Разработка двух уроков по истории Великобритании
Lesson
1: Great Britain during the early Victorian period
Lesson
structure:
1)
Lesson
organization (2-3 minutes)
2)
Review of the
previous material (5-7 minutes)
3)
New studies
(15-20 minutes)
4)
Practical training (15 minutes)
5)
Homework (1-2 minutes)
Part 3 can
be started with the quick reading and translation of the short text about the
accession of Queen Victoria. The example of the text is following:
“In
1837 William IV died and a new reign began. As he had no children the crown
went to Victoria, the eighteen-years-old only daughter of his next young brother,
the duke of Kent. Her reign was destined to be the longest in English history,
grave questions were impending, parties were much embittered against one
another, and difficult descisions would have to be made from the beginning to
the end of the reign. At this time she was entirely unknown to her people, as
she had been brought up in much seclusion; but her education and training had
been good and her subjects soon learned to recognize her clear judgement, her
moderation, her perception of the true position of the sovereign in the English
system of government, and the thorough goodness of her character.
In
1840 she married her cousin, Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who came to live in
England but was given no recognized position in the government. In private he
was, on the whole, a wise and impartial adviser of his wife, and his influence
with her and with others was thoroughly good for England. By his refined tastes
and intellectual interests he gave encouragement to the arts and to literature
at a time when they received but scant recognition, and many public measures of
usefulness received his steady and intelligent support.”
Various aspects of the British life during the early Victorian period and the
so-called “Mid-Victorian Prosperity” can be studied during an audition
exercises. For example, pupils should be allowed to listen to the following
text, pronounced by a native speaker, and then requested to make a summary of
the text and to talk about it (both solely and in form of dialogs):
“Between 1845 and
1866 the United Kingdom experienced the unparalleled expansion of manufacturers
and commerce. No doubts, that phenomenon took place due, to a great extent, to
the removal of protective duties on food and raw materials, but not entirely.
Other important changes took place simultaneously and helped it on. The above
years comprise the discovery and working of the Californian and Australian
goldfields which increased so immensely the circulating medium of the world.
The final victory of steam-powered means of transportation in Britain occured,
with railroads taking the first place on land and steam vessels doing so on the
ocean. In general, transportation became four times quicker and four times
cheaper.
In
1838 the “Anti-Corn-Law League” was formed at Manchester in the center of the
manufacturing district, and an active movement was instituted to induce
parliament to remove the taxes from grain (imposed by the so-called “Corn Law”
of 1815, which was the direct result of Napoleonic Wars). Richard Cobden and
John Bright rose to fame in connection with the work of the league. They were
both merchants, both gifted with great ability as speakers; both were strongly
convinced in the injustice of the corn laws, and believed that benefit would
come to English workingmen if their food could be made cheap. With these men
and others as leaders, newspapers devoted to the subject were showered over the
country, lecturers were trained and sent into every town to explain the
principles of what had long been called “free trade”. “To buy in the cheapest
market and sell in the dearest” was laid down as a general right and a general
principle of action, and a condition of the law under which this could be done
was treated as the ideal to which legislation should approach.
A
great part of the people were gradually converted to these principles and to
the belief that the old system of duties ought to be abolished. But not so much
impression was made on parliament. Every year some advocate would introduce a
measure for the repeal of the duties, but it was always voted down by a
majority that it seemed impossible to overcome. Eventually Cobden and Bright
became members of parliament and pleaded for their views there, others took up
the cause, one by one prominent members of the Liberal party and even some of
the Conservatives accepted their principles, and it began to seem that at some
time or other the Corn Law would be abolished.
In
1846 Sir Robert Peel, the Conservative prime minister, introduced and against
much opposition carried through a measure for the abolition of the duties on
wheat and other grain. This action allowed the principal food of the people to
be brought into England, Ireland, and Scotland far more cheaply than before,
reduced the price of the grain that was grown at home, and made bread cheap for
the working classes.
With the Corn Laws gone the principles of free trade were introduced, and many
forms of protection were removed. The high duties on sugar imposed for the
benefit of the sugar-growing British West Indies were reduced the same year
that the corn laws were swept away. The Navigation Acts which had come down
from the seventeenth century as a means of preserving English commerce to
English ships were abolished in 1849, the vessels of all other nations being
now allowed to come into and go out of English ports on the same conditions as
vessels owned in England. Within a few years, between 1846 and 1849, protective
duties were removed from some two hundred articles which had before been taxed.
