Unit 3; The industrial revolution

1.The origins of the industrial revolution

1.1. What was the industrial revolution?

The industrial revolution was a period of lots of economic and social
changes,caused by the expensive use of machinery in production agrarian,
rural societies. These changes began in Britain in the second half of the 18th
century.

The industrial revolution is divided in 2 stages;

❖ The first industrial revolution that start in 1760

❖ The second industrial revolution that start in 1870

The revolution was accompanied by important changes in population and

agriculture.

1.2.The demographic revolution

ThIn the 18th century, there was a high and discontinued population growth.
The reason is because the death rate decreased and the birth rate still high,
because the next reasons;
❖ The nutrition improved, and made the population more resistant to
illness. This was possible thanks to advances in agriculture and changes
in people’s diets, were potatoes become a basic food
❖ The personal and public hygiene increased when the use of soap was
more extensive, and people began to wear cotton clothes that are easier
to wash. There was better access to clean drinking water, and streets
were clean. But these changes were very slow.
❖ The public health improves in 1796 when Edwar Jenner discovered the
vaccine against smallpox (viruela) that have a high mortality (the vaccine
was not used until 19th century), new hospital builds in this period.ç
❖ The epidemics were frequent in the modern age period, but when
hygiene and public health improved the deaths were less.
Population growth created an increased demand for agriculture and industrial
products, that means that more workers were accessible to fill all de vacans of
the factories.
1.3.The agricultural revolution
The increased demand for food led to innovations in crop and livestock
farming.
❖ Farming techniques. The three-field system of crop rotation, in which
one field always lay fallow, was replaced by the four-field system, also
called the Norfolk system. The land was divided into four fields, which
alternated wheat, turnips, barley and clover. The nutrients in the soil
were not used up, as clover helped to replenish them. In addition, turnips
and clover were used to feed livestock. This allowed farmers to keep
more animals, which increased manure, a natural fertilizer, in the fields.

In the late 18th century, the wood plough was replaced by the iron plough.
Later, new farming machines were introduced: mechanical seeders, threshers
and harvesters.
❖ Land ownership and use. The liberal revolutions ended the practice of
peasants farming communal lands under the authority of a lord or the
Church. Land became private property. The bourgeoisie bought
farmland in order to profit from selling its products.

1.4.Other factors affecting economic growth

In Britain also favored economic growth:
❖ Extensive markets. Britain had a healthy domestic market, based on
good infrastructure and the absence of domestic tariffs. It also sold its
products in its numerous colonies around the world. Trade produced
enormous profits, which were invested in new industries.
❖ A new mentality. The British bourgeoisie was more open to investment,
business risk and the pursuit of profit. Parliament supported these
attitudes with laws that were favorable to business and trade.
❖ Abundance of iron and coal. The British countryside was rich with iron
and coal deposits, which were necessary to build and run the new
factories.
2.The first industrial revolution

2.1.From workshop to factory

Until the 18th century, most products were made by artisans in small
workshops using tools.
In Britain in the late 18th century, several machines were invented that
manufactured products much more quickly. These machines were often huge
any needed to be housed in large spaces. Consequently workshops were
replaced by factories, which were large buildings in which workers operated
machines. The first machines were powered by hydraulic energy, but after
James Watt had invented the steam engine they became steam-powered, using
coal as an energy source.
With the rise of factories, industrial activities were concentrated in certain
places. The manufacturing process changed as well: each worker specialized in
a single task in the production process. This system is known as the division of
labor. Workers had fixed timetables and worked at the speed required by the
machines.

2.2.Textile industry
The cotton grown in Britain’s colonies provided the British textile industry with
cheap and abundant raw material. The textile industry was the first to
introduce technical innovations in spinning (mechanical spinners developed
by James Hargreaves, Richard Arkwright and Samuel Crompton) and weaving
(John Kay's flying shuts and Edmund Cartwright's mechanical loom).

2.3.Iron industry
Until the early 18th century, most iron used in Britain was imported from
Sweden, and was very expensive. It became cheaper after 1709 when Abraham
Darby invented a blast furnace to smelt iron using products derived from coal,
which was abundant in Britain.
In the late 18th century, Henry Cort invented a new type of furnace for making
large amounts of wrought iron. Wrought iron was a strong pure iron that could
be bent easily to make chains or nails.
Iron manufacturing grew greatly during the Industrial Revolution, because
there was so much demand for machines and tools.
2.4.Economic liberalism
This was based on theories developed by the same book. The Wealth of
Nations (1776)
According to Smith, economic activity should be governed by the principle of
economic freedom, that is freedom to create companies, hire workers and set
the conditions and prices of products. in h opinion, the guilds of the Old
Regime were an obstacle to economic growth
Smith argued that the state should not intervene in the economy, as the
economy adjusts itself naturally by means of the invisible hand. This refers to
the way prices and salaries are regulated by the law of supply and demand.
For example, if there is a high supply of products or labor and low d prices and
salaries go down. On the other hand. it supply is low and demand is high,
prices and salaries rise.
Adam Smith was in favor of the division of labor (in which each worker
specialized in a si stage of the production process), as this practice increased
production and productivity

