Current Events:
Senate Homeland Security Hearing on Northwest Flight 253
The Senate Homeland Security Committee is one of several committees inquiring into the attempted December 25th bombing of Northwest flight 253. This hearing focused on intelligence gathering and the sharing of information. None of the top three intelligence officials in the U.S., Janet Napolitano, Dennis Blair, and Michael Leiter were consulted.
At the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair questioned the decision to charge Abdulmutallab in civilian court, rather than treat him as a terrorism suspect subject to detention as an enemy combatant. Blair, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and National Counterterrorism Center director Michael Leiter said they weren't consulted about the decision, a theme that has been pressing by some in recent weeks.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, administration officials acknowledged that Abdulmutallab should have been stopped from getting on the plane but was not because of a series of mistakes by law enforcement and intelligence officials.
Section 2 The Emergence of Mass Society
Media Library
Section 3 The National State and Democracy
Media Library
Western Europe and Political Democracy
Great Britain
Audio
Audio
In 1815, Britain was a constitutional monarchy with a parliament and two political parties. Still, it was far from democratic. Although members of the House of Commons were elected, less than five percent of the people had the right to vote. Wealthy nobles and squires, or country landowners, dominated politics and heavily influenced voters. In addition, the House of Lords—made up of hereditary nobles and high-ranking clergy—could veto any bill passed by the House of Commons.
Reformers Press for Change
Long-standing laws kept many people from voting. Catholics and non-Anglican Protestants, for example, could not vote or serve in Parliament. In the 1820s, reformers pushed to end religious restrictions. After fierce debate, Parliament finally granted Catholics and non-Anglican Protestants equal political rights.
An even greater battle soon erupted over making Parliament more representative. During the Industrial Revolution, centers of population shifted. Some rural towns lost so many people that they had few or no voters. Yet local landowners in these rotten boroughs still sent members to Parliament. At the same time, populous new industrial cities like Manchester and Birmingham had no seats allocated in Parliament because they had not existed as population centers in earlier times.
Vocabulary Builder
allocate—(al oh kayt) vt. to distribute according to a plan
Reform Act of 1832
By 1830, Whigs and Tories were battling over a bill to reform Parliament. The Whig Party (liberal) largely represented middle-class and business interests. The Tory Party (conservatives) spoke for nobles, land-owners, and others whose interests and income were rooted in agriculture. In the streets, supporters of reform chanted, “The Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill!” Their shouts seemed to echo the cries of revolutionaries on the continent.
Dorothea rejects a wealthy, pleasant, but less than brilliant, young baronet, Sir James Chettam, in favour of the Reverend Edward Casaubon, a clergyman in late middle-age, who, she imagines, will teach her and engage her in great works.
Mary Ann Evans, better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist. She was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. Her novels, largely set in provincial England, are well known for their realism and psychological perspicacity.
Eliot's most famous work, Middlemarch (completed in 1872), is a turning point in the history of the novel. Making masterful use of a counterpointed plot, Eliot presents the stories of a number of denizens of a small English town on the eve of the Reform Bill of 1832. The main characters, Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate, long for exceptional lives but are powerfully constrained both by their own unrealistic expectations and by a conservative society. The novel is notable for its deep psychological insight and sophisticated character portraits.
BBC production, 1994.
The Reform Act of 1832 did not bring full democracy, but it did give a greater political voice to middle-class men. Landowning nobles, however, remained a powerful force in the government and in the economy.
The Chartist Movement
The reform bill did not help rural or urban workers. Some of them demanded more radical change. In the 1830s, protesters known as Chartists drew up the People’s Charter. This petition demanded universal male suffrage, annual parliamentary elections, and salaries for members of Parliament. Another key demand was for a secret ballot, which would allow people to cast their votes without announcing them publicly.
Twice the Chartists presented petitions with over a million signatures to Parliament. Both petitions were ignored. In 1848, as revolutions swept Europe, the Chartists prepared a third petition and organized a march on Parliament. Fearing violence, the government moved to suppress the march. Soon after, the unsuccessful Chartist movement declined. In time, however, Parliament would pass most of the major reforms proposed by the Chartists.
