Early Victorian Period

(183048): opening of Britains first railway time of economic distress. Victoria becomes Queen in 1837 (dies-1891). The Reform Bill of 1832
voting privileges to men of the lower middle classes redistributing parliamentary representation more fairly.

1 Queen Victoria's favourite drink was a mixture of claret and single malt whisky.

2 Servants would drink beer below stairs rather than water as it was safer and gave them energy. They usually had eight pints a day, but it was not strong beer. 4 When Victoria was a young princess, her mother, the Duchess of Kent, was so paranoid that something would happen to her daughter that she either slept in the same bedroom or in the same bed on their visits. 5 Queen Victoria must have had a strong stomach for all this fine dining. Her personal doctor didn't examine her physically in the 20 years she employed him.

The Imperial Mission is to protect the poor natives and advance civilization (Queen Victoria) The White mans burden (Rudyard Kipling)

Context
This was a period of important development of a modern urban economy. Demographic Transition. Manufacturing (cotton) Steam Power allowed the development of Railways, Iron ships, Looms, Printing Presses.

The industrial revolution brought several transformations in the way goods and services were produced in the British economy between 1760 and 1830. The English population increased from 6.1 million to 13.1 million between 1760 and 1830.
Emergence of a new social class: workers

Industrialism: Progress or Decline?

Dramatic change that brought England to its highest point of development as a world power. Enormous increase in wealth, but rapid and unregulated industrialization brought a host of social and economic problems.
Cotton workers at Dean Mills near Manchester in 1851.

 The economic and social difficulties associated with industrialization made the 1830s and 1840s a Time of Troubles, unemployment, desperate poverty, and rioting.

Coster Girl

Districts in London

Districts in London

Industrialism: Progress or Decline?

The condition of England became a central topic for novelists Charles Kingsley, Elizabeth Gaskell,
Elizabeth Barret Browning

Charles Dickens in the 1840s and early 1850s. Homeless boys

ca. 1880

Victorian England
Early Period (1830 - 1848) A time of trouble Mid-Victorian Period (1848 - 1870) Economic Prosperity, the growth of empire and religious controversy Late Period (1870 - 1901) Decay of Victorian Values

Early Period (1830 - 1848) A time of trouble

The Cry of the Children Elizabeth Barret Browning