Politician

Introduce you to foreign political leaders - Victoria

Birth and death: 1819-1901

Citizenship: UK

Birthplace: Kensington Palace, London

Identification: The Queen (r. 1837–1901)

Family: Duke Yu

Victoria's father was fourth son of George III, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, and her mother was German Princess Victoria.

Introduce you to foreign political leaders - Victoria

Victoria

June 20, 1837, her uncle, William IV, King of Britain and King of Hanover, died, but since both of his legitimate daughters had died, throne passed to Victoria. On 28th, 18-year-old Victoria was crowned Queen.

Introduce you to foreign political leaders - Victoria

Victoria

In early days of her reign, person with most influence over Victoria was Whig Prime Minister of Melbourne, so she also became a staunch Whig. However, her interest in Melbourne and Whig party declined sharply due to influence of her husband Abbott.

Great Britain completed Industrial Revolution in 1840s. In 1851, at Abbott's suggestion, London held first World's Fair to fully showcase Britain's industrial power. At same time, relying on its strong military power and dominance at sea, Great Britain unleashed a series of colonial wars and wars of conquest, appropriating large areas of land.

1840--1842, 1856--1860, Great Britain started two Opium Wars in a row, plundering a lot of wealth.

During reign of Queen Victoria, UK economy grew rapidly and continued to prosper. When she died, Britain already had a well-developed railway network connecting major cities. In terms of culture and science, the writer Dickens and naturalist Darwin were influential figures of their time. Due to constant development of economy and industry, British at that time gradually enjoyed conveniences of life brought by technological progress. It even changed lifestyle of British. For example, afternoon tea of ​​the British nobility began at that time and was imitated by people all over world.

During reign of Victoria, British Empire expanded tremendously and achieved unprecedented prosperity, which deeply affected whole world. Until today, many rivers, cities, ports and buildings in world bear name of Victoria.

In 1857, rivalry between Britain and France for control of Suez Canal came to a head. In order to dig canal, 120,000 people died in Egypt, and external debt amounted to 33 million pounds. The UK took opportunity to buy all 176,000 shares of Egypt for £4 million and received a 44% majority stake in Suez Canal.

In following year, India was annexed to colony of British Empire. In 1876, Victoria was crowned Empress of India. Britain also made it nearly impossible for Russia to win 1877-1878 war with Turkey. At that time, Russian army was just one step away from Istanbul, and Russia and Turkey signed an agreement on transfer of part of Balkan Peninsula to Russia. And Victoria did not want Russian influence to penetrate Balkan Peninsula, she forced Russia to make concessions by force and diplomatic pressure.

In 1882, taking advantage of French invasion of Morocco, Great Britain launched an armed aggression against Egypt, turning Egypt into a colony. At same time, Britain continued to expand its aggression in Asia and occupied new colonies dozens of times larger than its own.

December 14, 186L Albert died of typhoid feverA. The death of her husband plunged queen into depression, she left London for a long time to live in seclusion, never wore a crown even in public and always wore a widow's clothes, a black skirt and a white cap.

Introduce you to foreign political leaders - Victoria

Victoria's family

On January 22, 1901, Victoria died on Isle of Wight. This is her and Albert's favorite place.

On June 13, 1842, Queen Victoria boarded a train for first time. The Queen's husband and then Chief Engineer of British Railways were also on train at time. The speed of train was 30 kilometers per hour. . The Queen subsequently complained that she felt train was too fast and was very worried that train would fall off tracks.

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