Question

What is the significance of the chartist movement?
A) Demanding voting rights for women.
B) Demanding adult male suffrage.
C) Demanding limited hours of work in factories.
D) Demanding for married women's property rights.

Answer 1

Hint: Chartism was a British working-class political reform movement that existed from 1838 to 1857. It was a national protest movement that drew its name from the People's Charter of 1838 and had strongholds in Northern England, the East Midlands, the Staffordshire Potteries, the Black Country, and the South Wales Valleys.

Complete answer:
When petitions signed by millions of working people were presented to the House of Commons in 1839, 1842, and 1848, support for the movement was at its peak. The strategy employed was to use the scale of support demonstrated by these petitions and accompanying mass meetings to put pressure on politicians to grant manhood suffrage. Chartism thus relied on constitutional means to achieve its goals, though some became involved in the insurgency, most notably in South Wales and Yorkshire.
Chartism was named after the People's Charter, which outlined the movement's six main goals.

They were as follows:
- A vote for every man (over 21)
- secret balloting
- There are no property requirements to become a Member of Parliament.
- MPs are compensated
- equal-sized electoral districts
- Parliamentary elections are held every year.

Chartism's popularity peaked during times of economic depression and hunger. Rioting broke out in Stockport as a result of unemployment and near-starvation, and in Manchester, as workers protested wage cuts, demanding "a fair day's pay for a fair day's labour.

" The "Plug Plots" were a series of strikes that took place in Lancashire, Yorkshire, the Midlands, and parts of Scotland during the summer of 1842. Workers unplugged the boilers to bring the factory's machinery to a halt. Wage cuts were the main issue, but Chartism was also popular at the time. So, the significance of the chartist movement is Demanding limited hours of work in factories.
Thus, the answer is Option C: Demanding limited hours of work in factories.


Note: The main issue was figuring out how to achieve a revolutionary goal through constitutional means.
- It was unable to secure parliamentary support for the Charter.
- Chartism was either ignored, shunned, or condemned by the middle classes.
- Chartists were split into factions.
- The movement was handled firmly and calmly by the government.
- The demands of the Chartists were far too extreme.
- The intellectual and ideological goals of Chartism were too diverse.
- Chartists were drawn to other movements that provided more immediate and tangible benefits.
- After 1842, the socioeconomic situation improved. Prosperity eroded popular support.
- After Kennington Common and the failure of the Land Plan, Chartism and the Chartists were made to look ridiculous.