The reason why the 19th century can be described as “ the age of change “ is because the modern world and most importantly modern Britain and Europe, began to take shape in the 19th century. Politically the changes could be seen across the pond in France, because of the French revolution, whilst most of the industrial changes were being made here in Britain. During the Napoleonic wars, Britain became dominant and powerful by sea. This was through there naval forces. The Navy took control of the waterways, which gave them the opportunity to block the ports to France, so that the French couldn’t export anything, which became a huge problem for the French as it caused a crash in their markets. Britain took this as an opportunity to step in and begin trading with other countries such as America, South America, India and the Far East, amongst others. It was at this point that the British Empire really started and became dominant throughout the world. Britain was growing rapidly, whilst other European countries suffered and struggled around the time of the Napoleonic war.
New markets began to rise, this was on the back of a something they called the trans Atlantic triangular trade. Which was the transporting of slave that were taken from Africa and brought to the south of America to pick Cotton. That cotton was then taken to growing Cities throughout England such as Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol and also London. Once the cotton had reached these cities, it was used to make clothes, which was then shipped back to Africa, Where the cycle would start all over again.
There was also political change going on in Britain to, as Scotland became part of the union and in 1801 Ireland became part of it to, which then came to form the United Kingdom.
During this 19th century the major cities in England such as London and Manchester, began to grow quite rapidly. This was because the Farmers and families from the country side were forced to give up their fields and land as all the new heavy machinery where brought in to do the same jobs that the farmers could do, but the machine were able to do it on a larger scale and also a lot quicker than the Farmers were able to do it. This effectively drove the Farmers out, so for those reason the farmers barley made enough money to live on, forcing them into the cities to find work.
Places such as Manchester and London grew almost over night, with the population going from around 1500 to 150’000. This made the cities way to overcrowded, furthermore they became terribly polluted. Charles Dickens spoke about one side of this situation, that being urbanisation, whilst William Cobbett looked at the other side of this, which was how the countryside was affected by Industrialisation and the Industrial revolution on a whole. First we shall briefly look at the latter of the two men and see what Cobbett’s views and opinions were on this “ age of change “. Cobbett was a political journalist in the mid to late 19th century. He grew up in the countryside of Farnham, surrey, so he was very passionate about farming and he was scared that the rapid growth of industrialisation would ruin the countryside and the farming culture. It was known that Cobbett hated London, because he thought that Londoners got paid for doing nothing and got fed by the sweat of rural labourers through taxes. His views of industrialisation were made most public through his book called Rural Rides. On the other hand Charles Dickens wrote books focusing mostly on situations that would be happening in the densely populated cities throughout the 19th century, but mostly in London, because Dickens moved to London in 1822 from Portsmouth. You could argue that his books mostly focused on the poverty that the people in these cities had to face. Books that were written by Dickens such as Great Expectations, Hard Times and the more well known Oliver Twist, are all sort of similar as they all show two sides of these cities in the industrial revolution period. One side being the poor side, through characters such as Pip, Oliver Twist and Sissy and the other being the more wealthy through characters such as Miss Havisham, Mr. Thomas Gradgrind and Mr Brownlow. You could suggest that the stories that Dickens tells in his books of the Hardship that the poor go through are just a reflection of his own childhood, as he came to London as a poor boy and also his father did spend some time in prison when Dickens was a boy.
Others that contributed to making this period “ The age of change “ were John Stewart Mill and Charles Darwin. Mill was best known for his ideas on Utilitarianism and Liberty. He received his ideas on utilitarianism from his mentor Jeremy Bentham, but he developed on these ideas and made his own slightly more complex ones because he disagreed on parts of Benthams initial ones. Utilitarianism in its simplest form means when a person wants to maximise pleasure and minimise pain. Mill believed that there were different levels of happiness E.G. It would be better to be a unhappy wealthy man than it would be to be a happy poor man. You could also argue that Mill’s views on happiness are a bit vague and simplistic because he would be against someone going through hardships and pain to reach there eventual goal that would bring them happiness.
Mill’s views on liberty were he believed in individual freedom and that people should have the right to do whatever they wanted to do, as long as they weren’t affecting anyone else with their actions. He also thought that there was no difference between a man and a woman, so he thought that women should be able to vote just like men. He also believed in freedom of speech and that everybody should be entitled to there own opinion.
Lastly, Charles Darwin was very influential in the 19th century because of his views mainly on evolution. From travelling and seeing fossils, Darwin believed that humans evolved and that there was no Adam and Eve like the bible suggests. He believed that groups of organisms undergo genetic change over a long period of time through the process known as natural selection. He also came up with the theory that members of the same species compete for survival and that the one who adapt best to the environment have the best chance to survive. He called this survival of the fittest.
Given all that had taken place in the 19th century, along with all the influential and opinionated minds that lived through this period of time, it’s not hard to see why this era was labelled “ The age of change “.
