Publication of "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman"

As mentioned on a previous entry, the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" alongside the French Revolution, had a deep impact on the British culture and society of the time. One of the most influential works that came from that wave of responses is "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" (VRW), written by Mary Wollestonecraft. This essay critizice author's contemporary theorists that didn't believe that women should receive rational education, arguing for the importance of women in society, as they educate the children and could be companions of their husbands. The essay also argued for empowerement on politics, society and marriage for women.

Despite not explicitly talking about equality between the sexes beside some specific aspects, this essay maintained that women are most than "ornaments to society" as mere wives, maintaining that they are human beings, a key aspect of society and that they deserve fundamental rights just like men. This text had a moderate impact on its time, as it evidenced the inequalities between men and women and encourage for a bigger recognition of the last and the value they have in society, something that would also contribute to future movements and changes in Great Britain and the world. With that in mind, is not surprise that Wollstoncraft's essay is considered an early feminist phylosophy work and a precurssor to the future feminist movements.

Sources:

Sottosanti, K. (2025). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Encyclopaedia Britannica, website: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman | Summary, Importance, & Facts | Britannica

Wollstonecraft, M. (1792). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects. London, UK. 

Image of Public Domain, of the title page of the first edition of the essay.

Reign of Queen Victoria

Alexandrina Victoria, bettwr known as Queen Victoria, was the queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and monarch of the British Empire, for most of the 19th century. Her reign constituted the Victorian Era, a period of industrial, cultural and political change, as well as a great time for scientific development, lierature and physlosophy, marked for the expansion of the Empire. However, the Victorian Era was also marked for a tremendous inequality among the british and between the british and the people of the colonies.

On that context and after a complicate and strange succesion process, Victoria became Queen and strarted to live in the Buckingham Palace. On 1840 she married Prince Albert of Saxe-Couburg and Gotha, who would be one of the greatest moral, emotional and actions supporters that the Queen would have. The couple wanted to be perceived as a standard and example of what a British couple should be. Victoria, depsite being a determined women, always tried to look calmed and acted with a lot of self-control in public, at the time she encouraged a high moral way of life. Yet, she also showed concern for its people and tried to get close to them and help those in need. She became patron of over 100 institutions, including dozens of charities, while Albert was known for supporting the development of education and museums. They made civic visits to industrial towns and attended military reviews to support the armed forces. Aditionally, during her reign many social reforms aiming to improve the ocnditions of people in need were approved (even if she wasn't necessary involved on the creation of those laws, she approved them).

Those actions shows that Queen Victoria tried to be a monarch close to the people and who was concerned about those in need. It is unclear how much did she actually care about her citizens or, unlikely, if everything was part of a political strategy, yet it is undeniable that Victoria presented herself as benevolent ruler who look for her citizens and that her actions had an actual impact on how the value of individuals was perceived by society and the british government.

Sources:

Bates, S. (2014). Queen Victoria also pleaded poverty. But these days [arliament bites back. The Guardian, website: Queen Victoria also pleaded poverty. But these days parliament bites back | Stephen Bates | The Guardian

BBC teach. Queen Victoria: The woman who redefined Britain's monarchy. BBC, website: Queen Victoria: The woman who redefined Britain’s monarchy - BBC Bitesize

Hibbert, C. (2000). Queen Victoria: A Personal History. London: Harper Collins.

Image of Public Domain.

Start of British Raj

During Victorian Era, the British crown gain direct control over India, in what would be called the "British raj". Since the 18th century, parts of what nowadays are India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, were administered by the East India Company (a British company), but after years of distrust and dissatisfaction, which led to a violent uprising in 1857, the company started to loose control over the subcontinent. The political, social and economical consequences of this caused the abolishment of the East India Company and the transfer of rule to the British government and the Crown. With that India would fully become part of the empire, and Queen Victoria herself would be proclaimed Empress of India in 1876.

But this didn't went without controversy. Complains and denounces of abuses by the colonial authorities were common even before the start of the Raj, and many times the critics came from British themselves. Many authors, thinkers, political and authorities, publicly criticize the colonial rule and the abuses against the local populations. A well-known case is the novel "War of the Worlds", fromt he writer and society' critic, H.G. Wells, who knew and witnessed those abuses first hand, something that inspire him to write his novel in which "a foreign power" came to England and start to conquered it.

The division of opinions about colonialism on India, remain relevant during most of the Raj and after it. There were many positions about the rule over India, which let us see how there were many ways in which people were valued for the British. There were those who saw Indians as less and that justify the rule over them (and sometimes the abuses), with the idea that it was British' duty to help them to be better. Other people considered them as less, but were against the abuses and the rule those sutained. Other positions were those that considered that India was a burden for the empire, other that considerates Indians a equally humans but different from the British (some of those wanted them to be apart of the British) and others that thought that Indians should be equals with the native British. Those are just some of the positions, yet it let us see that in general terms, either conciously or not, most British had a feeling of superiority and thought of the Indians with condescendence. Either way, this an example of how the value that society give to a same colelctive or the individuals of it may vary a lot depending on who you ask.

Sources:

Kaul, C. (2011). From Empire to Independence: The British Raj in India 1858-1947. BBC History.

