Plan: origin People's Charter of 1838 The first wave 1842: Chartism's biggest petition and 'the General Strike' The mid-Forties Chartism and Christianity the 1848 petition Legacy References Chartism

Eventual reforms
Chartism did not directly generate any reforms, and did not create a national organisation, but it opened the door for new men and new groups to see the need for reform and the methods and pitfalls of organising activists.
Political elites feared the Chartists in the 1830s and 1840s as a dangerous threat to national stability. In the Chartist stronghold of Manchester, the reform movement undermined the political power of the old Tory-Anglican elite that had controlled civic affairs. However the reformers of the Manchester Political Union were themselves factionalized among middle-class modernizers (often the readers of the Manchester Guardian), Chartists, and an independent working class movement.
After 1848, as the movement faded, its demands appeared less threatening and were gradually enacted by other reformers. After 1848 middle class parliamentary Radicals continued to press for universal franchise, and were joined by some supporters of the Anti-Corn Law League, with John Bright and the Reform League agitating in the country. The parliamentary Radicals joined with a section of the Whig Party and the anti-protectionist Tory Peelites to form the Liberal Party by 1859. Benjamin Disraeli's Conservative government carried through the Reform Act 1867, doubling the electorate in the process. Furthermore, the Ballot Act of 1872introduced the secret ballot. Only the last of the Chartist aims – annual Parliaments – never came to pass.
Colonies
Chartism was also an important influence in some British colonies. Some leaders had been transported to Australia, where they spread their gospel, In 1854 Chartist demands were put forward by the miners at the Eureka Stockade on the gold fields at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Within one year of the military suppression of the Eureka revolt, all the demands, except annual parliaments, had been met. In the African colonies after 1920 there were occasional appearances of a 'colonial chartism' which called for improved welfare, upgraded education, freedom of speech and greater political representation for natives.