Shaping of the Modern World

 

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Brooklyn College Core Curriculum:
The Shaping of the Modern World

Section 8:The Industrial Revolution

Introduction: This Week's Goals

So far, in considering what makes up the "modern world", we have looked at:

  • The creation by absolutist monarchs of "modern" state structures such as "national sovereignty," "standing armies," and  the committee structures of government.
  • The establishment of the intellectual dominance of scientific thought during the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment.
  • The emergence of political Liberalism during the Enlightenment and the American and French Revolutions.
  • The promotion of the "people" as the basis of the state during the American and French Revolutions.

But, for most of us who live in the modern West, the greatest change in how we live compared to how people lived in the early modern past would probably me in terms of material culture.  "Material culture" refers to how we work, what we eat, what we wear, and where we live. All these aspects of our lives are part of the "economy." 

Thinking in these terms, the first great transformation in human history was the "agricultural revolution" of the Neolithic period (it occurred in a number of different places around 8000-4000 years ago). That was when human stopped "collecting" food by gathering and hunting, and began "producing" food by agriculture and animal husbandry. The second great transformation was the "Industrial Revolution" of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Industrial Revolution was a combination of new methods and new technology: in particular, it adopted machine power to manufacture.  This led to entirely new ways of working (factories), living (big cities), transport (trains, steam ships, cars), and family arrangements (the family was now a unity of consumption not production). Our goals this week are:

  • To explain why the Industrial Revolution happened in Britain in the late 18th century.
  • To identify what happened.
  • To explain how the Industrial Revolution spread to the rest of Europe and the United States.
  • To discuss the effects on the lives of workers.
  • To discuss the effects on the lives of women, and on family structures.
  • To understand how this gave Europe the possibility of establishing a world hegemony in the 19th century.

Text

Kagan, 553-575,  761-776, 835-54

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Outline

I. Introduction

  • Old Ways of Living
  • Western
    Uniqueness of the Industrial Revolution in the West.
    Industry is an ATTITUDE (not necessarily a good one)
    Compare with China. [science fails to develop - Mandarin class has attitude of superiority - there is a clamp down in 15th century on "progress"] 
  • Industrialization and Capitalism
    Industrialization arose within Capitalism but is not the same thing. In the 20th C. there have been many examples of state industrialization in circumstances when there was no possibility of the developments in Europe being followed.
  • Time Frame
    England 1780 on
    Europe from 1830 on 

II. The Origins of the Industrial Revolution

There was no single cause of the Industrial Revolution. Rather a number of different factors came together.

But we can make certain assumptions about what we need to explain.

  • Primarily, we know that working people are quite conservative about work --  it required a high degree of social mobility on the part of the population to even allow the Industrial Revolution 
  • Secondly we know that people with money had to be willing to invest in new ventures -- we need to know where this money came from, and why people were willing to invest.

We will find that stable government, economic freedoms, available capital and mobile labor - all encourage growth and all came together in 18th-century Britain.

In sum:

  • We need to explain
    [1] the mobile labor force
    [2] the availability of money for investment
    [3] the growth of demand
  • We will do this this by looking at
    [1] effects of the "Agricultural Revolution" of the 17th century.
    [2] the growth of internal and external commerce
    [3] population growth
  • And we will also take into consideration
    [1] the need for innovative approaches, especially in the area of power
    [2] the special geographical and political circumstances of Britain.
  • -all these things were interconnected - came together to produce Industrial Revolution
  • Stable Govt, economic freedoms, available capital and mobile labor - all encourage growth and all came together in 18th-century Britain.

A. The Agricultural Revolution

In the 17th century, there was a transformation in Agriculture that made it much more efficient.  This is traditionally seen to precede the Industrial Revolution - but was important in its own right.

