Chapter 34

Advanced Industrial Society

 Second Industrial Revolution
• New markets
– Internal
• Definite rise in standard of living
• Better public health, nutrition
• People were consuming more goods
– Expanding overseas markets
• Major increase in availability of raw materials,
potential customers
• Volume of world trade increased dramatically
 New Energy Sources
• Belgium, France, Germany, Italy – industrial
growth accelerated
• New industries: chemicals, oil refining, turbines,
steamship building, etc.
• Most important development – Electricity
– Generators, transformers meant current could be sent
anywhere
– 1880s – street lights, trams, home and factory lighting
– Used to run thousands of industrial applications
– Electric railways, subways
Energy and Industrial Research
• Petroleum
– Internal combustion engine invented – practical,
reliable transportation
– Also used in lighting, heating, running machinery
– Range of new chemicals
– US led in exploration
• Germany takes lead in industrialization
– Many university and private research facilities
– British did not put money into research; fell behind
– Increasing competition between England, Germany
 Changes
• New forms of business organization
– From 1760-1860 standard form of industry was private
partnership or ownership
– In the second industrial revolution from 1860-1920 Corporation
became standard
– Joint stock companies
• Shares traded publicly
• Raised huge capital from investors
• Caused separation of ownership and management
• Social Results of the Second Revolution:
• Rapid urbanization – attractions included industrial jobs,
better education, leisure activities, better material
prospects
• Organization of labor
– Labor unions organized to fight for improvements
– British Chartist Movement started long-term changes
– England first to legalize unions, followed by France, Germany
• Social reforms
– Unions were effective way for workers to publicize
grievances
– Child labor laws, safety regulations becoming common
– Employment security, pensions, even health and
accident insurance
– Some unions were socialist – close enough to taking
over labor movement that employers got scared
– Many bitter disputes between labor, management
• Mass democratic parties
– By World War I, all men had right to vote
– Stimulated growth of large political parties
– Idea was to inform voters, identify their interests, act on
their behalf
 Socialism after 1848 - Marxism
• Split between liberal leaders and workers
– Responsible for failure of revolts of 1848
– Why?
• Liberals did not want social reforms
• Workers were desperate for economic change
• Liberals withdrew from politics
• Marxist Theory
• Karl Marx (1818–1883). A German Jew , graduation from the University
of Berlin in 1842, flee to France as a political refugee.
– Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels
– Communist Manifesto (1848)
• Predicted new order (communism) as reaction to abuses of capitalism
• Expected it to come in violent revolution of proletariat
• Revolution was inevitable, once successful would set up “dictatorship of
the proletariat”
 Marxist Theory and Organization
• Ultimate goal was communist society
– Public control of means of production
– Men and women completely equal
• Manifesto not taken seriously until 1860s
• Marx’s Capital – scientific socialism, not utopian
• Marx was product of his times – crude exploitation of
workers
• Marxist organizations
– Marx thought Paris Commune meant beginning of social
revolution, but it was crushed
– Socialist parties grew rapidly as voice of workers
– All wanted radical change in the existing order
– Most important parties were in Germany, Austria, Belgium,
France
 Rivals of Marxism
• Anarchism
– Rejection of state and its powers
– Thought all government is prone to corruption, cannot be trusted
– Founders: Pierre Proudhon and Michael Bakunin
– Bakunin’s “propaganda of the deed” argued for violence, political
terror, but was never successful
• Syndicalism
– Based on idea that only workers, peasants should govern,
because they produced all the goods
– Workers were to create syndicates – associations of people in
same type of work, to represent their interests
– Private property – don’t abolish it, but limit its power
– Strong rival to socialism in some countries (Spain and Portugal)
 Reform and Revisionism
• England
– Workers focused on higher wages, better conditions
rather than joining more radical organizations
– Labour Party in 1906 created, platform of more equal
distribution of wealth, was reformist, non-Marxist
• Germany
– In 1880s, Marxist socialist party outlawed
– Chancellor Bismark pushed idea that state would
provide for workers’ welfare
– New laws setting up unemployment insurance,
accident and health protection, worker pensions
– German Social Democratic Party gained strength
 Reform and Revisionism
• Eduard Bernstein – German Social Democrat
– Predicted peaceful takeover by Social Democrats
– Said Marx did not see that workers could make
changes through voting rather than revolution
• Revisionism
– Revision of Marx’s ideas to introduce idea of reform
through legal action rather than revolution
– Strong rival to orthodox Marxism
– Denounced in Second International, but party leaders
liked it
 Emigration Overseas
• Largest human migration in world history
– Economic and political triggers
– Flood of emigrants cut off by World War I, ultimately
about 60 million emigrated in 19th century
• Destinations
– New World, Australia and New Zealand, Siberia,
South Africa, Algeria
– Argentine – dramatic example of European
emigration
– US was most popular destination – 45% came here
– Why did they leave Europe?
• Better economic conditions
• Unhappy with political, social conditions
 Types of Immigrants
• Who were they?
– At first, people with some savings, got help from relatives
– Small farmers, skilled craftsmen, educated
– Later, poor and uneducated arrived
– Unmarried young men were largest group
• Ethnic origins
– At first, from Britain, Ireland, Germany
– Later, eastern- southern-Europeans, especially Italians
– Jews from Russia
• Who went where?
– More literate, better prepared went to North America,
Australia, South Africa
– Less fortunate went to South America
 Discussion Questions
1. The development of electricity as an energy source was one of
the greatest accomplishments of the Second Industrial
Revolution. If we did not have electricity today, how would our
lives be different? Choose any two-hour segment of your normal
day – list every use of electricity in that timeframe. How would
you accomplish everything you do in that period if you did not
have electricity?

2. Put yourself in the position of being a factory worker in the 1860s,

either male or female. Presented with the new political ideologies
of Marxism, Anarchism, and Syndicalism, which one would you
have found the most attractive and why? What would have been
its appeal? What was it about the other two that you would have
rejected? Why?