Does anybody know about 'The Great Reform Act' of 1832?

Question

I've got to produce a causation diagram with the causes labelled as long term, short term, trigger and which ones are political, economical or social. Some of the causes can also be linked.

I'm really confused about the whole scenario really.

I have the cause titles.

If someone could explain each cause I would be really grateful.

'The Electrical Reforms'
'Riots'
'Fear of Revolution (Talk about what happened in France)'
'Bad Harvests'
'Indrustrialists'
'Rotton Borough System'
'Earl Grey'

Please don't give me stupid answers.

Thankyou :)

Answer 1

Britain had effectively been ruled by an oligarchy for most of the 18th and early 19th century (if you don't know what an oligarchy is, google the word). By the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 there was a groundswell for reform of the British electoral system and of parliament, not the least because the growing industrial towns - Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham etc. felt disenfranchised when it came to MPs. The franchise was strictly limited. The reformers wanted a full adult male franchise and secret ballots and parliamentary constituencies based on population. The British ruling class has always been clever at going some way towards meeting demands for change and this they eventually did in the Reform Act of 1832. This could explain why there was never a revolution on the French scale, although there are other factors - for example the growth of Methodism amongst the working people - that might explain this. there were riots both before and after the Act, but all were put down before they turned into full scale rebellion. People were hungry - the years after Waterloo were marked by bad harvests which put the price of bread up, particularly as the notorious Corn Laws were enacted at the same time, keeping the price of grain artificially high (in the interests of landowning aristocracy). Rotten Boroughs were places which returned MPs but had little or no population. The most notorious was Old Sarum near Salisbury. That had an electorate of about 5. Earl grey was the Whig politician who steered reform through in the face of opposition both from the Tories and the King.