3.The second industrial revolution

3.1.New energy sources and industrie

Two new energy sources had a huge impact.
❖ Electricity. This was used in industry to power machines. It was also
used to power the electric railway, underground trains and trams, and
new forms of communication like the telephone, radio and cinema.
❖ Petroleum. The first oil wells were drilled in 1859. This energy source grew
in importance with the invention of the combustion engine, which was
used to power automobiles. The iron and steel industry and the
chemical and electrical industries grew in importance,
❖ The iron and steel industry. This industry expanded following the
invention of the Bessemer converter, which could produce large amounts
of steel at a low price.
❖ The chemical industry. Raw materials, like petroleum and rubber, were
used to make new products, such as pharmaceuticals, synthetics
(rubber and artificial colors), and dynamite.
❖ The electrical industry. Electricity was produced and distributed on a
large scale.
The United States and Germany strengthened their position as leading
industrial powers.
3.2.Large companies and modern banking
When the Industrial Revolution began, most companies were small and owned
by a single person or family. However, family businesses generally did not earn
enough to buy new machines and hire more workers. To solve this problem,
corporations were created. In corporations, the capital of the company is
divided into shares. Shares are traded on the stock market, and whoever buys
them participates in the company as a shareholder.
Banks became key institutions. They lent money to companies and became
intermediaries between private individuals and companies. Individuals saved
their money in banks, and banks invested this money in industry and other
businesses. This was the birth of financial capitalism.

3.3.New systems of production

New systems of production were adopted:
❖ Taylorism. The engineer Frederick W. Taylor invented a production
process, which was divided into small tasks that were timed. Each worker
specialized in a certain task and was paid according to the work they
completed.
❖ The assembly line was used by the businessman Henry Ford in his
automobile factories. Products were passed from one worker to the next
along an assembly line. This eliminated the time that a worker wasted
between tasks and increased their output.
❖ Mass production. Ford's use of the assembly line prepared the way for
mass production. Numerous identical parts of an item were
manufactured before all the different parts were brought together to
assemble the final product. In this way, large quantities of goods could
be made at reduced production costs.

As business was now carried out on a much larger scale, extremely large
amounts of capital were required. Different types of corporate groups emerged
from mergers and agreements between companies:
❖ Cartel. This is an association of companies in the same line of business
who reach an agreement to control production and distribution, and to
set prices.
❖ Holding company. This type of company controls other companies
because it owns most of their shares.
❖ Trust. This is an association of companies that together cover all the
stages in the manufacture of a product. Their goal is to control the
market and eliminate competition.
Governments sometimes had to pass laws to regulate cartels and trusts
because they created unfair monopolies.
4.The effects of industrialisation

4.1.Population growth
Throughout the 19th century, the European population grew quickly. Europe's
population doubled, from around 200 million inhabitants in 1800 to just over
400 million in 1900.
There were two main causes for this growth:
❖ The death rate decreased due to an improved food supply, medical
advances, and improvements in public hygiene. For example, there was
better sewage, rubbish collection and available drinking water, while
numerous new hospitals were built.
In Western Europe, life expectancy at birth increased from 35 years in 1800 to
50 years in 1900.
❖ The birth rate remained high in most of Europe until the 1870s. As a
result of the Industrial Revolution many people had improved economic
prospects; they got married younger and had more children.

4.2.An age of migration

The Industrial Revolution caused farm work to become increasingly
mechanized, and made cities the centers of production.
Many peasants migrated to cities in search of work, which led to intense
urbanization in Europe. In 1800, only 10% of the population lived in cities, but by
the late 19th century, the proportion was 40%.
At the time, cities did not have the capacity to absorb all of Europe's growing
rural population. As a result, 60 million Europeans emigrated to other
continents between 1800 and 1924. The transport revolution made this
large-scale movement of people possible.
Two phases of transoceanic migration can be distinguished:
❖ Up to 1870, most emigrants were British and northern European.
❖ Between 1870 and 1914, many emigrants were
Italian, Spanish, Greek and Turkish.
Most Europeans migrated to America, especially to the United States (which
received almost 60% of European emigrants), as well as to Canada, Brazil and
Argentina. Others migrated to Australia and New Zealand.
5.The class system

