The Victorian Age

The period of the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), which is usually called “The Victorian Age”, was an age full of contradictions, of industrializations and technological progress, of extreme poverty and the exploitation of factory workers, of social reforms, of scientific discoveries and religious unrest. The application of steam-power to machines and textile industry, the cutting of new canals and the building of new roads and railways (which made transport easier and cheaper), transformed Great Britain from an agricultural country to an industrial one. This transformation resulted in the migration of rural people from the countryside to the industrial areas in search of job. Many of the cities and towns of the North, the most industrialised area, were actually created in this period. So within a few years more English and Welsh people lived in cities and towns than in the countryside. Urbanisation created an intolerable overcrowding: houses were mainly built back to back and side by side...