By Yevlampyeva KritinaChuvash State University

Economy

Long-term economic trends led Britain, and to a lesser extent, other industrializing nations such as the United States and Germany, to be more receptive to the desires of prospective overseas investment. Through their investments in industry, banks were able to exert a great deal of control over the British economy and politics. Cut-throat competition in the mid-19th century caused the creation of super corporations and conglomerates. Many companies borrowed heavily to achieve the vast sums of money required to take over their rivals, resulting in a new capitalist stage of development.

By the 1870, financial houses in Britain had achieved an unprecedented level of control over industry. This contributed to increasing concerns among policymakers over the protection of British investments overseas — particularly those in the securities of foreign governments and in foreign-government-backed development activities, such as railways. Although it had been official British policy to support such investments, with the large expansion of these investments in the 1860s, and the economic and political instability of many areas of investment (such as Egypt), calls upon the government for methodical protection became increasingly pronounced in the years leading up to the Crystal Palace Speech. At the end of the Victorian era, the service sector (banking, insurance and shipping, for example) began to gain prominence at the expense of manufacturing.

EducationIn the early 19th century the churches provided schools for poor children. From 1833 the government provided them with grants. There were also dame schools. They were run by women who taught a little reading, writing and arithmetic. However many dame schools were really a child minding service.The state did not take responsibility for education until 1870. Fosters Education Act laid down that schools should be provided for all children. If there were not enough places in existing schools then board schools were built. In 1880 school was made compulsory for 5 to 10 year olds. However school was not free, except for the poorest children until 1891 when fees were abolished. From 1899 children were required to go to school until they were 12.

In the 19th century there was considerable growth of public schools to provide administrators and officers for the developing British Empire and elementary schools to provide basic skills (the three R's) of reading, writing and arithmetic for the skilled workforce required by the industrial revolution. During the 1811-1814 schools were organized in which the Bible was the basis of instructions. The National Schools were organized by the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor on the Principles of the Established Church. In 1833 first grants were given to the such church schools. In 1839 there was a growth of the state's interest in the education of children for life and work in the industrial civilization.

Science Science of the 19th Century Britain experienced some great expansion. New branches of science, such as anthropology, archeology and cell biology, were created. The science of Geology continued its growth and maturity as well, especially in the area of fossils and the movement of the Earth. Even the size of science expanded. The occupation of “scientist” became a paid position. Research labs became attached to universities and scientists became professors. The funding provided by universities and sometimes the government, allowed the public to conduct research and experiments instead of just the wealthy. With the university stage, it seems logical that scientists would get together to hear each other tell of their discoveries and that is exactly what happened. In Germany, scientists started the national scientific congresses in 1822. This would lead to international congresses by the middle of the century.

As science became more known by the general public, it often faced more public ridicule, especially by those who held certain religious beliefs. Prior to this era, science was condemned by the Church. The institutional persecution of Galileo and the Bishop George Berkeley’s criticism of Halley and Newton were replaced by a general public response. Often, newspapers ran cartoons persecuting various science ideas and public meetings on scientific ideas were well attended. One of the first issues to receive such a response was the age of the Earth. Geologists offered good evidence that the Earth was much older than the 6000 years believed by most Christians, Jews and Moslems. This opposition was minor compared to the reaction against Charles Darwin, Alfred Wallace, and the Theory of Evolution and Natural Selection. This battle continues on even today.

British art refers to all forms of art in or associated with the United Kingdom, including English art, Scottish art, Welsh art and Irish art. It is part of Western art history. he experience of military, political and economic power from the rise of the British Empire, led to a very specific drive in artistic technique, taste and sensibility in the United Kingdom. British people used their art "to illustrate their knowledge and command of the natural world", whilst the permanent settlers in British North America, Australasia, and South Africa "embarked upon a search for distinctive artistic expression appropriate to their sense of national identity". The empire has been "at the centre, rather than in the margins, of the history of British art", and imperial British visual arts have been fundamental to the construction, celebration and expression of Britishness.

Art

• The late 18th century and the early 19th century was perhaps the most radical period in British art, producing William Blake (1757–1827),William Turner (1775–1851), the later two being arguably the most internationally influential of all British artists. Turner was noted for his wild, almost abstract, landscapes that explored the effects of light and was a profound influence on the later impressionists. Constable too, was a landscape painter who was also to have an influence on the impressionists, but is more accessible than Turner, and is noted rather for his imprecise brush strokes and elevation of 'mundane' subject matter then Turners almost visionary presaging of the future.

