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Power and the People in Britain, c1170 to the Present Day

The extension of the franchise

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 2 section A

Overview

Rotten and pocket boroughs, Peterloo and the Six Acts, the Great Reform Act of 1832 and its disappointments, the Chartists' six demands, their petitions, the Newport Rising and the collapse of 1848, and the later reforms of 1867, 1872 and 1884.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Numbers

What did the Chartists demand, what methods did they use, and where did some Chartists turn to force?

Who and when

Who was entitled to vote in Britain before 1832?

Key term

What were rotten boroughs and pocket boroughs?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Who was entitled to vote in Britain before 1832?

    Model answer

    Only a small minority of men, fewer than one adult male in ten, and the qualification differed wildly from one place to the next; no woman could vote at all.

  2. 2

    What were rotten boroughs and pocket boroughs?

    Model answer

    Seats such as Old Sarum with almost no inhabitants left, and seats where a single landowner controlled the handful of voters and simply chose the member.

  3. 3

    What happened at St Peter's Field in Manchester in 1819?

    Model answer

    A crowd of some sixty thousand gathered peacefully to hear Henry Hunt speak for reform; mounted yeomanry charged in to arrest him, killing about fifteen people and injuring hundreds.

  4. 4

    How did the government respond to the demand for reform after 1819?

    Model answer

    With the Six Acts, which restricted public meetings, allowed magistrates to search for weapons, speeded up trials and taxed cheap newspapers out of the reach of working readers.

  5. 5

    What did the Great Reform Act of 1832 actually change?

    Model answer

    It swept away the worst decayed seats and gave members to industrial towns such as Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds, and set a uniform household qualification in the boroughs.

  6. 6

    Why did the 1832 Act disappoint so many of those who had campaigned for it?

    Model answer

    Only about one adult man in five could now vote, voting was still public and open to bribery and intimidation, and working men were left out altogether.

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