#english_history 

# Industry
In 1851 Queen Victoria opened the Great Exhibition of the Industries of All Nations inside the Crystal Palace, in London, to show the world the greatness of Britain's industry, which was at the time producing more iron than the rest of the world together.

The greatest example of Britain's industrial power in the mid-19th century was its railway system. It was, in fact, built primarily to transport goods in order to bring down the cost of transport. By 1870 the railway system was almost complete. 
In **1851** the government made the railway companies provide passenger trails which stopped at all stations for a fare of one penny per mile. This allowed the middle class to start living in the suburbs.

# Society
## Family life
In spite of the greater emphasis on the individual and the growth of openly [[Society in the 18th century|shown affection]], the end of the 18th century also saw a swing back to stricter ideas of family life. In part, the close family resulted from the growth of new attitudes to privacy, perhaps a necessary part of individualism. It was also the result of the removal of the social and economic support of the wider family and village community.
Except for the very rich, people no longer married for economic reasons, but did so for personal happiness, although women were still treated as second-class humans.

This return to authority exercised by the head of the family was largely the result of 3 things:
1. fear of political revolution
2. fear of social change
3. the influence of the new religious movements of [[Society in the 18th century|Methodism]] and Evangelicalism.

In spite of a stricter moral atmosphere in Scotland, party from the strong influence of the Kirk, Scottish women seem to have continued a stronger tradition of independent attitudes and plain speaking.

## The rise of the middle class
There had been a "middle class" in Britain for centuries, and consisted of merchants, traders and small farmers. It was soon joined by industrialists and factory owners.

In the 19th century, however, it grew more quickly than ever before and included greater differences of wealth, social position and kinds of work. It also included the commercial classes, who were the real creators of wealth in the country.

In spite of the idea of "class" the Victorian age was a time of great social movement. The children of the 1st generation of factory owners often preferred commerce and banking to industry. The very successful received knighthoods or became lords and joined the ranks of the upper classes.

Those of the middle class who could afford it sent their sons to feepaying "public" schools, which aimed not only to give boys a good education, but to train them in leadership by taking them away from home and making their living conditions hard.

## The growth of towns and cities
The escape of the middle classes to the suburbs was understandable, as the cities and towns were overcrowded and unhealthy, insalubrious.

In the middle of the 19th century towns began to appoint helath officers and to provide proper drains and clean water, which quickly reduced the level of disease, particularly [[Cholera|cholera]].

Some towns grew really fast.

## Population and politics
In **1851**, an official population survey was carried out for the first time. It showed that the nation was not as religious as its people had believed: only 60% of the population went to church. The survey also showed that of these only 5.2 million were Anglicans, 4.5 Noncomformists and 0,5 milliom Catholics. 

The Tory-Anglican alliance could hardly keep the Noncomformists and Catholics out of politics any longer, who themselves supported the Liberals.

In 1846, when [[Workers' revolt in the 19th century|Sir Robert Peel]] had fallen from power, the shape of British politics was still unclear. peel was a Tory, and many Tories felt that his actions were a betrayal of Tory beliefs. He acted independently, in spite of his party membership. One reason for this was the number of crises in British politics for a whole generation after 1815. Those in power found they often had to avoid dangerous political, economic or social situations by doing something they'd not like to, and so was the case for Peel.

His actions were also evidence of a growing acceptance by both Tories and Whigs of the policy of free trade, as well as the need for social and political reform to allow the middle class to grow richer and to expand. This was "Liberalism", and the Whigs became known as Liberals.

Some Tories also pursued essentially "Liberal" policy. In **1823**, e.g., the Tory Foreign Secretary, Lord Canning, used the navy to prevent Spain sending troops to her rebellious colonies in South America. The British were glad to see the liberation movement led by Simon Bolivar succeed. This was partly for an economic reasons, as Spain had always been meddling with Britain's free trade.
Canning had also been responsible for helping the Greeks achieve their freedom from the Turkish empire to satsify romantic liberalism in Britain and to keep the Russians at bay.

From **1846** to **1865**, the most important political figure was **Lord Palmerston** (Henry John Temple). He was a Liberal, but like Peel he often went against his own party's ideas and values. He was known for liberalism in his foreign policy, and had a conviction that despotic states discouraged free trade, thus supported the Italian independence movement.
Within Britain, he was a good deal less liberal, and did not want to allow further political reform to take place. It was also typical of the confusing individualism of politics that the Liberal Lord Palmerston was invited to join a Tory government in **1852**.

After Palmerston's death in 1865 a much stricter 2 party system developed, demanding reater loyalty from its membership. The 2 party, Tory (Conservative - official name) and Liberal, developed greater party organisation and order.

