Before the Industrial Revolution

• People lived in small communities

• Farming was a major economic sector

• 1/3 of small children died before they were 1

• Life expectancy was 40yo

• Disease was common

• Private farmlands were not fenced off

• Daily activities revolved around farming

Early IR

• Great Britain = wool industry

• Domestic System: (cottage industry) products produced in the home by hand

• Coal mining; most coal fields lay under the farmland

• Enclosure Movement: passing of laws that allowed landowners to take over and fence off private and common lands

Causes of the IR

• Agricultural Revolution: series of new agricultural innovations (seed drill; crop rotation)

• Farmers forced to move into towns/cities for work

Explaining IR

• 1400-1800; rapid population growth worldwide → led to energy crisis

• IR was a response to energy crisis

• New fuels discovered in IR (coal, oil, natural gas)

• New fuels led to increased output and rate of tech. innovation

IR began in Europe

• Internal development favored innovation

• Newness of European states and their monarchs’ need for revenue in the absence of effective tax systems led leaders into alliances with their merchant classes

• Europe had widespread contact with culturally diverse people; generated global exchange

• Competition to make valuable goods and trade to foreign countries sparked production and industrialization

• Colonies produced food, raw materials, and silver; led to marketplaces

Why Great Britain Specifically?

• Natural Resources - iron and coal

• Harbors and River Canals - transportation and power

• Location - on the Atlantic

• Easy Import/Export

• Capital: Money to invest in labor, machines, and raw materials

• World’s strongest fleet - protect from invasion and protect trade route

• Wages - highest wages in the world at the time

• Large Labor Supply - farms needed fewer workers → more workers in factories; religious toleration led to workers of all faiths

• British Government Favored Businessmen - passed tariffs to keep out cheap foreign products; laws made it easy to form companies; forbid workers unions; build roads and canals to create a strong internal market; patent laws protected inventors

• Scientific Revolution in England - observation, experiment, measurements, mechanical devices, and practical applicators

• Island Location Protected It from Invasions

• No Violent Revolutions

• Three factors of production:

  • Land - natural resources

  • Labor - growing population → willing workforce

  • Capitol - funds for investment from wealthy citizens

Growing Textile Industry

• Flying Shuttle: didn’t have to push shuttle back and forth across loom anymore; could pull a cord and it would “fly” → wider fabrics now woven at faster pace; James Hargreaves

• Spinning Jenny: could spin more threads at once

• Water Frame: huge spinning frame that ran continuously on waterpower

• Power Loom: faster loom that allowed weavers to keep up with the amount of thread used

• Cotton Gin: created by Eli Whitney; mechanically cleaned and removed the seeds from raw cotton

• Interchangeable Parts: streamlined and improved manufacturing

The Factory System

• New textile machines were large and costly

• Production shifted from homes to factories

• Factory System: organized system of production that brings machines and workers together under the control of a manager; Arkwright

• Machines powered by water - lot of factories located close to rivers

• Steam Engine: invented by James Watt; new source of power; factories could be moved anywhere

Spread of IR

• France did not have big cities and large labor supply

  • Revolutions and European wars occupied France’s time and money

• Germany was a collection of small states, not a nation

  • Upon unification, industrialization spread rapidly

• USA was fully industrialized by 1900

  • use of transcontinental railroad

  • vast natural resources (timber, coal, oil)

  • many Europeans/Asians fled to the US for work

• Telegraph enabled long-distance communications

• Second Industrial Revolution: steel, chemicals, precision machinery, electronics, internal combustion engine, automobiles and planes, electrification, telephone, and radio

• Bessemer Process: Henry Bessemer; converts iron to steel; sturdier, more workable metal

• Steam Locomotive → eventually led to the building of railroads

• Robert Fulton invented the steamboat

• Communications:

  • Samuel Morse - invented the telegraph

  • Alexander Graham Bell - invented the telephone

• Electricity:

  • Thomas Edison - invented the light bulb and phonograph

    • by 1900s scientists harnessed electrical power

    • replaced coal as a major source of energy

  • Gottlieb Daimler - invented the internal-combustion engine to run on gasoline

  • Rudolf Diesel - oil burning internal combustion engine used in factories, ship, and trains

