Download 7. The 19th century (I) UNIT 7. THE 19TH CENTURY (I) 1. THE

7. The 19th century (I)
UNIT 7. THE 19TH CENTURY (I)
1. THE NAPOLEONIC WARS
Tensions between Britain and America escalated during the Napoleonic Wars, as Britain
tried to cut off American trade with France, and boarded American ships to pressgang men
of British birth into the Royal Navy. In 1812, the U.S. declared war, and for the next three
years, both sides tried to make major gains at the other’s expense. Both failed, and the
peace treaty ratified in 1815 maintained the pre-war boundaries.
The Constitutional Act of 1791 created the provinces of Upper Canada (mainly Englishspeaking) and Lower Canada (mainly French-speaking) to defuse tensions between the
French and British communities, and implemented governmental systems similar to those
employed in Britain, with the intention of asserting imperial authority and not allowing the
sort of popular control of government that was perceived to have led to the American
Revolution.
The conflict between France and Britain tended always towards impasse. In 1801, Britain
had a much smaller population: 11 million compared to 27 million in France. This
disadvantage was counterbalanced by Britain‘s wealth from a more developed economy
and extensive overseas trade, and by the British superiority at sea.
The British navy tried to harm France and her allies by preventing any merchant ships
other than those of Britain, from reaching continental ports. And it was the permanent
concern of the French armies, who commanded the land, to prevent British vessels
entering those same ports. Britain adopted the policy of seizing goods carried by the ships
of neutral nations if they were destined for a harbour under blockade.
In December 1800, indignation at this British policy, heightened by diplomatic pressure
from Napoleon, prompted Russia, Sweden and Denmark to form a League of Armed
Neutrality. They declared the Baltic ports out of bounds to British ships. Nelson destroyed
many of the ships in the harbour and damaged the shore defences in the battle of
Copenhagen (2 April 1801).
Britain and France signed the peace treaty in Amiens in March 1802. Napoleon’s
negotiators did well for France. All overseas territories taken by Britain in the past nine
years were returned into French hands.
For two years, after the resumption of hostilities in May 1803, Britain was the only nation at
war with France.
The Battle of Trafalgar confirmed Britain’s reputation at sea and had the effect of
preventing the French fleet from playing any major part in the remaining years of the war,
though Napoleon kept ships of the line in readiness in French habours, putting Britain to
the considerable expense of mounting permanent blockades.
In this struggle with Britain, Napoleon now reverted to the longer-term strategy of sealing
the continent against British goods, in the policy which became known as the Continental
System, 1806-1807, the purpose of which was to ruin Britain’s economy by preventing
British goods from reaching any market in continental Europe.
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The Peninsular War of 1808-14 looms large in British history for two reasons: it was the
only significant involvement of British troops on land in the Napoleonic wars until the final
campaign of 1815; and it was the stage on which the duke of Wellington rose to
prominence as a national figure.
The war had been provoked by Napoleon’s invasion of Portugal in 1807 and by the
subsequent French capture of Madrid in March 1808. A British army landed in Portugal on
1 August 1808 under the command of Wellington.
Campaigns in subsequent years involved prolonged fighting and the decisive campaign
came in 1813.
In April 1814 Napoleon finally abdicated, and it seemed that the Napoleonic wars were
finally over. By the end of the war the European armies had started to adopt French tactics
and strategies and the myth of Napoleon’s invincibility had been shattered. Despite this,
the restored French monarchy was soon in trouble and the victors were more interested in
dividing the spoils than watching out for the now exiled Napoleon.
However, on 26 February 1815, after escaping from the island of Elba, where he had been
in exile, Napoleon landed in France with a handful of troops, and was returned to power
within 23 days. The allies were alarmed and quickly united for the final campaign, which
both sides knew would finally decide the future of Europe.
The decisive Battle of Waterloo took place on 18 June 1815, when the forces of the
French empire under Napoleon Bonaparte were defeated by those of the Seventh
Coalition, including a Prussian army and an Anglo-Allied army under the command of the
Duke of Wellington. The defeat at Waterloo put an end to Napoleon’s rule as the French
emperor, and marked the end of Napoleon’s Hundred Days of return from exile.