  • Holland
    Agricultural. improvements started in Holland due to
    - pop pressure/urban growth (Amsterdam grows from 30,000 to 200,000 people  in 17th C.)
    - commercial concerns of the people - there was no tied peasantry, and farmers began to think about how to profit from their land rather than just produce food.  It was more profitable, for instance, to import wheat from Poland and use Dutch farms to grow flax (for linen) or tulips.
    - new methods include : enclosed fields, new rotation, heavy manuring, new crops
  • England
    -    Dutch techniques were copied in England
    -Charles "Turnip" Townsend (1674-1738) a landlord from Norfolk. began work in 1710s
    Encouraged new crop rotation.
    - Jethro Tull (1674-1741)
    encourages horses over oxen plowing. promoted seed drill.
  • Crops
    End of the medieval three field and fallow system, which allowed one field to "recover" each year.
    -use of soil enriching root crops - wheat, turnips, barley, clover
    -increases food for animals - more manure - better crops - a beneficial circle was established.
    -The potato becomes increasingly important.
    -- Accounts of the "Potato Revolution" 1695 - 1845
  • Livestock
    - breeding techniques for better bigger animals.
  • Enclosures
    English landowners have a craze for improvements in 1740s - Enclosure acts after 1760 took public land and put it under private control. (but much of England already enclosed in 17th C.)
    -Enclosures - harmed small farmers/landowners
    -probably did not harm landless laborers
    -actually gave them more wages to earn - and they were the majority.
    -So now in England you had a large mobile wage labor force. [If factories paid more, the workers would go and work there.]
  • Long Term Results of Agricultural Revolution
    -    Smaller and smaller proportion of pop. engages in agriculture in the West - frees them to engage in Industrial work - which creates commodities and realities impossible in a purely agricultural economy.
    By 1870 England produces 300% more food than in 1700, but only 14% of population worked on land by 1870.
  • Short Term effects
    A period of bountiful crops 1700-1760 meant English people had some income to spend on more than just survival. They probably lived better than any other poor people in Europe outside Holland.
    Also most people in England were wage laborers rather than tied to land like free peasants or serfs - i.e. people would go where the jobs were.

B. Population Growth

  • A. Population Increases in 18th C.

1700

1800
Europe:

100/120 mil

190 mil
England

6 mil (1750)

10 mil
  • Population as deterministic?
    There is a big debate as to whether increased population lead to the Agricultural and Industrial revolutions, or those revolutions permitted the increased population.
  • Malthusian Controls
    - Rev. Thomas Malthus had predicted a disaster with rising population..
    -His theory was that population could rise "geometrically" while resources could only rise "arithmetically." At some point population would overtake resources. At that point "Malthusian Controls -- war, famine, disease -- would kick in to reduce the population.
    -It was, at least for a few centuries, avoided by industrial and agricultural revolution.

  • Agricultural Revolution and Population
    -    a. Increased pop. capable of being fed - more people survive.
    -b. Enclosures send people off countryside to live in Cities

C. The Power Crisis

  • Human and Animal Muscle
    Main power sources up to 18th C.
    relation to wealth - Poverty caused by limited output per person.
  • Use of Wood
    Europe was once covered in forests
    Wood - heat/smelting Iron
    England out of Wood by 18th C. (Lord Nelson was so worried about implication for the Navy, he went around Acorns in his pocket.)
  • Coal
    Provides the solution.
    Used for Heat in London before 1700
    was to be used for steam.
    But was very hard, and expensive, to extract.
  • Water power - used first
  • Results of Power Crisis
    -led to search for new sources of power - and was to use it - Very important in Industrial Revolution
    In some respects it was the application of new forms of power that defines the Industrial Revolution. (steam, coal, electricity)

D. Politics of England

  • After a period of unstable government, stable government - there was a one party state run by the Whigs. Relatively little government interference with economy.
  • No Feudalism - there was no large privileged "feudal" class to hold back change or population movements.
  • Very large class of free landless laborers.

E. The Commercial Revolution.

  • Pre Industrial Capitalism
    -The Putting-out system/ties in with population -mostly wool until late 18th C.  The production of cloth was done largely in the home, not in workshops or factories.
    -Free Trade area in England - largest in Europe
  • Internal Trade Growth in 18th C.
    Internal - more important in economy
    - England not poor - peasants did have some surplus income (due to Ag. Rev.)
    - pop. growth accentuates this demand.
  • External Trade Growth - Navigation Acts
    -Mercantilism - government efforts to keep a positive trade balance.
    -Navigation Acts - gave Britain a trade monopoly with its colonies
    -1652, 1674 - vs. Dutch
    -there were also other struggles vs. The French culminating in Seven Years War.
    -march of trade and empire led to Industrial Revolution
    -Other countries put up similar barriers but English new markets in America and Caribbean kept up demand.
    -led to London as a large trading center and a lot of CAPITAL to invest.
    -The West Indian trade did not provide the money for the Industrial revolution.  (Research has shown that the people who invested in the new factories in the north of England were distinct from those who made money in trade with the West Indies.)  But it did contribute to the amount of capital that was swirling around England, and to the creation of a society in which some rich people were looking for ways to make money apart from just buying land (which was what the rich had almost always done in the past).

Graph: Total UK Exports compared to
Exports to North America, W Indies,
West Africa, Spanish America [mostly Caribbean.]

