The Victorian Age saw rapid economic and territorial expansion in Britain through industrialization and colonization. Reforms extended voting rights to more classes and legalized unions, though women did not gain the right to vote until 1928. Society transformed from agricultural to industrial, increasing productivity but also child labor and poor living conditions. The British Empire greatly expanded to include India, Africa, and Oceania. Victorian values focused on morality, duty, and family, though hypocrisy was present. Scientific discoveries challenged religious beliefs, and America saw its Civil War, expansion westward, and the beginning of its own literature.

1. The Victorian Age (1837-1901) The Age of Empire

2. Economy and Society The long reign of Queen Victoria was a period of.. rapid expansion (both economically and territorially) great technological innovations (railway development, telephone)

3. Reforms The First reform Bill (1832) extended the power to vote to the middle class The People’s charter (1839) was developed by the working-class chartist movement and rejected three times. All the chartist demands became law much later between 1860 and 1914. Women had to wait untill 1928 before they were able to vote Education Act (1870) provided for mass education Trade Union Act (1871) legalised workers’ union

4. The Transformation of Labour From an agriculturally-based economy to an industrial economy through mechanization Productivity increased Starvation among agricultural workers (The Corn Laws) The Irish famine (massive emigration) Children and women were exploited (The Poor Laws) Appalling living conditions of the urban poor (overcrowded slums)

5. The British Empire The Victorian period saw the massive expansion of the British Empire In 1877 Queen Victoria became Empress of India (The East India Company had been taken over by the British government after the Indian Mutiny in 1857) Britain annexed South Africa, Egypt, Burma, Malaysia, Afghanistan and Oceania

6. Victorian values duty hard work respectability charity family  a mixture of both morality and hypocrisy, severity and conformity to social standards.

7. The Victorian compromise Abolition of slavery vs segregation and ideas about racial superiority (colonian expansion = a mission, ’Jingoism’) Education Act vs. workhouses Evangelicalism (humanitarian causes) vs. Utilitarism Empiricism (Dickens) - progress from mental energy- the importance of reforms Darwinism and scientific descoveries: moral and religious certainties were shaken

8. America The Gold Rush , California, 1848 1861-1865 The Civil War between North and South ended with the abolition of slavery Great technological development followed The Pacific Railroad, from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, was completed

9. The American Renaissance The beginning of a truly American literature with its own themes and style THE SCARLET LETTER MOBY DICK LEAVES OF GRASS  Contact with nature to reach truth