2. THE VICTORIAN ERA (1837-1901)
2.1. Queen Victoria’s Reign
Queen Victoria succeeded her uncle William IV in 1837. She became queen when she
was 18 years old. She was born on May 24, 1819. She was the daughter of Edward, Duke
of Kent and Strathearn and Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Victoria married Prince
Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1840; the union produced four sons and five daughters.
She died at eighty-one years of age on January 22, 1901.
During the “Victorian Period,” Britain had a leading role as the first industrial nation and the
pioneer of railway transport. It was also an imperial leadership, reflected by the importance
of India as the most significant colony of the century.
Popular respect for the Crown was at low point at her coronation, but the modest and
straightforward young Queen won the hearts of her subjects. The Reform Act of 1832 had
set the standard of legislative authority residing in the House of Lords, with executive
authority resting within a cabinet formed of members of the House of Commons; the
monarchs was essentially removed from the loop. She respected and worked well with
Lord Melbourne, Prime Minister in the early years of her reign, and England grew both
socially and economically.
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The reform of government allowed England to avoid the politically tumultuous conditions
sweeping across Europe in the mid-nineteenth century.
The continent experienced the growing pains of conservatism, liberalism and socialism,
and the nationalistic struggle for political unification. England focused on developing
industry and trade and expanding its imperial reach.
The old political parties of England, the Whigs and the Tories, were transformed during the
reign of Victoria. John Peel’s support of the Corn Law Repeal splintered the Tories into two
camps. Peel’s supporters joined with Whigs to create the Liberal Party, and the anti-Peel
Tories became the Conservative Party.
Liberals represented traders and manufacturers and Conservatives represented the
landed gentry. Queen Victoria was particularly fond of Conservative Benjamin Disraeli,
who, by linking Victoria to the expansion of the empire, garnered respect for the monarchy.
Even in the throes of grief during her seclusion when Prince Albert died, Victoria gave
close attention to daily business and administration, at a time when England was evolving
politically and socially. Legislation passed in the era included the Mines Act (1842), The
Education Act (1870), The Public Health and Artisan’s Dwelling Acts (1875), Trade Union
Acts (1871 and 1876) and Reform Acts in 1867 and 1884, which broadened suffrage.
National pride connected with the name of Victoria. The term Victorian England, for
example, stemmed from the Queen’s ethics and personal tastes, which generally reflected
those of the middle class. Other elements in the Victorian image are personal, centred
very specifically on the queen herself and the German prince, Albert of Saxe-CoburgGhotta. In 1851, there was an outstanding event, The Great Exhibition of the Works of
Industry of all Nations to celebrate the new industrial era and of Britain’s leading role.
When Victoria was widowed in her early forties, she withdrew from public affairs into her
private grief and there were hostile comments about her seclusion. The Golden Jubilee in
1887 brought Victoria out of her shell, and she again embraced public life.
Victoria’s long reign witnessed an evolution in English politics and the expansion of the
British Empire, as well as political and social reforms on the continent. Even in her dotage,
she maintained a youthful energy and optimism that infected the English population as a
whole.
Victoria’s was the longest reign in English history and her reign has been considered as
one of the defining periods of British history. When she died of old age, an entire era died
with her.
2.2. Politics
During the 1830s, the Whigs, who were seen as a party of reform, began to acquire the
new name of Liberals. During the same period, the Tories began to call themselves
Conservatives, making the most of their recent opposition to reform by suggesting that
their policy was to conserve all that was best in the traditional British way of life.
In broad terms, the Liberals were more inclined to pass measures of social welfare,
although this is not quite an accurate picture, since the greatest campaigner on these
issues was a Conservative MP, Lord Shaftesbury. His party was responsible for the Mines
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Act of 1842. It was also the Conservatives who extended the franchise to bring in more
voters in 1867, and the Liberals who continued the process in 1884. For these reasons,
the century is best described not as a succession of prime ministers of one party or the
other, but in terms of the great issues.
