British history - the 19th and 20th century

British history – the nineteenth & twentieth century

The nineteenth century:

During the nineteenth century Britain was transformed by the Industrial Revolution.

In 1801, only about 20% of the British population lived in towns. But in 1881, 80 years later, two thirds of the population lived in towns.

The Industrial Revolution included going from hand production methods to machines. This revolution began in Great Britain and most of the important technological replacements were innovated by the British like the famous Spinning Jenny.

But the Industrialisation wasn't only a good time full of some great inventions. Huge factories were built by very rich people. This people just saw the profit. To make them richer, they needed other people to work for them. They didn't care about their workers lives, they only wanted to get richer and richer. So you can imagine that for the people working in the huge factories it was pure horror. They had to handle with very poor working and living conditions and even their children had to work for the factories.

In 1833, a first law limited the numbers of hours for children and slavery was made illegal throughout the whole British Empire.

Because of the Industrialisation, some romantic poets like William Blake or George Eliot shared their thoughts against living in cities and the very bad working and living conditions for the people working in the factories. They preferred the countryside with all its beauty. The countryside was never really admired before but from this time lots of British people felt a sentimental attachment to the idea of the countryside.

In 1837, the only 18-year old Victoria from Britain ascended the throne as Queen Victoria. Victoria was happily married with the German Prince Albert. Victoria had 10 children. According to the will of Victoria their children married into royal families across the continent so Victoria is even nowadays also called “the grandmother of Europe”. Victoria and Albert really loved Scotland, which belonged to Britain by this time because Britain won the battle of Culloden against Scotland.

Since 1746, Scots weren't allowed to live their own culture. For instance, they were sentenced to death if they played the bagpipe or spoke their own language in public.

Victoria changed a lot for the Scots. She gave them back the right to live their own traditions. Victoria was a very strong queen but after the death of her man Albert in 1861, she became quite the opposite and started living a much dissociated life. She wouldn't even see her children. One of her children committed suicide because Victoria blamed him for the death of her man. She blamed him because Albert died of pneumonia (a lung inflammation) after some time he went for a walk with his son.

At the end of the nineteenth century Britain was the biggest empire of the world. Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and India belonged to the empire. British settlers were often the reason why a part belonged to Britain because they became the majority of the population there.

Another reason why Britain was the biggest empire was of course war. Some new technologies like the steam machine or better weapons helped Britain to win a lots of wars. Colonization was often the reason why two or even more countries fought. Every country wanted to get bigger but Britain mostly won.

The growth of the empire was followed by a change of attitude. During the century the aim of Colonization was owning more and more territories. By the end of the century it wasn't a matter of settlement or military strategy anymore. Colonization was seen as a matter of destiny.

There were also great changes in social structure. We already told you that at the end of the nineteenth century most people lived in towns or cities like London and Cambridge.  The middle-class including owners of factories and tradespeople grew and they were known for their religious observance, absolute honesty in public life and extreme respectability in sexual matters.

The middle-class believed more in reform than in revolution. This belief led to reforms in public life like human rights. For instance, the discrimination of people on basis of their religion wasn't allowed anymore.

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