Why did the Chartists fail?

Question 1

What are the 4 factors in this essay?

Answer 1

Divisions in leadership
Lack of middle-class support
Success of Peel’s reforms
Regional differences

Question 2

Who were moral chartists?

Answer 2

Chartists emphasised non-violent protest, education, and cooperation with groups.
E.g., Anti-Corn Law league

Question 3

What 3 members believed in peaceful protest?

Answer 3

William Lovett
Francis Place
Thomas Attwood

Question 4

What did Fergus O’Connor and John Frost believe?

Answer 4

Violence was needed to be used to get demands met by the rich and powerful men who ran parliament.

Question 5

What method did chartists start with? When was it? What happened?

Answer 5

Peaceful method of petition.
July 1838.
First petition has 1.2 million signatures but parliament rejected it 235 votes to 46.

Question 6

What happened because of the 1838 petition rejection?

Answer 6

Violence began.

Question 7

What were the high points of violence?

Answer 7

Newport Rising and Plug Riots.

Question 8

What violence happened in November 1839?

Answer 8

John Frost turned to violence.
Led 1,000 people armed with clubs in Newport Rising.
Quickly turned violent- 22 men killed when soldiers arrived, 50 injured, rest of supporters fled.

Question 9

Why did chartism lose many supporters after the Newport Rising?

Answer 9

Many people didn’t want to risk losing jobs/lives.

Question 10

Which leader left the chartist movement in 1843? Why?

Answer 10

William Lovett.
Due to violent acts.
Strongly believed violence shouldn’t be used, was disgusted by deaths from the events.

Question 11

How did Fergus O’Connor do?

Answer 11

Threatened violence but remained within law.
Delivered impressive speeches and wrote for Northern Star newspaper.
Convinced many Chartists to follow his approach and divided the rest.

Question 12

How did the violence acts affect middle class chartists?

Answer 12

Withdrew their support after Chartism became linked to violence.
They were content with 1832 gains and didn’t want their property subject to violence of O’Connor and his mob.

Question 13

Why did chartism fail despite the actions of William Lovett?

Answer 13

Cooperation between the working and middle class was absent for Chartists.

Question 14

What did Joseph Sturge form in 1842? Why?

Answer 14

Complete Suffrage Union.
Wanted to encourage greater cooperation between Chartism and the Anti-Corn Law League.

Question 15

Who supported the Complete Suffrage Union?

Answer 15

Middle class dissenters who wanted religious equality, free trade and a more democratic franchise.
Moral Chartists who disliked O’Connor’s violence.

Question 16

How many branches did the CSU have in April 1842?

Answer 16

50+ branches.

Question 17

Why did the CSU fail?

Answer 17

Collab between Chartists and Anti-Corn Law league strained because Chartists believed if Corn Law was abolished, landowners would reduce wages.
Chartists wanted to control wages to make sure this didn’t happen.

These issues and attack by O’Connor meant it didn’t survive beyond 1842.

Question 18

After the CSU’s failure, who did the middle class support? Why?

Answer 18

Singularly supporting the Anti-Corn Law League.
Campaigned on an issue they cared about, opposed to Chartism.

Question 19

What happened to Chartism once the middle class members left?

Answer 19

Less money to fund the movement, so it started to fail.

Question 20

How did economics affect Chartism?

Answer 20

Chartism’s popularity grew with economic crises.

Question 21

What was the 1842 Mines Act?

Answer 21

Banned the underground employment of women and children u10.

Question 22

What was the 1844 Factory Act?

Answer 22

Banned night work for women.

Question 23

What Act was passed after the failure of the Irish potato crop? How was this significant?

Answer 23

1846 Repeal of the Corn Laws
Led the mid-Victorian move to freer trade by Britain and helped usher in the great expansion of overseas commerce later 19th century.

Question 24

What happened during the mid-Victorian boom? How did this affect Chartists?

Answer 24

Wages rose, increased food consumption, increased living standards.
All conspired against Chartists to reduce their support.

Question 25

Where regionally was Chartism the strongest?

Answer 25

North.

Question 26

What was Chartism like in the north, Birmingham, and Scotland? How did this weaken them?

Answer 26

North: O’Connor controlled Chartists, encouraged violence.
Birmingham: Influenced by CSU and moral Chartism.
Scotland: Chartist messaged spread by idea of Christian Chartism.
With competing agenda, government was able to divide and rule successfully.

Question 27

Overall why Chartism failed?

Answer 27

Too much diversity in intellectual/ideological aims (LT), government easily handle movement.
-Britain’s socio-economic improvement, caused prosperity which eliminated mass support.