5.

1 The dawn of the Victorian Age

Queen Victoria
When Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, she was just 18 years old. She was to rule for almost 64 years and
gave her name to an age of economic and scientific progress and social reforms. Her own sense of duty made her the
ideal head of a constitutional monarchy: she remained apart from politics and yet provided stability. In 1840 she
married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. They had nine children and their family life provided a model of
respectability. Prince Albert was a clever man and Victoria relied more and more on his advice and help. In 1857 she
gave him the title of Prince Consort, in recognition of his importance to the country.

An age of reform
The 1830s had seen the beginning of what was to becalled an ‘age of reform’. The First Reform Act (1832), also called
the Great Reform Act (→ 4.3), had transferred voting privileges from the small boroughs, controlled by the nobility and
the gentry, to the large industrial towns, like Birmingham and Manchester. The Factory Act (1833) had prevented
children aged 9 to 13 from being employed more than forty-eight hours a week, and no person between 13 and 18
could work more than seventy-two hours a week. The Poor Law Amendment Act (1834) had reformed the old Poor
Laws, dating from Elizabeth I, with the creation of workhouses, institutions where the poor received board and lodging
in return for work.

Workhouses and religion

Life in the workhouses was appalling on account of their system of regimentation, hard work and a monotonous diet.
The poor had to wear uniforms and their families were split. This apparent hard line was due in part to an optimistic
faith in progress and to the Puritan virtues of hard work, frugality, and duty. The idea behind the workhouses was that
awareness of such a dreadful life would inspire the poor to try to improve their own conditions. 1 Workhouses were
mainly run by the Church. Religion was a strong force. In industrial areas the nonconformist Churches, such as
Methodists, promoted study and abstinence from alcohol.

Chartism
In 1838 a group of working-class radicals drew up a People’s Charter demanding equal electoral districts, universal male
suffrage, a secret ballot, paid MPs, annually elected Parliaments, and abolition of the property qualifications for
membership. No one in power was ready for such democracy and the Chartist movement failed. However, their
influence was later felt when, in 1867, the Second Reform Act enfranchised part of the urban male working class in
England and Wales for the first time and, in 1872, the secret ballot was introduced with the Ballot Act.

The Irish Potato Famine

Bad weather and an unknown plant disease from America caused the destruction of potato crops in 1845. Ireland,
whose agriculture depended on potatoes, experienced a terrible famine, during which a lot of people died and many
emigrated, mostly to America, in search of a better life. The Irish crisis forced the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, to
abolish the Corn Laws in 1846. These laws-imposed tariffs on imported corn, keeping the price of bread artificially high
to protect the landed interests.

Technological progress
In the mid-years of the 19 the century, England experienced a second wave of industrialisation which brought economic,
cultural, and architectural change. While European monarchies were toppled by revolutions in 1848, England avoided
the revolutionary wave. In 1851 a Great Exhibition, organised by Prince Albert, showed the world Britain’s industrial and
economic power. The exhibition was housed at the Crystal Palace, a huge structure of glass and steel designed by Sir
Joseph Paxton and erected in Hyde Park. More than 15,000 exhibitors from all over the world displayed their goods to
millions of visitors. People became very fond of exhibitions, so money was invested in setting up several museums,
including the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and what is now called the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Entrance was free. The building of the London Underground began in 1860andrailways started to transform the
landscape and people’s lives. They transported large quantities of raw materials and products quickly and cheaply.
People were able to travel for work and leisure, and the middle classes could live in the suburbs instead of the crowded
town centres.
Foreign policy
Steel steamships expanded the Victorians’ world even further. In the mid-19 the century, England was involved in the
two Opium Wars against China, which was trying to suppress the opium trade. The First Opium War (1839-42) was
fought between China and Britain, while the Second Opium War (1856-60), also known as the Anglo-French War in
China, was fought by Britain and France against China. England gained access to five Chinese ports and control of Hong
Kong. The most lucrative colony of the British Empire was India. In 1857 widespread rebellion, known as the Indian
Mutiny, against British rule began, after which the Indian administration was given fewer responsibilities. Britain also
supported some liberal causes like Italian independence from the Austrians. When Russia became too powerful against
the weak Turkish Empire, the Crimean War (1853- 56) was fought. It began as a dispute between Russia and the
Ottoman Turks, but soon France and Britain got involved since they wanted to limit Russia’s power in the area. The
Crimean War was the first conflict reported in newspapers by journalists ‘on the ground’. People were genuinely
shocked by the reports. Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) volunteered to lead a team of38 nurses at Scutari base
hospital during the war and she became known as the ‘Lady with the Lamp’ for her night rounds giving personal care to
the wounded. Once back in England, she formed an institution for the development of the nursing profession

