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Social Classes During The Napoleonic Wars

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Social Classes During The Napoleonic Wars

Life in Britain during the Napoleonic Wars was quite interesting. Unlike today, the people of Britain lived in three social classes: the upper class, the middle class, and the lower class. The upper class consisted of the aristocrats and those involved in politics. The middle class included the business men such as the butcher, blacksmith, baker, and other men of trade. The majority of the population of Great Britain consist of the middle class. The lower class consist of all those who had little money and no job. It also consist of sailors and soldiers, since the people didn’t think highly of them at the time. Though all of these social classes differ in many ways, each one was affected in some way by the Napoleonic war. …show more content…

These people own the most land and as mentioned before, hold some sort of position in politics. They normally only socialized with people in their own class. The only way to become part of the upper social class, was to be born in to it. You couldn’t go from being part of the middle class and then upgrade to the upper class. Because of their social status, some people would think that they were barely affected by the Napoleonic war, but they couldn’t be more wrong. The upper class often worried about the people in the lower classes would start riots because of the huge increase in taxes. Also, many of their husbands would join the armed forces as officers and the women would have to wait long periods of time until they heard if their spouses were safe or

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