The Victorian Ages

The Victorian Age is often described by historians and politicians as the time that the world changed forever and the age that shaped the globe more then all the previous centuries the world had ever seen. So what did the Victorian age produce and why was this so significant?

The Victorian Age got its name from Queen Victoria who came to power in 1837 and reigned until 1901 claiming the title of the longest time in power in the history of the British monarchy. Victoria was described as insightful figurehead who although remained reserved she used her power and influence to get what she wanted. A strong women she over saw a vast empire and ruled over ¼ of all the land in the world.

The United Kingdom was evolving into a constitutional monarchy which meant that the monarch had few powers and was expected to remain above party politics, although Victoria she did express her views very vigorously in private. The British Empire was the largest formal empire that the world had ever known. As such, its power and influence stretched all over the globe; shaping it in all manner of ways, Victoria remained dignified in ‘The triumphs, the humiliations, the good that it brought and the bad that it inflicted’. For better or worse the British Empire had a massive impact on the history of the world.

Victorian society witnessed a massive transformation due to the progress in a variety of fields, the results of engineering ingenuity, entrepreneurial prowess, with the most striking advances made in the field of communication. Advancements in science, technology, medicine and engineering coupled with social and religious progress gave birth to a new concept of modernity.

The Victorians developed new techniques in engineering and architecture the result of which can still be seen to this day in the form of bridges and buildings across the world. The advancement of the steam engine through the period brought in a whole new method of travel, the railways. Train travel revolutionized the concept of travel and trade and thousands of miles of tracks were laid across the empire, for example by 1875 there was an amazing 9000 miles of track that had been laid!

Between 1809 and 1839 exports grew from £25.4 to £76 million. Ten years later the figure was £124.5 million.
The railways, offered new and exciting opportunities for travel and commerce, and broke down social barriers in the process. The developments of the electrical telegraph, postal services and the improvement in ship building and travel gave way to a new concept of faster communication. Science came to an age of enlightenment, Darwin’s theory of evolution was written during the period and science shook religious and social beliefs, too be fair the idea that their were big dinosaurs roaming around the world millions of years ago when all you’ve ever known before is cows and horses can be pretty perplexing!

Medicine in the 1800 was a scary combination of chance and quackery. Medieval-like medicines were the norm which usually consisted of botanical, mercury, arsenic, iron and phosphorous also popular. Doctors might recommend a 'change of air' along with vomiting and laxatives and those old favourites, bleeding or leeches. The power of prayer was regularly used. All in all, not ideal. Yet a century later medicine would be available in a form easily recognisable to anybody today: hospitals, stethoscopes, white coats and medic students. Louis Pasteur's work from the late 1850s proved that the souring of milk was caused by living organisms and, by verifying the 'germ theory', changed pathology and surgery forever.

The 1875 Public Health Act comprehensively encompassed housing, sewage and drainage, water supply and contagious diseases and provided Britain with the most extensive public health system in the world. The practice of surgery also modernised with the invention of anaesthesia in the late 1840s and in1898 Robert Ross proved the mosquito's role in transmitting malaria.

The Victorian Age placed Britain as the workhouse of the world and its domination in the world meant the Victorian practices influenced and shaped the lives of millions leaving a real eternal legacy in the way we thought about our world and life.