So, bumbled my way through the on and offline parts of the chronological history of Chartism; now we're going to be looking at it based on themes.
Things to remember from Chartism:
KEY POINTS FROM THE NATIONAL PETITION
- Universal male suffrage
- No property qualifications for MPs
- Annual parliaments (new elected House of Commons each year)
- Constituencies of equal size, whether in terms of inhabitants or voters
- MPs should be paid
- Voting by secret ballot
This was what was put forward in the second national petition of 1842, the biggest one with over 3 million signatures. It's not specified but I believe the other petitions contained the same key points:
1839 - First National Petition
1842 - Second National Petition
1848 - Third National Petition
1849 - Fourth National Petition (attempted)
1852 - Fifth National Petition (attempted)
There are really 3 key dates for the Chartist movement:
- 1839 - first Chartist General Convention meets (first London, then moves to Birmingham); First National Petition with 1 million + signatures presented to Parliament 14th June; 12th July, the Commons reject a motion to consider the Petition; 5th November, armed force of Chartists march on Newport where soldiers fire on them - killing 20+ wounding ~50
- 1842 - 2nd May, the Second National Petition containing over 3 million signatures brought to London with crowds of 50,000 strong, and mounted horsemen; the Commons reject a motion to listen to six Chartist representatives the very next day; July-September - the 'Plug plot' strike takes place in Staffordshire, Lancashire and other parts of industrial North England and Scotland, strikers marching from town to town to encourage other workers to strike, conning the term 'turn-outs'
- 1848 - revolutions in late February-March in France, the Italian State of Austria, Hungary and the states of Germany (makes British government fearful); 10th April, Third National Petition presented - officials reject the claim that there are 5,700,000 signatures, instead making the number just under 2,000,000 including bogus ones, making Chartist leaders seem dishonest and untrustworthy; mass arrests and trials follow, including key Chartist leaders; summer - public disturbances and failed local attempts at uprisings; riots in Bradford (May 28th) and London (4th June)
Chartism basically fizzled out after this. The Fourth and Fifth National Petitions garnered very few signatures; it could be said that the public were disillusioned with huge disparity between numbers of signatures for the Third Petition.
Now going to moving onto looking at Chartism grouped by themes, as opposed to chronologically:
- Economic Distress - Chartist agitation at it height when economy struggling the most
- Political Goals - Chartism channelled this distress towards specific political goals
- Cultural - Chartism became a self-sustaining cultural community with a momentum of its own, despite set backs.
I have a tutorial coming up on the 31st and I don't feel ready at all. I think I'll email my tutor...