 1, 1840: The Penny Black, the world’s first postage stamp sold for one penny, is released in
Britain, featuring a profile portrait of Queen Victoria. More than 70 millions letters are sent within
the next year, a number tripled in two years. It’s soon copied in other countries, and the stamp is
used for 40 years.
 Dec. 19, 1843: Charles Dickens, one of the era’s greatest writers, publishes A Christmas Carol.
Other works from the author during this period: Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, David
Copperfield and Nicholas Nickleby, among others.
 March 7, 1876: Scotsman Alexander Graham Bell is awarded a patent on his invention of the
telephone, and, three days later, famously makes the first phone call to Thomas Watson, his
assistant.
 Life in the late 1700s had been little different from life in the late
Middle Ages. But the nineteenth century saw dramatic technological
development. Someone alive in 1804 would know about the electric
telegraph, the steam ship, the circular saw, the bicycle, and the steam-
powered locomotive. If this person lived to 1870, he or she would have
heard of the invention of the electric light bulb, the typewriter, the
calculator, the rubber tyre, the washing machine, the internal
combustion engine, plastic, and dynamite.Engineering prowess,
especially in communication and transportation, made Great Britain the
leading industrial powerhouse and trading nation of the world at that
time.
 Historians have characterised the mid-Victorian era (1850–1870) as Britain's "Golden
Years". There was prosperity, as the national income per person grew by half. Much of
the prosperity was due to the increasing industrialisation, especially in textiles and
machinery, as well as to the worldwide network of exports that produced profits for
British merchants. British entrepreneurs built railways in India and many independent
nations. There was peace abroad (apart from the short Crimean War, 1854–56), and
social peace at home. Opposition to the new order melted away, says Porter. The
Chartist movement peaked as a democratic movement among the working class in
1848; its leaders moved to other pursuits, such as trade unions and cooperative
societies. The working class ignored foreign agitators like Karl Marx in their midst, and
joined in celebrating the new prosperity. Employers typically were paternalistic and
generally recognised the trade unions.Companies provided their employees with
welfare services ranging from housing, schools and churches, to libraries, baths, and
gymnasia. Middle-class reformers did their best to assist the working classes'
aspirations to middle-class norms of "respectability".