WHY DID BRITAIN CHANGE THE WAY IT WAS RULED IN 1832?
HISTORY ASSESSMENT- WHY DID BRITAIN CHANGE THE WAY IT WAS RULED IN 1832?
As the early 19th century progressed, Great Britain desperately needed a turning point as the gap between the rich and the poor advanced. At this time a lot of the middle or lower class members opinion did not seem to matter therefore were not taken into account. The rich seemed to have a firm hold on making decisions and rules that a lot of the time did not involve or affect their lives but as the decades went on, the poor grew tired of the laws and more pressure was put onto parliament as more people began to rebel against these rules seeing that there were around 16.4 million people lived in Britain and only 478,000 were allowed to vote.
However commoners found it hard to make themselves heard since politians did not believe that the poor had earned the right to vote for their own leaders. To gain this right they were required to be men over 21 years of age and had to own land that was worth a certain amount. Nonetheless the lower class members were still not allowed to vote as they were considered too poor and not worthy of the opportunity.
In 50 places there were less than 40 voters which meant corruption and bribery were very easy and common effects during elections. A lot of boroughs such as those in rapidly growing industrial towns of Manchester had no MP’s to represent them or any of their needs but at the same times areas knows as rotten boroughs had 2 or more representatives but less than ten voters. Moreover there were no secret ballots and as a consequence a lot of violence often occurred whilst the representatives attempted to bribe their electorates.
As this continued a lot of campaigns were held by the working class to abolish the voting rules and make a change for new ones. Fearing another revolutionary war the prime minister and the king at the time were forced to take action and refresh the rules into ones that would be somehow fairer than the last in order to
As the early 19th century progressed, Great Britain desperately needed a turning point as the gap between the rich and the poor advanced. At this time a lot of the middle or lower class members opinion did not seem to matter therefore were not taken into account. The rich seemed to have a firm hold on making decisions and rules that a lot of the time did not involve or affect their lives but as the decades went on, the poor grew tired of the laws and more pressure was put onto parliament as more people began to rebel against these rules seeing that there were around 16.4 million people lived in Britain and only 478,000 were allowed to vote.
However commoners found it hard to make themselves heard since politians did not believe that the poor had earned the right to vote for their own leaders. To gain this right they were required to be men over 21 years of age and had to own land that was worth a certain amount. Nonetheless the lower class members were still not allowed to vote as they were considered too poor and not worthy of the opportunity.
In 50 places there were less than 40 voters which meant corruption and bribery were very easy and common effects during elections. A lot of boroughs such as those in rapidly growing industrial towns of Manchester had no MP’s to represent them or any of their needs but at the same times areas knows as rotten boroughs had 2 or more representatives but less than ten voters. Moreover there were no secret ballots and as a consequence a lot of violence often occurred whilst the representatives attempted to bribe their electorates.
As this continued a lot of campaigns were held by the working class to abolish the voting rules and make a change for new ones. Fearing another revolutionary war the prime minister and the king at the time were forced to take action and refresh the rules into ones that would be somehow fairer than the last in order to