Democracy and Reform

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Democracy and Reform

• Chapter 14

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Great Britain Reforms

• Reform comes with evolution, not revolution
• Election Reform
• Rural districts with small populations were well
  represented in the House of Commons
• While growing industrial areas were not well
  represented
• Whigs (minority) tried to introduce new bills to
  improve voting rights and apportion
• Divide and share electoral districts more fairly
• Tory party (majority) kept voting bills down

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Great Britain Election Reform

• Reform Act of 1832
• Lowered property qualifications for voting males
• Growth of Middle class voting
• Went from 1 in 100 eligible voters to 1 in 32
• Added voting rights to growing populations while
  taking away rights of populations that had
  declined

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Great Britain Election Reform

• Disenfranchised Citizens Unite
• Disenfranchised citizens were those who can not
  vote
• Industrial and Farm workers
• Chartists
• fought for middle and lower class voting rights
  no matter what their property value
• Salaries for Parliament members
• Secret ballot voting
• 2 petitions fail, but eventually their reform
  request are granted
• Anti Corn Law League
• Middle class fighting for the repeal of tax on
  foreign grain imports
• Law eventually repealed

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Great Britain election reform

• Political Parties get better organized
• Before 1800, both Whig and Tory parties
  represented Wealthy land owners
• After Reform Act of 1832, the two parties shape
  into modern day conservative and liberal parties
• Tories , Conservative landowners (upper class)
• Whigs , lower and middle class workers

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Political Leadership produces reform

• William Gladstone
• Liberal party
• Served 4 times as prime minister from 1868 to
  1894
• Deeply religious, believed in morality in
  politics
• Reforms in govt administration, education, and
  elections
• Civil Service reform (1870) civil service jobs
  would be based on qualifications
• Education Act (1870) Divided country into
  school districts with local control
• The Ballot Act (1872) Secret ballots
• The Redistribution Act (1872) created electoral
  districts almost equal to population

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Political Leadership produces reform

• Benjamin Disraeli
• Conservative party
• A novelist first, then turned politician
• Served 2 terms as Prime Minister from 1874 to
  1880 (also briefly in 1868)
• Saved aristocratic traditions while adopting to
  democratic reforms
• Blocking change would hurt Conservative support
  from upper middle class
• 1867, backed bill which lowered property
  qualifications for voters

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Growth of Democracy

• Raise of Labor
• Labor unions grow in people and political
  strength, leads to growth in socialism
• The Fabians favored Parliamentary actions over
  strikes and demonstrations
• In 1900, trade unionist and socialists form the
  Labour party
• Liberal and Labour party work to improve workers
  lives

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Growth of Democracy

• Women Demand Greater Rights
• Suffragettes fight for voting
• 1918, women over 30 can vote
• 1928, women over 21
• Middle class women speak for social and political
  equality in the mid 1850s
• Property rights for married women
• Married Womens Property Acts of 1870 and 1882
  increase legal control over familys earnings and
  property

10
Ireland

• English and Scottish Protestants control Ireland
• 1801, Parliament passes an Act that joins Ireland
  and Great Britain. This allows Ireland
  representation in Parliament
• While this increased Irish-Catholic voting
  rights, most Irish still demanded to rule
  themselves
• 1840s Potato famine kills over one million Irish
  (disease and Starvation).
• Great Britain sends inadequate aid
• Millions emigrate to the United States, Canada,
  Australia

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Political Struggles in France

• Revolt in France
• 1815 Congress of Vienna restored Bourbon Monarchy
  under Louis XVIII
• Louis the XVIII was accepted for his willingness
  to rule as a constitutional monarch
• Charles X (Louis brother) restores absolute
  monarchy with help from Ultraroyalists
• Jury ordinance of 1830 dissolve assembly, end
  freedom of the press, and restrict voting rights
• On July 27, 1830, angry workers and students
  force Charles X to abdicate his throne and Flee
  to Great Britain

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Political Struggles in France

• The Citizen-King
• Louis Philippe, cousin of Charles X, accepts the
  throne under a constitutional monarchy
• Louis dresses like a middle class person and won
  support of growing middle class
• The Citizen-King loses favor of middle class
  due to his affection with the wealthy

