XIII. Victoria and Her Sisters

Victory at Waterloo

The victory at Waterloo in 1815 left Britain the dominant power in Europe with the Royal Navy the strongest fleet in the world - despite suffering a series of significant but small-scale reverses during the War of 1812 with the fledgling United States Navy. For 40 years threats of invasion were forgotten but then, in the late 1850s, emerged in a sudden and most dramatic manner. France - revived as an empire with immense territorial ambitions under Napoleon III - was once again the enemy and in the late 1850s Britain led by its Prime Minister Lord Palmerston undertook to spend vast sums on defence.

In 1859 a Royal Commission recommended the protection of Britain's main dockyards on both seaside and landward approaches with massive new forts being constructed at Portsmouth, Saltash, Plymouth, Milford Haven, Sheerness and Chatham. The total cost of these works - mostly completed during the 1860s - was a staggering $11.6 million, equal to around £520 million in modern money.

The speedy defeat of France by Prussia in 1870 and the ridiculous light it shed on the military worth of Britain's new and expensive generation of fortifications did not end the British fear of invasion. On the contrary, it merely identified a new enemy. Initially the British had been gratified by the discomfiture of their traditional enemy but by the end of 1870 Prussian brutality, its cold-blooded military efficiency and its territorial ambitions had made it the next potential invader.

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/french_threat_01.shtml)

1830–1910. As the Victorian era began, the massive advance of technology and industrialisation was rapidly reshaping both the landscape and the social structure of the whole country. To a much greater extent than ever before women would take a centre-stage role in shaping society.

	Queen Victoria becomes Queen at the age of 18
	The first postage stamps (Penny Post) came into use
	Mines Act ended child labour
1845 - 1849	Ireland suffered the Great Potato Famine when entire crops of potatoes, the staple Irish food, were ruined. The famine was a consequence of the appearance of blight, the potato fungus. About 800,000 people died as a result of the famine. A large number of people migrated to Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia.
1850s	The first post boxes were built
	The Great Exhibition Census showed just over half of Britain's population (of 20 million) lived in towns
	Crimean War
	A cholera epidemic led to demands for a clean water supply and proper sewage systems in the big cities
	Britain defeats Russia in the Crimean War
	The first public flushing toilet opens
	Death of Prince Albert
	London Underground opens The foundation of the Football Association
	Joseph Lister discovers disinfectant
	The last public hanging
	The first Sainsbury's shop open in Dury Lane, London
	Education Act means school for everyone
	Queen Victoria opens the Albert Hall
	Alexander Bell invented the telephone Primary education was made compulsory
	The first public electric lighting in London
	First electric railway
	The invention of the gramophone
	Free education for every child
	Population of Britain 40 million

Task 1. Who were the following people: Victoria, George IV, William IV, Lord Chamberlain, Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Melbourne, King Leopold, Prince Albert, Elizabeth Gaskell, Thomas Carlyle, Augustus Pugin, Dickens, Chartists, Fergus O’Connor, John Stuart Mill, Harriet Taylor, Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole, Elizabeth Garrett, Julia Cameron, Tennyson, G.B.Shaw, Annie Besant, suffragettes, viceroy?

Task 2. What do you know about the following events and places: Chrystal Palace, the Great Exhibition, Babylon, Jerusalem, Isle of Wight, Osborne House, Reform Act, the Crimean War, Windsor?

Task 3. Answer the following questions:

1. How did Victoria’s reign contrast with those of George IV and William IV?

2. Describe Victoria’s coronation and the first years of her reign

3. What impact did Prince Albert have on political and social life of Victorian Britain?

4. What were the standards of life of the low classes in Victorian Britain? What factors helped to improve it towards the end of the reign?

5. Describe the origin and the progress of the Chartist movement

6. What was the position of women in Victorian Britain?

7. Describe Victoria’s family life and its impact on the family values of the 19^th c. Britain

8. What major events of Victorian reign are described in the film?

Awe- благоговение

Showcase – выставка

Turnstiles – турникеты

Prophets of doom – предсказатели несчастий

Magic wand –волшебная палочка

Ogres -людоеды

Mrs. Average – типичная замужняя женщина

Small hours – ночные часы

To do homage – приносить присягу

Regalia – символы королевской власти

Whistleblower- первопроходец

Unitarian – унитаристский (член протестантской секты унитариев)

To be clammed- голодать

Contrivance – выдумка, затея

Conversion – обращение (в христианство)

Thrift- бережливость

Charter – хартия, политический документ

Mob- толпа

Funfair – парк развлечений

Rally – собрание, митинг

Sellout- предательство

Unleash – выпускать, освобождать

Self-sufficient- самодостаточный

Brainchild –замысел, детище

Slums- трущобы

Compel- принуждать

Tormentor- мучитель

Property transaction – передача собственности

Renounce – отрицать, отказываться

T.b.- туберкулез

Refectory- столовая

Eminent- выдающийся

Paroxysm – приступ, взрыв

The Almighty – Всемогущий (Бог)

Distraught – смятенный, обезумевший

Exuberant- обильный

Spinster – незамужняя женщина

Conscript – призывать на военную службу

Lavish- щедрый

Bestow -даровать

Domesticity – семейная домашняя жизнь

Cloister –монастырь, уединение

Effigy– изображение

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