The Victorian Century

Join us for an engaging discussion as we explore the Victorian Era (1837–1901), an age of innovation, empire, and profound social change. Under Queen Victoria’s long reign, Britain became the world’s foremost industrial and imperial power. Steam engines, railways, and telegraphs revolutionized daily life, while new wealth and urban growth brought unprecedented challenges—child labor, poverty, and class tension. At home, reformers fought for better working conditions, education, and women’s rights; abroad, Britain expanded its empire through trade and war from Asia to Africa, as Britain defended and expanded its empire amid challenges to its ideals and power.

Topics for Discussion

• The Early Reign and the Reform Acts
• The Industrial Revolution and Factory Reform
• Child Labor and the Factory Acts
• The Great Exhibition of 1851
• The Cholera Outbreak of 1854
• The Crimean War and Florence Nightingale
• The First and Second Opium Wars
• The Indian Rebellion of 1857
• The Anglo-Afghan Wars
• The First and Second Boer Wars
• Women’s Rights and the Suffrage Movement
• Art and Literature: Dickens, Tennyson, and the Pre-Raphaelites