Victoria 3 Download Time
Tuula Rud
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the Georgian era and preceded the Edwardian era, and its later half overlaps with the first part of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe.
Victorian society valued a high standard of personal conduct across all sections of society. The emphasis on morality gave impetus to social reform but also placed restrictions on certain groups' liberty. Prosperity rose during the period, but debilitating undernutrition persisted. Literacy and childhood education became near universal in Great Britain for the first time. Whilst some attempts were made to improve living conditions, slum housing and disease remained a severe problem.
Throughout most of the 19th century Britain was the most powerful country in the world.[15] The period from 1815 to 1914, known as the Pax Britannica, was a time of relatively peaceful relations between the world's great powers. This is particularly true of Britain's interactions with the others.[16] The only war in which the British Empire fought against another major power was the Crimean War, from 1853 to 1856.[17][13] There were various revolts and violent conflicts within the British Empire,[13][14] and Britain participated in wars against minor powers.[18][13][14] It also took part in the diplomatic struggles of the Great Game[18] and the Scramble for Africa.[13][14]
In 1840, Queen Victoria married her German cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The couple had nine children, who themselves married into various royal families, and the queen thus became known as the 'grandmother of Europe'.[19][10] In 1861, Albert died.[18] Victoria went into mourning and withdrew from public life for ten years.[10] In 1871, with republican sentiments growing in Britain, she began to return to public life. In her later years, her popularity soared as she became a symbol of the British Empire. Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901.[19]
The Victorian era saw a rapidly growing middle class who became an important cultural influence, to a significant extent replacing the aristocracy as British society's dominant class.[20][21] A distinctive middle-class lifestyle developed that influenced what society valued as a whole.[20][22] Increased importance was placed on the value of the family, and the idea that marriage should be based on romantic love gained popularity.[23][24] A clear separation was established between the home and the workplace, which had often not been the case before.[22] The home was seen as a private environment,[22] where housewives provided their husbands with a respite from the troubles of the outside world.[23] Within this ideal, women were expected to focus on domestic matters and to rely on men as breadwinners.[25][26] Women had limited legal rights in most areas of life, and a feminist movement developed.[26][27] Parental authority was seen as important, but children were given legal protections against abuse and neglect for the first time.[28] Access to education increased rapidly during the 19th century. State-funded schools were established in England and Wales for the first time. Education became compulsory for pre-teenaged children in England, Scotland and Wales. Literacy rates increased rapidly, and had become nearly universal by the end of the century.[29][30] Private education for wealthier children, boys and more gradually girls, became more formalised over the course of the century.[29]
A variety of reading materials grew in popularity during the period, including novels,[50] women's magazines,[51] children's literature,[52] and newspapers.[53] Much literature, including chapbooks, was distributed on the street.[54][55] Music was also very popular, with genres such as folk music, broadsides, music halls, brass bands, theater music and choral music having mass appeal. What is now called classical music was somewhat undeveloped compared to parts of Europe but did have significant support.[56] Many sports were introduced or popularised during the Victorian era.[57] They became important to male identity.[58] Examples included cricket,[59] football,[60] rugby,[61] tennis[62] and cycling.[63] The idea of women participating in sport did not fit well with the Victorian view of femininity, but their involvement did increase as the period progressed.[64] For the middle classes, many leisure activities such as table games could be done in the home while domestic holidays to rural locations such as the Lake District and Scottish Highlands were increasingly practical.[65] The working classes had their own culture separate from that of their richer counterparts, various cheaper forms of entertainment and recreational activities provided by philanthropy. Trips to resorts such as Blackpool were increasingly popular towards the end of period.[66] Initially the industrial revolution increased working hours, but over the course of the 19th century a variety of political and economic changes caused them to fall back down to and in some cases below pre-industrial levels, creating more time for leisure.[67]
Children had always played a role in economic life but exploitation of their labour became especially intense during the Victorian era. Children were put to work in a wide range of occupations, but particularly associated with this period are factories. Employing children had advantages, as they were cheap, had limited ability to resist harsh working conditions, and could enter spaces too small for adults. Some accounts exist of happy upbringings involving child labour, but conditions were generally poor. Pay was low, punishments severe, work was dangerous and disrupted children's development (often leaving them too tired to play even in their free time). Early labour could do lifelong harm; even in the 1960s and '70s, the elderly people of industrial towns were noted for their often unusually short stature, deformed physiques, and diseases associated with unhealthy working conditions.[75] Reformers wanted the children in school; in 1840 only about 20 per cent of the children in London had any schooling.[76] By the 1850s, around half of the children in England and Wales were in school (not including Sunday school).[77] From the 1833 Factory Act onwards, attempts were made to get child labourers into part time education, though this was often difficult to achieve.[78] Only in the 1870s and 1880s did children begin to be compelled into school.[77] Work continued to inhibit children's schooling into the early 20th century.[75]
Hunger and poor diet was a common aspect of life across the UK in the Victorian period, especially in the 1840s, but the mass starvation seen in the Great Famine in Ireland was unique.[86][84] Levels of poverty fell significantly during the 19th century from as much as two thirds of the population in 1800 to less than a third by 1901. 1890s studies suggested that almost 10% of the urban population lived in a state of desperation lacking the food necessary to maintain basic physical functions. Attitudes towards the poor were often unsympathetic and they were frequently blamed for their situation. In that spirit, the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 had been deliberately designed to punish them and would remain the basis for welfare provision into the 20th century. While many people were prone to vices, not least alcoholism, historian Bernard A. Cook argues that the main reason for 19th century poverty was that typical wages for much of the population were simply too low. Barely enough to provide a subsistence living in good times, let alone save up for bad.[84]
Improvements were made over time to housing along with the management of sewage and water eventually giving the UK the most advanced system of public health protection anywhere in the world.[87] The quality and safety of household lighting improved over the period with oil lamps becoming the norm in the early 1860s, gas lighting in the 1890s and electric lights beginning to appear in the homes of the richest by the end of the period.[88] Medicine advanced rapidly during the 19th century and germ theory was developed for the first time. Doctors became more specialised and the number of hospitals grew.[87] The overall number of deaths fell by about 20%. The life expectancy of women increased from around 42 to 55 and 40 to 56 for men.[note 6][81] In spite of this, the mortality rate fell only marginally, from 20.8 per thousand in 1850 to 18.2 by the end of the century. Urbanisation aided the spread of diseases and squalid living conditions in many places exacerbated the problem.[87] The population of England, Scotland and Wales grew rapidly during the 19th century.[89] Various factors are considered contributary to this, including a rising fertility rate (though it was falling by the end of the period),[81] the lack of a catastrophic pandemic or famine in the island of Great Britain during the 19th century for the first time in history,[90] improved nutrition,[90] and a lower overall mortality rate.[90] Ireland's population shrank significantly, mostly due to emigration and the Great Famine.[91]
The professionalisation of scientific study began in parts of Europe following the French Revolution but was slow to reach Britain. William Whewell coined the term 'scientist' in 1833 to refer to those who studied what was generally then known as natural philosophy, but it took a while to catch on. Having been previously dominated by amateurs with a separate income, the Royal Society admitted only professionals from 1847 onwards. The British biologist Thomas Henry Huxley indicated in 1852 that it remained difficult to earn a living as a scientist alone.[48] Scientific knowledge and debates such as that about Charles Darwin's book on evolution gained a high profile. Simplified (and at times inaccurate) popular science was increasingly distributed through a variety of publications which caused tension with the professionals.[94] There were significant advances in various fields of research, including statistics,[95] elasticity,[96] refrigeration,[97] natural history,[48] electricity[98] and logic.[99]