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The University High School Band
The History and Theory of Music

Victorian England

Queen Victoria by Sir George Hayter

While the Congress of Vienna attempted, and to some degree succeeded, to create a balance of powers on the European continent, there was no doubt that on a global scale, Great Britain was the most powerful country in the world. In the wake of its victory in the Napoleonic Wars, propelled by early industrialization, and assisted by a population boom, the British Empire of the nineteenth century extended across the globe, encompassing territory on every continent. At its height, the British monarch technically reigned over Canada in North America, Guiana in South America as well as a number of islands in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, Gibraltar, Malta, and Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea, about half of Africa (including most importantly, control of the Suez Canal in Egypt), India and a number of islands in the Indian Ocean, Hong Kong and Weihai in China, a number of territories in Indonesia, Oceania, the entire continent Australia, and even some colonies in Antarctica.

The height of the British Empire is known as the "Victorian Era," after Queen Victoria who reigned from 1837 until 1901, roughly the entire Romantic Period.

The Opium Wars took place in the 1840s

As always, Britain still butted heads with the other powers around the globe. The Opium Wars brought Britain into conflict with China, which resulted in Britain gaining control of Hong Kong until 1999. Britain fought with France against Russia in the Crimean War in the 1850s. However, escalated to the scale of the Napoleonic Wars, and there was growing confidence that the balance of powers established at Vienna was working.

Britain could hold a worldwide empire together thanks to its industrial power, which now included railroads, steamships, electrical power, telegraphs and telephones. Standards of living improved across the Empire, and advances such as gas lamps, heating, improved sewer systems, and soap increased longevity and sanitation. The already-strong democratic institutions in Britain shielded it from the revolutions taking place across Europe. It was not all good news: there were significant problems with crime, working conditions, child labor. Across the globe, British occupation of its colonies was often maintained through violence. As with all human endeavors, good and bad came together.

Culture tends to flourish when societies reach this level of stability, peace, and confidence, and so along with its economic, military, and industrial success, Victorian England also saw a flourishing of literature from authors like Charles Dickens, the Brontë Sisters, Rudyard Kipling, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Lewis Carroll.

Open-Ended Question

Is political subjugation worth substanial improvements in quality of life? Why or why not?