In 1838, two political organizations were founded in London and in Manchester. One was
Chartism, which evolved into Britain’s first national working-class movement, and the other
was the Anti-Corn Law League.
The influence of the landed gentry in Parliament, absolute before the Reform Act and still
strong after it, can be seen in the continuation of tariffs against foreign grain. Designed to
guarantee a sufficiently large British crop in time of war, the effect of the Corn Laws in
peacetime was to keep prices artificially high, considerably boosting the income of the
landed grandees.
It was an issue on which the interests of the working classes coincided with those of their
employers in the mills, since cheap bread benefited both groups.
Political identities in mid-19th-century Britain were somewhat blurred, largely owing to the
split in the Conservative party in 1846 over the repeal of the Corn Laws. There were
political shifts of allegiance.
One of the stable features in British party politics at this time was a profound personal
hostility between Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli.
Gladstone remained in power for six years (1868-1874) and Disraeli then succeeded him
for another six (1874-1880). This was the period when the Liberal and Conservative
parties at last settled down into clearly defined opposition, personified in the hostility of the
two leaders and in their very different characters. Both administrations in the 1870s
pushed through a great deal of social reform in their home policy. It was in foreign affairs
that the difference between the protagonists was most clearly marked.
The era of Salisbury and Chamberlain saw extensive British activity in the southern part of
the African continent. The region being developed by the commercial activities of Cecil
Rhodes was proclaimed as Rhodesia in 1895, with its chief town named Salisbury in
honour of the prime minister.
In that same year the disastrous Jameson Raid caused major diplomatic problems for the
British government. The raid increased the likelihood of serious conflict in the region, and
this broke out in 1899 as the Boer War.
At first, the war was unpopular in Britain, with Liberal opposition to it reinforced by a
succession of British defeats, but in 1990, the news from the front improved. Salisbury
called an election, branding the opposition as unpatriotic, and was returned with a greatly
increased majority causing this to become known as the “khaki election”.
Free trade had carried the day. The trend in imperial policy was now towards more
independence for the colonies rather than greater protection. Dominion status, already
possessed by Canada and Australia, was granted to New Zealand in 1907, and to the four
newly united provinces of South Africa in 1909.
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The 1906 election brought the Liberals to power after twenty years and the Liberal
government immediately embarked on an energetic programme of social reform.
2.3. Society
Victorian prosperity for the elite was built on the development of new machinery, new work
methods and an underpaid workforce consisting of adults and children living in wretched
poverty. Many rural communities became urbanised by the new rail transport. Country
families often drifted into towns to stay with other relatives whilst seeking work.
By 1850, half of the country’s former peasants were squashed into Britain’s cities. The
growth of industry, the building boom, the swift population spurt and the spread of the
railway, changed the character of Britain too rapidly for many to understand.
Small towns were overtaken by growing industries and sprawling industrial dwelling areas.
By 1870, the population of Britain had grown from 10 million at the start of the century to
over 26 millions. Different types of people were emerging. There was an emergence of the
middle class of industrialists and businessmen. Employers moved away from their
industrial source of wealth. They bought country estates, and several generations later
were often considered landed gentry. On the outskirts of towns, managers built villas.
Owners built new streets of houses on the perimeters of towns and skilled workman and
artisans occupied these.
Queen Victoria was possibly one of the most powerful women in Britain since Queen
Elizabeth, but her status did not dramatically improve the position of women within society.
There were many movements to obtain greater rights for women, but voting rights did not
come until the next century. The Married Women’s Property Act in 1882 meant that
women did not lose their right to their own property when they got married, and could
divorce without fear of poverty, although divorce was frowned upon and very rare during
the 19th century.
In the 1880s, women’s movements argued for female access to education, professional
work and electoral franchise. In general, women had less access to education, were
barred from owning property and subjected to husband’s authority, but there was a gradual
change beginning in the late 1880s.
The new social class that emerged was the bourgeoisie, or middle class.