England thus gave up entirely her old policy of protection and established free
trade in all articles of import and export. Only a few small import duties were
afterwards collected for purposes of revenue. After that time England was for
more than a half century a free-trade country.
The
effects of the Corn Law cancellation upon agriculture were really tremendous.
The mere threat of foreign competition led to a number of significant
improvements in technique. As compensation for the loss of the Corn Law the
landowners in Parliament advanced themselves financial support for improvements
at a remarkably low rate of interest, thus enabling themselves to add the value
of their land and make a handsome profit out of the farmers who were charged
for the improvements at a considerably higher rates.
Land
drainage became widely available on a large scale in 1845, with the invention
of a pipe-making machines. This event added greatly to the productivity of the
heavy wheatgrowing lands, made them more workable, and made the use of
artificial manures profitable. Such substances as nitrates, guano and bone
manure all came into common use at this time. Much new agricultural machinery
also was introduced (the Royal Agricultural Society’s Show of 1853 could be a
perfect illustration with over 2000 implements).
A
more direct stimulus to the use of machinery was given by the increase in the
wages of the British farm workers which took place between 1845 and 1859 as the
result of the great demand for labor in mines, in the construction of railways,
and so on. This increase in the use of machinery led to a reduction in the
number of laborers employed, although the area under cultivation had increased
by half a million acres and the total agricultural production had increased far
more in proportion.
The
size of the British farms increased considerably due to the greater application
of capital to agriculture. Between 1851 and 1871 farms of all sizes below 100
acres decreased in number while farms of 300 acres and over increased from
11000 to 13000, the greatest proportional increase being in those over 500
acres.
In
1847 the Ten Hours’ Bill limited the hours of women and young people, and, in
practice, secured a ten hour day for most of the men, since it proved
unprofitable to keep the factories open for them alone. This result was not
achieved for some years, however, during which the employers tried every
conceivable and device short of flat defiance of the provision of the Act.
There was also a significant improvement in the educational field during
Victorian years. In 1840 perhaps only twenty per cent of the children of London
had any schooling, a number, which had risen by 1860, when perhaps half of the
children between 5 and 15 years old were in some sort of school.
The
Mid-Victorian period was prosperous primarily for the agricultural branch which
became possible mainly due to the significant technological advances coupled
with the cancellation of the Corn Law. It ended abruptly and a long depression
in agriculture set in with the arrival of American wheat and Australian wool in
bulk, starting from 1866. The improvement in the condition of the laborers
ended much earlier when the rise in prices produced by the influx of
Californian and Australian gold brought about a steady decline in real wages.”
Since the political life
during the Victorian time was of especially great importance, it should be
given a special attention. It would be useful to learn the political aspect of
the early Victorian period by listening to the set of brief reports by pupils.
Probable texts for reports are the following (they can be given by teacher to
the pupils prior to the lesson for homework):
“The
Parliament in the early Victorian period: Liberals and Conservatives
The
Whigs and those who acted with them gradually gave up the old party name and
began to call themselves “Liberals”. This name soon came to be the only one
used and was regularly applied to the party of which Earl Grey, Lord Russell,
Lord Brougham, and Lord Melbourne were the leaders. The name “Whig” went out of
existence. The Tories came to be known as “Conservatives”. The party name “Tory”
went out of use except as it was used to describe a man who was extremely and
narrow-mindedly conservative. The most influential representatives of the
Conservative party were the duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel. The latter
especially was the real organizer and leader of the conservatives after the
adoption of the Reform Bill. He was prime minister for five important years,
from 1841 to 1846. Yet in the main the Liberals kept control of the government
till after the middle of the century, when they gradually became tired of a
reforming policy. Their sense of responsibility in that direction had been
satisfied and they believed that no further political changes should be made.
They defeated measures for admitting Jews to parliament, for lowering the
franchise, for introducing the ballot in voting, and for more frequent
elections, and no further great reforms were to be put to their credit for many
years.
Lord
Palmerston
The prime minister during 1855-1865
and the most prominent minister of England for many years, was Lord Palmerston.
