Britain: Union, Industry, and Victorian Era Challenges
Act of Union and Imperial Parliament
Ireland suffered an English conquest that led to its union with the Kingdom of Great Britain. On 5 November 1800, George III issued a proclamation abolishing the Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain. In doing so, he not only succeeded where Guy Fawkes had failed on the same day 195 years earlier, but he also paved the way for the opening of the new ‘Imperial Parliament’ of Great Britain and Ireland, which duly opened its doors for its first session at the beginning of February 1801. The British Parliament was to remain an imperial parliament—legislating for and reflecting the interests of not only Ireland but its far-flung dominions and settlements worldwide as well—in practice until the onset of colonial constitutional devolution in the 1850s and 1860s, and in name until the Statute of Westminster of 1931, when Parliament became known more modestly as the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Impact of Union: Scotland vs. Ireland
The Treaty of Union secured the Presbyterian Kirk in Scotland, while the Act of Union disparaged the Irish Catholic faith. For Scotland, incorporation with England did not fundamentally alter its Kirk, its legal system, or its local government. For Ireland, the Union led to protracted economic recession. Industrialization was largely confined to Belfast and Dublin.
The Industrial Revolution’s Impact
This period, spanning the 18th and 19th centuries, saw major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transport, and technology that had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the United Kingdom, reflected in works like Charles Dickens’ novels (1812-1870).
Social Consequences and Luddism
Its social effects were enormous. Workers tried to join together to protect themselves against powerful employers. They wanted fair wages and reasonable working conditions. But the government quickly banned these ‘combinations’, as the workers’ societies were known. Riots occurred, led by the unemployed who had been replaced in factories by machines. In 1799, some of these rioters, known as Luddites, started breaking up the machinery that had put them out of work. The government supported the factory owners and made breaking machinery punishable by death. The government feared a revolution like the one in France.
Politics in the Victorian Era
During the Victorian era, the United Kingdom could plausibly be considered the world’s superpower.
At the beginning of Victoria’s reign, about a fifth of adult males were entitled to vote. However, no women could legally vote in parliamentary elections until almost 18 years after Victoria’s death. On the home front, the nation was only beginning to get to grips with widespread poverty, while considerably more than half the adult population remained without a vote.
The Great Irish Famine
It was one of the major events of Victorian Britain. The initial, severe food shortage was real. In 1846, blight destroyed the potato crop. Management by the British government was disastrous.
Contributing Factors to Famine Response
Several factors influenced the handling of the Irish Famine:
- The economic doctrines of laissez-faire: The prevailing economic orthodoxy of the day held that there should be as little government interference with the economy as possible.
- The Protestant evangelical belief in divine Providence: There was a widespread belief among members of the British upper and middle classes that the famine was a divine judgment, an act of Providence, against the kind of Irish agrarian regime believed to have given rise to the famine.
- Ethnic prejudice against the Catholic Irish (‘moralism’): The notion that the fundamental defects from which the Irish suffered were moral rather than financial. This amounted to a kind of racial or cultural stereotyping.