Evaluation+of+The+Elizabethan+Era

The Elizabethan era is considered a Golden Age in England history. England went, in about 40 years, from a country in the shadow of France and Spain to a world power. Elizabeth encouraged the arts and the first English circumnavigation of the world occurred during her reign. While Elizabeth’s reign was one of plenty, we believe that this was not the Golden Age of England. While it was the beginning of British dominance of the world, which only really ended around World War 2, the true golden age was in the time of another famous female English queen, Queen Victoria. During the reign of Queen Victoria England had colonies all over the world and was the largest empire in the history of the Earth. These colonies included Australia, Canada, India and a large ammount of Africa. This worldwide influence and power, along with the growing power of the United States, made English a true global language. During Queen Elizabeth I’s however there were no great inroads into worldwide control. Spain had already begun colonising South America and was coming back from the New World with ships creaking under the weight of the gold they were carrying and England was far behind colonising any new countries. England gained its first colony in 1607 on the east coast of North America, 4 years after the death of Elizabeth. While English global influence in the time of Queen Victoria was strong during the reign of Queen Elizabeth it was just beginning. A superior form of the steam engine was patented in 1769 which sparked the industrial revolution. Due to Britain having a huge wealth of resources from all its colonies it was also able to industrialise much quicker than other countries which sparked the British economy, further increasing its global influence and power. The invention of the steam train also helped to carry coal from the mines to the factories, further increasing the country’s production. During the reign of Elizabeth I the economy was strong and had almost unsurpassed naval power; however the industry fuelled economy of the Victorian era outstripped the more manual production of the Elizabethan era. Scientific and geographic knowledge was also much further advanced in the Victorian era than it was in the Elizabethan era. Charles Darwin published //“On the Origin of Species”//, in 1859, during Victoria’s reign. This sparked a huge debate between the church and the scientific community which ultimately ended up with natural selection being accepted as the theory of the origin of life. Isaac Newton, in 1687, published his famous three laws of motion, which helped people understand the world around them. Gas lights had also come into use in the Victorian era replacing the old candles that used to be used. This was much more efficient and produced much more light than candles. Medical knowledge was also further ahead in the Victorian era with vaccinations slowly becoming more common. This had replaced the primeval ideas of   Figure 2: Attributed to Elizabeth I  || doctors in Elizabethan England who “bled” patients to remove the bad blood. This generally made the patient sicker than they were originally. The ignorance of health and hygiene in Elizabethan is perfectly reflected in a quote from Elizabeth herself (see figure 2). The Elizabethan era was a great time in Britain’s history. This however is not true. Rather the Elizabethan era was the beginning of an long and prosperous era in the history of Britain which culminated in the Victorian era, the true Golden Age of England.
 * Figure 1: Map of the British Empire at its height ||
 * ** “I have a bath once a month whether I need one or not” **