He was one of those men who had been originally moderate Tories, but who had
afterwards drifted into the Liberal party during the agitation for the first
Reform Bill. His service as minister in Tory cabinets had extended from 1809 to
1830; afterwards as foreign secretary and then as prime minister he was an
influential member of almost every Liberal cabinet for thirty-five years. He
always adopted a high tone in foreign affairs, and many of the foreign disputes
into which England had been drawn were largely a consequence of his policy. He
was usually able to win success for his party and his country in these
contests, and he had thus become extremely popular and influential.
Obviously, Lord Palmerston was not much interested in the domestic affairs of
England. So, probably his most notable deed of that kind was that he had
secured the admission of Jews into parliament in 1858, but of the proposed
further reform of parliament along the lines of the Reform Bill of 1832, to
which the Liberal party was turning, he was actively or passively opposed, and
the subject was therefore postponed till after his death.
Gladstone
and the revival of parliamentary reform
Many prominent men in the Liberal party, although they had refused for many
years after 1832 to agree to any further reform and had opposed the efforts of
the Chartists, came in time to believe that the right of voting should be
extended more widely and that the districts which were represented should be
made more nearly equal. This agitation began about 1852. The leader who best
represented these views and who was most influential in carrying out further
reforms was William Ewart Gladstone. Mr. Gladstone, who served altogether for
more than sixty years in parliament, entered the House of Commons in 1833, the
year after the adoption of the first Reform Bill. He was then a Conservative,
though one of the moderate group which was under the influence of Sir Robert
Peel, just as Palmerston and Peel himself had been under that of Canning.
Gladstone was soon admitted to one of the Conservative ministries in an
inferior office, and after that time for some years was a member of almost
every ministry of that party.
His
opinions, however, like those of Peel, gradually changed in a liberal
direction. He became famous for his knowledge of the details of financial and
commercial questions and for his skill in explaining them. In 1853 he became
chancellor of the Exchequer and usually afterwards occupied that office when in
the ministry. He introduced life and fire and eloquent interests into all his
financial statements and into the defence of the principles upon which they
were based. Often by his eloquence he held the House of Commons spellbound for
hours at a time while he explained and advocated measures of the most
commonplace financial character. In 1858 he became chancellor of the Exchequer
in a purely Liberal cabinet and from that time forward was identified with the
most advanced section of the Liberal party.
Gladstone was one of those who advocated further reform of parliament and for
several years gave eloquent but unsuccessful support to the efforts that were
made to obtain it before it became a party measure. Several bills for the
purpose were introduced between 1853 and 1863 by private members of parliament
and even by members of the ministry, and reform was advocated mildly in the
queen’s speech. But, as has been said, the prime minister, Lord Palmerston, was
privately opposed to it; there was much division within the party on the
question, and for some years no measure favorable to reform made its way
through parliament.
In
1865, on the death of Lord Palmerston, Gladstone became the unquestioned leader
of the Liberal party, though Lord Russell, as the older and more prominent man,
became prime minister. A reform bill was now introduced and heartily advocated
by the Liberal ministry, but was defeated in the House of Commons
notiwthstanding the strong popular interest in reform which was showing itself
in the country. The ministry, as a result of this vote, resigned in 1866, and a
Conservative ministry came into office.
Disraeli
and acceptance of the principle of reform
The
most prominent and influential member of the Conservative cabinet was Benjamin
Disraeli. This able and active minister had entered parliament in 1837, four
years after Gladstone, but unlike him remained a Conservative through the whole
of a long and active parliamentary career. He had few advantages of position, being
of Jewish descent and having many peculiarities of manner and appearance that
were distasteful to members of parliament. He was, however, brilliant in speech
and far-seeing in policy, and long before 1866 had become the real leader of
the Conservative party. Disraeli and Gladstone were opponents on almost all
measures, and this antagonism continued throughout their lives.
Notwithstanding the fact that the Liberals had been defeated on the question of
reform, the Conservatives felt that some kind of reform bill must be
introduced. Every one had come to feel that further reform of parliament must
be made, and the only question was the form and extent of the change.”
Part 4, which is a practical part, is in this case spreaded throughout the
whole structure of the lesson and combined with the part 3, since all the
practical tasks immediately follow texts for reading or audition.