During Queen Victoria’s reign big changes took place in the way people spent their leisure
time. Bloodsports like bear baiting and cockfighting were banned. With the growth of the
railways, people began to travel more, and visiting the seaside became a popular pastime.
But the railways also allowed local sporting teams to travel and so sports like cricket,
football and rugby began to be organised with agreed rules and national competitions,
such as the FA Cup. Lawn Tennis was invented in the 1830s and a new sight on the
streets of Victorian Britain was the bicycle, in its various different designs. In the 1880s
and 1890s, they became a popular and liberating mode of transportation especially for
women.
There were still old favourites such as going to the circus or the theatre, but the invention
of the moving picture during the 1890s meant that a new dimension was added to theatre
going.
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In spite of the Victorian era of prosperity, working conditions were bad and millions of
workers lived in slums or in vacated old decaying upper class houses. The occupants of
slums had no sanitation, no water supply, no paved streets, no schools, no law or order,
no decent food or new clothing. Many now had to walk miles to mill or factory work,
whereas before they had frequently lived in the house or near land where they did their
work. Their hours of work began at 5.30 a.m. and were never less than ten. The brutal
degrading conditions were so awful that drunkenness and opium taking was usual as their
home life had so little to offer.
3. THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN THE 19TH CENTURY
During the reign of Victoria, the empire doubled in size, encompassing Canada, Australia,
India and various places in Africa and the South Pacific. Her reign was almost free of war,
with an Irish uprising (1848), the Boer Wars in South Africa (1881, 1899-1902) and an
Indian rebellion (1857) being the only exceptions.
By 1870, Britain was the most industrialised and the most powerful country in the world. It
possessed the world’s largest Empire protected by a very formidable navy. Imperialism
was popular, and during this period Britain added to her colonial possessions. They
included India, South Africa, Canada, Australia, Malaya (now Malaysia), Egypt, Nigeria,
and Rhodesia, and covered one-sixth of the Earth’s land surface.
Victoria was named Empress of India in 1878. England avoided continental conflict from
1815 through 1914, the lone exception being the Crimean War (1853-56). The success in
avoiding European entanglements was, in large part, due to the marriage of Victoria’s
children: either directly or by marriage, she was related to the royal houses of Germany,
Russia, Greece, Rumania, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Belgium.
Britain gradually evolved a system of self-government for some colonies after the U.S.
gained independence. Dominion status was given to Canada (1867), Australia (1901),
New Zealand (1907), the Union of South Africa (1910), and the Irish Free State (1921). In
1931, the Statute of Westminster recognized them as independent countries “within the
British Empire”, referring to the “British Commonwealth of Nations,” and from 1949, they
were known simply as the Commonwealth of Nations. The British Empire, therefore,
developed into the Commonwealth in the mid-20th century, as former British dependencies
obtained sovereignty but retained ties to the United Kingdom.
The loss of Britain’s 13 American colonies in 1776-1783 was compensated by new
settlements in Australia from 1788, and by the spectacular growth of Upper Canada (now
Ontario) after the emigration of loyalists from what had become the United States. The
Napoleonic Wars provided further additions to the empire.
The 19th century was marked by the full expansion of the British Empire. Administration
and policy changed during the century from the haphazard arrangements of the 17th and
18th centuries to the sophisticated system characteristic of Joseph Chamberlain’s tenure
(1895-1900) in the Colonial Office.
British involvement in India in the 1850s had led to the introduction of some elements of
social improvement such as the railroads, the telegraph, and the uniform postal service,
inaugurated during the tenure of Dalhousie as governor-general. The first railroad lines
were built in 1850 from Howrah inland to the coalfields at Raniganj, Bihar, a distance of
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240 kilometres. In 1851 the first electric telegraph line was laid in Bengal and soon linked
Agra, Bombay, Calcutta, Lahore, Varanasi, and other cities. The three different
presidencies of regional postal systems merged in 1854 to facilitate uniform methods of
communication at an all-India level. With uniform postal rates for letters and newspapers,
communication between the rural and the metropolitan areas became faster. The
increased ease of communication and the opening of highways and waterways,
accelerated the movement of troops, the transportation of raw materials and goods to and
from the interior, and the exchange of commercial information.