Life in Victorian Britain

Iron and coal workers. The Victorian era, which covered most of the 19 the century in Britain, was a time of dramatic
adjustment in the lives of most of the population. It saw the rapid development of the Industrial Revolution, the growth
of a wide and powerful empire and advances in medicine, transport, education, and commerce. For some, it was a time
of great wealth and privilege, but for the majority, life was hard with long working hours in unhealthy factories or mines
and overcrowded insanitary living conditions. There was growing industrial and urban expansion which gave an affluent
and pleasant life to defeat the expense of the many working poor. There was a huge increase in the population, which
nearly doubled during the century. This was particularly rapid in urban centres stimulated by the industrial growth that
attracted more and more skilled and unskilled workers. But housing was inadequate and rapidly became slums with
little hygiene and a high mortality rate. Often whole families shared one room with no running water, and toilets were
communal pits. Child labour was common and very young children were employed at minimum wages in dangerous jobs
like chimney sweeping and in the coal mines. Others workedaserr and boys, shoeblacks, flower sellers or match sellers
in the streets. The author Charles Dickens, for example, began working at the age of 12 in a blacking factory when his
father was put into a debtors’ prison. The more fortunate managed to find work as apprentices to respectable trades
like building or as domestic servants, but working hours were long for them too. The widespread poverty and harsh
reality of the working-class children were overshadowed by an even more shocking underclass made up of the most
vulnerable in society, often young orphans totally dependent on the support of others. Destitute children often turned
to crime or were enrolled in criminal gangs. The towns were also home to the expanding industrial and commercial
middle classes. Their new affluence led to an increased demand for goods and services, and factories and workshops
provided clothes, toys, fine cutlery, silverware, pottery, and glass. Goods that in the previous century would only have
been seen in aristocrats’ houses were now to be found in every middle-class home. The middle classes were usually self-
employed merchants and shopkeepers who lived in large houses, educated their children, and employed servants.
White-collar work on the railways, in banks or for the government was also increasing, producing a respectable lower
middle class. Both the upper and lower middle classes desired respectability and the queen became their iconic symbol.
She represented the ideal femininity that revolved around the family, motherhood, and propriety. She and her adored
husband Albert, with their nine children, were seen as a model. It was partly due to this reality that the Victorian Age
was the first in which childhood was recognised as a distinct and precious phase in life and the Victorians entertained
their children with imaginative stories about animals like Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (1820-78), with adventure books
like Treasure Island by R.L. Stevenson or with the eccentric brilliance of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 1 8 by Lewis
Carroll
 5 .2 The Victorian compromise

A complex age
The Victorian Age was marked by complexity: it was a time of unprecedented change but also of great contradictions,
often referred to as the ‘Victorian compromise’. It was an age in which progress, reforms and political stability coexisted
with poverty and injustice. Listening to sermons was a popular pastime, yet vices were openly indulged. Modernity was
praised but there was a revival of Gothic and Classicism in art. Religion play an important role in people’s lives;
Evangelicalism, in particular, encouraged public and political action and created a lot of charities. Philanthropy led to the
creation of societies which addressed every kind of poverty and depended especially on the voluntary efforts of middle-
class women. The Victorians believed in God but also in progress and science. Freedom was linked with religion as
regarded freedom of conscience, with optimism over economic and political progress, and with national identity.