Lesson
2: Great Britain during the late Victorian period
Lesson
structure:
5)
Review of the
lesson 1 (5-7 minutes)
6)
New studies
(15-20 minutes)
4)
Practical training (15 minutes)
5)
Homework (1-2 minutes)
The structure and organization of the lesson 2 is not different from that of
the lesson 1, since they’re both intended for studies of the two parts of the
same historical period. The lesson should be started with reading and analysis
of the introductory text on the topic:
“The originating and terminal dates of the Later Victorian period recommended
by researchers are 1867 and 1900 respectively, though they are partly a matter
of convenience. The year 1867 forms a useful start if not a sharp divide in
Victorian history. According to Geoffrey Kitson Clark, it was the point at
which “the old regime began to break”.
Later Victorian Britain was pre-eminently a stable society in which disputes
were conducted within understood guidelines. Public disturbances such as the
Trafalgar square riots of February 1886 and November 1887 were rare.
To
outsider and also to many at home Britain appeared a model community capable of
resolving internal conflicts without resort to excessive force or revolution.
Britain, by the norms of other nations, enjoyed high degrees of social cohesion
and national unity built on consent and cooperation between the governed and
the ruling order.
This sense of community survived despite the economic difficulties of the
period, troubles in Ireland, labor unrest, imperial problems, religious
tensions and a hard-fought political contest between competing fractions.
By
the turn of the nineteenth century the country had become a mass democracy,
though not one founded on the universal suffrage. It was a heavily urbanized community
based increasingly on distribution and professional services for economic
success.
The
United Kingdom population grew by almost a third in the last three decades of
the nineteenth century, a higher growth rate than for 1841 – 1871, though here
the rate is influenced by the Irish famine and its aftermath.
The
growth of real GNP was impressively high throughout the whole Victorian period,
and especially the Later Victorian time. It had more than doubled in the period
to 1871 and, in spite of growing anxieties about Britain’s weakening
competitive position it nevertheless managed an 83 per cent increase to 1901.
Consequently, national product per capita also exhibited a steady growth.
If
anything, there were many indications in the pre-1867 heritage to suggest that
change in Britain would generate much more turbulence than was experienced by
the late Victorians. In the large number of respects the period is remarkable”.
There should be a report too, exactly like in the lesson one. The probable
topic could be such an event as the “Rise of the professions”:
“A
phenomenon which gathered considerable pace in the Later Victorian period was
the emergence of a substantial and powerful professional groups, or classes, -though
the latter, perhaps, is not quite the right word – within the British middle
class. The emergence of the large group of professional occupations was
naturally a function of more global developments in the nineteenth-century
Britain: the growth maturation of the world’s first modern capitalist economy;
an increasing, and an increasingly prosperous, population, together with it’s
concentration in urban settlements; and the diversification of the industrial
structure, with an increased emphasis upon the service sectors.
The
growing urbanization of the United Kingdom also contributed to the rise of the
professions. From the ranks of the expanding “urbanized” group came not only
those who retained non-industrial tasks of the traditional professional
occupations – religion, law, medicine and education – but also those who helped
to professionalise other occupations connected with the demands of the
post-industrial world: accounting, surveying, civil and mechanical engineering,
and so on. The “rise of the professions”, then, was very much part, and a key
part, of the growth of the middle class and the emergence of what has been
termed the “service class”.
Numbers in the population group which can be entitled “professional occupations
and their subordinate services” in the United Kingdom are found to rise from
345000 in 1861 to 515000 in 1881 and 735000 in 1901, an increase of 113 per
cent, 1861 – 1901.
One
should pay attention to the implications for Britain of the rise of a
professional culture. The professions, though growing, remained numerically
small, about 4 per cent of the labor force by the year 1900. But there is
abundant evidence to suggest that this group wielded a disproportionate amount
of influence in the Later Victorian society. In well-known among the British
researchers formulation, professionals, by esposing the ideal of the educated
gentleman, helped to perpetuate the pre-industrial distinction between the
gentlemen and the players. With the former predominating, this encouraged the
incorporation of industrialists into a refashioned elite.
As
a result, the professions, being numerically small, still expanded their
numbers and economical influence and came to dominate the economic, social and
political life of the country.
The
question is how did the professions manage to achieve their exalted station? It
is supposed that they did so because the state lent them authority, specialist
services being deemed essential to the efficient running of the society.
