Victoria

Victoria, queen of Great Britain and Ireland

Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria) (ăl'ĭgzăndrē`nə), 1819–1901, queen of Great Britain and Ireland (1837–1901) and empress of India (1876–1901). She was the daughter of Edward, duke of Kent (fourth son of George III), and Princess Mary Louise Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

Early Reign

Victoria's father died before she was a year old. Upon the death (1830) of George IV, she was recognized as heir to the British throne, and in 1837, at the age of 18, she succeeded her uncle, William IV, to the throne. With the accession of a woman, the connection between the English and Hanoverian thrones ceased in accordance with the Salic law of Hanover. One of the young queen's advisers was Baron Stockmar, sent by her uncle, King Leopold I of the Belgians.

Her first prime minister, Viscount Melbourne, became her close friend and adviser. In 1839, when Melbourne's Whig cabinet resigned, Victoria refused to dismiss her Whig ladies of the bedchamber, the accepted gesture of confidence in the incoming party. The Tory leader, Sir Robert Peel, declined to form a cabinet, and Melbourne remained in office.

Marriage to Albert

In 1840, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Albert, with whom she was very much in love, became the dominant influence in her life. Her first child, Victoria, later empress of Germany, was born in 1840, and the prince of Wales, later Edward VII, in 1841. Victoria had nine children. Their marriages and those of her grandchildren allied the British royal house with those of Russia, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Romania, and several of the German states.

Through Albert's efforts, Victoria was reconciled with the Tories, and she became very fond of Peel during his second ministry (1841–46). She was less happy with the Whig ministry that followed, taking particular exception to the adventurous foreign policy of Viscount Palmerston. The resulting friction was a factor in Palmerston's dismissal from office in 1851. The queen and Albert also influenced the formation of Lord Aberdeen's coalition government in 1852. Royal popularity was increased by the success of the Crystal Palace exposition (1851), planned and carried through by Albert.

It began to wane again, however, when it was rumored on the eve of the Crimean War that the royal couple was pro-Russian. After the outbreak (1854) of the war, Victoria took part in the organization of relief for the wounded and instituted the Victoria Cross for bravery. She also reconciled herself to Palmerston, who became prime minister in 1855 and proved a vigorous war leader.

Widowhood and Later Years

In 1861, Albert (who had been named prince consort in 1857) died. Victoria's grief was so great that she did not appear in public for three years and did not open Parliament until 1866; her prolonged seclusion damaged her popularity. Her reappearance was largely the work of Benjamin Disraeli, who, together with William Gladstone, dominated the politics of the latter part of Victoria's reign.

Disraeli, adroit in his personal relations with Victoria, became the queen's great favorite. In 1876 he secured for her the title empress of India, which pleased her greatly; she was ardently imperialistic and intensely interested in the welfare of her colonial subjects, particularly the Indians. Victoria's relations with Gladstone, on the other hand, were very stiff; she disliked him personally and disapproved of many of his policies, especially Irish Home Rule.

In her old age, Victoria was enormously popular. Jubilees were held in 1887 and 1897 to celebrate the 50th and 60th years of the longest English reign. The queen was not highly intelligent, but her conscientiousness and strict morals helped to restore the prestige of the crown and to establish it as a symbol of public service and imperial unity.

Bibliography

See her letters (9 vol., 1907–30); The Girlhood of Queen Victoria (extracts from her journal, ed. by Lord Esher, 1912); biographies by L. Strachey (1921, repr. 1960), S. Weintraub (1987), and D. Thompson (1990); C. Hibbert, Queen Victoria: A Personal History (2001).

---

Victoria, empress of Germany

Victoria (Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa), 1840–1901, empress of Germany, daughter of Victoria of England. In 1858 she married the German crown prince (later Emperor Frederick III). After her husband's death in 1888, she was generally known as Empress Frederick. An English liberal, she was bitterly hostile to the imperial chancellor Otto von Bismarck but was unable to make her dislike effective. Her letters were published in English in 1928.

Bibliography

See biographies by R. Barkeley (1956) and H. Pakula (1995).

---

Victoria, city, Canada

Victoria, city (1991 pop. 71,228), capital of British Columbia, SW Canada, on Vancouver Island and Juan de Fuca Strait. It is the largest city on the island and its major port and business center. In addition to its importance as the seat of provincial government, Victoria is noted as a residential city because of its mild climate, beautiful scenery, many parks (including Beacon Hill Park) and drives. It is also a popular center for American and Canadian tourists. It has sawmills and woodworking plants, fish-processing factories, grain elevators, and cold-storage plants. The city is the base of a deep-sea fishing fleet; a large naval installation is nearby. Founded (1843) as Fort Camosun, a Hudson's Bay Company post, the city was later called Fort Victoria. When Vancouver Island became a crown colony, a town was laid out on the site (1851–52), named Victoria, and made the capital of the colony. With the discovery (1858) of gold on the British Columbia mainland, Victoria became the port, supply base, and outfitting center for miners on their way to the Cariboo gold fields. In 1866, when the island was administratively united with the mainland, Victoria remained the capital of the colony and became the provincial capital in 1871. It is the seat of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory and the Univ. of Victoria.

---

Victoria or Port Victoria, town (1987 pop. 24,325), capital of the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean. A port on the NE coast of Mahé Island, Victoria is an administrative, commercial, tourist, and shipping center. Copra, essential oils and spices, and fish products are exported. Victoria has a botanic garden and a polytechnic institute; Seychelles International airport is to the southeast.

