Starter quiz
- Write the missing word. Lord Liverpool's government was described as ______ because it opposed social progress and reform.
- 'reactionary' ✓
- What is universal suffrage?
- system where all adults can vote ✓
- system where all men can vote
- system where all women can vote
- system where all taxpayers can vote
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- What did the violent attack by local yeomanry on a crowd at St Peter's Field in Manchester become known as?
- Policeman's Massacre
- Peterloo Massacre ✓
- Manchester Massacre
- Petrograd Massacre
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- Which two groups were commonly employed in cotton mills?
- children ✓
- skilled men
- skilled women
- unskilled women ✓
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- Which statement is most accurate?
- The Peterloo Massacre encouraged the government to pass revolutionary laws
- The Peterloo Massacre encouraged the government to pass radical laws
- The Peterloo Massacre encouraged the government to pass reactionary laws ✓
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- Starting with the earliest, sort the events into chronological order.
- 1⇔Corn Laws passed
- 2⇔Public anger towards the government grows
- 3⇔A large crowd meets at St Peter's Field
- 4⇔Manchester yeomanry kill peaceful protestors
- 5⇔Government introduces the Six Acts
Exit quiz
- Match up the key words with their correct definitions.
- constituencies⇔areas that elect someone to represent them in Parliament ✓
- franchise⇔the group of people who can vote in a country's elections ✓
- universal suffrage⇔a system where all adults can vote ✓
- Write the missing word. Old Sarum was a well-known ______ borough as it had no actual population living in its constituency boundaries by 1831.
- 'rotten' ✓
- Who was the new prime Minister who supported reform in 1830?
- Earl Grey ✓
- Lord Liverpool
- Thomas Attwood
- William Cobbett
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- How many adult men could vote after the passage of the Great Reform Act?
- one in two
- one in three
- one in four
- one in five ✓
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- Which statement is most accurate?
- After the Peterloo Massacre, the public was too scared to protest for reform
- After the Peterloo Massacre, the public was banned from protesting for reform
- After the Peterloo Massacre, the public continued to protest for reform ✓
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- Manchester and Totnes were both able to elect two MPs after the Great Reform Act. Based on this, which statement is most accurate?
- The Great Reform Act made sure that all areas were represented proportionately
- The Great Reform Act made representation of areas more disproportionate
- The Great Reform Act still left some areas disproportionately represented ✓
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Worksheet
Presentation
Video
Lesson Details
Key learning points
- Britain's unreformed parliament represented industrial workers poorly.
- The Whig government of Earl Grey and the Birmingham Political Union (BPU) helped bring about the 1832 Great Reform Act.
- The Great Reform Act expanded the franchise and gave representation to industrial towns.
- Despite the Great Reform Act, only one in five men could vote after 1832.
- Rules around being an MP were not changed by the Reform Act and remained a barrier to industrial workers representation.
Common misconception
Most campaigners for reform like the BPU wanted all adults in Britain to be enfranchised.
The BPU campaigned for tax-paying males to be enfranchised, which would have continued to exclude many poor workers as well as women.
Keywords
Franchise - the franchise refers to the group of people who can vote in a country's elections
Constituencies - the individual areas of a country that elect someone to represent them in Parliament are called constituencies
Disproportionate - something may be described as disproportionate if it is too large or small in comparison to something else
Rotten borough - a rotten borough was a constituency which elected an MP despite having very few voters
Representation - representation is the act of speaking or doing something officially for another person