Why were the conservatives so dominant in the period 1895-1905?

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Owen England        AS History        27/04/2007

Why were the conservatives so dominant in the period 1895-1905?

        During the history of the British political system we have seen many changes in the parties and their structures and patterns of power. The Tory party were hugely successful during the first 30 years of the 19th century, the Whigs in 1846-85. What this essay focuses on is the period between 1895-1905 when the conservatives rose up and dominated the political scene. In the 1895 election the conservatives won the election with a landslide victory, winning in the region of 300 seats. Some people have said that the mixture of the parties throughout history has been like the swing of a pendulum where the leadership has switched from one party to another regularly. It is more realistic to say that the parties would dominate until another party replaced them with superior domination.  At this time many different social and economical reforms had been passed and the people voting were greatly influenced by reforms that directly affected them. There are many reasons why the conservatives came to power at this time some people say it is because they were very strong as a party and some people say it was only due to the weakness of the other parties at the time. In this essay I am going try and conclude which of these is the case.

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Throughout their history the conservative party had many leaders, five in total. Of all of these leaders Lord Salisbury is considered by many as the most successful leader, in office 3 times over 17 years and he also passed many reforms. He was born in 1830 into an aristocratic family; he started his life in politics when he became foreign secretary. What really mattered was the fact that he passed many reforms that directly affected the working classes, who at the time were the main body of voters; Salisbury saw this and acted upon what he observed. Salisbury was ...

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