Entrance Exams- Failure Of Chartism

Question 1

What were Peel’s reforms

Answer 1

1842 mines act - stopped women from working in mines
1846 repeal of the corn laws - decreased the price of bread
1844 factory act gave children age 8-13 a 6 1/2 day

Question 2

What were the effect’s of peel’s reforms

Answer 2

Essentially gave the people what the Chartists were demanding .
He appeared to listen to the people meaning that Chartists was no longer necessary as a vessel for protest

Question 3

Diverse aims :

Answer 3

Moral force led by William Lovett and Thomas Atwood who used petitions and pamphlets
Physical force undermined the moral force Chartists and offered a more direct challenge
This meant that the government could divide and rule the Chartists forcing them into failure

Question 4

What was the problem with the physical force leaders:

Answer 4

The government didn’t trust the workers due to the violence aswell as losing the support of the middle class

Question 5

Newport rising

Answer 5

Thousands of armed workers marched to Newport where Chartists were held in prison
20 were killed and 50 arrested

Question 6

How many leaders were held in prison between 1839 and 1841 and why was this a problem

Answer 6

500 , this threatened the movement as the government could control them

Question 7

1842 plug riots

Answer 7

500000 workers went on strike
Workers removed plugs from factory boilers across Staffordshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire
Peel arrested 1000 workers inc. the leaders john frost and Zephaniah Williams

Question 8

Geography

Answer 8

Chartism was mainly in the industrial north with very few supporters in the south : Birmingham being moral force supports

Question 9

Government response:

Answer 9

At Kennington common 10th April 1848 when the third petition was presented 8000 extra solders and 15000 special contables were deployed

Question 10

Hunger politics

Answer 10

Protest is more frequent when people need to feed their families so when the corn laws repealed for example in 1846 this drew down the membership due to the price of bread decreasing

Question 11

Ambitions

Answer 11

The charter had six very big points: universal male suffrage, secret ballot, annual election, pay for mp’s, equal sized districts and no property qualifications
Only single issue politics seemed to work at that time e.g the ten hour movement so it seemed to bold

Question 12

When was the first petition and how many signatures

Answer 12

1839 - signed by 1,280, 958 people

Question 13

When was the second charter

Answer 13

1842, 3 million signatures

Question 14

Third charter

Answer 14

1848 - 5 million subscribers

Question 15

How does the petitions challenge the hunger politics argument

Answer 15

The number of petitions went up each time showing that they didn’t lose members even after the 1846 corn law repeal.

Question 16

Strength of the government

Answer 16

Their reactions to the peterloo massacre in 1819 suggests the lengths that the government will go to , to restore order .

Question 17

Vote for the rejection of the 1st petition

Answer 17

235 to 46

Question 18

Fearful O’Connor’s land plan

Answer 18

Set up in 1845- Give w/c families their own land and live in a rural community
Attracted 70000 subscribers

Question 19

Lacked effective leadership

Answer 19

Although able to attract support they were unable to maintain a definitive approach and therefore the movement splintered .