Liberal Reform in Industrial Britain

pp. 258, 262

Rotten borough

• British practice of giving many votes to districts with a few rich people

• And few votes to districts having many poor people.

• British reformers sought to end this, and did.

electorate

• The people who are eligible to vote in a district

• Reforms in Britain, France, and the US allowed more and more people to vote from the 19th to 20th centuries.– Lower-class men– Women– 18 year-olds

Secret ballot

• New system were voters did not have to declare publicly whom they were voting for.

• Encouraged more people to vote.

Queen Victoria• British monarch, 1837 to 1901• EC: Values of the Victorian Age (3)

– Duty– Thrift– Honesty– Hard work– Respectability– Strict moral code– Manners

Benjamin Disraeli

• Conservative (Tory) Party leader in the 1860s

• EC: Tory reforms included (2)• Reform Bill, 1862• Vote for many working class men

Gladstone asking Disraeli to do something sensational to give the papers something to write about

William Gladstone

• Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister in the 1860s,

• EC: Liberal reforms included (2)• Vote for farm workers and most other men• Secret ballot

Parliamentary democracy

• A form of government in which the executive leaders are chosen by the members of the ruling party, not by the public.

• They are also responsible to those members• Includes the Prime Minister and other ministers.

Liberal Control of Parliament

• As Parliament’s liberal seat-holders increased, it began responding to various groups’ demands.

• Free trade: – International trade with no quotas, tariffs, or other

regulations or restrictions.• Quota: max number of something allowed• Tariff: tax on imports

– Businessmen wanted access to the largest markets possible.

– Consumers would benefit from competition and a wider selection of goods.

• To cancel a government law or act.• The Corn Laws were repealed.

– British grain farmers kept the price high by prohibiting imports to protect their profits.

– Liberal reformers wanted to allow more grain imports to lower prices so lower class people could afford good.

Repeal:

Abolition movement:

• Growing number of British people demanded that their government ban slavery

• Britain was the first to make it illegal in 1807• It ended slavery in its colonies in 1833.• British Navy sent out

– To destroy slave selling locations in Africa– To confiscate slave cargoes at sea.

• Most other countries were slow to follow, regrettably

Crime and Punishment—

• The beginning of the modern criminal justice system began at this time.

• Capital offense:– A crime punished by death.– Some felt that death was a bit strict for many offenses—

• Shoplifting• Livestock stealing• Impersonating officials/veterans• Executions were public, with some turning into crowded spectacles.

– Criminals’ bodies would be put on display or given to medical schools.

– Soon, only piracy, murder, treason, and arson were capital offenses.

What to do with hardened criminals?

• Penal colony: • Nations with colonies could banish their convict

there. • Britain used Georgia before the Revolution

– Later it used Australia and New Zealand.

• France used Guyana, in South America

Ireland’s Problems with the English.

• Absentee landlord:• English owners of Irish lands, but not living in

Ireland.– They exacted high rents on Irish tenant farmers

• Irish people were near or at poverty

– They could evict Irish tenants for no reason and often did.

• They also had to pay tithes (church tax) to the Protestant Anglican Church (English) even though they were Catholic.

Home rule:

• Self government for a part of an empire. • Irish demanded it.• Charles Stewart Parnell’s movement demanded

that Irish be allowed to run their own local affairs, and Britain would run its foreign matters.

• The “Irish Question” dragged on for decades in Parliament and disrupted other British legislation.

Standards Check, p. 259

• How was the British Parliament reformed during the early 1800s?

• The electorate was expanded to include middle-class men.

• Seats in Parliament were redistributed to reflect the movement of population out of rotten boroughs.

Standards Check, p. 260

• What values did Queen Victoria represent and how did these values relate to economic reform?

• Duty, thrift, honesty, hard work, and respectability

• Promoted reform because they were widely adopted by people at all levels of society.

Thinking Critically, p. 261

• 1 Which group in the early 1800s do you think most feared the “democratization” of Britain? Why?

• Aristocrats; because they stood to lose the most power in Parliament.

• 2 How did the Parliament bill in 1911 reflect the same trends occurring as a result of the reform?

• It gave the House of Commons more political power than the House of Lords.

Standards Check, p. 261

• QuestionHow was Parliament reformed during the late 1800s and early 1900s?

• Suffrage was extended to almost all men

• The secret ballot was adopted

• The House of Lords lost its power to veto tax bills.

Standards Check, p. 263

• How did abolition and criminal justice reform reflect Victorian values?

• Both reforms were driven by a sense of morality and duty

EC: Was Social Reform Good for Communism? (4)

– No,

– Government economic and social reforms for the lower classes satisfied many demands and improved their standard of living.

• More people could take advantage of and benefit from the capitalist economy.

Standards Check, p. 265

• Describe several welfare reforms during the 1800s and early 1900s.

• Laws that …..• improved public health and housing for

workers • provided for free elementary education for

all children, • protected the well-being of the poor and

disadvantaged.

Standards Check, p. 265

• Why do you think women disagreed about how best to gain suffrage?

• Large groups of people often include people who have many different views, even if they share the same goal.

Thinking Critically, p. 266

• 1

• 1851-1860

• 2

• A human-made disaster

• Although the potato crops were ruined by nature, people starved

• remaining food supplies were exported for money by the English absentee landlords.

Standards Check, p. 267

• How did English policies toward Ireland affect the cause of Irish Nationalism?

• Harsh laws and the poor government response to the potato famine led many Irish people to – mistrust the British– support Irish nationalism.

p. 268, thinking critically

• 1. What are some possible “pull” factors for Irish emigrants? How do the “push” and “pull” factors for voluntary migration differ from those for involuntary migration?

• A.– The chance for a better life– Large amount of land and job opportunities– Religious freedom

• B.– With voluntary migration,

• people make their own decisions• The “push factors” might not lead all people to leave, and different migrants might be

pulled to different destinations

– With involuntary migration, • the push to leave comes from the government or other outside forces, which might

also determine where the migrants move to.

Quick Write

• What made Queen Victoria such a beloved leader to her subjects?

Potato Famine 266

• Write a letter from the point of view of an Irish farmer.– What happened to your crops?– What were the British doing to make the situation worse?– What is happening to the people around you?– Where are your friends and family going?– What are you going to do?

• Write a letter in narrative form to either:– British officials asking for help– Family discussing your hardships and leaving Ireland– Other Irish Citizens about your anger towards the British