Chartism Flashcards
What did Chartists believe?
Everyone should have a say in what was happening in Parliament.
Universal male suffrage should come into play and a better quality of living
What did Chartists represent?
It was a national mainly working class movement
What did Chartists think of the 1832 reform act?
Although the middle class go the vote. Chartists felt betrayed as they didn’t get it. Some also didn’t like that their vote would be taken away from the change in voting laws.
What did Chartists think of the press tax?
May newspapers started to not put the stamp tax on their news papers so that it was more affordable. This allowed chartist ideas to spread easily and to a wide audience. The Poor Mans Guardian and the Northern Stars are examples of these newspapers
What did Chartists think of the Whigs Social Legislation?
The working class were discontent with the new Poor Law, especially the long hours. They didn’t like that it made being poor was because of laziness.
What was the ‘10 hour movement’?
It was a movement that started to try to reduce the hours in a working day and to keep children out of factories
What happened to the textile industry in 1837-8?
A depression occurred in the textile industry because of mechanisation. Around 400,000 handloom weavers were jobless, causing violence and outrage in places like Bradford and Huddersfield
What did Chartists think of the economic situation?
Chartism sprung up in times of depression like the 1830’s, 1842 and 1847-8 because of the changes in wages and mechanisation
Who were the Tolpuddle Martyrs of 1834?
7 working class men said the wrong oath to the government so were sent to Australia Everyone thought this was harsh and they protested and pressured the government into bringing them back. They all came back, except 1 who died on the way back
What did Chartists want?
Vote for all males 21+ Secret Ballot Equality of constituency size No property qualifications for MPs Payment for MPs Annual parliaments
Why did Chartists want the vote for all males 21+?
Make it fairer and more inclusive so that all people could have a say in the laws that affect them
Why did Chartists want a secret ballot?
More reliable and voters can’t be pressured into voting a certain way
Why did Chartists want equality of constituency size?
Make each MP have the same area and each vote counts equally
Why did Chartists want no property requirements for MPs?
So more people could be MPs
Why did Chartists want payment for MPs?
So that middle or working classes can become MPs and can feed their family
Why did Chartists want an annual parliaments?
So that the parliament and law can be more up to date
Why were the Chartists significant?
They were the first working class national union, so it showed that the people were thinking about these issues more, and working together
Why were the Chartists not effective?
They had numbers but couldn’t pressure the government well. The government always came down harshly on them, and they couldn’t do anything about it.
Why was the Chartists strategy and tactics a reason it failed?
The Chartists did the same tactics that they did for the great reform act and catholic emancipation by doing mass meetings, protests, petitions and strikes
Why was the Chartists strategy and tactics a reason it failed?
They Chartists had large numbers but were a single class movement, and didn’t want to dilute the cause with the middle class compromises, so they had less strength against the government and support from the people
Why was the Chartists lack of cross class support a reason it failed?
The middle and upper class both thought it was a menace to society and was a disturbance to public order and property. This meant they had less strength against the government
Why was the Chartists weak leaders a reason it failed?
The leaders all mostly revolved around O'Conner and any of his mistakes reflected really badly onto Chartism, such as when he publicly opposed the union between the Chartists and the middle class in 1842, which caused less people to be inclined to join the Chartists. The leaders such as O'Conner and Lovett had different ideas, such as Lovett wanting to be more violent and split the group
Why was the government a reason Chartism failed?
There was no support for the Chartists in the government, so they couldn’t try to convince them into anything
The government had the army and police that could penalise and arrest anyone they didn’t like and arrested many leaders like Lovett.
Why was the Judiciary courts a reason Chartism failed?
The Judiciary courts were all middle class, and they were all against the Chartists because they thought they were a menace to society
In 543 Chartists in 1839 were trialed and didn’t have bail because the Jury supported the government
Why was Peel a reason Chartism failed?
He was already passing laws that seemed moderate to satiate the Chartists, such as the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 allowing bread to be cheaper, the Mines Act of 1842 and the Factory Act of 1844.