By the end of the 19th century, India remained the most significant of the imperial
possessions, becoming known as ‘the jewel of the crown’ of Queen Victoria. This status
was emphasized in 1876 when her prime minister, Disraeli, secured for her the title
empress of India.
The French completion of the Suez Canal (1869) had provided Britain with a much shorter
sea route to India.
The greatest extension of British power took place in Africa, however. In the second half of
the century, Britain extended its influence in Nigeria, the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and
Gambia, which became British possessions. All this “conquests” allowed Britain to extend
the Empire “from the Cape to Cairo”. New Zealand also became officially British in 1840.
By the end of the 19th century, the British Empire comprised nearly one-quarter of the
world’s land surface and more than one-quarter of its total population.
Lord Durham first recommended the idea of limited self-government for some of Britain’s
colonies for Canada in 1839. The system whereby some colonies were allowed largely to
manage their own affairs under governors appointed by the mother country spread rapidly.
Nationalist sentiment developed rapidly in many of these areas after World War I and even
more so after World War II, with the result that, beginning with India in 1947,
independence was granted to them, along with the option of retaining an association with
Great Britain and other former dependencies in the Commonwealth of Nations.
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4. PARLIAMENTARY REFORM
4.1. The Reform Acts
From March 1831 to June 1832, attempts were made to achieve a measure of
parliamentary reform in order to extend the franchise in England. The Great Reform Act
was an attempt to give lower classes more rights and power, which the upper classes
were not in favour of but eventually agreed to.
The rapidly growing new industrial cities were, for the most part, unrepresented in
Parliament. A significant step in the crescendo of demand for reform came in 1830, when
the Tory majority in the House of Commons rejected a bill to extend the franchise to
Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester.
In 1831, the House of Commons passed the Reform Bill, but the House of Lords,
dominated by Tories, defeated it.
In Britain, King William IV lost popularity for standing in the way of reform. Eventually he
agreed to create new Whig peers, and when the House of Lords heard this, they agreed to
pass the Reform Act. Rotten boroughs were removed and the new towns given the right to
elect MPs, although constituencies were still of uneven size. However, only men who
owned property worth at least £10 could vote, which cut out most of the working classes,
and only men who could afford to pay to stand for election could be MPs. This reform did
not go far enough to silence all protest.
On 7 June 1832, the bill received the royal assent and became the Reform Act. Parliament
had passed a law changing the British electoral system, and giving the vote to the middle
classes. It was to become known as the Great Reform Act.
This was a response to many years of people criticising the electoral system as unfair.
In the election for the first reformed Parliament, which assembled in January 1833, the
Tories won only 172 seats compared to 486 for the Whigs. However, the immediate
change was great, since the property qualification to become an elector was still high.
Even under the new system, only 813,000 people qualified to register as voters in 1832,
although this was a middle-class electorate, in place of one representing mainly the landed
gentry.
Nevertheless, the reform of 1832 in Britain enabled the progression towards universal
suffrage. The successive stages in this process were marked by four measures, each
known as a Representation of the People Act.
The 1867 Reform Act reduced the property qualification to the point where the urban
working class became eligible to vote. With this Act, the right to vote was given to every
male adult householder living in the towns. Male lodgers paying £10 were also granted the
vote. In all, the Act gave the vote to about 1,500,000 men. In effect, it enfranchised the
working classes in the towns. Several industrial towns that had previously been
unrepresented were given MPs. A Conservative government led by Benjamin Disraeli had
introduced this measure with the support of the Liberals.
The Reform Act of 1884 effectively did the same for workers in the countryside,
enfranchising poor farmers and labourers, and greatly reorganised electoral areas to
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reflect the move in population from the countryside to the larger towns. This act tripled the
electorate and established the principle of “one man, one vote” (for males over 25). This
act of 1884 still contained a financial threshold, although a low one. This was done away
with in the act of 1918, which made proof of residence the only qualification. This act also
finally achieved universal suffrage in Britain, since, for the first time, it introduced votes for
women.
