L'evoluzione dell'Impero Britannico e le sfide del periodo vittoriano

Il lutto di Queen Victoria

After Prince Albert's death Queen Victoria spent the next years in mourning. Two political leaders alternated as Prime Minister until almost the end of the century in the Liberal Party, where the William conservative Party had Benjamin Disraeli.
In those years the self-confidence of early Victorian decades was being replaced by a growing sense of uncertainty. there were more people living in towns than in the country and the middle classes had risen to become 25% of a fast-growing population. Important reforms were brought in to improve living Conditions the expanding towns. Disraeli's government passed an Artisans' and Laborers' Dwellings Act (1875), which allowed local authorities to clear the slums and provide housing for the poor; a Public Health Act (1875), which provided sanitation and running water; and a Factory Act (1878), which limited factory working hours. Gladstone's government passed the 1870 Education Act, which established a national system of primary education. Parliamentary reform continued with the legalization of unions of workers under the Trade Union Act in 1871, the introduction of a secret ballot in 1872 the vote to the Third Reform Act in 1884, which extended the vote male householders.

Espansione dell'Impero Britannico

Britain's foreign policy was based on free trade and liberalism. Great Britain ruled Canada, considerable areas of India, Australia and New Zealand. Trade with India became increasingly important and led Disraeli to purchase more shares in the Suez Canal Company in 1875 to protect Britain's route eastwards. Queen Victoria was given a new title, Empress of India. In South Africa, around 1870, the English controlled two colonies, Cape Colony and Natal, while the Dutch settlers had the two republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. When Britain conquered the Transvaal in 1877, the Boers rebelled and war broke out. The Boer Wars (1880-1881; 1899-1902) ended in 1902 with a British victory.

The British Empire occupied an area of four million square miles, and more than 400 million people were ruled by the English. It was the largest empire the world had ever seen however, it was becoming increasingly difficult to control. There was a growing sense of the "white man's burden", an uneasy combination of the duty to spread Christian civilization, encourage tolerance and open communication, and at the same time promote commercial interests.The Victorian age ended with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. For almost a century she embodied decorum, stability and continuity. She was buried next to her beloved husband in Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor Castle.

Conflitti ideologici e pessimismo

During the second half of the nineteenth century, Great Britain had ideological conflicts that undermined the positive attitude. These changes affected various areas such as scientific achievements, industrialization, sexuality and religion. A growing pessimism struck intellectuals and artists, who expressed their doubts about the stability of Victorian society. Karl Marx considered England the most advanced European country, but criticized the effects of industrialization.In 1884 a middle-class socialist organization was formed, aimed at transforming Britain into a socialist state not through revolution, but through gradual reforms. The pessimism regarding human existence was reinforced by Social Darwinism, The philosopher Spencer (1820-1903) applied Darwin's theory of natural selection to human society. He argued that races, nations and social classes, like biological species, were subject to the principle of the 'survival of the fittest' and that the poor and oppressed did not deserve compassion.