From 1837 to her death in 1901,
The Victorian Web
Queen Victoria Sketch, 2:09
Monty Python's Flying Circus gives us a clear picture of what Queen Victoria was truly like, in a silent film taken in 1880 and narrated by Alfred Lord Tennyson, late Poet Laureate.
Symbol of a Nation’s Values
As queen, Victoria came to embody the values of her age. These Victorian ideals included duty, thrift, honesty, hard work, and above all respectability. Victoria herself embraced a strict code of morals and manners. As a young woman, she married a German prince, Albert, and they raised a large family.
Victoria and Albert (2002), 3:50
The Love Story of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert has always been one of the most romantic Royal Love Stories. He was the strength behind her reign and they shared a deep and passionate love that one only finds once. Only their love was to be cut short by the hand of time when Albert died unfortunately at a young age.
Song:
I Will Love You
Artist:
Fisher
Footage:
Victoria and Albert
Starring:
Victoria Hamilton as Queen Victoria
Jonathan Firth as Prince Albert
Victoria I & Prince Albert, Music, "This One" - Utada, 4:32
Queen Victoria I & Prince Albert
Alexandrina Victoria (Queen Victoria I of the United Kingdoms) was born on May 24, 1819 in Kensington Palace to Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, and Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.
Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel (Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha)
was born on August 26, 1819 to Ernest of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Princess Louise of Saxe-Coburg-Altenburg.
The second meeting between Prince Albert and Queen Vicotira in October 1839, Vicotria fell head over heels in love with Albert. "dear Albert He is so sensible, so kind, and so good, and so amiable too. He has besides, the most pleasing and delightful exterior and appearance you can possibly see." Prince Albert was Victoria's first cousin. As a monarch, Victoria had to propose to him and she did on October 15, 1839. And on February 10, 1840, they were married at Chapel Royal, St. Jame Palace, London. England. Their marriage proved to be very happy. Both psychologically and physically. Their marriage resulted in 9 children ; Victoria, Albert (Edward VII), Alice, Alfred, Helena, Louise, Arthur, Leopold, and Beatrice.
Albert became not only the Queen's companion, but an important political advisor. Prince Albert was a man of progressive and liberal ideas. He led University reforms, he fought for the Improvement of the Condition of the Labouring Class, etc. His most rememberable achievement is The Great Exhibition of 1851 housed in the Crystal House in Hyde Park, London.
Prince Albert died on December 14th, 1861 at 10:50 PM in the Blue Room of Windsor Castle of typhoid fever. Queen Victoria never got over Alberts death. For the rest of her life she would wear only black (earning her the title of The Widow of Windsor) and she would have Prince Alberts normal attire and such set out for him everyday. This mourning would continue until she died on January 22, 1901.
Lyrics :
How can I put this, aye aye aye
I'm an independent woman, aye
I've been crying like a child
I just wanted you to know the person that I am
More than any other of your fans
I will love you for a thousand years
Yours truly
I ain't gonna play it cool
Let me tell you, I've tried that already
Every day and every night
Your words ring through me
Who am I trying to fool
Honey, I've been living on my own, like Freddie
But I'm still a woman
Baby tell me how
* How could I ever love another
How could you say you don't remember?
God knows I'd give anything
For just one more night together
Today I miss you more than ever
How could you say you don't remember?
This one's for the happiness
I'll be wishing you forever
It's just another Friday night
For you and your accessories
Lights and there you are before my eyes
Two hours and for fifteen minutes you are here
I don't wanna scream lest I should tear
A whisper in the darkness disappears
Sincerely
We should get back on the road
Like Simon and Garfunkel Let's get married
You are all the shelter that I need above me
Who am I trying to fool
Honey, I got your ringtone on my BlackBerry
And I won't give a dang
If only I knew how
* repeat
You got me crying like a child
Ain't no need for to lie
A hundred jpeg files
Filling up my hard drive
You got me crying like a child
And the crowd is going wild
This one; this is the one
Come on and give it up'
* repeat
* repeat
A Confident Age
Under Victoria, the British middle class—and growing numbers of the working class—felt great confidence in the future. That confidence grew as Britain expanded its already huge empire. Victoria, the empress of India and ruler of some 300 million subjects around the world, became a revered symbol of British might.