  • Supply and Demand.
    Explain notion of Demand.
    There was both HOME and FOREIGN DEMAND FOR ENGLISH GOODS.
  • Trade socially acceptable in England.
    -By time of Industrial Revolution England had an experienced business class, and fairly advanced economic structure.
  • Climate and Geography of England also Helped
    • Transportation (tied to trade)
      Natural waterways in England - nowhere more than 20 miles from water.
      Canal system built up before Industrial Revolution -from 1770s
    • Coal resources (tied to power needs)
    • Damp climate
      - good for cotton
  • Scientific Revolution's Effects
    -    A. Practical
    Early inventions not `scientific' - but science soon comes to play a role.
    -B. Different World View
    Change in attitude - the can-do approach to innovation was approved of.
  • India and Cotton
    -    It might have been India and Cotton which gave the final push.
    -A. Seven Years War 1756-1763
    France and England
    England gains control of India
    -The East India Company
    B. Cotton
    Advantages as a textile
    Cleaning/wearing/

F. England First Nation to Industrialize

  • All the above strands come together in the mid 18th century
  • demand/free trade area/scientific attitude/geographical possibilities/new textiles
    -emphasize Ag. Rev and Commercial Growth
  • -led to creation of factories and a new social and economic world.

England had to face new situation - and evolve new social and economic and political system.

II. What Happened During the Industrial Revolution?

The term was only used at the end of the 19th Century -so this is revolution in an odd sense of the word :

  • Factories
  • Urbanization of the population
  • Massively increased production

This is was we are going to look at now.

A. Industrial Technology

  • Introduction
    • Think of  of Industrial Rev. as a Process.
      -one invention leads to another, which leads to new situations which call for yet other changes.  Once the economy gets bigger, it also becomes more diversified.   For instance, big factories begin to require payroll clerks, and canteen workers. The whole process is like a snowball running down a hill.
    • Why textiles were first?
      Demand-led growth.
      In pre-modern economies people buy only a few things: food, housing, and clothes. Because producing all these takes so much effort, many aspects of the modern economy are either miniscule, or do not exist at all.
      Clothing was very hard to make, and so was the area in which, if you could come up with a new cheap method, there would be a real demand for what you produced.
    • Why Steam engines quickly became essential
      Rapid growth - need for iron and power.
      The initial use of water power could not keep up with demand.
      Move of population and industry to the North of England.
    • Investment
      By merchant capitalists at first. Later most money came from expanding areas themselves.
      -profit promoted search for new methods
      -only an already rich country like England could afford the first machine age.
  • King Cotton and Manchester
    • Cotton Machines (one Machine leads to another)
      Cotton was first industry to change - It was still new in 1760. There were many putter-outers looking for a more efficient way to produce cotton.
      • Flying Shuttle 1733 - John Kay -led to a demand for more yarn
      • Spinning Jenny 1765 - James Hargeaves
      • The Water Frame 1769 - Richard Arkwright -led to a need for more weaving
      • The Mule 1790 - Richard Compton
        -combined best features of other two -demanded more power than humans could provide - led to factories by water. Weaving still done by Hand - high wages now paid for weavers.
    • -These machines revolutionized industry.
      -By 1790 10 times more yarn was being made than in 1770. By 1800 it was main Industry in UK.
      -Spinning was now done in factories.
      -First modern factories grow up in Eng. textile industry.
    • Other Machines: Looms and the Cotton Gin
      • Power Loom 1785 - Edward Cartwright invents a power loom - but these were not perfected until about 1800 -led to need for more cotton
      • Cotton Gin 1800 - Eli Whitney -Led to economic revival of the Old South. [A bad effect was that it made slavery economically viable for another 65 years.]
  • Lancashire - Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution
    • Weather - damp climate for cotton spinning
      Manchester - entrepot
      Growth
      1811-1821 - 40%
      1831-1831 - 47%
    • -cotton towns/spinning - Rochdale
    • -cotton towns/weaving - Burnley
    • Wool Machines
      Wool old industry of England still important
      Yorkshire/Other side of Pennines - Drier weather
      The new cotton machines were soon adopted in the older woolens industry.
  • Power Machines
    • Recap power shortage
      -the Mule made need for more power acute.
      Early Machines dependent on water power -located near rivers.
    • Thomas Newcomen's Engine 1702 - highly inefficient
      Use at Mines - but coal was the solution to the power problem.
    • James Watt (1736-1819)
      1760's Studied steam engines [Story of the Kettle]
      Steam Engine 1763 - saw principal while repairing a Newcomen Engine.
      -to make something better he need precision tools.
      Steam engine is the fundamental technological advance of the Industrial Revolution.
      Matthew Boulton and Watt - apply steam engines to textile   machines 1769
      - begins to produce Steam engines (need for Sci. Rev. knowledge here)
    • "Steam is an Englishman"
      -absolutely fundamental to the Industrial Revolution
      -united Industrialization and Urbanization
      -there were a series of Great Engineers who extended the simple steam engine to railroad engines, steam ships, and hundred of other uses.
    • Results of Steam Power.
      For first time virtually unlimited power available to people. Was to be used in Factories first, then in Transportation.
  • Steel and Sheffield
    • Iron Furnaces
      • a. Need for intense heat - Charcoal or coke.
      • b. Steam power made coking process available.
        1780s - Henry Cort improves pig iron making.
      • c. Development of Steel.
        1740 17,000 tons
        1788 68,000 tons
        1796 125,000 tons
        1806 260,000 tons
        1840 3,000,000 tons
      • d. Heavy industry - concept
    • Sheffield
      Manchester located due to its usefulness in cotton manufacture (west coast/damp etc) Sheffield - in middle of a coal field + near iron ore, + lots of cooling water.
    • What is Steel used for ?
      Machines, railways, ships, iron buildings