Respectability
Increasing emphasis was placed on education, and hygiene was encouraged to improve health care. Self-restraint, good
manners, and self- help came to be linked with respectability, a concept shared both by the middle and working classes.
There was general agreement on the virtues of asserting a social status, keeping up appearances and looking after
family. These things were ‘respectable’. However, respectability was a mixture of morality and hypocrisy, since the
unpleasant aspects of society – dissolution, poverty, social unrest – were hidden under outward respectability. There
was growing emphasis on the duty of men to respect and protect women, seen at the same time as physically weaker
but morally superior, divine guides and inspirers of men. Women controlled the family budget and brought up the
children. 1 1. George William Joy, The Bayswater Omnibus, 1895. London, Museum of London. General attitudes to sex
were a crucial aspect of respectability, with an intense concern for female chastity, and single women with a child were
marginalised as ‘fallen women’. Sexuality was generally repressed in both its public and private forms, and moralising
‘prudery’ in its most extreme manifestations gradually led to the denunciation of nudity in art, the veiling of sculptured
genitals and the rejection of words with a sexual connotation from everyday vocabulary.
 5 .3 Early Victorian thinkers
Evangelicalism
Victorian values found their basis in some of the movements of thought of the age. The religious movement known as
Evangelicalism influenced Victorian emphasis upon moral conduct as the test of the good Christian. Inspired by the
teachings of John Wesley the founder, with his brother, of Methodism, the Evangelicals believed in:

• the literal truth of the Bible.

• obedience to a strict code of morality which opposed many forms of entertainment.
• dedication to humanitarian causes and social reform.

Bentham’s Utilitarianism
The other movement which exerted an important influence on 19 the -century social. Jeremy Bentham’s mummified
corpse on display at University College London. thinking was Utilitarianism, based on Jeremy Bentham’s principles. The
origins of this movement can be traced back to the Greek philosopher Epicurus. According to Utilitarianism, an action is
morally right if it has consequences that lead to happiness, and wrong if it brings about the reverse. all institutions
should be tested in the light of reason and common sense to determine whether they are useful, measuring the extent
to which they provide for the material happiness of the greatest number of people. Utilitarianism suited the interests of
the middle class and contributed to the Victorian conviction that problem could be overcome through reason.

Mill and the empiricist tradition

The utilitarian indifference to human and cultural values was firmly attacked by many intellectuals of the time, including
Charles Dickens and John Stuart Mill, a major figure in the British empiricist tradition. Educated by his father according
to the principles of Benthamite philosophy, Mill found them inadequate with regard to the rapid. George Frederick
Watts, John Stuart Mill, 1873. London, National Portrait Gallery. changes of his time, and restated his belief as follows:

• he maintained that happiness is a state of the mind and the spirit, not a mere search for selfish pleasures.
• he thought legislation should have a more positive function in trying to help men develop their natural talents and
personalities.
• he conceived a good society as one where the free interplay of human character creates the greatest variety.
• he believed progress comes from mental energy, and therefore accorded great importance to education and art.
• he promoted a long series of reforms including the causes of popular education, trade union organisation, the
development of cooperatives, the extension of representation to all citizens, and the emancipation of women

Challenges from the scientific field

In the mid-Victorian Age new challenges came from the fields of geology, biology, archaeology, and astronomy.
Geologists found fossils in rocks and began to question the Book of Genesis. The question was brought to the wide
public by Sir Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology and Robert Chambers’ Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. In
his work On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Charles Darwin presented his theory of evolution and
natural selection. He later developed it in his work The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. According to
Darwin’s theory:
• all living creatures in existence have developed their forms through a slow process of change and adaptation in a
struggle for survival.
• favourable physical conditions determine the survival of a species, unfavourable ones its extinction.
• man evolved, like any other animal, from a less highly organised form, namely a monkey.
On the one hand, Darwin’s theory discarded the version of creation given by the Bible; on the other hand, it seemed to
show that the universe was not static but perpetually developing, that the strongest survive and the weakest deserved
to be defeated.

The Oxford Movement

British Catholics replied to the challenges of science by returning to the ancient doctrines and rituals.
The religious revival found its expression in the movement headed by the English cardinal John Henry Newman,
which went under the name of ‘Oxford Movement’ because it began at Oxford University.
 5 .5 The later years of Queen Victoria’s reign

The Liberal and the Conservative Parties

When Prince Albert tragically died from typhoid in 1861, Queen Victoria withdrew from society and spent the next ten
years in mourning. She still remained an important figure even though the political panorama was changing with the
regrouping of the parties. The Liberal Party, as it was called from the 1860s, included the former Whigs, some Radicals,
and a large minority of businessmen; the party was led by William Gladstone (1809- 98). The Conservative Party, which
had evolved from the Tories in the 1830s, reaffirmed its position under the leadership of Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81).