Another important measure in the history of voting legislation was the Secret Ballot Act of
1972, which introduced the secret ballot, a measure, which provoked a great deal of
parliamentary opposition. This act greatly reduced the power of Landlords in determining
the outcome of elections.
Through the 19th century, the changes in legislation, most notably with regard to extending
the right to vote to all sectors of the population, showed a steady trend towards greater
personal and political freedom.
4. IRISH NATIONALISM
4.1. Act of Union of 1800
The Act of Union of 1800, effective from 1 January 1801, brought into existence a political
entity called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
The Act of Union abolished the parliament in Dublin, providing instead for Ireland to be
represented at Westminster by four bishops and twenty-eight peers in the House of Lords,
and by 100 elected members in the House of Commons. However, the result pleased no
one and Dublin declined in glamour and prosperity as estates in Ireland were neglected
and fell into decay due to absentee landlords.
The Catholics had the most to resent at the way things turned out. The ruling Protestant
minority was naturally opposed to the abolition of the Dublin Parliament. Even though Pitt
made great efforts to give the Catholics equality of rights with the Anglo-Irish, he failed
since George III considered any relief for the Catholics a betrayal of his coronation oath to
defend the Anglican Church.
The Act of Union was passed without any element of Catholic emancipation being
included.
The Emancipation Act was passed in 1829, removing nearly all the barriers against
Catholics holding public office. The crucial clause, in the immediate context, was that
which dropped the requirement for members of parliament to deny on oath the spiritual
authority of the pope.
5.2. Home Rule for Ireland, 1869-1893
In 1869, William Gladstone, on becoming Liberal Prime Minister in 1868, recognized the
oppressive nature of Protestant rule in Ireland and introduced a bill to disestablish the
Anglican Church in Ireland. He followed this in 1870 with an Irish Land Act, granting Irish
peasant farmers secure tenure and compensation for improvements to their holdings. In
the same year, a Home Rule association was founded in Ireland. During the 1870s more
than fifty members of Parliament supported the Home Rule cause. Its programme was
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limited to Irish autonomy in internal affairs, with no demand as yet for the rupture of the
union itself.
In 1875, Charles Stewart Parnell was elected member for Meath. He took over the
leadership of the Home Rule party and introduced a vigorously disruptive policy. This
included active obstruction of parliamentary business at Westminster and the fomenting of
rural unrest in Ireland.
In 1879, Michael Davitt founded the Irish Land League. The league’s purpose was to
promote insurrection among Irish smallholders. Parnell became president of the league.
By 1885, Gladstone was converted to Home Rule for Ireland and brought the Home Rule
bill to parliament in 1886.
The Act of Union that was duly negotiated between Britain and Ireland in 1800 again
represented the continuation of the English parliament, but with less marginal adjustments
in terms of political representation to accommodate Irish interests. Whereas the Treaty of
Union had secured the Presbyterian Kirk, the distinctively Catholic faith of the Irish was
disparaged by the Act of Union. Catholic emancipation remained a distant prospect, not an
immediate commitment. Although fiscal dues were not equalised until the 1820s, union for
Ireland, as for Scotland in 1707, led to protracted economic recession.
With industrialisation largely confined to Belfast and Dublin, the Irish lacked the
entrepreneurial levers or the commitment to empire which had enabled the Scots to grasp
the economic opportunities gradually opened up by political incorporation.
For the Irish, the union lasted just over a century. The catastrophe of famine in the 1840s,
the haemorrhaging of people through emigration, limited industrialization, a tendency to
side with the exploited rather than the exploiters of empire, and ongoing sectarianism were
hardly inducements to stay incorporated with Britain.
British over-reaction to the Easter Rising of 1916 duly paved the way for civil war and the
separation of all but six of the 32 Irish counties from Britain by 1922. Only Northern Ireland
has remained part of the United Kingdom, although its Protestant ascendancy can no
longer be sustained by political gerrymandering or even direct rule.
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