The
professions provided the vital bridge between the dignified and efficient
sections of the community. They formed the cornerstone of a refashioned social
and political hierarchy, a new elite which managed the state effectively. The
potential British dissidents found themselves deprived of the support and
leadership of the bulk of the professional middle class, which preferred its
position as a group accorded financial and occupational recognition by the
existing state.
The
rise of the professions pointed both forwards and backwards: backwards in that
professionalisation failed to shake off the trappings of aristocratic values;
forwards in that it encouraged a greater degree of government intervention in
the economy, the hallmark of the modern twentieth-century state.”
Finally,
there should be a listening comprehension since all the listening exercises are
extremely useful anyway. It would be also useful to follow it with writing an
essay on the Victorian Period in whole or any particular theme which can be
picked out by a pupil. Here’s an example of the text for listening
comprehension:
“Stability in
Britain of the later Victorian period rested on the twin pillars of a belief in
– and respect for – the Constitution and the ability of the economy to produce
a satisfactory standard of living. The first could not function without a
stable institutional framework , while the latter required an effective
economic structure.
Although few could define closely what the
“Constitution” was at that time, it did simply a set of values as much as a
list of precise rules and regulations. At the cornerstone of the “Constitution”
were the monarchy, Parliament and an avowedly impartial judiciary. Parliament,
and especially the House of Commons and Cabinet, were the center of
government – the places where change was discussed, formulated and presented to
the nation at large.
Possibly at no other time did the House of Commons
play so central a role in the political system – it was at this time a focus of
public attention, the chief forum for argument and and the legitimate
instrument to initiate reforms. Outsiders like Irish nationalists, nonconformists,
trade unionists and women accepted that the House of Commons was the
appropriate forum to air grievances and demands. That concurrence helps explain
the stability of the nation – though it was a consensus which could only be
maintained so long as the whole community through the House of Commons showed
itself responsive to people’s aspirations.
Dignified organs such as the monarchy and the House of
Lords were essential because they enjoyed recognition and legitimacy. Under the
cloak of the dignified elements, the efficient instruments of governance – the
House of Commons and Cabinet – were able to conduct the affairs of state.
A great deal of stability in the United Kingdom of the
Late Victorian time came from its electoral system.
There was an intense debate about who was allowed to
vote and how the franchise was to be exercised. The electoral system introduced
during the Late Victorian period succeeded in satisfying both the aspirations
of the “responsible” working classes for political recognition and the desire
of the governing classes for stability. Many people on the eve of the Reform
Act of 1867 had doubted that the two aims could be reconciled. The electoral
system which emerged provided a formula for expression of strong feelings while
containing safeguards to ensure continuity and stability. It succeeded because
major groups were not alienated from British institutions and the working class
was united with its superiors in wanting a system that functioned smoothly,
efficiently and most of all economically.
Britain, in consequence, was ale to maintain an
electoral apparatus which was relatively cheap and enjoyed public confidence.
Also, the stability of the United Kingdom was possible because the remodelled
political elite chose to limit public competition for the favor of the masses
and sought instead to ensure that the voters were incorporated into the
existing political framework. Thus there was little attempt to exploit
potential discontent for partisan ends. Britain was able to move from limited
to house-hold suffrage during Victorian years without fundamentally disrupting
the political fabric.
Much use can be derived from considering the question
of stability of the political system from a local perspective.
A research carried out by John Garrard provides an
observation that both the Liberal and the Conservative parties adapted rapidly
to the challenge of the enfranchisement. They created powerful and
all-encompassing organisations to
produce acceptable political behaviour in the new votes. Parties were an
instrument of social cohesion for they built up a total culture which met many
of the social and psychological requirements of the community.
It is doubtful that the development of a complete
political culture was apparent in the Liberal and Conservative parties of the
Late Victorian era and did not have to await the coming of the Labor party.
Local leaders reacted quickly and appropriately to the prospect of an enlarged
electorate. These leaders used political activity to enlarge and consolidate
their own standings in society while at the same time contributing organization
and respectability to the electoral process.
National and local political activities were linked.
Political parties were an important element in the rise of the urban elites.
Through parties the working class was persuaded of the legitimacy and
responsiveness of existing British institutions.”