In this topic
What to be able to answer
- Know Victoria's reign dates and the scale of the Empire.
- Match Brunel, Nightingale, Pankhurst and Kipling to their achievements.
- Recall the key reform, migration, famine and suffrage numbers.
Learn
Empire, industry, reform and the fight for the vote
Victorian Britain by theme
A long reign, empire, engineering, reform, nursing and voting rights sit in one period.
Queen and empire
- Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901, almost 64 years.
- The Empire covered all of India, Australia and large parts of Africa.
- It included more than 400 million people.
Migration and work
- 13 million British citizens emigrated from 1853 to 1913.
- 120,000 Russian and Polish Jews arrived from 1870 to 1914.
- Corn Laws were repealed in 1846.
- Women and children were limited to 10-hour working days in 1847.
Engineering and exhibition
- George and Robert Stephenson pioneered the railway engine.
- Brunel built the Great Western Railway and Clifton Suspension Bridge.
- The Great Exhibition opened in the Crystal Palace in 1851.
War, care and Ireland
- The Crimean War ran from 1853 to 1856.
- Victoria introduced the Victoria Cross medal.
- Florence Nightingale improved military hospitals.
- The Irish famine killed 1 million and drove 1.5 million to leave.
Voting reform
- Reform Acts in 1832 and 1867 expanded voting rights.
- Chartists campaigned for working-class votes.
- Pankhurst founded the WSPU in 1903.
- Women over 30 gained the vote in 1918; equal age 21 came in 1928.
Empire questioned
- The Boer War was fought in South Africa from 1899 to 1902.
- Rudyard Kipling won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907.
- His books include Just So Stories and The Jungle Book.
In 1837, Queen Victoria became queen of the UK at the age of 18. She reigned until 1901, almost 64 years. Her reign is known as the Victorian Age. It was a time when Britain increased in power and influence abroad, and the middle classes became increasingly significant.
How the Vote Widened
The electorate grows while the voting age eventually falls.
1832
More property-owning / middle-class men
1867
More urban working men
1918
+ Women over 30
1928
Equal at 21
1969
Everyone 18+
Age goes down, year goes up.
Do not mix up
Women over 30 gained the vote in 1918; equal voting age 21 came in 1928.
Brunel is engineering; Nightingale is nursing; Pankhurst is suffrage.
The jet engine is a modern Britain invention, not Victorian.
Practise
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