**William Ewart Gladstone**, the new Liberal leader, had been a factory owner, and **Benjamin Disraeli**, the new Conservative leader, was of Jewish origin (in 1860 Jews were for the 1st time given equal rights with other citizens). At the time of Peel's downfall in 1846, Disraeli had strongly supported the interests of the landed gentry. Since **1881** the Conservative Party has generally remained the strongest.

Much of what we know today as the modern state was built in the second half of the 19th century. In **1872** voting was first carried out in secret. Democracy grew quickly. A national political pattern appeared: England was mroe conservative, while Scotland, Ireland, Wales appeared more radical.

Democracy also grew rapidly outside the Parliament. In **1844** a "Co-operative Movement" was started by a few Chartists and trade unions, who sought self-help through a network of shops which sold goods at a fair and low price. It was very successful.

After 1850 a number of trade unions grew up, but unlike many European worker struggles, the English trade unions sought to achieve their goals through parliamentary democracy. During the 1870s wages were lowered in many factories and this led to more strikes than had been seen before. The trade unions' mixture of worker struggle and desire to work democratically within Parliament led eventually to the foundation of the [[The end of "England's summer"#^6540f7|Labour Party]].

Everything was being reorganised: army, government, law. In **1867** the 1st move was made to introduce free and compulsory education for children.

## Social and economic improvements
The condition of the poor in most of Britain greatly improved between 1875 and 1914. Most homes now had gas both for heating and lighting.

In **1870** and **1891** two Education Acts were passed, which made school education mandatory for children up to the age of 13. In schools they learnt reading, writing, and arithmetic. In Scotland there had been a state education system since the time of the Reformation. In Wales schools had begun to grow rapidly as well.
England now started to buildd "redbrick" universities, i.e. the new brick-built ones, unlike the old stone-built unis of [[Language, literature and culture in Medieval england|Cambridge and Oxford]]. These new universities taught more science and technology to feed Britain's industries.

The face of the towns had greatly changed in the middle years of the centruy. The organised improvement of workers' homes, factory conditions, public health and education had all come fast. It was easy to the see the physical changed, but it was tricky to see the social changes. But in fact, power had moved from the shires and to the towns. Village squires lost most of their power.[[Government and society in Late Medieval England|JPs]] were now bereft of their local government and administrative power after **1888**, and could now only make judgements in very small cases. New county councils took their place.

The authority of the Church also weakened, with village priests being basically powerless and churches half-empty. The poor stayed away from churches in order to "rebel" against the ruling establishment with which the Church was still closely connected. People were also attracted of other ways of spending their Sundays.

By the 1880s, for the first time working people could thing about enjoying some free time. 

From the middle of the century many people had started to use the railway to get to work. Now they began to travel for pleasure.

The invention of the bicycle was also important, as it gave other people freedom.

## The importance of sport
By the end of the 19th century, 2 sports, **cricket and football**, had become of great interest to public. 

Cricket, which had started as a "gentleman's sport" (hence "not cricket" means "impolite"), had become an extremely popular village game, although its rules were organised in the late 19th century. From **1873** a county championship took place each year.

Football was also organised with proper rules in the 19th century. It had started just like cricket, but soon became popular among all classes.

## Changes in thinking
The most important idea of the 19th century was that everyone had the right to personal freedom, which was the basis of capitalism. This idea had spread widely through Adam Smith's book [[Enquiry into the Wealth of Nations]] in the 18th century. After Smith, several capitalist economists argued that government should not interfere in trade and industry at all. These ideas were eagerly accepted by the growing middle class, but soon people found out that the freedom of factory owners led to slavery and misery for the poor. So by 1820 more and more people had begun to accept the idea that government must interfere to protect the poor and the weak. The result was a number of laws to improve working conditions.

Such laws did not make British factories perfect places to work in, but now people saw these as government duties. This government policy was influenced by individual people like Robert Owen, Arthur Cadbury (a man who'd built first-class housing for his workers).

In spite of these improvements, many still were poor. Again, it was individual people who led the fight against this problem, like **William Booth**, who started a new religious movement, **the Salvation Army**.

### Culture
Literature was influenced by the **new mood of change**, and the case in point of this was [[Charles Dickens]], who attacked the rich and powerful for their cruelty towards the weak.
Painting too was affected. Now the people who commissioned paintings were mainly urban middle class folks. Some painters painted industrial scenes which raised questions about the new society Britain had created. "Pre-Raphaelite" painters looked back to the pre-industrial medieval and classical worlds with fresh and romantic eyes. Some of these belonged to the "**Arts and Crafts Movement**", whose members turned away from the new middle-class values, and looked to pre-industrial handicraft and to nature for inspiration.

## Science vs Faith
British self-confidence was built not only upon power but also upon the rapid scientific advances being made at the time. In **1857** [[Charles Darwin]] published *The Origin of Species*, which challenged the ideas of religion.