Online Political History Timeline Resources
Students seeking a timeline of key political events and developments within the long nineteenth century can make use of a number of open access online resources.
The most expansive is the timeline of Britain, 1750-1900, provided by Oxford University Press, which incorporates political, social, military, and cultural events.
Brief biographical portraits of the British/UK prime ministers who served during our period can be found on the UK Government website, ‘Past Prime Ministers’.
The Victorian Web project provides a thorough chronicle of the key pieces of statutory legislation which provoked political debate during the Victorian period. It also hosts a timeline of statutes concerned with social reform.
- https://victorianweb.org/history/legistl.html
- https://victorianweb.org/history/socialism/chronology.html
UK Parliament’s website provides a useful timeline of the evolution of Britain’s electoral system. Two further pages from the same website provide an excellent overview of the campaign for women’s suffrage in particular.
- https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/chartists/keydates/
- https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/keydates/
- https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/case-studies-women-parliament/millicent-garrett-fawcett/the-early-suffrage-societies-in-the-19th-century—a-timeline/
Britain’s multiple military entanglements across the nineteenth century, large and small, are usefully summarised in two entries on Wikipedia, while Britain’s imperial history is meticulously dealt with in a timeline by the independent scholar Stephen Luscombe on his website ‘The British Empire’.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_Kingdom
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_British_Army_1800%E2%80%931899
- https://www.britishempire.co.uk/timeline/19century.htm
Finally, the Victorian Web project also hosts a timeline relating to key protest movements during the first half of the nineteenth century.
General Resources on Political History
Students interested in the political history of the long nineteenth century can also benefit from a number of excellent online resources which provide, among other things, overviews, essays, and access to primary sources, including visual sources.
The History of Parliament Trust hosts a searchable website that covers the long nineteenth century, providing information on individual MPs and constituencies, and much more besides. The UK Parliament website also offers a searchable record of Hansard, allowing ready access to parliamentary debates.
The Victorian Web project offers an abundance of essays, commentaries and primary source extracts on all things Victorian, political or otherwise. Similarly, the website of English Heritage offers various resources on the Victorian period, including sections on ‘Victorian Power and Politics’ and ‘Victorians: War’.
- https://victorianweb.org/history/index.html
- https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/story-of-england/victorian/
The Victorian Commons blog provides highlights from the History of Parliament’s research project on the House of Commons, 1832–68, offering insights into the culture of elections and the workings of Parliament.
The lives of two of the leading statesman of the period, the Duke of Newcastle and William Gladstone, are the subject of special websites.
- https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/learning/dukeofnewcastle/introduction.aspx
- https://www.williamgladstone.org.uk/
The website of the National Archives hosts some useful pages on nineteenth-century radicalism and various protest movements, including access to primary sources.