B. The Factory System - The Social Effects of Industry

  • The Factory System
    • Move to factories demanded by Machines
      -Water power - Country factories
      -Steam power - allows growth of Cities
      -Rapid urbanization of a new type.
    • Early Stages
      Whole families work/Use of child labor
      Kinship ties preserved.
    • Factory Discipline
      Rural Life - set own pace, but do not idealize it. Discipline made factories hated
      -Hours were long
      -had to eat at set hours
      -Monotony of Factory work
    • Factory Acts - 1830s
      Humanitarianism
      ended child labor, and limited women's hours to 12.
    • Worker Response
    • The Ideology of the Manufacturers

III. Spread of  Industrialization

A. Introduction - Other Countries Compared to England

  • England got a massive head start. France had begun to copy by 1780's but revolution stopped it.
  • Napoleonic Wars, and reaction afterwards held Europe back. They also damaged the economy and killed millions of potential workers.
  • By 1815 England was way ahead - other countries did not even understand the technology.
  • Steam power made big initial investments needed in a way that had not been the case in England to start with. Britain tried to retain its technology: until 1843 it was illegal to export textile machinery
  • Other countries had advantages:
    --They could avoid England's mistakes
    --They could copy the latest techniques without having to go through all the trial and error in development.
    --They had strong governments to promote industry.
  • Other governments made conscious efforts to acquire this know-how - industrial espionage.

B. Sketch Chronology of Industrialization

1760-1850 - England
1830- - Belgium
1840- - France, Germany, USA
1890- - Austria, Russia, Japan

C. Railways: The Essential Invention for Industrial Expansion

  • Invention in England
    Rail used in mines - with animal power.
  • There were steam powered cars in early 19th C. - too noisy.
  • Rail capable of supporting a locomotive by 1816.
  • George Stephenson - The Rocket (1825) - 16 mph
  • Stockton and Darlington 1825 - first commercial steam railway.
  • Manchester-Liverpool line 1830 - first passenger line.  (Also first fatality: the British trade minister Canning fell off the platform into the path of a train, and was killed.)
  • England's Railway Rush (1830-1850)
  • First line 1830. By 1850 almost all UK rail network in place - competing lines, and even a speculative bubble.
  • 6125 miles of railways built.

Importance of Railways

  1. Economic effects
    • Lower Transportation costs, Larger markets = cheaper goods.
    • Created a "beneficial circle" of expansion.
  2. Social effects
    • Population movement to cities.
    • Railway created strong demand for unskilled labor - often came from country side - but did not return.
    • Seaside vacations became possible for the working class.
    • Navigators - immigrants to cities after finishing work on railroads.
    • Outlook of society of the world changed.
    • In Art - the sight of the moving landscape.

D. Spread of Industrial Revolution in Europe

Railways and Industrialization the Continent.

  • Belgium has railways 1835
  • France 1832 - serious construction 1840s
  • Germany - 1835
  • By 1850 you could travel from Paris to Berlin by rail.
  • Makes water transport less important
  • Cuts down geographic advantages of Britain.
  • Free Enterprise was NOT the model outside Britain and Germany.

