<P> During this period, slavery remained a social and economic institution in places around the world . This was particularly the case in the United States, and especially in the last fifteen slave states that kept slavery legal in the American South until the Civil War . A variety of organisations were established advocating the movement of black people from the United States to locations where they would enjoy greater freedom and equality . </P> <P> The United Kingdom's Slave Trade Act 1807 banned the trade across the British Empire, which was enforced internationally by the Royal Navy under treaties Britain negotiated with other nations . As the voting franchise in the U.K. was increased, it also was made more uniform in a series of reforms beginning with the Reform Act 1832 . In 1833, the United Kingdom passed the Slavery Abolition Act which took effect across the British Empire . </P> <P> Universal male suffrage was established in France in March 1848 in the wake of the French Revolution of 1848 . In 1848, several revolutions broke out in Europe as rulers were confronted with popular demands for liberal constitutions and more democratic government . </P> <P> In the 1860 United States Census, the slave population in the United States had grown to four million, and in Reconstruction after the Civil War (late 1860s), the newly freed slaves became citizens with a nominal right to vote for men . Full enfranchisement of citizens was not secured until after the Civil Rights Movement gained passage by the United States Congress of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . </P>

Major principles of democracy in the western countries