Benjamin Disraeli
Disraeli briefly became Prime Minister in 1868 and regained the office after the elections in 1874. In his second term, his
government passed an Artisans’ and Labourers’ Dwellings Act (1875), which allowed local public authorities to clear the
slums and provided housing for the poor; a Public Health Act (1875), which provided sanitation as well as running water;
and a Factory Act (1878), which limited the working hours per week. Disraeli’s foreign policy was dominated by the
Eastern Question, that is, the decay of the Ottoman Empire and the attempt by other European countries, such as
Russia, to gain power there. In 1875 Disraeli encouraged the purchase of more shares in the Suez Canal Company to
protect Britain’s route to the East.

William Gladstone
Gladstone was Prime Minister four times, starting in 1868. At that time, reforming legislation focused on education.
Elementary schools had long been organised by the Church; the 1870Education Act started national 2 system by
introducing ‘board schools’, mainly in the poorer areas of the towns. By 1880 elementary education had become
compulsory. Other reforms included the legalisation of trade unions in 1871, with the Trade Union Act, and the
introduction of the secret ballot at elections in 1872, with the Ballot Act. Gladstone was re-elected three times (1880,
1886, 1892). The Third Reform Act of 1884 extended voting to all male householders, including miners, millworkers, and
farm labourers. This extension of the franchise gave public opinion an important role as a political force. The Irish
Parliamentary Party, sitting as a group in Westminster and led by Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-91), demanded self-
government for Ireland – the so-called ‘Home Rule’. Gladstone believed that Home Rule was the way to bring peace to
Ireland and tried to get Parliament to pass bill three times; but an Irish government was granted only after World War I

The Anglo-Boer Wars

The struggle with France at the beginning of the 19 th century had led to Britain’s global hegemony – with its naval
power and its enormous financial and economic strength, Britain seemed invulnerable. However, since Waterloo, its
foreign policy had been defensive. Many areas of the world were characterised by political and cultural fragmentation,
and it was there that Britain began to gain control without major political intervention. This was the situation in South
America, in Asia and most of all in Africa, where Britain competed with the other European countries to divide up the
continent. In South Africa, by the 1870s, the British controlled two colonies, Cape Colony and Natal, while the Dutch
settlers, the Boers, had the two republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. When Britain took over Transvaal
in 1877, the Boers rebelled, and war broke out. The Boer Wars (1880-1902) ended in 1902 with a British victory.

Empress of India
In 1877 Queen Victoria was given a new title, Empress of India. In the last decades of the 19 th century, the British
Empire occupied an area of 4 million square miles and more than 400 million people were ruled over by the British. The
Empire, however, was becoming more difficult to control. There was a growing sense of the ‘white man’s burden’, a
difficult combination of the duty to spread Christian civilisation, encouraging toleration and open communication and at
the same time promoting commercial interests. It was a strongly felt obligation to provide leadership where States were
failing or non- existent, especially in Africa and India. India was economically important as a market for British goods and
strategically necessary to British control of Asia from the Persian Gulf to Shanghai. By 1850 the East India Company
directly ruled most of northern, central, and south-eastern India. In the late Victorian period, the new imperial
government became more ambitious and through free market economics it destroyed traditional farming and caused
the deindustrialisation of India. At one time the main manufacturer of cotton cloth for the world, India, now became the
largest importer of England’s cotton.
The end of an era
The Victorian Age came to an end with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. For almost a century she had embodied
decorum, stability, and continuity. Her Golden and Diamond Jubileesfor50and 60 years on the throne had been
celebrated with huge public parades, and for her funeral London streets were packed with mourners. She was buried
beside her beloved husband in the Frogmore mausoleum at Windsor Castle. The later years of Queen Victoria’s reign 3 5
 5 .4 The American Civil War

