The+Victorian+Era

The Victorian era of the United Kingdom and its overseas empire was the period of Queen Victoria's rule from June 1837 to January 1901. This was a long period of prosperity for the British people, as profits gained from the overseas empire, as well as from industrial improvements at home, allowed a large, educated middle class to develop. Some scholars would extend the beginning of the period—as defined by a variety of sensibilities and political concerns that have come to be associated with the Victorians—back five years to the passage of the Reform Act 1832. The era was preceded by the Georgian period and succeeded by the Edwardian period. The latter half of the Victorian era roughly coincided with the first portion of the //Belle Époque// era of continental Europe and other non-English speaking countries within Europe. The era is often characterized as a long period of peace, known as the [|Pax Britannica], and economic, colonial, and industrial consolidation, temporarily disrupted by the Crimean War, although Britain was at war every year during this period. Towards the end of the century, the policies of New Imperialism led to increasing colonial conflicts and eventually the Anglo-Zanzibar War and the Boer War. The empire's size doubled during the era.