Chapter 25: Democracy and Reform "Queen Victoria"

Introduction
Students have read that Queen Victoria reigned during an era of political reform. Two brilliant prime ministers served during that period: William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli. It was through their efforts that Great Britain continued toward full democracy.

Lesson Description
Students will go to the Queen Victoria Web site. They will then answer four questions about what they have read.

Instructional Objectives
1. Students will learn more about the life of Queen Victoria.
2. Students will learn about the queen's interactions with her prime ministers.

Student Web Activity Answers
1. The writer contrasts it to the potato famine in Ireland. The continued export of grain and cattle from Ireland to England contributed to the deaths of over a million Irish peasants from starvation.
2. The writer states that with Victoria, Prince Albert initiated various reforms and innovations and organized the Great Exhibition of 1851.
3. She did not get on well with Gladstone but, according to the writer, succumbed to Disraeli's flattery, as when she permitted him to have her crowned Empress of India in 1876.
4. Students' answers will vary but should refer to Victorian morality, which is now considered stuffy or hypocritical. Queen Victoria herself was considered to be serious, rather prudish, strict, and humorless, and for many people she embodied the spirit of the age.

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