The difference between the North and the South

The first half of the 19 th century in America was characterised by economic expansion, social change, impulse towards
scientific discovery and inventions, and an extraordinary moment of literary expression. The political situation was tense
because of the economic differences between the northern and southern regions. While industrialisation was well
established in the North, the economy of the South was still based on the vast 1 1. Statue of Abraham Lincoln at the
Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. The monument honours the 16 th and the ‘virtues of tolerance, honesty, and
constancy in the human spirit’. President of the United States the American Civil War plantations of tobacco and cotton,
and on slavery. There was also a huge difference in the density of population: the white population increased, due to
the immigrants from Europe who settled especially in the North, bringing with them their languages and customs. In the
South, instead, there were about 4 million black slaves. Furthermore, life in the American South was based on a rigidly
divided class system, with the aristocracy of the plantation owners still linked to the old values of gallantry and honour.
After the 1830s several northern States adopted emancipation, while the international demand for cotton meant the
economy of the South continued to rely on slave labour. On the one hand, the abolitionists attacked the exploitation of
slaves, the separation from their families and the cruelty they suffered, and the fact that they were given no education.
On the other hand, the supporters of slavery held that it was an institution which gave the blacks employment,
protection and taught them the principles of Christian faith.

The Civil War

Northern abolitionists, who included writers, intellectuals, and religious associations, began to organise themselves into
a political movement. From what had formerly been the Whig Party arose the Republican Party, which demanded that
slavery be excluded from all territories of the Union. In 1860 the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) won
the 14 presidential elections. Soon after, 11 southern States seceded and formed the Confederate States of America,
under the presidency of Jefferson Davis (1808-89). War followed because Lincoln, supported by a majority of
northerners, refused to concede that any American State had the constitutional right to withdraw from the Union. The
Civil War broke outin1861andlastedfour years, ending in 1865, when the blue northern troops commanded by Ulysses S.
Grant (1822-85) defeated the grey Confederates led by Robert Lee (1807-70). Five days later, President Lincoln was
assassinated by a southern fanatic. The poet Walt Whitman (→ 5.19) wrote O Captain! my Captain! under the emotional
impact of his death, pointing out how important Lincoln’s leadership had been. The Civil War determined what kind of
nation the United States would be – an indivisible nation with a sovereign national government – and it ended the
institution of slavery. However, these achievements cost about 625,000 lives. It was the largest and most destructive
conflict in the Western world between the end of the Napoleonic Warsin1815and the onset of World War I in 1914.

The abolition of slavery

Furthermore, the abolition of slavery, sanctioned by the 13 th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865, did not grant the
blacks equality and economic security. They were free but without money and a home. Some migrated to the industrial
cities in the North, others remained with their old masters in the South, who, impoverished by the war, could not afford
to pay wages, but would share the crops with the workers and provide them with tools and a cabin. A wave of
resentment and violence, embodied by the racist ‘Ku Klux Klan’ movement, terrorised the blacks and their families. The
so-called ‘black codes’ were created, which segregated the blacks in schools, hospitals and means of transport

A new version of the American dream

While the economy of the South had collapsed during the war, the northern factories had increased their output to
supply military needs. The country’s natural resources – including coal, copper, iron, and oil – were fully exploited. Big
fortunes were made, and financial empires were created by men who rose from nothing, like Cornelius Vanderbilt
(1794-1877) and John Rockefeller (1839-1937). They embodied a new version of the ‘American dream’: the myth of the
self-made man who went from ‘rags to riches. The other side of the coin was that the majority of workers were
exploited and did not have a share in the wealth and leisure. They soon organised themselves and, in 1866, founded the
American Federation overlabour (AFL), which became the strongest group of trade unions.

The expansion and settlement in the West

At the same time expansion and settlement in the West were encouraged above all by the discovery of gold in California
in 1848-49, which resulted in the ‘gold rush’. Then the Homestead Act (1862) granted free soil to the first occupants.
This migration westwards had two main consequences: it led to the disappearance of the frontier and to the
extermination of buffaloes, with the consequent starvation of the American Indians, who were subjugated, mass-
deported or brutally exterminated. Cattlemen – the cowboys – became the new Western symbols, so deeply rooted in
American tradition.
 5 .5 The later years of Queen Victoria’s reign

The Liberal and the Conservative Parties

When Prince Albert tragically died from typhoid in 1861, Queen Victoria withdrew from society and spent the next ten
years in mourning. She still remained an important figure even though the political panorama was changing with the
regrouping of the parties. The Liberal Party, as it was called from the 1860s, included the former Whigs, some Radicals,
and a large minority of businessmen; the party was led by William Gladstone (1809- 98). The Conservative Party, which
had evolved from the Tories in the 1830s, reaffirmed its position under the leadership of Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81).

