Victorian+Era

Queen Victoria
The Victorian era was a glorious time for Britain. This age was named after Queen Victoria who ruled from 1837 to 1901. She was born to the Duke of Kent, Edward, and Victoria Maria Louisa of Saxe-Coburg. Because of her father’s death, she was raised strictly under her mother. When her mother passed away 18 years later, she was denied the throne because of the Salic law, which denied succession by a woman, and the title went to her uncle Ernest instead. She ended up marrying her cousin, Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who ruled England at that time, and they had quite a happy marriage filled with 9 children. Queen Victoria supported independent thoughts as well as sticking to traditional views. She criticized marriage and women subordination, yet still thought marriage was a good idea.She felt for the poor and her citizens looked up to her. When her husband died of typhoid in1861, she was stricken by grief and unable to be the great ruler that she once was. Even though the public was tired of her grief, nobody could deny the advancements she had made during her rule. She died on January 22, 1901 and was succeeded by her son, Edward VII.

[[image:http://rodriguez9-2.pbworks.com/f/vicpic%20women.jpg width="208" height="143" align="left"]]Entertainment
One of the main sources of entertainment during the Victorian Era was reading.There were many authors who wrote famous books to bring attention to social problems.One of the most famous probably being Charles Dickens who wrote novels like Oliver Twist and a Tale of Two Cities to help people better understand the poor. Not only were books extremely popular in the Victorian Era, science was also reaching new heights. Charles Darwin proposed the theory of Natural Selection which revolutionized what we call science today. Theatre was an extremely popular leisure activity during this time as well as listening to live music. Sports such as golf and archery also gained popularity. When we think of Victorian today, we think of ladies in big elegant dresses and men with coat watches.

=Medicine=

Medicine was very crucial. When people needed surgery it was performed without the comfort of anesthesia. Often times, the medicine found in nature caused harm instead of healing. The surgeons and doctors frequently received high rank and prestige in every society. Even with all of the new medical knowledge being discovered, most people in the Victorian Age still relied on home remedies, herbal treatments, and homemade prescriptions. Heads of households and often servants had sufficient medical knowledge and remedies from minor illnesses. Common treatments given to people during the Victorian Age included bleeding, purging, plastering, sweating, amputation, and blistering. These techniques at the time helped many people alleviate symptoms of a variety of painful disorders. Ignaz Sammelweis mandated that physicians wash their hands before assisting women in childbirth. The physicians who followed his guidelines saw an immense reduction in new mother deaths from child bed fever, but this idea wasn’t widely accepted until Joseph Lister proved the germ theory and developed the first antiseptic.

=Health=

Health in the Victorian Age could be seen as a burden because everyone was always concerned about it. For the working class, it was more difficult to maintain due to the poverty and terrible conditions many found them living. During this era the youth were at great risk. Nationally 50 percent of all recorded deaths were of children aged 5 and under,measles being the main cause. The death rates for people over the age of 14 began to improve because of a better diet, sanitation, and medical care.

==Technology==

In the Victorian Age during 1837 to 1901 the creation of technology was very important because some of them helped with getting goods and grains from place to place. Out of the many inventions that were made was the Steamboat. Steamboats allowed America to engage in transportation and trade like never before. During this time Thomas Edison made the first electric light bulb and photograph. He also improved the telegraph, telephone, and motion picture projector. Some other inventions in that era are Isaac Singer’s sewing machine, John Roebling’s steel cable that was used to construct the Brooklyn Bridge, and Cyrus McCormick’s mechanical reaper that made a world-class wheat producer.

Child Labor
Families knew that they wouldn’t be able to support themselves without children being employed and making another income for them so they put children as young as three years old to work. If you came from a poor community, children were forced to work due to economic conditions. The children worked so much that very few of them had any education at all. Most children worked in terrible conditions for at least sixteen hours a day, and so did their parents. The Whig government in 1833 established that children nine to eleven years old were permitted to work eight hours a day, children eleven to eighteen could only work a maximum of twelve hours and children under nine weren’t allowed to work at all. This act however, only applied to children if they worked in the textile industry. Children started to work in iron and coal mines as young as five years old and usually died before the age of twenty five. An act in 1847 only allowed both adults and children to ten hours of work a day.

Population
During the late Victorian age, poverty and finding work were not issues. Up to 8% of work force was unemployed again even after the depression in the early 1890’s. In 1891 the percentage of labor force out of work was 5.4%. Percentage of unemployment reached the highest points from 1893 to 1894, slowly decrease, and then rise again to 8% in 1908. Labor workers began to rebel against factories and mills when they began to cut wages. In 1900, an average family of five’s average annual income was around eight hundred dollars. Prices in 1990 were more than fifteen times those in 1900. An average amount that a family of five would have been twelve thousand dollars, in terms of 1990 prices. Making a living with such little income would have been even harder if the cost of living would have risen.That’s why it’s good that the cost of living had been decreased by this period so that families and people had better chances to get by with few complications rather than many.