  • Ferdinand von Zeppelin - invented the dirigible (old blimp)

  • Wilbur and Orville Wright - first successful flight of a motorized plane

  • Henry Ford - Model T (1909); Assembly Line (1913)

• Japan finally begins to industrialize under Meiji in late 19th century

  • Industrialized in fear of being attacked by industrialized countries

• Russia entered industrial phase by 1900

  • Trans-Siberian railroad (Moscow to Pacific Ocean)

  • Coal, iron, and steel industries grew; agriculture was still main focus

Effects of IR

• Working class

  • lived in overcrowded, smoky cities

  • lived in Tenements (crowded, cold apartments near factories)

  • whole families lived in 1-2 rooms

  • human and industrial waste contaminated waters → led to disease and death

  • few public services, such as sanitation

• Society before IR

  • position in life determined at birth; no social mobility → changed in IR

  • talents and abilities brought money and success

• Declining British Aristocracy

  • landowning aristocrats, on an individual basis, did not suffer due to IR

  • the aristocracy as a class declined

    • declining political power

    • urban wealth was more important

    • land ownership was no longer the basis of wealth

• The Rise of the Middle Class

  • benefited most from industrialization

  • size, power, and wealth of the middle class increased

    • Upper Levels: factory and mine owners, bankers, merchants

    • Middle Levels: smaller businessmen, doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, journalists, scientists, other professionals

    • Lower Levels: clerks, salespeople, bank tellers, secretaries, hotel staff, police officers

  • Political Values: constitutional government, private property, free trade, social reforms

  • Cultural Values: hard work, thrift, cleanliness, strict morality

  • Respectability: combined ideas of social status and virtuous behavior; education and hard work were keys to success

    • individuals - responsible for their own destiny

    • poor are poor due to their own misconduct

• Middle Class lifestyles:

  • Men were at work, women stayed home

  • Cult of Domesticity: homemakers, mothers, wives; create “emotional havens” for their husbands after work; moral center of the family; “managers of consumption” (shoppers); teach respectability

• The Working Class:

  • grew in numbers

  • few (if any) luxuries

  • worked dangerous jobs in factories

  • accidents were common; no workers compensation

  • monotonous work; noisy; heavy machines

  • strict work schedules; 10-14 hours per day

  • diseases (pneumonia, tuberculosis) were common

  • extremely low wages; even lower for women/children

  • women worked like the men

  • Mill Girls: some women enjoyed a sense of independence; made money and friends

• Conditions of Coal Mines:

  • Steam Engine increased demand for Coal

  • men, women, and children were used in mines

  • mines were unhealthy and dangerous; lung disease, poison gas, drowning, explosions, and cave-ins were common

  • workers could go days without seeing sunlight → lead to health issues

• Child Labor

  • children worked for very low wages, had dangerous jobs, and were often beaten in factories/mines

  • families needed their children to work for the money

• Rise of Leisure

  • Second IR led to shorter work weeks

  • Mass leisure = amusement parks and dance halls

  • Organized team sports (baseball, rugby)

  • Summer Vacations

Responses to IR

• Social Protests - workers demand better working conditions; knew they were stronger as a group than individuals

• Labor Unions: organizations of workers created to pressure business owners to improve working conditions and wages

  • Trade Unions legalized in 1924

  • Union Tactics: nationwide organization/cooperation; strikes; collective bargaining; threat of violence

• Many workers joined self-help groups (friendly societies)

  • paid dues

  • benefits: insurance against sickness; decent funerals; a social life with people sharing common problems

• Karl Marx

  • Viewed industrial capitalism as an unstable system that was doomed to collapse

    • this would create a classless, socialist society

  • Inspired socialist movements of workers throughout Europe

Legacy of IR

• Improvements led to the working-class movement away from revolution

  • wages rose

  • cheap imported food improved diets

  • infant mortality rates fell

  • shops and chain stores multiplied

  • all male workers gradually gained the right to vote

  • child labor abolished

  • factory conditions improved

  • system of relief for the unemployed

  • sanitation reform