Social Changes In The 19th Century

In 19th Century England, living conditions were horrible for the poor. If you didn’t have enough money to stay out of poverty you were heading into a harsh and unforgiving life as a person in the slums. People took poison to escape the horrors that a poor person could easily slip into. Both adults and little children drank gin and beer because of all of the sewage and garbage dumped into the rivers. For the many, many poor people there was often no clean water and people went to the bathroom in ‘bathroom’ privies that everyone in the slums used outside. At least half of the poor children died before their fifth birthday. In contrast, the wealthy could have mansions with servants, grand food, and clean drinking water. On top of all of this,

Christopher Columbus is an internationally celebrated explorer, due to his voyages to Central America during the Age of Discovery, a period between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when explorers were sponsored by eastern countries to claim land. Columbus was an Italian explorer, on a conquest for gold and riches, who was sponsored by the monarchs of Spain, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, to travel to Southern Asia. Columbus proposed the idea of traveling from East to West, rather than traveling along the borders of countries and continents, such as Africa and Asia, to eastern countries for gold, spices, and other riches for the monarchs. When Columbus succeeded in landing in the New World, he believed he landed in Southern Asia, but rather he landed in Hispaniola, modern day Haiti and Dominican Republic. The “New World” was a term used for the area Columbus landed in, on October 12, 1492. When Columbus landed in the New World, it was inhabited by native people, who were used by the Spaniards to help navigate and understand the landscape of the islands and as workers to find gold. Columbus has a mixed legacy because he had positive and negative attributes; he made the Columbian Exchange, which increased biodiversity in the New World, and is an important explorer in American history, but also began the African slave trade and caused population devastation due to slavery and diseases in the native populations. The legacy of Christopher Columbus should be remembered as a villain because he was greedy for wealth and power, he introduced diseases to the New World, and enslaved and used violence against the natives.

Between the 1400s and 1800s, there were many religious, scientific, political, economic and military transformations that revolutionized the history of the world and how humans interacted with one another. This time period allowed for the globalization of the world that resulted from extended networks between continents and people. Every region of the world had become linked with one another, and these networks allowed for communication and exchange that connected individuals and societies. The world's population was increasing and more complex connections between individuals, continents and the world at large were being made. Specifically, the Columbian exchange, the Atlantic slave trade, the Protestant reformation, and the French revolution

There were so many reforms that happened during the 1830s and 1840s; many of which made a great impact, some didn’t make any impact, and some had an impact that took place a great deal later. Below are just some of the movements that were believed, created and fought for:

It should no longer come as any great surprise that Columbus was not the first to discover the Americas--Carthaginians, Vikings, and even St. Brendan may have set foot on the Western Hemisphere long before Columbus crossed the Atlantic. But none of these incidental contacts made the impact that Columbus did. Columbus and company were bound to bring more than the benefits of Christianity and double entry bookkeeping to America. His voyages started the Columbian Exchange, a hemispherical swap of peoples, plants, animals and diseases that transformed not only the world he had discovered but also the one he had left.

During the early 19th century, especially before the American Revolution and after the War of 1812, American society changed greatly. It became a nation consisting of two distinct and very different regions: the North and the South. Both regions differ greatly in their economic, social, and political structure causing a drift between the two regions. The drift continues to widen into the 1800s until the disparities leads up to the start of the Civil War in 1861. It was a war that raged across the nation from 1861 to 1865 which became a violent conclusion to the decades of diverse ideas and culture between the two regions.

Without the desire to acquire a safer trade route over sea to Asia, no one would have ever tried sailing west to get east. “The explorers of the fifteenth century and early sixteenth centuries did not set out to make a revolution in knowledge, but that is what they achieved,” wrote Christopher Farman in “The Ocean Adventures” found in Voyages of Discovery (Document 4). This quote shows how many of the explorers did not set out to find the Americas, but once they knew what it was the Americas were quickly integrated with their own world. Many of the foundational thoughts and ideas of today’s society would have never developed if not for this link between continents. Arthur M. Schlesinger makes note of this writing, “In fact it was precisely the contact with the Americas that stimulated Europe to develop further some of the principles we take for granted today as the basic minimum of human rights…” in Columbus on Trial (Document 5). Without all of this exploration the world would have continued to be stuck in isolation until inevitably some other group of people decide to explore the sea. Contact between the Old and New world would have happened at one point or

