Age of Democracy & Progress

Main Idea: Spurred by the demands of ordinary people, Great Britain evolved into a constitutional monarchy while in France the Third Republic emerges as a parliamentary democracy. Women in both nations fail to obtain the right to vote.

I. Democratic Reform & Activism

A. Britain: reforms without bloodshed

1. Constitutional monarchy—monarchy (head of state): Parliament (power)

a House of Lords: inherit seats or appointed

b House of Commons: elected—voting rights to most adult male citizens

c Prime Minister and cabinet run gov’t

2. Suffrage: Reform Bill of 1832—extended voting rights & modernized electoral districts

a Chartist Movement: People’s Charter of 1838—suffrage for all men, Parliament reforms (secret ballot, end property req’s, pay representatives)

3. Victorian Age: Queen Victoria—64 yr. Reign, popular but no power

a height of wealth & power

B. Women

1. Peaceful Campaigns: Lucretia Mott & Elizabeth Cady Stanton—1848 Seneca Falls Convention

2. Militant Protests: Women’s Social & Political Union (WSPU)—Emmeline Pankhurst, 1903, draw attention to the cause

C. France

1. Paris Commune: radical gov’t is suppressed

2. Third Republic: republic, major divisions, lasted over 60 years

a Dreyfus Affair: divided France, rise of anti-Semitism; naval officer framed of selling military secrets

3. Zionism: persecution of Jews—work for a separate homeland in Palestine