Chartism

• Impact the Great reform act

  10% to 20% men had the vote

  excluded a lot of people

  Pressure for further reforms
• Causes of chartism 


  > Skilled working class excluded from great reform

  > Radical protestors came together

  > Chartism was most popular during periods of high prices and high unemployment
• Charter demands

  • All men over 21 have the vote
  • elections have set ballots
  • No requirement for MPs to own property
  • Payment for MPs
  • Annual parliament
• Moral-force 


  William lovett

  > Wanted to concentrate on peaceful tactics
• Physical-force 


  > Feargus O'Connor

  > Intimidated the government by showing how many people backed him

  > Mass meetings and huge petitions allowed to warn the government

  > Others supported violent uprising such as Plug Riots 1842
• What were the chartists methods and actions

  Parliamentary support

  National organisation- regular meetings

  Mass meeting/ demonstrations - 100 000 people

  Chartist newspaper - O'Connor's Northern star, cheap

  Petitioning Parliament- 1839, 1842, 1848

  > Main weapon, over a million signatures in 1839 and over 3 million in 1842
• Short term impact

  • government refused to agree to more reform and repressed the chartist
  • Chartists were imprisoned or transported to Australia resulted in membership fall
  • Economy increased 1850s chartist movement declined
  • None of the demands were achieved
• Long term

  • end of 19th century 5/6 demands met
  • Political energy spread to other reform movements