MENESES, AIRA GENE P.

BLOCK A
GE19/MTWTHF/1-3 PROF. JOANNE FERNANDEZ

19TH CENTURY

SOCIAL CONDITION

Many of the jobs created in the port during the 19th century were badly paid. Others
were seasonal or casual, which meant that people were only paid when work was available. As a
result, the dockers and their families lived in poverty. The casual nature of much of their work
meant that the dockers did not receive a regular income. There was no income at all during
periods of unemployment unless they could find alternative work. Sometimes the poor were
forced to turn to crime, others begged to make ends meet, while many more ended up in the
workhouse.

POLITICAL CONDITION

The 19th century was a period of great political and social change, including social reforms
affecting education, poverty and public health, and reform of the franchise. By 1925 the only
American left in the governor-general’s cabinet was the secretary of public instruction, who was
also the lieutenant governor-general. This is one indication of the high priority given to
education in U.S. policy. In the initial years of U.S. rule, hundreds of schoolteachers came from
the United States. But Filipino teachers were trained so rapidly that by 1927
they constituted nearly all of the 26,200 teachers in public schools. The school population
expanded fivefold in a generation; education consumed half of governmental expenditures at all
levels, and educational opportunity in the Philippines was greater than in any other colony
in Asia.

ECONOMIC CONDITION

Several important changes took place in the late 19th century. First, around 1870, Germany
became the new leader in European industry. Germany far exceeded the production of any other
European nation in chemicals and electrical equipment. The nation continued to expand its trade
networks and soon enjoyed a flood of new plants and factories. The United States also enjoyed
success during the Second Industrial Revolution. In fact, industry had made the U.S. the richest
nation in the world at this time.

The Second Industrial Revolution caused growth in industry and transportation, which allowed
increased trade between nations. Combined with a merchant marine capable of transporting
goods by sea, a world economy began to form. What exactly is a world economy? Well, a world
economy, or global economy, is simply a description of the integration of trade in goods,
services, and money worldwide. The spread of trade and investments abroad is linked with a
process called imperialism.