The Victorian era of the United Kingdom marked the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. Although commonly used to refer to the period of Queen Victoria's rule between 1837 and 1901, scholars debate whether the Victorian period—as defined by a variety of sensibilities and political concerns that have come to be associated with the Victorians—actually begins with the passage of the Reform Act 1832.
Discoveries by Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin began to examine centuries of assumptions about man and the world, about science and history, and, finally, about religion and philosophy.
As the country grew increasingly connected by an expansive network of railway lines, small, previously isolated communities were exposed and entire economies shifted as cities became more and more accessible.
The period is often characterised as a long period of peace and economic, colonial, and industrial consolidation, temporarily disrupted by the Crimean War, although Britain was at war every year during this period. Towards the end of the century, the policies of New Imperialism led to increasing colonial conflicts and eventually the Boer War.
Domestically, the agenda was increasingly liberal with a number of shifts in the direction of gradual political reform and the widening of the franchise.
The Victorian era was one of polar opposites in British history, seen perhaps most plainly in the rigidity of the British class system. On the one hand, the Victorian era was an age of splendour and wealth for the upper class, and this increase in socioeconomic wealth was reflected in the trends of the era. The architecture and clothing styles of the very wealthy tended towards the ornate and the oppulent. On the other hand, poverty was a very real and far-reaching problem in Britain at that time, and the disconnect between the very wealthy and the very poor is well illustrated in the literary works of Charles Dickens and William Blake.
2007-02-26 06:40:07
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answer #1
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answered by Anonymous
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