The fluctuating value of people and individuals - HM

This image represents Queen Victoria on 1887. She was close to the 70 years when this portrait came out, and yet maintain her appeareance, altough is already wearing black (color that she didn't stop using after the death of her husband). By that point, beside Queen of Great Britain, she was already Empress of India, as confirmed by the legend of the portrait. If you look at the details, you will notice that some elements, decoration and clothes, doesn't look completely Victorian, indicating that they were probably designed on India. Victoria may not have considered her Indian…

Some people may consider that this flag is simple and others that is unattractive. However it represents and important historical event, since this was the flag of Hong Kong before the sovereignity over the region was given to China, marking the reincorporation of this territory and the official end of the British Empire. All the positive and negative  actions of the British Empire, finished that day of 1997 when this flag was replaced. At the time, there wer hopes that Hong Kong culture and freedom would spread elements of its way of being to the rest of China, but that hadn't happen…

This image depicts a caricature and its explanation. It gives a look at the conditions on the British Factories at the start of 19th century. If they weren't bad enough, the workers depicted in this image are kids. Related with the idea that workers were a little more than the machines in the factories for many employers, it's sad and even hard to believe that this also applied to the children, who had to work on those inapropiate conditions to help maintain their families, and sometimes, themselves. The only consolation, is that this was probably not as common as we may think, and rather…

You may not have heard of this woman before, but she was the first woman to be elected for the Parliament of the United Kingdom. She made campaign during the controversial legislative election of 1918 (the first in whic women voted, explained on the associated event), won and served for the constituency of Dublin St Patrick's, from 1918 to 1922. For most of that time, she also served a cabinet position, as Minister for Labour. Despite the many obstacles that were put to her and women to vote and be voted, Markievicz victory was an example that the cause was not useless, that things could…

An important breakpoint in Irsih history, the Great Famine of Ireland caused around a million deaths and the departure of thousands from the Island. Massive starvation, disease and death became common during the 7 years that this crisis lasted. Many times, the British government of the time, including Queen Victoria, have been criticized for a slow response or insufficient response to the crisis. Either way, is undeniable that Irish experienced hard times (as illustrated on the image), and we can only speculate what should have been different to avoid this horrors.

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Years before slavery was oficially ban on the United Kingdom, the Parliament and the politicals looked for ways to stop the trade of slaves (many understood that this would eventually lead to a ban on slavery, something that happened on the 1830's). The Act pointed to end the Atlantic slave trade on the British Empire, something that it achieve after years of campaign, multiple failed attempts and depstite the fact that slavery was already unsupported on British soil since the 3rd quarter of 18th century. This ban could be considered an important first step for the definitive abolition of…