Infographic
From Monarchy to Democracy in Britain
During her reign, Victoria witnessed growing agitation for social reform. The queen herself commented that the lower classes “earn their bread and riches so deservedly that they cannot and ought not to be kept back.” As the Victorian era went on, reformers continued the push toward greater social and economic justice.
In the 1860s, a new era dawned in British politics. The old political parties regrouped under new leadership. Benjamin Disraeli forged the Tories into the modern Conservative Party. The Whigs, led by William Gladstone, evolved into the Liberal Party. Between 1868 and 1880, as the majority in Parliament swung between the two parties, Gladstone and Disraeli alternated as prime minister. Both fought for important reforms.
Expanding Suffrage
Disraeli and the Conservative Party pushed through the Reform Bill of 1867. By giving the vote to many working-class men, the new law almost doubled the size of the electorate.
In the 1880s, it was the turn of Gladstone and the Liberal Party to extend suffrage. Their reforms gave the vote to farmworkers and most other men. By century’s end, almost-universal male suffrage, the secret ballot, and other Chartist ambitions had been achieved. Britain had truly transformed itself from a constitutional monarchy to a parliamentary democracy, a form of government in which the executive leaders (usually a prime minister and cabinet) are chosen by and responsible to the legislature (parliament), and are also members of it.
Limiting the Lords
In the early 1900s, many bills passed by the House of Commons met defeat in the House of Lords. In 1911, a Liberal government passed measures to restrict the power of the Lords, including their power to veto tax bills. The Lords resisted. Finally, the government threatened to create enough new lords to approve the law, and the Lords backed down. People hailed the change as a victory for democracy. In time, the House of Lords would become a largely ceremonial body with little power. The elected House of Commons would reign supreme.
France
Audio
The news sent shock waves through Paris. Napoleon III had surrendered to the Prussians and Prussian forces were now about to advance on Paris. Could the city survive? Georges Clemenceau (kleh mahn soh), a young French politician, rallied the people of Paris to defend their homeland:
“Citizens, must France destroy herself and disappear, or shall she resume her old place in the vanguard of nations? . . . Each of us knows his duty. We are children of the Revolution. Let us seek inspiration in the example of our forefathers in 1792, and like them we shall conquer. Vive la France! (Long Live France!)”
Learn
Focus Question
What democratic reforms were made in France during the Third Republic?
For four months, Paris resisted the German onslaught. But finally, in January 1871, the French government at Versailles was forced to accept Prussian surrender terms.
The Franco-Prussian War ended a long period of French domination of Europe that had begun under Louis XIV. Yet a Third Republic rose from the ashes of the Second Empire of Napoleon III. Economic growth, democratic reforms, and the fierce nationalism expressed by Clemenceau all played a part in shaping modern France.
Italy
Reading Check
Summarizing
What is the principle of ministerial responsiblity?
Central and Eastern Europe: The Old Order
Germany
Austria-Hungary
Russia
Reading Check
Identifying
What was the role of the Duma in the Russian government?
The United States and Canada (Is Canada a part of the United States?)
Aftermath of the Civil War
Economic differences, as well as the slavery issue, drove the Northern and Southern regions of the United States apart. The division reached a crisis in 1860 when Abraham Lincoln was elected president. Lincoln opposed extending slavery into new territories. Southerners feared that he would eventually abolish slavery altogether and that the federal government would infringe on their states’ rights.
North Versus South
Soon after Lincoln’s election, most southern states seceded, or withdrew, from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. This action sparked the Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865.
The South had fewer resources, fewer people, and less industry than the North. Still, Southerners fought fiercely to defend their cause. The Confederacy finally surrendered in 1865. The struggle cost more than 600,000 lives—the largest casualty figures of any American war.
Challenges for African Americans
During the war, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, by which enslaved African Americans in the South were declared free. After the war, three amendments to the Constitution banned slavery throughout the country and granted political rights to African Americans. Under the Fifteenth Amendment, African American men won the right to vote.
Still, African Americans faced many restrictions. In the South, state laws imposed segregation, or legal separation of the races, in hospitals, schools, and other public places. Other state laws imposed conditions for voter eligibility that, despite the Fifteenth Amendment, prevented African Americans from voting.