Benjamin Disraeli

Disraeli briefly became Prime Minister in 1868 and regained the office after the elections in 1874. In his second term, his
government passed an Artisans’ and Labourers’ Dwellings Act (1875), which allowed local public authorities to clear the
slums and provided housing for the poor; a Public Health Act (1875), which provided sanitation as well as running water;
and a Factory Act (1878), which limited the working hours per week. Disraeli’s foreign policy was dominated by the
Eastern Question, that is, the decay of the Ottoman Empire and the attempt by other European countries, such as
Russia, to gain power there. In 1875 Disraeli encouraged the purchase of more shares in the Suez Canal Company to
protect Britain’s route to the East.

William Gladstone

Gladstone was Prime Minister four times, starting in 1868. At that time, reforming legislation focused on education.
Elementary schools had long been organized by the Church; the 1870Education Act started national 2 system by
introducing ‘board schools’, mainly in the poorer areas of the towns. By 1880 elementary education had become
compulsory. Other reforms included the legalisation of trade unions in 1871, with the Trade Union Act, and the
introduction of the secret ballot at elections in 1872, with the Ballot Act. Gladstone was re-elected three times (1880,
1886, 1892). The Third Reform Act of 1884 extended voting to all male householders, including miners, millworkers, and
farm labourers. This extension of the franchise gave public opinion an important role as a political force. The Irish
Parliamentary Party, sitting as a group in Westminster and led by Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-91), demanded self-
government for Ireland – the so-called ‘Home Rule’. Gladstone believed that Home Rule was the way to bring peace to
Ireland and tried to get Parliament to pass a bill three times; but an Irish government was granted only after World War
I.

The Anglo-Boer Wars

The struggle with France at the beginning of the 19 th century had led to Britain’s global hegemony – with its naval
power and its enormous financial and economic strength, Britain seemed invulnerable. However, since Waterloo, its
foreign policy had been defensive. Many areas of the world were characterised by political and cultural fragmentation,
and it was there that Britain began to gain control without major political intervention. This was the situation in South
America, in Asia and most of all in Africa, where Britain competed with the other European countries to divide up the
continent. In South Africa, by the 1870s, the British controlled two colonies, Cape Colony and Natal, while the Dutch
settlers, the Boers, had the two republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. When Britain took over Transvaal
in 1877, the Boers rebelled, and war broke out. The Boer Wars (1880-1902) ended in 1902 with a British victory.

Empress of India

In 1877 Queen Victoria was given a new title, Empress of India. In the last decades of the 19 th century, the British
Empire occupied an area of 4 million square miles and more than 400 million people were ruled over by the British. The
Empire, however, was becoming more difficult to control. There was a growing sense of the ‘white man’s burden’ (→
5.23), a difficult combination of the duty to spread Christian civilisation, encouraging toleration and open
communication and at the same time promoting commercial interests. It was a strongly felt obligation to provide
leadership where States were failing or non- existent, especially in Africa and India. India was economically important as
a market for British goods and strategically necessary to British control of Asia from the Persian Gulf to Shanghai. By
1850 the East India Company directly ruled most of northern, central, and south-eastern India. In the late Victorian
period, the new imperial government became more ambitious and through free market economics it destroyed
traditional farming and caused the deindustrialisation of India. At one time the main manufacturer of cotton cloth for
the world, India, now became the largest importer of England’s cotton. 18 3

The end of an era

The Victorian Age came to an end with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. For almost a century she had embodied
decorum, stability, and continuity. Her Golden and Diamond Jubileesfor50and 60 years on the throne had been
celebrated with huge public parades, and for her funeral London streets were packed with mourners. She was buried
beside her beloved husband in the Frogmore mausoleum at Windsor Castle.
 5 .6 The late Victorians
Victorian urban society and women