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Revolt against the Citizen King

• The Revolution of 1848
• Louis Philippe refuses to grant working class
  voting rights
• Crowds flooded the streets in protest of Louis
  and the Prime Minister
• Louis Philippe called in the army to put down the
  protest, but the soldiers joined the mob
• The Citizen King abdicated the throne and fled
  to Great Britain
• France declared a Republic

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The Second Empire

• Louis-Napoleon
• Nephew of Legendary Napoleon
• Presented as a reformer but wanted to be emperor
• Gained confidence of the Church, the army,
  peasants, and middle class
• Louis-Napoleon directed a coup detat in 1851
• Dissolves National assembly
• Called for plebiscite (national vote) in order to
  have complete power of new French Constitution
• Receives complete power in 1852 and changes name
  to Napoleon III (Emperor of France)

15
Crimean War 1854

• France and Great Britain vs Russia
• The dispute was over which country (France or
  Russia) had the right to protect Christians in
  the Ottoman Empire or visiting the Holy Land
• Ottoman Empire sided with France, Czar Nicholas I
  seized Ottoman Empire territory in the Balkans in
  1853
• Ottoman Empire declares war on Russia

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Crimean War 1854

• French and British Armies invade the Russian
  ruled Crimean Peninsula on the North Shore of the
  Black Sea
• Terrible weather and disease produces little
  fighting
• 1855, Russia is defeated to due a lack of
  supplies, troops, and railroads.
• Treaty of Paris made Russia return Ottoman
  territory and banned Warships around the Black
  Sea
• More troops died from disease on both sides than
  battle injuries

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End of the French Empire

• Franco-Prussian War 1870
• Prussias growing power threatens Napoleon III,
  Declares war on July 19th, 1870
• Prussia shocks the world with a quick, 6 week,
  victory over France due to Frances poor military
  mobilization and Prussias quick attack into
  France.
• September 2, Prussia takes Napoleon III prisoner
  after their victory at Sedan

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French peace with Prussia

• French elect a new National Assembly
• The Assembly surrenders provinces of Alsace and
  Lorraine, and pay 5 million francs (1 billion us
  dollars)
• Prussia further humiliates France by having a
  victory march through Paris
• This angers French citizens

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Peace with Prussia

• National assembly angers citizens by forcing
  payment of rent and debts that had been suspended
  during the Siege of Paris.
• National assembly also stopped payment of the
  National Guard, which many workers had joined
  during the Siege.

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Commune of Paris

• Socialist government established during the
  siege, did not recognize that National Assembly
• Called for France to be broken up into a
  decentralized set of independent cities
• Civil War breaks out between the Commune of Paris
  and the National Assembly
• Commune lost
• 1875, new constitution makes France, once again,
  a republic (3rd Republic)

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Threats to the Republic

• General Georges Boulanger
• Popular war hero with great support from
  royalists and other anti-republic people
• Word of coup detat reached Assembly and
  Boulanger fled the country to avoid arrest
• Panama Canal failure (thousands lose money)
• The Dreyfus Affair (Alfred Dreyfus)
• French Army officer, wrongly convicted for
  selling secrets to Germany
• France divided (Nationalists, Catholics,
  Royalists vs Republicans, Socialists,
  anti-Catholics)
• Received Presidential pardon, Republican
  government proves it can survive in France

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Latin American Independence

• Colonial Rule and Social Order
• Peninsulares born in Spain or Portugal, held
  all important political and military positions on
  the colonies
• Creoles colonial born white aristocrats, owned
  most business and land, 2nd class citizens
• Mestizos native Americans, African,
  African-European. Working class and largest class

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Latin American Independence

• Uprising in Haiti French colony, first
  successful revolt in the early 1790s,
  independence gained in 1804
• Mexican Freedom Priest, Miguel Hidalgo led
  fight against Spanish govt. Fully independent by
  1821
• Brazil Gains Independence achieved without
  bloodshed
• Pedro I, emperor of Brazil in 1822
• Free from Portugal

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Challenges to independence

• Slow change to social conditions under self rule
• New government lacked Stability and had little
  practice ruling themselves
• Republics turn into military dictatorships