When Diplomacy Fails Presents

Britain goes to war

An in-depth examination of the British Empire from the closing stages of the Victorian era

to the opening phases of the First World War and beyond.

Section 2 Background

Part A

The Golden Age

Chapter 5

British politics in the 19th century can seem like a bewildering maze of ideologies,

terminologies named after prime ministers, of great manor houses, interfering monarchs, and

a unique regard for what the masses thought. When we claim that an election was won by this party or that, even when we say that

X voted for Y, what we really mean is that the very few rich land-owning aristocratic families

did such things. The average Joe on the street could not vote unless he possessed a certain

amount of land or paid a certain amount for that land per year.

This classification can be confusing, though, because the 19th century was one of immense political reform in Britain,

as reform bills in 1832, 67 and 84 dramatically altered the political makeup of the country,

with only the last act actually enfranchising the vast

majority of men over 21, so long as one owned property or paid rent for a property, valued at £10 per

year. This meant that, by November 1885 when the latest general election with the new reform bill took

place, five and a half

million Britons had the vote, while in comparison after the first Reform Act in 1832, only barely

a million had it. There were some notable exceptions to the rule of reform, of course.

...