In the later years of Victoria’s reign, Britain was primarily an urban society. Victorian cities had gas lighting, rubbish
collection and there were many public buildings, such as town halls, railway stations, libraries and museums, music
halls, boarding schools and hospitals, police stations and prisons. This was a period of a retail consumer boom – with
many new shops, public houses, and theatres. Even now some Victorian institutions can still be seen in British cities.
Middle-class women became increasingly involved in public life as leaders in campaigns against prostitution, as teachers
and as volunteer charitable workers. Further education opportunities for women became available with the opening of
women’s colleges in the 1870s. However, a strong taboo remained regarding family issues such as control over
property, conditions of divorce and rights over children as well as questions of sex and childbirth. The 1882 Married
Women’s Property Act gave married women the right to own and manage their own property independently of their
husbands for the first time.

Social Darwinism

Darwin’s theory of evolution became the foundation for various ethical and social 2 20 systems, such as Social
Darwinism, which developed in the 1870s. The philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) applied Darwin’s theory of
natural selection to human society: he argued that races, nations, and social classes, like biological species, were subject
to the principle of the ‘survival of the fittest’ and that the poor and oppressed did not deserve compassion. Eugenics
was a similar interpretation created by Darwin’s cousin, Sir Francis Galton (1822- 1911), and attracting many
intellectuals. They exhorted the middle classes, regarded as nature’s fittest, to reproduce more, especially educated
women who seemed to neglect their racial duty to breed.

Late Victorian thinkers

In the second half of the 19 th century, Britain reached the peak of its power abroad; however, some ideological
conflicts were beginning to undermine the self-confident attitude that had characterised the first part of Victoria’s reign.
Changes regarded several fields, especially scientific achievements, industrialisation, sexuality and religion, and a
growing pessimism began to affect intellectuals and artists, who expressed in different ways their sense of doubt about
the stability of Victorian society. Among the thinkers of the late Victorian period, a significant role was played by those
who protested against the harm caused by industrialism in man’s life and in the environment. Karl Marx (1818-83)
based the theories he expressed in his treatise in three volumes Das Kapital (1867, 1885, 1894) upon research done in
England, the most advanced European industrial nation of the time. His works influenced some English writers like the
art critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) and the artist William Morris (1834-96). They were looking for a different form of
progress, a blend of utopianism and nostalgia in which the future in many ways resembled the past. While studying at
Oxford in the 1850s, William Morris drew inspiration from Ruskin’s works on Gothic architecture and his criticism of the
inhumanity of industrialisation, and from Thomas Malory’s medieval romance Le Morte d’Arthur (→ Route 1). Together
with the Pre- Raphaelite painters (→ Route 9), he started a battle against the age he was living in. He set up a firm to
produce craft-made furniture, wallpaper, and other decorative objects as a reaction to utilitarian mass-produced goods.
In 1883 he became a militant in the Social Democratic Federation.

The spread of socialist ideas

The 1880s saw the rise of an organised political left after the foundation of the Fabian Society in 1884. It was a middle-
class socialist group whose members aimed at transforming Britain into a socialist State not through revolution, as Marx
advised, but by systematic, progressive reforms. Its early members included Sidney and Beatrice Webb and George
Bernard Shaw (→ 5.25). The Independent Labour Party was set up in 1893; it was a non-Marxist socialist party which
attracted both male and female intellectuals. Various socialist groups were joined by young skilled workers and
intellectuals who read John Ruskin’s criticism of the greed, competition, and ugliness of industrial society.

Patriotism

In the late 19 th century, expressions of civic pride and national fervour were frequent among the British. Patriotism was
deeply influenced by ideas of racial superiority. Towards the end of Victoria’s reign, the British considered themselves
the leaders of European civilisation. There was a belief that the ‘races’ of the world were divided by fundamental
physical and intellectual differences, that some were destined to be led by others. It was thus an obligation imposed by
God on the British to spread their superior way of life, their institutions, law, and political system on native peoples
throughout the world. This attitude came to be known as ‘Jingoism’. Colonial power and economic progress made for
the optimistic outlook of many Victorians.