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At the beginning of the 19th century, Parliament was tightly controlled by wealthy landowners, many of whom represented "rotten boroughs" that were sparsely populated after workers flocked to cities during the Industrial Revolution. Election laws in place at the time only allowed about 8% of the adult male population to vote and even less to hold office due to property requirements.
The landowners who controlled Parliament passed the Corn Laws in 1815, which placed a protective tariff on foreign wheat in order to keep prices artificially high (benefiting the landowning class). The urban middle class agitated for the vote and finally got it when the Reform Act of 1832 (also referred to as the Reform Bill of 1832) passed. The Reform Act of 1832 changed the property requirements so that someone didn't have to own land in order to vote, paving the way for twice as many people to vote. However, the working class still did not meet the new law's property requirements and were still not able to vote.
After the Reform Act of 1832, the Chartists advocated for voting rights for all adult men over 21. In the next segment of this lecture, I will focus on the Chartist movement.
29 июн 2024
