ABSTRACT
In order to understand the plight of the women in soldiers’ lives between 1815 and 1854, it is necessary to begin by exploring the national and military contexts within which they lived. In the first half of the nineteenth century, industrialisation intensified in Britain, and with it the country consolidated its position as the most powerful nation in the world. The aristocracy and gentry remained in control of government and the army, and set the tone socially. Nevertheless, as workers moved to cities in ever greater numbers and the middle class grew larger and wealthier, old social relations came under strain. Indeed, the pressures of the first half of the nineteenth century gave the period an aura of crisis. This was a period of great and rapid change: population growth exploded―increasing by some 30 per cent between 1821 and 1851, and by the latter year half the people in the country (excepting Ireland) for the first time lived in towns. With the intensification of industrialisation came rapid technological changes as well: telegraphs, railways, and steamships all quickened the pace of communication, steam engines increased industrial power exponentially, and new and deadlier weapons like breech-loading rifles and shell-firing guns were introduced. Economically, growth was unprecedented: the gross national product increased by more than 300 per cent between 1810 and 1850, and as the only industrialised nation, Britain dominated world trade. This astonishing expansion, however, was characterised not by steady growth, but by wild and sudden swings between boom and bust. It was a period of great anxiety: the exploding population and urbanisation caused serious social stresses, and seemed to threaten a demographic catastrophe such as Malthus had predicted. In the event, changes in agriculture and expansion in manufacturing did allow the country to continue to grow and to import sufficient quantities of food to be able to avert such a crisis, but did not ensure a decent standard of living for many in the working class in the first half of the nineteenth century. By the mid-century, Britain was almost evenly split between traditionalists who looked to the past in judging their society and finding resolutions to its problems, and progressives who looked to the future in trying to do so. 1 While most Victorians believed there was an achievable way forward for Britain, there was little agreement on how to get there, or on how best to resolve the very real problems the country faced.