Steinback, S. (2012). Understanding the Victorians: Politics, Culture and Society in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Routledge: London & New York.

Wolpert, S. (2025). British Raj. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Website: British raj | Imperialism, Impact, History, & Facts | Britannica

Image of Public Domain, from the Edinburgh Geographical Institute.

Decolonization and the end of the Empire

After centuries as a Colonial Power, the 2 World Wars of 20th Century left the British Empire on a weak position. The massive loss of lives, the costs of the war, the weakening of trade and industry, a change on the mentality of the British society, the cultural impact of the wars and its horrors, are some of the internal factors that pushed the government to make changes. Meanwhile, the indepentist movements on many colonies, the status of the United States and the URSS as the new world super-powers (both with anti-colonialist ideas), the lack of strenght of colonial authorities for enforcing the laws and a world's change on mentality toward colonialism, were some of the external factors that contributed to the end of colonial empires, including the British.

The first important partition of the Empire, ocurred on 1947, when India (the most important colony of the Empire at the time), gain its independence from Great Britain and then split on India and Pakistan (which later would also split into Bangladesh and modern Pakistan). It is worth to mention that the separation from Great Britain was fairly peacefull and previously negotiated (sadly, the same can't be said about India and Pakistan split).

Soon after, on May of 1948, Palestine also separated from the Empire and the State of Israel was created. This was related with the fact that many Jewish people, refugees and survivors of WWII, Nazi prosecution and the Holocaust, wanted to return to the land of their ancestors, despite the opposition of the arab and muslim populations that unhabited the zone at the time. The split of Palestine was ac omplicated process and a war exploded just after it, yet British Empire didn't get directly involved on the conflict, since their objective was the separation from Palestine and the creation of the new Jewish state of Israel.

On the same year, a civil war started on Malasya, between the forces of the Malayan Federation and the Commonwealth and a pro-Independence communist Liberation Army. The war extended for more than 10 years, until 1960, when the Federation forces declared the state of emergency over, the Liberation army was defeated and Malasya came out as an independent state with approval of the British authorities.

On 1956, Egypt unilaterally nationalised the Suez Canal, after some years of tense relationships with the British. Great Britain was not on the best position, but still plot a plan with Israel and France to declare war on Egypt and retake the Canal. However the intervention of the USA in this issue, put an end to the conflict and put pressure on Great Britain, who despite their military achievements on the conflict was forced to accept the terms of USA, making evident to the rest of the world the weak state in which the Empire was already.

The tendency of decolonization continued during the next decades. Malta gain its independence in 1964. By 1968, with exception of South Rodesia, all the British Colonies on Africa had already had their independences. Between 1970 and 1980, the colonies on the Pacific, starting with Fiji and finishing with Vanuatu, acquired their independences. On 1981 Belize gained its independence, this was the last British colony on the Caribbean. Many other territories also gained its independence, and Hong Kong was the last colony of the Empire, when in 1997, after decades of tension and then negotiation with China, Great Britain finally handed over the city to the Chinese government, with the only condition that it will keep some autonomy fromt he rest of the country during 50 years. That transfer of sovereignity over this region, is what the majority of experts considered the official end of the British Empire.

Beside the political, military and economical reasons of why the British Empire dissolved, we need to llok at the ideological and cultural reasons. Contrary to the independence process of the Americas, the majority of the Independence process of the former british colonies went out without a direct fight between the independentist and the metropoli. Instead, most of the process came to be for convenience of the british and negociation. I think that the breaking point on the mentality came after the 2 World Wars. Because of the huge loss of life, the unclear achievements and the horros commited by their enemies against specific collectives during WWII, the British became more sensible about the importance of individual lives and aware of the horrors that discrimination toward other nations/ethnicities could cause. The second realization may not have a huge impact at first (after all, racism perdured as a genralized thing on Great Britain some decades after the WWII), however as many other breakpoints on this timeline, it started a series of events, reactions and actions that eventually lead the English to be more respectful toward other nations. Either way, is undeniable that the loss of millions of people and the atrocities of the war caused a sensibilization toward life among the people, which translated on a bigger respect and value-giving toward individuals, something that one way or another helped to have a smoother transition of power on most of the former colonies and contributed to the "let them be, let them live" process that were most of the independences from the Empire.

Sources:

Abernathy, D. (2000). The Dynamics of Global Dominance: European Overseas Empires, 1415-1980. Yale University Press.

Lawrence, J. (2001). The Rise and Fall of the British Empire. Abacus.

Lloyd, T. (1996). The British Empire 1558-1995. Oxford University Press.

Macdonald, B. (1994). Britain. Tides of history: the Pacific Islands in the twentieth century. University of Hawaii Press.

Owen, R. (2001). Suez Crisis. The Oxford Companion to the Politics of the World (2nd ed.)  Oxford University Press.

Piers, B. (2007). The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997. Random House.

Sprinhall, J. (2001). Decolonization since 1945: the collapse of European overseas empires. Palgrave.

Talbot, I; & Gurharpal, S. (2009). The Partition of India. Cambridge University Press.

Image of Public Domain.