---

Victoria, state, Australia

Victoria (vĭktô`rēə), state (1991 pop. 3,770,684), 87,884 sq mi (227,620 sq km), SE Australia. It is bounded on the S and E by the Indian Ocean, Bass Strait, and the Tasman Sea. Melbourne is the capital. Other important cities are Geelong, Ballarat, and Bendigo. Australia's second smallest state, Victoria is the most densely populated. The Australian Alps and other mountains of the Eastern Highlands traverse it; the highest point is Mt. Bogong (6,508 ft/1,984 m). The climate is generally temperate and pleasant. The large, but frequently dry, rivers such as the Campaspe and the Mitta Mitta are important for irrigation; a large portion of the irrigated land in Australia is in Victoria. Hume Reservoir, on the New South Wales border, irrigates an extensive agricultural and pastoral area in the north. Despite its size, Victoria is one of Australia's leading agricultural states. Wheat, grown largely in the northeast, is the most important crop, followed by oats, barley, fruits, and vegetables. Livestock and dairying are also important. Sheep are raised in the southwest and dairy cattle in the south. Victoria was the first state in Australia to develop industry. Major industries include automobile manufacturing, textiles, clothing, food processing, and service industries. Gold mining has declined sharply; however, the mining of brown coal, mainly in the Latrobe Valley E of Melbourne, has increased dramatically. Until the introduction of tariff reforms in the 1980s, much of the labor force worked in retail and wholesale trade. Unsuccessful attempts at settlement were made in 1803 and 1826 on the site of the present Melbourne. Settlement began in the 1830s when sheep ranchers from Tasmania came looking for pasture. Known as the Port Phillip District, the area that is now Victoria became part of the colony of New South Wales in 1836. In 1851, Victoria was made a separate British colony, which was granted full constitutional self-government in 1855. The discovery of gold in 1851 led to a rapid population increase. Victoria was federated as a state of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. Executive power rests nominally in the governor, who is appointed by the crown on advice of the cabinet. The premier and the cabinet are responsible to the bicameral state parliament.

---

Victoria, city, United States

Victoria, city (1990 pop. 55,076), seat of Victoria co., S Tex., on the Guadalupe River, in a prosperous farm, cattle, and oil area. The Victoria Barge Canal (completed in 1962) connects the city with the Intracoastal Waterway. Victoria has food-processing plants, aircraft shops, and factories manufacturing petrochemicals, concrete, metal, machinery, clothing, and boats. It is the seat of Victoria College and the Univ. of Houston at Victoria. A zoo and museums of history and fine arts are also in the city. To the south are the Padre Island National Seashore and a national wildlife refuge.

---

Victoria, city, Hong Kong

Victoria: see Hong Kong.

---

Victoria, city, Mexico

Victoria, Mexico see: Ciudad Victoria.

---

Victoria

 orig. Alexandrina Victoria

(born May 24, 1819, Kensington Palace, London, Eng.—died Jan. 22, 1901, Osborne, near Cowes, Isle of Wight) Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837–1901) and Empress of India (from 1876). The only child of Edward, duke of Kent, she succeeded her uncle, William IV, in 1837. She was first guided as queen by the Whig prime minister Lord Melbourne and then by her husband, Prince Albert, whom she married in 1840. Devoted to him, she accepted his decisions on all issues in the period sometimes called the “Albertine monarchy.” They had nine children, through whose marriages descended many of the royal families of Europe. From 1861 Victoria deeply mourned Albert's death and thereafter made royal decisions as she believed he would have advised. She was frequently at odds with Prime Minister William E. Gladstone and welcomed his replacement by Benjamin Disraeli in 1874. Her reign, called the Victorian age, was marked by a period of British expansion and a restoration of dignity and popularity to the monarchy, as shown by her Jubilees of 1887 and 1897. She remains the longest reigning monarch in British history.

---

Victoria

State (pop., 2006: 4,932,422), southeastern Australia. It covers an area of 87,806 sq mi (227,416 sq km); its capital is Melbourne. The state's western and northwestern parts are sandy desert and lowland, while the central and eastern parts are highlands forming the southern end of the Australian Alps. The southwestern coastal region is known as Gippsland. The Murray River forms almost the entire boundary between the state and New South Wales. Australian Aboriginal peoples had lived in the region for at least 40,000 years before contact with Europeans. Some 60 years after Capt. James Cook first sighted its coastline (1770), the area was settled by immigrants from Tasmania. European diseases decimated much of the Aboriginal population. Victoria became a separate colony in 1851. In 1901 it became a state of the Commonwealth of Australia. Boosting its economy is a highly productive agricultural hinterland.

---

Victoria

City (pop., 2001: metro. area, 311,902), capital of British Columbia, Canada. It is located on the southeastern tip of Vancouver Island, overlooking Juan de Fuca Strait. It was founded in 1843 by the Hudson's Bay Co. as a fur-trading post known as Fort Camosun; it was later renamed Fort Victoria to honour the English queen. It was selected as the capital in 1866 when Vancouver Island united with British Columbia. It is now one of the province's largest business centres and a tourist resort and retirement community. A major port, it is the Pacific headquarters of the Canadian navy.

---

Victoria

Seaport, urban district, administrative centre of Hong Kong special administrative region, China. It lies on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island (pop., 2001: 1,335,469). It has extensive wharves and is connected to the mainland by ferry and by automobile and railway tunnels. It is the chief administrative, commercial, and cultural centre of Hong Kong and is the headquarters for numerous international banks and corporations.

---

Victoria

Town (pop., 1997: metro. area, 24,701), capital of the Republic of Seychelles. Located on the northeastern coast of Mahé Island in the Indian Ocean, it is the only port of the archipelago and the only town of any size in Seychelles. It is the country's business and cultural centre.