The second half of the 19th century has been called the positivist age and one of the most fascinating periods in our history. It has been an age of faith in the positive consequences of what can be achieved through the close observation of the natural and human realms.The spirit of 19th century England could be personified through Queen Victoria and it's known as the Victorian era. It is covering the eclectic period of 64-year reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. British Empire became the most powerful, and England the most modern, and wealthy country in the World.

When most people think of the Victorian era, high fashion, gilded age, rich with elegance, splendor, and romance, strict etiquette, and plush or eclectic decorating styles come to mind - but it was so much more than that. Victorian era covers Classicism, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism. Classicism, with the accurate and apparently objective description of the ordinary, observable world, was specially viewed as the opposite of Romanticism. Paintings of the Romantic school were focused on spontaneous expression of emotion over reason and often depicted dramatic events in brilliant color. Impressionism, a school of painting that developed in the late 19th century, was characterized by transitory visual expressions that focused on the changing effects of light and color. Post-Impressionism was developed as a reaction to the limitations of Impressionism. Victorian art was shown in the full range of artistic developments, from the development of photography to the application of new technologies in architecture.

In the midst of these artistic movements, painters Dante Rossetti and William Holman Hunt formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. The avant-garde artists banded together with the common vision of recapturing the style of painting that preceded Raphael, famed artist of the Italian Renaissance. The brotherhood rejected the conventions of industrialized England, especially the creative principles of art instruction at the Royal Academy. Rather, the artists focused on painting directly from nature, thereby producing colorful, detailed, and almost photographic representations. The painters sought to transform Realism with typological symbolism, by drawing on the poetry and literature of William Shakespeare and their own contemporaries.

British attitudes to modern art were "polarized" at the end of the 19th century.

Literature

Romanticism. Major political and social changes at the end of the 18th century, particularly the French Revolution, prompted a new breed of writing known as Romanticism. William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge began the trend for bringing emotionalism and introspection to English literature, with a new concentration on the individual and the common man. The reaction to urbanism and industrialization prompted poets to explore nature, for example the Lake Poets. The third major Lake poet, Robert Southey, enjoys lasting popularity, although perhaps his most enduring contribution to literary history is the immortal children's classic, The Story of the Three Bears, the basis of the original Goldilocks story.

Walter Scott's novel-writing career was launched in 1814 with Waverley, often called the first historical novel, and was followed by Ivanhoe. His popularity in England and further abroad did much to form the modern stereotype of Scottish culture. Other novels by Scott which contributed to the image of him as a Scottish patriot include Rob Roy. Scott was the highest earning and most popular author up to that time.

Charles Dickens emerged on the literary scene in the 1830s, confirming the trend for serial publication. Dickens wrote vividly about London life and struggles of the poor, often, as in Oliver Twist, employing a popular style which would prove accessible to readers of all classes. The festive tale A Christmas Carol he called his "little Christmas book". Great Expectations is a quest for maturity. A Tale of Two Cities is set in London and Paris. Dickens early works are masterpieces of comedy, such as The Pickwick Papers. Later his works became darker, without losing his genius for caricature.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is a brilliant London-based "consulting detective", famous for his intellectual prowess, skillful use of astute observation, deductive reasoning and forensic skills to solve difficult cases. Holmes' archenemy Professor Moriarty, is widely considered to be the first true example of a super villain, while Sherlock Holmes has become a by-word for a detective. Conan Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories featuring Holmes, from 1880 up to 1907, with a final case in 1914. All but four Conan Doyle stories are narrated by Holmes' friend, assistant, and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson.

In the latter years of the 19th century, precursors of the modern picture book were illustrated books of poems and short stories produced by English illustrators Randolph Caldecott, Walter Crane, and Kate Greenaway. These had a larger proportion of pictures to words than earlier books, and many of their pictures were in colour. Some British artists made their living illustrating novels and children's books, include Arthur Rackham, Cicely Mary Barker, W. Heath Robinson, Henry J. Ford, John Leech, and George Cruikshank. One of the earliest and most influential books with the format that modern picture books retain is Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit.