social changes 1851 - 1886

Question 1

class division 1.

Answer 1

• three main classes, upper middle and lower.
• the upper class were the aristocracy and landowners.
• the middle class were the merchants, manufacturers and shopkeepers.
• the lower class referred to as the working class were the craftsmen miners and factory operatives.

Question 2

class division (working class)

Answer 2

• rural areas they were mainly poorly paid agricultural labourers.
• in urban areas there was a wide range of opportunity for instance skilled craftsmen.
• 1850s four fifths of the population made a living through annual labour.
• homogeneity as there were two different types of working class.
• Theodore Hopkins points out that there were ‘occupational hierarchies’
• working class deemed as self confident as they’re was a rise in real incomes of most workers and an improvement of the standard of living.
• many of the working class who were doing well for them selves eg. skilled working class who were doing well for themselves did not want to be associated with the poor.

Question 3

class division (upper and middle classes)

Answer 3

• upper classes relied on inherited wealth which came through their possession of land.
• although they were a fraction of the population their influence was immense; they dominated every social political and economic life of the country.
• by the 1850s it is estimated that the middle class most of whom were town dwellers made up between a fifth and a quarter of the population.
• lawyers eg were earning £700 and were able to afford large detached houses.
• 1871 census showed that there were 1.4 million domestic servants which shows how many middle class people there were in Britain.

Question 4

Regional divisions

Answer 4

• division between the industrial north and the largely agricultural south.
• coal and iron allowed industries to flourish in the north.
• depression in the 1870s on farming led agricultural farmers to towns.
• Scottish highlands was rural whilst the south eg Glasgow was flourishing due to industrialisation. eg. textile industry, engineering.
• in 1880 Edinburgh and Glasgow were the third and fifth wealthiest cities in Britain.

Question 5

prosperity

Answer 5

• mid nineteenth century, Britain was enjoying a period of prosperity.
• middle class manufacturers and merchants were benefiting from profits from industry and trade going into overseas development.
• built large house on the outskirt of industrial towns.
• afford good healthcare and private education.
• increase of both workers wages in towns and the country.
• industrial wages rose 50% between 1850 and 1875.
• working class were living better.
• Bank Holiday Act 1871, four statutory holidays a year.

Question 6

poverty

Answer 6

• mid victorian boom did not solve the country’s poverty
• late 1880s ‘depression’.
• mass unemployment.
• poor working class children could not read or write.
• slums which affected peoples health caused overcrowding and poor living conditions.
• due to laissez faire rules the government did not intervene.
• no security when workers lost their jobs
• Booths work ‘life and labour of the people of London(1889) - 30% of the population lived in poverty.