After her 1837 accession to the throne as a teenager, Queen Victoria’s realm was a time of great change. In this course you discover the facts and foibles of the paradoxical Britons.
Britain became the world’s pioneer in industrialization that transformed social classes, creating immense wealth for some and suffering and squalor for others.
This colonial empire, based on technical superiority and widespread belief in Anglo-Saxon racial supremacy, made Britain the most powerful nation in the world, envied and feared by neighbors and rivals. She was guided by a succession of brilliant prime ministers, especially Gladstone and Disraeli.
When Queen Victoria died in 1901, she left behind a nation indelibly marked by the Victorian legacy, for good and for ill.