19th Century England. Complementos para la Formación, Universidad Isabel I.

1. 19th Century England
Nayra Caraballero Pérez

2. Economy
Free Trade: mercantilism is abandoned. No tariffs and few trade
barriers.
- Cobden–Chevalier Treaty: Anglo-French free trade treaty. It reduced
French duties on most British manufactured goods.
Foreign Trade and Imperialism: “Second British Empire” (India,
Asia, Australia and Canada).
Foreign Trade tripled in volume and most of the activity involved other
industrialized countries. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 was a vital
economic and military connection. To protect it, Britain expanded and took control
of Egypt, the Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Cyprus, Palestine, Aden, and British
Somaliland.

3. Second Industrial Revolution
Concept introduced by Patrick Geddes. It was a technological revolution.
– Railroads: it encouraged the rise of employment and interconnections.
– Machinery manufacturing: although machine tools began with the First
Industrial Revolution, the increase in mechanization required more.
• New technologies:
– Internal combustion engine and petroleum
– Chemicals
– Electricity
– Telecommunications: telegraph, telephone, radio…

4. Society
Transition: Rationalism Romanticism
Optimism and growth of individualism
Move to Cities: Society grew up because of economical development.
As factories were in cities, most of the population lived there.
Women Rights: The Married Women’s Property Act 1882 meant that
women did not lose their right to their own property when they got
married and could divorce without fear of poverty.
Victorian Morality

5. Education
Before 19th Century, education was run by the Church and there were few
schools. It was a religious education.
However, in 1833, State became involved in education for first time
encouraging the construction of schools for poor children.
– Elementary Education Act 1870: drafted by William Forster, introduced the schooling of
children from 5 to 13 years old in England and Wales.
– Elementary Education Act 1880: it was an extension of the Act in 1870. It insisted on
compulsory attendance from 5–10 years.

6. Science
There were not only technological advances as the ones marked in the Second
Industrial Revolution, but also an evolution on thoughts.
Darwinism: Theory of Evolution. Biological description of human
nature.
Psychoanalysis: new “science” created by Freud. Unconsciousness and
Sex at heart of the personality.

7. Religion
Throughout the 19th century England was a Christian country. The only
substantial non-Christian faith was Judaism.
Legislation in the 1820s (Catholic Emancipation Act) had removed some
of the barriers that had excluded Christians outside the Church of England
– such as Catholics and Methodists – from most public offices and degrees
at Oxford or Cambridge.
In 1850, in response to the Catholic emancipation legislation, Pope Pius IX
set up a Roman Catholic hierarchy of dioceses in England and Wales in
Universalis Ecclesiae.

8. Art
“The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings“ (Wordsworth)
• Importance of the free expression of the feelings of the artist.
• Imagination and artistic inspiration.
• Senses and Emotion vs Reason and Intellect.
• Nature and the Medieval.
• The supernatural.
• Belief in the goodness of humanity.

9. Painting
• J. M. W. Turner “Rain, Steam and Speed- The
Great Western Railway” (1844)
• John Constable “The Lock at Dedham”
(1824)

10. Music
• Maria Frances Parke (26 August 1772 – 31 July 1822): composer, pianist
and soprano.
• Johann Baptist Cramer (24 February 1771 – 16 April 1858): violinist and
musical conductor.
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sy8pYUl8fU
• Henry Charles Litolff (5 February 1818 – 5 or 6 August 1891): pianist,
composer and music publisher.
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzc5ti-03PI

11. Literature
Writers were influenced by the ideas that emerged in this
period together with American Revolution and French
Revolution.
“People could transform history” human beings can
change the world. History is not written, it is something that
everybody construct. In that time, people were repressed,
and there was the necessity of change, freedom, and making
an union men can form their own story.

12. Novel Writers
• Charles Dickens: “David Copperfield”, “Oliver Twist”.
Dickens was the most popular novelist of his time, and remains one of the best known
and most read of English authors. His works have been adapted continually for the
screen since the invention of cinema.
• George Eliot: “Scenes From Clerical Life”, “Adam Bede”.
Actually, she was Mary Anne Evans. She used a male pen name, she said, to ensure her
works would be taken seriously. She presented the cases of social outsiders and small-
town persecution.
• Walter Scott: “The Lady of the Lake”, “The Bride of Lammermoor”.
Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet. Scott's critical reputation declined in
the last half of the 19th century as serious writers turned from romanticism to realism,
and Scott began to be regarded as an author suitable for children
• Conan Doyle: “A Study in Scarlet”, “The Mistery of Cloomber”.
He wrote twenty-one novels and over 150 short stories. He also published nonfiction,
essays, articles, memoirs and three volumes of poetry.

13. Example: “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens. (1st paragraph)

14. Poets
• William Blake
• William Wordsworth
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Lord Byron
• Percy Bysshe Shelley
• John Keats

15. Example: “Ode to the West Wind” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

16. Bybliography
• http://www.iun.edu/~hisdcl/h114_2002/nineteenthcentury.htm
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/prosejekyll
hyde/0prose_jekyllhyde_contrev2.shtml
• https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/explore/victorian/religion/
• http://www.history.org.uk/resources/student_resource_4716,5543_146.h
tml
• http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/romanticism.htm
• http://britishromanticism.wikispaces.com/Art
• http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/authors
• www.wikipedia.org