French Revolution Dbq

The impact of the Revolution of 1830 in France extended even beyond French territory, nearly precipitating a similar revolution in England. The most instantaneous effect experienced in England was an insurrection of the English working class, provoking violent and radical sentiment and thus reflecting the origins of the French Revolution. However, where the French government failed to meet its citizens’ demands, the English succeeded, initiating a series of reforms led by the “Liberal Tories” to reduce taxes, loosen restrictions on old Navigation Acts, and allow colonies to trade with countries beyond Britain. They also successfully implemented a more secularized state, a goal in which the French revolutionary government had met in a spectacularly …show more content…
This lack of representation provoked more calls for reform, now in regards to England’s House of Commons, eventually allowing for the rise of the Whig party and the creation of their own reform bill, “The Reform Bill of 1832.” Nevertheless, this bill did not pass the Tory-run House of Lords, inciting riots throughout England. Using this sudden chaos as leverage, the Whigs were able to convince the king, and thus the House of Lords, to allow the bill to pass. Unlike typical reforms on the Continent, this bill did not create equal electoral districts in England, rather it raised the number of voters in the British Isles by about 313,000. Nonetheless, the most influential element of this bill regarded the House of Commons’ seats, which were relocated and made to better represent the English working class. Above all else, the early reforms of the Liberal Tories and the Whigs’ Reform Bill of 1832 served to ease some of the tension in England, which, although arguably not as acute as that of France, did hold the potential to incite …show more content…
Some of the most notable of these reforms can be seen through the abolition of slavery, the adoption of a new Poor Law, the creation of the Municipal Corporations Act, the modernization of English local governments, the destruction of archaic local oligarchies, the newfound uniformity of electoral and administrative machinery, and the opening of the House of Commons to the press. These reforms, alongside the creation of a commission intended to supervise the Church of England, which worked to repair its corruption, empowered a new “liberal manufacturing class.” These were industrial workers who supported the Tory party, leading to the passage of “A Factory Act of 1833,” which outlawed child labor under the age of nine in textile bills, and an act in 1842, which increased the regulation of coal mines and forbade underground employment for women, girls, and boys under the age of ten. In 1847, the Ten Hours Act was passed, which added to the previous labor reforms by restricting the industrial work hours of women and children, and by extension men, to ten