Chartism - Why did the Chartist Movement end?/Why did the Chartist movement fail? Flashcards
1
Q
Economic
A
- The reforms of Peel’s government between 1841 and 1846 led to some improvement in trade and conditions. Britain was moving into a period great economic prosperity which was reflect to some extent in rising wages and increased food consumption: the average price of a four pound loaf which had cost 11 1/2 pence in 1847 was under 7p in 1850. As living standards improved, support for Chartists and their complicated programme melted away and workers preferred to join trade unions of the co-operative movement.
2
Q
Political (part one)
A
- There were serious divisions and disagreements among the leaders about whether to use moral persuasion (Lovett, Place and Attwood), or physical force (Frost, O’Connor and Harney). Lovett was hopeful that the industrial society would eventually lead to prosperity for all, but O’Connor hated the new machinery and wanted a society of small shareholders; his Land Scheme was condemned as impractical by the other leaders. O’Connor outshone all the rest and made much more impact nationally, but unfortunately he was reckless and unstable, apparently preaching violence one minute and drawing back the next.
3
Q
Political (part two)
A
- There were many local differences which made unity difficult and central weak.
4
Q
Political (part three)
A
- Their aims were too complicated as well as the six points there were numerous other social aims which meant that they were trying to achieve too much all at once, which only confused people. This was on marked contrast to the Anti-Corn Law League which knew exactly what it wanted (the abolition of the Corn Laws) and hammered away until it was achieved. The chartists might have done better to have concentrated on getting MPs elected so that they would have had a more effective voice in the Commons (as the League did).
5
Q
Political (part four)
A
- It would be wrong to dismiss Chartism as insignificant simply because it failed to achieve its political aims in the 1840s. Its most important achievement was that it focused public attention on the appalling hardships of the workers, it was no coincidence that Peel and the Conservatives (1841-6) immediately took steps (Mines Act, Factory Act, Commission on Public Health in Towns leading to the 1848 Public Health Act) to try to remove the grievance which had given rise to Chartism in the first place.
6
Q
Social (part one)
A
- From the beginning the Chartists had no chance of having all six points accepted at that particular time; there was no way that parliament, still dominated by aristocratic landowners, was going to hand over power to the working and lower middle classes, which is what acceptance of the petition would have amounted to.
7
Q
Social (part two)
A
- The Chartists never won sufficient middle class support; many potential backers who sympathised with the six points were frightened off by the Chartists’ violence and by their attacks on wealth and property and preferred to put their energies and cash into the more respectable Anti-Corn Law League. In 1841 when Lovett seemed to be bridging the gap between the classes by attracting the support of Joseph Sturge, a wealthy corn-miller, O’Connor attacked Lovett, accusing him of trying to ‘domesticate the charter’ and this New Move, as it was called, broke down.
8
Q
Government
A
- The authorities kept one step ahead of the Chartists and always knew of their plans. For instance police spies had informed them bout the Newport Rising in 1839. Both Whig governments (in 1839 and 1848) and Peel’s Conservatives (in 1842) took prompt action, arresting leaders, moving troops swiftly by train to areas of disturbances and using the new electric telegraph.
9
Q
Conclusion
A
- Knife and Fork Issue - as the economy improved, people drifted away from Chartism
