The Queen who led the Industrial Revolution, and ruled the largest ever empire
Queen Victoria's reign was a time of transition towards new technologies and infrastructures, and at the Great Exhibition in 1851 she saw new machines like the camera, talking and printing telegraphs, microscopes, locomotives and more.
But one of Victoria's many lasting legacies was her expansion of the British Empire on a massive scale.
Until the death of her husband Prince Albert, after which she descended into a period of depression and mourning that overshadowed her later years, Queen Victoria was a vibrant presence who represented the spirit of the times.
Her 63-year reign - the longest in British history - saw the British Empire encompass a quarter of the world's land, with Britain's colonies spanning the globe and its navy ruling the seas. In 1857, however, a series of mutinies began in the armies of the East India Company, with sepoys who had been working for the Company beginning to rebel against the occupation of their lands. One of the turning points in the struggle for independence was the moment when a soldier was asked to bite open one of the cartridges for his rifle, which were usually made using animal fat forbidden to the Sikh and Muslim sepoys. It sparked an uprising that, the following year, led to the dissolution of the East India Company.
The rule of the East India Company, which had been governing Indian lands with private armies, passed to Victoria, and this began the period of British Raj rule that lasted until India declared independence in 1947. During this period, Victoria oversaw the construction of vast rail networks at home, where she became the first British monarch to travel by train, and saw the first passenger line in North India opened in 1859. In 1876, Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India, and marked the height of British colonialism.
The far and fervent reach of British colonialism had an unmistakable impact on global history, and Victoria was the face of it. Her standards, morality and decisions shaped the face of the world, and tied British culture to that of dozens of other countries. There are few Queens who gave their names to an age, but Victoria was one of them.
Not only that, she earned the name 'grandmother of Europe' by raising nine children who married into nobility across the continent, tying together its aristocracies just as she knitted together her global empire and brought Britain to the peak of its rule.
World History
