Introduction: Victorian milestones

This extended chapter provides a survey of the Victorian period. Attending to the justification of considering the 1830s and the years around 1901 as watershed years in the history of Great Britain, its empire and the wider world, it also addresses the question of how any Victorian periodisation should be divided into meaningful sub-periods. In doing so, it argues for the adoption of a four-part division of the Victorian period, sugggesting that the years between 1867 and 1901, traditionally lumped together as 'late-Victorian', can usefully be divided around 1884/1885.