The 19th Century

Question	Answer
The 19th Century I	19th cent.
Describe the british class system in the 19th cent. and pay particular attention to the rise of the working class!	Class System: Working Class
new social hierarchy in the 19th cent., replaced old divisions of lord and peasant or rural farmer and urban craftsman; between 1860 and 1914 real wages doubled (improvement in living standards -> working class could affort more)	Class System: Working Class
Charles Booth's 'Life and Labour of the people in London' (late 1880s): found six main categories of working class: 1. highpaid labour 2. regular standard earnings 3. small regular earnings 4. intermittent earnings 5. casual earnings 6. lowest class -> largest group was number 2; growing prosp., joined trade groups and many middle class intellectuals	Class System: Working Class
Leisure and Travel (working class): Association Football; a football club was established in every self-respecting industrial town -> founded by public schools & colleges -> professionalized in middle of 19th cent.: leisure for almost every man; football as the product of a highly organized urban society: regularity & complexity of competitions, entrance fee..	Class System: Working Class
travel for the working class: not only search for new job but also for leisure and fun; developement of a popular press: invention of electric telegraph, press highly used by working class	Class System: Working Class
Middle Class: decades after 1850: golden age of expansion 1900: lower middle class -> service sector (very large) so called white collar workers	Class System: Middle Class
civil service expanded rapidly: government spent more money on education huge number of city workers in London trained at the new polytechnics (form of higher education) -> learned practical things -> benefiting rise of lower middle class	Class System: Middle Class
Upper Middle Class: divided in two: 1. those working in professions (doctors, lawyers, the clergy of the established church, civil servants in higher positions) 2. the manufacturing middle class: owners of cotton mills, shops ect. late 1870s: women colleges founded in Oxford: entry to professional careers for women	Class System: Upper Middle Class
Middle Classes: Seperate Spheres Victorian ideology emphasised men's public role versus women's private role: domestic sphere for middle-class-women, men earning money, women stay at home -> not all women conformed! (esp. working-class women) -> Queen was seen as ideal: selfless & caring mother figure	Class System
The Aristocracy & Gentry: probably changed least in Victoria's reign, continued to have great political power; ran local government in the country, ran positions in military (such as officers); noble families divided their time between two residences: on in town, one in the country, ran society in the country, usually had souther Engl. accent	Class System: Aristocracy & Gentry
Monarchy: flourished under Victoria: hugely popular in her later years! monarchy as fixed position in a fast-changing world, emphasis of familiy, continuity, religion -> great success represented timeless quality of pre-industrial order-> balanced: effect of industr. revolution vs. providing eternal institution; the more urban Britain became, the more popular, ritualized became its monarchy	Class System: Monarchy
How did political reforms in the 19th cent. respond to a rapidly changing society?	Political Reforms
First Reform Act 1832: abolished 56 rotten boroughs -> before Act: industrial centers were not represented in parliament, but towns that weren't inhabitated anymore were -> ruled districts without importance 41 large Engl. towns (incl Manchester, Bradford & Birmingham) got representation for the first time; parliament was still represented by the Gentry Act raised electorate from 435000 to 632000, but did nothing for women and working class	Political Reforms
The Poor Laws & the Workhouse: Brit. Poor Laws going back to Elizabethan times; in 1834 new Poor Law Amendment was introduced that made so called workhouses the norm Workhouse: home of the poor where they were fed & clothed for cheap labour (social help) idea: conditions in workhouses must be worse than of the poorest 'free' labourer outside so that people would only go there if they had no other choice (if they really couldn't find work) -> invented because well-fare was too expensive	Political Reforms
Charitism & Corn Laws: 1848: Repeal of Corn Law before: protected land owners from competition so they could sell their grain to high prices, repeal made bread cheaper, free competition was restored Charitsm: movement for political reform bet. 1838 & 1850: demanded more rights for workers (outstanding pol. movement!) reached large sections of working-class , very powerful movem. but economic boost made it less successful bec. need of change declined Charitism as one of the first mass working-class movements	Political Reforms
2nd & 3rd Reform Acts 1867 & 1884: increased the electorate from 20% to 60% of adult men in the towns instant national debate allowed for 1st time: newspapers & telegraphs to transmit information	Political Reforms
Educational Reform (later 19th cent.): 'liberal educ.' (Latin & Greek) remained dominant among those destined for the universities (upper-middle class) 1870: Act to board schools to accompany church schools (churches couldn't keep up with elementary school system) -> technical educ. for teenagers esp. in industrial regions 1880: attendance at school was made compulsory from 1918: all children obliged to stay at school until the age of 14!	Political Reforms
Comment on the main aspects of Industrial Revolution!	Industrial Revolution
Origins: from 18th cent. onwards: dtructure of Engl. society changed rapidly because of industrialisation and urbanisation Industrial Revolution -> 3 sectors were dominant: 1. coal 2. iron 3. textiles coal & iron provided capit. equipm. and infrastructure textiles: started revolution, could be exported	Industrial Revolution
Why in Britain? labour was expensive & coal was accessable as cheap fuel France also wealth of nat. resources but Brit. won trade war & pushed France out of their territories -> Brit.: strongest global country & navy, agriculture 2x more efficent than France London had replaced Amsterdam as worlds most powerful financial centre -> ideal conditions for technology & economy	Industrial Revolution
Cotton & Wool: tradit.: wool as main commodity (sheep farming), but cotton became more important through colonies advantage of cotton: machine production, rapid increase of supply bec. of slavery -> huge import/export new innovations: Spinning Jenny Cotton produced in Brit. clothed mil. of people all over world	Industrial Revolution
Railways: originally used in coalfields, revolution in transport: faster travelling possible first publ. railway betw. Manchester & Liverpool following years: network emerged suburbanistation: strongly linked to techn. advances: people could live away from work and travel to their job	Industrial Revolution
Urbanisation: UK first state to generate a predominantly urban society, towns grew rapidly in the north: Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham new industrial towns: small area but densly patched with factories & workers, slum-like structure 1851: first time more people lived in towns than in villages	Industrial Revolution
Brit. economy made Britain complex & wealthy, free trade emerged (state did not interfere in the market -> indiv. on its own) rise of the UK in the market-place of the world	Industrial Revolution

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	Created by Anne Schubert over 9 years ago