Democratic Reform and Activism
Britain Enacts Reforms
• Back in 1600, Britain became a constitutional monarchy
• Only around 5% of the population had the right to elect
members to the House of Commons the upper class ran
the government
The Reform Bill of 1832
• The first group to demand reform was the middle class
(factory owners, bankers, and merchants)
• In 1830, protests throughout the country erupted in favor
of extending suffrage
• This law eased the property requirements so that middle
class men could vote, and also gave industrialized cities
more representation in voting
Chartist Movement
• The people who were still excluded from voting started the
Chartist Movement  these ppl proposed their demands
to Parliament in the People’s Charter of 1838
• The petition called for universal male suffrage and annual
Parliamentary elections
• The petition also called for a secret ballot to protect the
interests of the lower classes, and the end of property
requirements to serve on Parliament
• Parliament denied the charter, but the damage was done
and people began to acknowledge the complaints of the
workers
The Victorian Age
• Queen Victoria was the one overseeing the various reforms
• She became queen at 18 years old in 1837 and reigned for
64 years
• While she was queen, the majority of political power now
rested with the cabinet and with Parliament under the new
constitutional monarchy
Women Get the Vote
• By 1890 most industrial countries adopted universal male suffrage,
but NONE allowed women to vote
• As more men gained the right to vote, women demanded the same
thing
Organization and Resistance
• During the 1800’s, British and American women organized reform
societies and protest unfair laws and customs
• As they became more vocal, resistance to their demands grew
Militant Protests
• After peacefully lobbying for suffrage, some women took more
drastic measures
• Emmeline Pankhurst formed the Women’s Social and Political Union
(WSPU) in 1903
• Emmeline and her followers were arrested many times, and when
they were jailed they led hunger strikes (show video)  jail officers
force fed Emmeline to keep her alive and make an example
• while this movement was monumental in women’s suffrage, they
didn't gain the right to vote until after WWI
France and Democracy
The Third Republic
• Between 1871-1914, France nearly averaged a new government
annually with around a dozen political parties competing for
power
• In 1875, the National Assembly agreed on a new government: a
republic  the Third Republic lasted for over 60 years
The Dreyfus Affair
• Anti-Semitism- prejudice against Jews (played a role in the
scandal)
• In 1894, a French military officer Alfred Dreyfus was accused of
selling military secrets to Germany
• After convicted on false evidence and sentenced to a life in
prison, evidence surfaces proving he was framed
• The French army refused to reopen the case because they felt
that it would dishonor the credibility of the military
The Rise of Zionism
• While the Dreyfus case showed the anti-Semitism in
Western Europe, the persecution of Jews was much more
harsh in Eastern Europe
• Russian officials permitted pogroms
• Many Jews began to flee West to escape persecution and
many sought after Palestine
• In the 1890’s, the Zionist movement developed to pursue
their goals in fleeing to Palestine
Self-Rule for British Colonies:
Canada Struggles
• Originally, France colonized Canada but Britain took
possession in 1763 after it defeated France in French-Indian
War
• Some French remained in Canada but lived segregated
from the British
French and English Canada
• The two often conflicted because France was mainly
Roman Catholic whereas the British were mostly Protestant
• In 1791 the British Parliament tried to provide a solution by
dividing Canada into a north (today Ontario) where the
British lived and a south (today Quebec) where the French
lived
The Durham Report
• In both areas of Canada, a royal governor and a small group
of wealthy British held most of the power
• Slowly a group of middle class professionals began to
demand political/economic reform
• In the late 1830’s, rebellions broke out and Parliament sent
Lord Durham to go find out why
• In 1839 Durham sent a report to Parliament that urged two
reforms: first, that Canada should be united and more
British should be encouraged to emigrate; second, that
people living in Canada should be able to govern their own
affairs
The Dominion of Canada
• Canadians began wishing for centralized government to
protect themselves against the United States, which now
spanned from Atlantic to Pacific
• In 1867 Nova Scotia and New Brunswick joined alongside
Canada to form the Canadian dominion.