Economy
By 1900, the United States had become the world's richest nation.
Audio
After the Civil War, the United States grew to lead the world in industrial and agricultural production. A special combination of factors made this possible including political stability, private property rights, a free enterprise system and an inexpensive supply of land and labor—supplied mostly by immigrants. Finally, a growing network of transportation and communications technologies aided businesses in transporting resources and finished products.
Business and Labor
By 1900, giant monopolies controlled whole industries. Scottish-born Andrew Carnegie built the nation’s largest steel company, while John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company dominated the world’s petroleum industry. Big business enjoyed tremendous profits.
Intro to John D. Rockefeller, 2:38
dominate—(dahm un nayt) vt. to rule or control by superior power or influence
But the growing prosperity was not shared by all. In factories, wages were low and conditions were often brutal. To defend their interests, American workers organized labor unions such as the American Federation of Labor. Unions sought better wages, hours, and working conditions. Struggles with management sometimes erupted into violent confrontations. Slowly, however, workers made gains.
Populists and Progressives
In the economic hard times of the late 1800s, farmers also organized themselves to defend their interests. In the 1890s, they joined city workers to support the new Populist party. The Populists never became a major party, but their platform of reforms, such as an eight-hour workday, eventually became law.
Economics and the Populist Party, 2:24
The American Academy's U.S. History - online high school course.
History Extra Credit: Populist Party, :54
William Jennings Bryan's Cross of Gold Speech, 3:29
High inflation during the American civil war benefited farmers who were debtors and who received high prices for farm products. After the war, the U.S. went back to the gold standard causing general deflation. Various rural-based inflation movements developed. By the early 1890s, the Populist Party and figures within the Democratic and Republican Parties advocated "free silver" (a silver-standard currency at a high price for silver that would bring inflation). The Populists represented an alliance of rural interests and silver mining interests. Free silver advocate William Jennings Bryan became the Democratic presidential candidate of 1896, delivering the famous "Cross of Gold" speech denouncing the gold standard. This is a radio broadcast on the 100th anniversary of the speech which includes a 1923 phonograph recording of excepts from the speech by Bryan. (Bryan ran for president 4 times. He was Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson for a time. And he became the prosecutor in the Scopes "Monkey Trial" in Tennessee, convicting Scopes for teaching evolution in the public schools.)
Audio
For many Irish families fleeing hunger, Russian Jews escaping pogroms, or poor Italian farmers seeking economic opportunity, the answer was the same—America! A poem inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty expressed the welcome and promise of freedom that millions of immigrants dreamed of:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
—Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus”
Learn
Focus Question
How did the United States develop during the 1800s?
In the 1800s, the United States was a beacon of hope for many people. The American economy was growing rapidly, offering jobs to newcomers. The Constitution and Bill of Rights held out the hope of political and religious freedom. Not everyone shared in the prosperity or the ideals of democracy. Still, by the turn of the nineteenth century, important reforms were being made.
Expansion Abroad
U.S. Expansion, 1783–1898
From the earliest years of its history, the United States followed a policy of expansionism, or extending the nation’s boundaries. At first, the United States stretched only from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana territory from France. In one stroke, the Louisiana Purchase virtually doubled the size of the nation.
By 1846, the United States had expanded to include Florida, Oregon, and the Republic of Texas. The Mexican War (1846–1848) added California and the Southwest. With growing pride and confidence, Americans claimed that their nation was destined to spread across the entire continent, from sea to sea. This idea became known as Manifest Destiny. Some expansionists even hoped to absorb Canada and Mexico. In fact, the United States did go far afield. In 1867, it bought Alaska from Russia and in 1898 annexed the Hawaiian Islands.
Canada
Reading Check
Identifying
Name the territories acquired by the United States in 1898.
International Rivalries
Reading Check
Summarizing
What countries formed the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente?
Crisis in the Balkans
Reading Check
Explaining
Why were the Serbs outraged when Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina?