5.1.A new society

Under the Old Regime, the three estates were distinguished by their birth and
privileges. In contrast, industrial society was divided into three social classes:
the upper class, which consisted of the aristocracy and the high bourgeoisie;
the mid class; and the lower class. Each social class was mainly defined by its
wealth. One could move from one class to another, but many people's economic
circumstances made this impossible.
Industrial society was based on the principle of judicial equality. Men were
judged by the same laws and courts, and there were few legal barriers
preventing them from holding public office.
However, in practice there was great inequality.
Women were subordinate to men (either to their fathers or husbands).
Economic inequality separated those who had property and financial
resources from those who did not.

5.2.The decline of the aristocracy

In the 15th century, the aristocracy lost dominate when its rights over the
peasants were abolishes, and it began to pay taxes, Moreover, the wealth of
most aristocrats was still based on land ownership way they did not benefit
from business expansion, However, until the 20th century, many aristocrats still
held leading positions in government, justice and the military. They maintained
a luxurious fifessle that the bourgeoisie imitated.

5.3.The emergence of the bourgeoisie

The bourgeoisie became the most powerful class in industrial society.
Industrialists and bankers formed the 'high bourgeoisie'. Businessmen, high
officials and lawyers belonged to the bourgeoisie.
The bourgeoisie lived in new neighborhoods on the outskirts of cities, with
comfortable homes surrounded by gardens and parks. Leisure activities such
as the theater, the opera and horse racing became popular.
Members of the bourgeoisie often attributed their wealth to their 'bourgeois
values', such as hard work, making savings and enjoying the security of family
life. In many countries, the bourgeoisie made religion a strong feature of public
life.
5.4.The lower class
Much of the population did not benefit from the wealth created by the
Industrial Revolution:
❖ Peasants still formed the majority of the population in the 19th century,
but their conditions varied greatly from region to region. In some parts
of northern and western Europe, they owned plots of land. In the south,
there were more day laborers, who worked on estates using basic tools
and earned low wages. In central and eastern Europe, peasants were still
serfs until the mid-19th century.
❖ The proletariat was the name given to workers who only possessed their
labor, which they exchanged for a salary. Workers performed tasks which
require little skill. They received very low salaries, which they barely
survived on. Children left school at a young age to start working and
support the family; with little education, they could not change their
position in society. These children often worked 12 or more hours a day.

6.The labour movement

6.1.Early labour movement

Was were the workers first organized themselves into groups to pressure
factory owners a
The Industrial Revolution and groups to pressure was where wig governments
were. Working together in harsh conditions, workers saw the labour movement
as the only way to improve their situation.
❖ Luddism. In the early stages of the Industrial Revolution, new
technologies made skilled workers lose their jobs in the textile industry.
In response, some of them destroyed factory machines.
This developed into the Luddite movement (which was named after a
legendary English figure called Ned Ludd).
❖ Chartism was the first organized labour movement with political goals.
Between 1838 and 1848, this movement had millions of supporters and
presented its People's Charter to the British Parliament. The movement
demanded labour rights and universal suffrage, as at that time workers
could not vote.
❖ Trade unions. At the beginning of the 19th century workers formed
mutual aid societies, which helped members in case of illness or
unemployment. The right of assembly was first granted in Great Britain
in 1824, and after that, the first trade unions appeared. These
associations of workers demanded better salaries. shorter work days, an
end to child labour, etc. Their main means of pressure was the strike, in
which workers refused to work until certain demands were met.
6.2.Marxism and anarchism
Marxism is named after one of its founders, the German philosopher Karl Marx.
Together with Friedrich Engels, Marx published the Communist Manifesto in
1848. According to Marxism, there was a class struggle between oppressors
and the oppressed in industrial societies. The bourgeoisie were the oppressors
because they owned the means of production and exploited workers for profit.
The oppressed were the workers, who sold their only possession, their labour.
Marx proposed a revolution in order to destroy capitalism and give power to
workers. There would first be a stage of proletarian dictatorship, in which the
state would control society. Then, a communist society could be established,
without social classes or private property. At that point, the state would
disappear.
Mary also believed that labour parties and trade unions should participate in
polítics. In consequence, socialist parties were developed from 1875.
The Frenchman Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and the Russian Mikhail Bakunin were
the founders of anarchism. Anarchists opposed any form of state, and hoped
to replace it with voluntary associations. They believed in collective use of
property, and they rejected political parties and elections. Instead, they
favored trade unions and strikes as revolutionary instruments.