• Dominion- a colony of the British Empire that ruled itself
Canada’s Westward Expansion
• The prime minister of Canada, John MacDonald, expanded
Canada’s borders by purchasing lands and persuading
frontier territories to join the union
• By 1871 Canada reached the Pacific
• In 1885, MacDonald finished constructing a
transcontinental railroad in Canada
Australia and New Zealand
• British sea captain James Cook claimed New Zealand in
1769 and Australia in 1770
• New Zealand was already inhabited by the Maori, but
Australia was on sparsely inhabited by the Aborigines
• Both groups of people were nomadic peoples who hunted
and fished.
Britain’s Penal Colony
• Britain began colonizing Australia in 1788 with convicted
criminals
• Britain and other nations began establishing penal colonies
as a place to relieve overcrowded prisons in the mother
country
• When criminals served their sentence, they were free to
buy land and start a new life in the penal colony
Free Settlers Arrive
• To encourage immigration, the government offere3d
settlers cheap land
• The population sky rocketed after the gold rush in 1851
Settling New Zealand
• Because Britain didn’t claim New Zealand, settling it took
longer than Australia
• As early as 1814, missionary groups from Australia
ventured to New Zealand to convert the Maori to
Christianity
• British annexed New Zealand in 1839 and appointed a
governor to negotiate with the Maori
• Britain and the Maori signed a treaty in 1840 declaring the
Maori would accept British rule if the British accepted the
Maori land rights
Self-Government
• Like Canada, New Zealand and Australia wanted to rule
themselves while remaining in the British Empire
• Both colonies became self-governing and created
parliamentary systems of government
• In 1901, the Australian colonies were united under a new
constitution Commonwealth of Australia
• The people of Australia and New Zealand were
monumental in carrying out the reforms of the French and
British  the secret ballot was first enacted in Australia in
the 1850’s, and in 1893 New Zealand gave full suffrage to
white women
Status of Native Peoples
• Native people and non-Europeans were excluded from
democracy and prosperity
• Diseases brought by Europeans killed the Aborigines and
the Maori
• In New Zealand, settlers and Maori continued to fight even
after New Zealand became a British colony
The Irish Win Home Rule
• The English originally settled in Ireland in the 1100’s
• Quickly, the English imposed laws that limited the rights of
Catholics and gave more freedoms to Protestants
• Britain annexed Ireland in 1801, which gave Ireland
representation in Parliament
• Daniel O’Connell persuaded Parliament to pass the Catholic
Emancipation Act of 1829, which restored many rights back
to Cathlolics
The Great Famine
• Ireland experience one of the worst famines in history in
the 1840’s
• Rom 1845-1848 a fungus ruined nearly all of Ireland’s
potato crop and around 12% of the population died in the
next four years
• Around 1.5 million people fled (US, Britain, Canada,
Australia)
• Many Irish lost their land and fell in debt as the British
government enforced the demands of the English
landowners saying that the Irish peasants pay rent
Demands for Home Rule
• As opposition to British rule in Ireland grew, some people
demanded independence and others demanded “home rule” 
the British refused both options
• Britain denied home rule because they didn’t want to become
minorities in a Catholic dominated Ireland
Rebellion and Division
• Those Irish who weren’t satisfied with delaying independence
rebelled in Dublin in 1916
• British troops put down the rebellion, but the event caused a wave
of Irish nationalism
• Eventually (after WWI) the Irish win the election for Parliament.
To protest home rule, Irish (who were advocating independence)
skipped Parliament and formed the Irish Republican Army (IRA)
• The IRA staged a series of attacks against British officials in Ireland,
and sparked a war between the two sides
• In 1921, Britain declared South Ireland under British control and
North Ireland a dominion 28 years later they declared
themselves independent