Section 4 Toward the Modern Consciousness
Media Library
Scientific developments of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries changed the way people saw themselves and their world. Writers, artists, and musicians rebelled against traditional literary and artistic styles and created new ones that sometimes shocked critics with their audacity. Impressionism, cubism, and abstract art emerged. The scientific discoveries of Marie Curie and Albert Einstein, and the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud defied the orderly view of reason. Charles Darwin's description of life as a biological struggle for survival led to the Social Darwinism of Herbert Spencer and others. Extreme nationalist ideologies also borrowed from Social Darwinism. Threatening anti-Semitic activity in France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary led many Jews to emigrate to escape persecution. Many Jews immigrated to Palestine, where Zionists were trying to restore Jewish life.
A New Physics
Reading Check
Explaining
How did Marie Curie's discovery change people's ideas about the atom?
Freud and Psychoanalysis
A thought provoking collection of Creative Quotations from Sigmund Freud (1856-1939); born on May 6. Austrian psychoanalyst; He was the first to develop the concept of the subconscious mind; founded psychoanalysis, 1895-1900.
Psychologist Sigmund Freud demonstrates what a boy will think in his conscious and unconscious when he sees a girl...on the beach. In a fantastically fun and educational way, the psychology legend explains and defines his terms, Id, Ego, and Superego.
This is a stop-motion video of a Sigmund Freud action figure dancing to Bloodhound Gang's "The Bad Touch."
Freudian Slippers: a brand new way of thinking about footwear. Brought to you by the Unemployed Philosophers Guild: www.philosophersguild.com.
Sigmund Freud On The BBC - 1938 - Brief Audio Clip
Toward the end of his life, Freud was asked by the BBC to provide a brief statement about his decades-long career in psychoanalysis... here, in English, he offers a succinct overview... The "Freud Conflict and Culture" web site said this:
"On December 7, 1938, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) came to Freud's Maresfield Gardens home in London to record a short message. By this time his cancer of the jaw was inoperable and incurable, making speech difficult and extremely painful. A photograph of Freud was taken as he prepared to read the statement you are listening to now. After his long struggle with cancer grew intolerable, Freud asked his physician for a fatal injection of morphine. He died on September 23, 1939."
Late Clips Of Sigmund Freud (1932, 1938)
In these brief clips, psychoanalysis founder Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is first seen in Vienna in 1932 speaking with archeologist Emanuel Loewy, then in 1938 signing the Royal Society's charter book and lastly celebrating his 81st birthday... the latter clips were taken in London where Freud and his family were forced to move from Vienna following the 1938 Nazi Anschluss (he died in London a year later).
Reading Check
Summarizing
What is Freud's theory of the human unconscious?
Social Darwinism and Racism
Reading Check
Explaining
What does the theory of social Darwinism state?
Anti-Semitism and Zionism
Audio
The most serious and divisive scandal began in 1894. A high-ranking army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was accused of spying for Germany. However, at his military trial, neither Dreyfus nor his lawyer was allowed to see the evidence against him. The injustice was rooted in anti-Semitism. The military elite detested Dreyfus, the first Jewish person to reach such a high position in the army. Although Dreyfus proclaimed his innocence, he was convicted and condemned to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island, a desolate penal colony off the coast of South America. By 1896, new evidence pointed to another officer, Ferdinand Esterhazy, as the spy. Still, the army refused to grant Dreyfus a new trial.
Deep Divisions
The Dreyfus affair, as it was called, scarred French politics and society for decades. Royalists, ultranationalists, and Church officials charged Dreyfus supporters, or “Dreyfusards,” with undermining France. Paris echoed with cries of “Long live the army!” and “Death to traitors!” Dreyfusards, mostly liberals and republicans, upheld ideals of justice and equality in the face of massive public anger. In 1898, French novelist Émile Zola joined the battle. In an article headlined J’Accuse! (I Accuse!), he charged the army and government with suppressing the truth. As a result, Zola was convicted of libel, or the knowing publication of false and damaging statements. He fled into exile.
Slowly, though, the Dreyfusards made progress and eventually the evidence against Dreyfus was shown to be forged. In 1906, a French court finally cleared Dreyfus of all charges and restored his honors. That was a victory for justice, but the political scars of the Dreyfus affair took longer to heal.
