The Victorian period

The Victorian period

1. Queen Victoria's reign (over the Great Britain)

   • British Empire
     • India
     • Canada
     • Australia
     • Many African nations
     • Great Britain
     • United States
     • Over a quarter of the world's population
   • Life expectancy from late-30s, when Queen Victoria came to power, to 48 years, by the end of her reign.

2. 1837-1901

3. XIX century

   • Most people lived and worked in rural areas (countryside)

4. XX century

   • People lived and worked in industries located in towns and cities (urban areas)
   • Advances in industries
   • The population of Britain more than doubled
     • Creating a huge demand for food, housing, health care and employment

5. London

   • The biggest and most important city in the world
   • It became a symbol of what was dark about Victorian Britain
   • It inspired much of Dicken's writing and other writers

6. Charles Dickens

   • He saw the victims of Britain's progress
     • The poor, downtrodden (oppressed) workers who often lived in terrible conditions and spent long days sin terrible jobs if they had one, simpy to keep from starving (having no food)
     • A lot of Dickens's writing attempted to make people aware of the problems of those living in poverty and hardship in London

7. Lots of advances

   • Tecnology
   • Science
   • Medicine
   • Etc.
   • 1838: Slavery abolished (erradicated)
   • 1839: Invention of the photography. The first bicycle. The first paddleships
   • 1840: Postal sistem introduced. Vaccination for the poor introduced
   • 1841: The first railway excursion
   • 1842: The Mines Act stopped boys under ten from working in mines
   • 1843: The first Christmas card sent. A Christmas Carol published
   • 1844: YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) founded. The first Morse code sent
   • 1847: Chloroform used as an anaesthetic in operations. World's first man-made municipal park in Birkenhead
   • 1848: Public Health Act made law
   • 1851: The Great Exibition held in London
   • 1858: Britain's first permanent symphony orchestra founded
   • 1859: Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species
   • 1863: London Underground first opened
   • 1864: Boys under 10 years banned from being chimney sweeps
   • 1866: First home for orphans (opened by Dr. Barnardo)
   • 1868: Last public hanging in Britain
   • 1874: Factory Act introduced limiting employee's hours to ten a day
   • 1876: Alexandre Graham Bell invents the telephone
   • 1880: The Elementary Education Act makes school compulsory from ages 5 to10
   • 1883: Married women get the right to acquire their own property
   • 1887: Invention of the gramophone
   • 1888: Football League founded. Dunlop developed the pneumatic tyre
   • 1897: Marconi patents radio comunication