Great Britain prospered in the late 1800s. It was a period of invention and growth, guided by Queen Victoria’s leadership. Queen Victoria limited political authority which enabled her to have a huge favorable impact on the British Empire. She aided in the dissemination and popularisation of new technology by using it herself and backing it up financially. Because of her middle-class ideals, she was viewed as a sympathetic person who utilized her limited power to prevent disputes and wars.
Queen Victoria
She was born sixth in line to the throne in Kensington Palace in May 1819. The next year, her father, Prince Edward, and grandfather, King George III, both died and her uncle, George IV, ascended to the throne.
Queen Victoria restored the monarchy’s prestige, which had been damaged by her royal uncles. She also gave the Royal Family a new role, reuniting it with the people. She married her cousin Albert, a German prince with whom she had nine children.
Lord Melbourne, the prime minister, along with Victoria’s husband Albert influenced Victoria greatly throughout her early reign to pursue a modernizing and stable program in an era of political instability. Victoria and her husband met these issues straight on, seeking to increase the monarchy’s standing in England and Europe.
Moreover, Victoria increased the monarch’s public role by sponsoring charities, the arts, and civic reform in order to dispel the notion that the British monarchy was not worth the money. Leading to the queen and her family became well-known figures who impacted popular culture, bringing England to everything from white bridal gowns to Christmas trees.
Victoria was an institution by the time she died in 1901, famed for her tenacity and the huge kingdom she governed. The British Empire spanned a fifth of the Earth’s surface and was the world’s most powerful empire at the time. Victoria’s reign was overshadowed by the empire’s relentless colonization and the catastrophic conflict she unwittingly helped to sow, yet she thought British strength and wealth were vital.