Calls for a Jewish State
The Dreyfus case reflected the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe. The Enlightenment and the French Revolution had spread ideas about religious toleration. In Western Europe, some Jews had gained jobs in government, universities, and other areas of life. Others had achieved success in banking and business, but most struggled to survive in the ghettos of Eastern Europe or the slums of Western Europe.
By the late 1800s, however, anti-Semitism was again on the rise. Anti-Semites were often members of the lower middle class who felt insecure in their social and economic position. Steeped in the new nationalist fervor, they adopted an aggressive intolerance for outsiders and a violent hatred of Jews.
The Dreyfus case and the pogroms in Russia stirred Theodor Herzl (hurt sul), a Hungarian Jewish journalist living in France. He called for Jews to form their own separate state, where they would have rights that were otherwise denied to them in European countries. Herzl helped launch modern Zionism, a movement devoted to rebuilding a Jewish state in Palestine. Many Jews had kept this dream alive since the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by the Romans. In 1897, Herzl organized the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland.
Reading Check
Explaining
Why did Jews start to move to Palestine?
The Culture of Modernity
Literature
Painting
Degas
Introduction
Social trends in the mid-1800s in France are readily apparent in the works of many of the impressionist artists. The work of Edgar Degas is a good example. In this activity you will learn about impressionism and about the contribution of Degas to a new style in painting and sculpture.
Edgar Degas
Directions
* Read the information on the Web site about Degas. Take notes as you read.
* Click on “Life” and read the information.
* Go back and click on “Artistic Styles.” Read the information.
* Click on two of Degas’s paintings and review his works.
Use the information you found to answer the following questions.
Architecture
Music
Reading Check
Explaining
How did the Impressionists radically change the art of painting in the 1870s?
Resources
Self-check Quiz on Chapter
Vocabulary eFlashcards
Academic Vocabulary
Combined
Content Vocabulary
People, Places and Events
Psychoanalysis expert Timothy L. Hulsey, VCU psychology professor and dean of the honors college engages students and faculty in the Core Course and the psychology, MLC and English departments in a general forum on the relationship between Freudian theory and mainstream American psychological science. The conversation includes the impact of early experiences on adult behavior, the nature of memory and conceptions of the self and society: University of Richmond.
"In Memory of Sigmund Freud" by W.H. Auden (poetry reading):
FREUD 01 World of Wonders
Paperback Freud, "Kate"
Paul Warner recording "Freud" in the studio from the album "Deadly Waterparks". Footage produced by Bright Elephant Films.
Emmeline Pankhurst video project, shadow puppet play from Singapore
Suffragette City-David Bowie, "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars"
David Bowie - Suffragette City, Imperial College, 12th February 1972
Danny Howells Unreleased Extended Mix of Suffragette City, from Bowie's Ziggy Stardust Album, 7:25
Excerpt from the historical monologue "400 Years of English History" presented by artist/historian George S. Stuart as part of an exhibit of his Historical Figures at the Ventura County Museum of Art and History in Ventura California. Visit the Gallery of Historical Figures online at http://www.galleryhistoricalfigures.com.
This was a project for Mr. Smith's Politics class. It was created by Kyle Detzler, Anne Reinhart, and Cory Weber. We got 90% on it which I personally thought was great.
Hughendon Manor was the home of Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881) from 1848 until his death.
In his early days Disraeli was a traveller who tried to support himself by writing, with varing degrees of success. Most of the time he had money problems until he married a wealthy woman 13 years older than he. Even though she knew he married her for the money, the relationship was very successful and he was heartbroken when she died one year before he became prime minister for the first time in 1868.
His first term was only a few months but his second term is that best known for reforms in a wide range of social areas and the expansion of the British Empire although Disraeli himself had argued some twenty years previously that colonies are a millstone around the neck of a country.
At the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Africa was carved up and Russia stiched up following its victory over the Turks and the independence of states in the Balkans.
Following the British defeat by the Zulus at Isandlwana in 1879 Disraeli was defeated at the general election and Gladstone took over for his second term. Shortly after Disraeli became ill and died.
His election defeat was unfortunate as London had tried to maintain peace in South Africa and Disraeli was furious at the local commander for starting the war and it took Queen Victoria's intervention for him to speak to Lord Chelmsford.
1. p. 410, #4-6, 8.
