Later Victorian Britain

Abstract

Between the second Reform Act and 1900 Britain experienced a crucial transformation. By the turn of the century the country had become a mass democracy, though not one founded on universal suffrage; it was a heavily urbanised community based increasingly on distribution and professional services for economic success; and some 4.7 million square miles and 88 million people had been added to what was an already immense empire. Contrary to the fears of many people at the outset of the period, change had taken place gradually and without sparking a serious upheaval. To outsiders and also to many at home Britain appeared a model community capable of resolving internal conflict without resort to excessive force or revolution. Britain, by the norms ofother nations, enjoyed high degrees of social cohesion and national unity built on consent and co-operation between the governed and the ruling order. This sense of community survived despite the economic difficulties of the period, troubles in Ireland, labour unrest, imperial problems, religious tensions and a hard-fought political contest between competing factions. Later Victorian Britain was pre-eminently a stable society in which disputes were conducted within understood guidelines. Public disturbances such as the Trafalgar Square riots of February 1886 and November 1887 were rare.