People from more than twenty countries and a diverse range of socio- economic and cultural backgrounds came to the Victorian goldfields around the early 1850s bringing with them various social views and political ideologies.  Following the industrial revolution in the early 19th century and the turbulence of many wars in Europe at that time, new social theories developed about equitable treatment of working class people and the role of labour and capital.

The principles enshrined in The People’s Charter 1838 from Britain summed up the digger’s democratic aims and were included in the Ballarat Reform League Charter written and adopted by them. A copy was presented to the Victorian Colonial Government a week later. However, the Government’s reaction to the Reform League’s Charter was to send troops to Ballarat.

The first organised worker’s movement commenced in Britain around 1824 and with it came the term Socialism which originated in the 1830's.  Extensive social upheaval was experienced in the 1830's when Chartism arose in Britain.

Chartism was a working class movement that championed a democratic constitution and political and social reform for the non-propertied class. Workers at that time did not have the right to vote in parliamentary elections and didn’t have any industrial or human rights. Chartism took its name from the People's Charter of 1838 which demanded the following six main objectives:

•“Universal” suffrage for  working males over the age of 21 (excluding  female workers)

•Equal size electoral districts

•Voting by secret ballot

•An end to the need for a property qualification for members of parliament

•Payment of members of Parliament

•Annual elections for Parliament

Widespread crop failures caused considerable unrest in Europe. The Potato Blight in Ireland of 1846-50 was the most severe, but it also had a damaging effect in the Scottish highlands, Prussia, Belgium and France. This misery mobilized mass movements in opposition to governments with demands for decent workers’ industrial rights and liberties in society generally, and caused governments across the continent to collapse. It was the powerful precursor of industrial unionism.