As the Age of Exploration gained momentum in the late 15th century, many European countries began to send explorers out on expeditions. These expeditions were funded with the hopes of expanding territory, discovering new trade routes, and finding riches, but no one knew how significant these expeditions would be for the future of the world. Arguably the most significant expedition was led by Christopher Columbus. In 1492, Columbus set sail from Spain with the goal of finding a Western route to Asia, but instead he stumbled upon a land untouched and previously unknown to the Eastern Hemisphere. He had just “discovered” the Americas. Columbus’ discovery set in motion what is now called the Columbian Exchange; a transfer of plants, animals, diseases, people, technology, and culture between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. The Columbian Exchange drastically changed the societies and cultures that were involved, specifically the Africans, the Europeans, and the Native Americans. The Europeans saw the New World as a new beginning and an opportunity to increase their wealth and power, so many voluntarily migrated across the Atlantic, whereas the Africans were forcibly brought over to the Americas to work on plantations, or large farms that focused on a single crop, via the slave trade. The Native Americans also suffered as a result of the Columbian Exchange because, without any sort of natural immunity to European diseases, their people died by the millions and their cultures

When Columbus first landed in the Americas during the pre modern era, he changed the course of world history for years to come. This was finally an age connected like no other time before. With a new connected world, economies blossomed and social changes occurred for the better or the worse. Although western Europe and in particular Spain came to control economically ,through silver and sugar, and socially,through cultural diffusion of natives, Africa and the Americas after contact, there was not a rapid social change of these land but a slow process of transformation.

The trade industry expanded as new products came in from the “Old World”. Events such as the Columbian Exchange revolutionized the trade market in the New World. Gettysburg’s article, “The Columbian Exchange” states that, “Exchanges of plants, animals, diseases and technology transformed European and Native American ways of life. The Columbian Exchange impacted the social and cultural makeup on both sides of the Atlantic. Advancements in Agricultural production, evolution of warfare, increased mortality rates and education” (Gettysburg.edu).

2. What role did the family play in the socialization and control of children before the 1800s? Family served as a primary institution of social control. Many adults played a role in children’s socialization and control.

Progressive era in the early centuries was trying to make social changes to the country. During the early century’s there were some issues that taken place far as, having children working hard like slaves and as well as the women and innocent victims losing their lives a lot of things were out of place. Individuals fought and voted to make changes that were going on that wasn’t right in society. There was other problems causing issues with the countries about opinions about poverty, race, class, religion beliefs, and racisms that may have played a role in a lot of stereotype about individuals in my opinion. Like for example, if you didn’t fit a certain type of class far as, being above anything but poor that type of class wasn’t good enough compared to those who wasn’t poor and may had a better chance in life and had more than others to label certain individual in a certain class about problems the country were facing.

Social class systems in the nineteenth century were comprised of the upper class, the middle class, the working class, and the underclass. The different social classes can be “distinguished by inequalities in such areas as power, authority, wealth, working and living conditions, life-styles, life-span, education, religion, and culture” (Cody). The poor, also known as peasants, were usually mistreated and segregated from the wealthy, or those of higher class. During his time, Charles Dickens “seen as a champion of “the poor” by some of the poor themselves” (“What was”). It is said that one of his greatest achievements “was to bring the problem of poverty to the attention of his readers through introducing varieties of poor persons into almost all of his novels, and showing the “deserving” majority of the poor, bravely struggling against the forces arrayed against them” (“What was”). This is clearly evident in A Tale of Two Cities. During the nineteenth century Victorian era, social class systems were a common excuse for the division and mistreatment of many individuals, as evidenced in Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.

The Victorian Period was a great influence to the authors who composed novels at that time where distinctions between social classes as well as between men and women were strongly marked. During this period, it was precisely a woman who ruled. Alexandrina Victoria who was born on May 24, 1819 became Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from June 20, 1837 until her death on January 22, 1901. Victoria’s reign was one of the longest of a female in history. At only the age of 18, after her uncle William Henry IV died, she began a span of 63 years of reign. In spite of her independence and power, Victoria fell into a deep depression when her husband died in 1861 and ever since she wore black every day for the rest of her

The Victorian period started in 1837 through 1901 under Queen Victoria’s reign. The period got divided into three stages: Early, middle and late Victorians periods. During, the early Victorian era took the throne. Under the middle years, the industrialization of the country began and everything stay steady. On the last few years, a lot of problems rise up with Ireland and the English colonies. In her 63 years of ruling lots of cultural, political and economic changes arise. The country became highly industrialized and expanded its land to some parts of the middle west of the World. However, under the period, many diseases were developed such as typhus and cholera because of the food distribution and hunger. Social changes such as women’s vote and rights were proclaimed. New science and technological theories were promoted such as Darwin’s Evolution Theory and Charles Lyell’s Theory of Uniformitarianism. Other social and economic changes