Belgium

  • First European state to industrialize
  • British Input:  John Cockerill - established 1817 a large plant in Liege which produced machinery,steam engines and later locomotives. Skilled British workers came illegally to work for Cockerill.
  • A lot of information from this plant spread across Europe.
  • 1830s - two Belgian banks pioneer financing industry

France

  • Banks lead the Way - all over Continent -- Credit Mobelier of Paris

Germany

  • Early Failure - need for Govt. Support: Fritz Harkort from 1816-32 tried to build up industry in Ruhr. Failed as he could not invest enough + lack of infrastructure.
  • Prussian government introduces tariffs, builds roads + finances railways.
  • 1834 - Zollverein -- Goods can move freely in Germany, Tariffs against others leads to German economic unification.

USA

  • From 1840

Russia

  • Late 19th century on.

Japan

  • Forcibly opened by Cmdr Perry 1853
  • Unequal treaties + humiliation of the Shogun
  • The Meiji Restoration 1867 -- a political coup d'etat (a non-violent take over of government) leaders were modernizers: they saw what happened to China and so copied German and American Industry very deliberately. Also copied German authoritarian Government in 1880s Japan becomes an industrial power - first non- European nation to do so.
  • War with China 1894-95
  • War with Russia 1905

IV. The Second Industrial Revolution 1870-

The "first Industrial Revolution" took place roughly 1780-1830 in Britain.   Between 1850-1870 Industry comes of age in much of Europe.  From about 1870 there was  a second Industrial Revolution.  It is so called because rather than textiles and railways, a whole new range of industries grew up, and financial institutions become much more important.

New Industries

  • Chemicals
  • Steel
  • Electricity
  • Oil
  • At end of century cars invented (1885)

1860 - GB, Fr, Belg, + Germany together produce 125,000 tons of steel,
1913 - 32,020,000 tons of steel
1881 - first electricity plant (UK)

What was New

  • Banks not individuals determine investment priorities - as nowadays.
  • The Second Industrial Revolution was no located in one country: UK, Germany and USA all took the lead.
  • Germany's emergence as a major economic power  was also a major political fact after 1870.
  • Industrial Revolution II built on the society and industry created by Ind. Rev I.
  • More emphasis on science and technology - scientific research comes to play a role.
  • Big firms becoming more important
  • Growth of number of white collar workers
  • Invention of the production line in early 20th century by the Ford Motor Company.

V.  Social Results of Industrialization

A. Population

There had been an increase in 18th C. but a veritable explosion in 19th C.

1800-1850 40% pop. increase -- leads to more industrial growth

Europe peoples move to Americas, Australasia (destruction of aboriginal peoples - Amerindians, Tasmanians)

Europeans dominate in other countries - about 1/2 go to US.

1850-1900 pop, increase 266mil to 401mill (50% inc.)

Europe made up 25% of world pop - the most it ever has.

B. Urban Existence

Urbanization was the great social result of the Ind. Rev. Formerly the vast majority of people lived on the land. From now on the City was to be the way of living.

Cities are places were new ideas flourish, where creativity is increased, education becomes possible for all. They are also places that can dissolve social bonds, and lead to alienation.

Country gives way to Town

In England 50% of people live in Cities by 1851

Later in other countries

The Urban Environment

City conditions were bad before the Ind. Rev. but new pop. pressures and industry intensified the congestion filth and disease.

Dirty - Sanitation problems - open sewers: millions of people lived in shit. Cholera arrives 1830s, affects middle class as well

1840s - Public health movements - made necessary by Ind. Rev.  (House of Commons had to be closed in the 1840s because of the stink from the Thames) -- this lead to a much greater role for government.

Edwin Chadwick - a commissioner to administer relief to paupers. His report in 1842   spurred government action. (He applied the principle of "the greatest good for greatest number.").  First  UK Public Health Act 1848

It was believed public health/cleanliness would help everybody. Sanitation by sewers, etc., were- methods adopted all over Europe.

Medicine

1860s - breakthrough in preventive medicine as idea of germs showed need for cleanliness

Louis Pasteur (1822-1895). finds bacteria 1868.

Vaccination vs. Rabies 1885.

Joseph Lister (1827-1912) - began sterilizing wounds - helped stop death from Septicemia

Decline in death rates was enormous from 1870's onwards.

Housing

To begin with houses were very crowded, and badly built - little sanitation (Row houses had 200 people to to 1 toilet). Built on rural model not suitable for cities. Houses had to be crowded near factories due total absence of public transport.

After Mid 19th C. - Urban planning and public Transport - people could live away from work.

Paris was model under Napoleon III - it was transformed into a modern city by Baron   Georges Haussman.

1890s - electric trams (streetcars) - real revolution in public transport.

Late 19th C. Urban life improved in quality - still slums, but a good experience for many.

C. Class Structures

Class continued to be a part of European life. Despite increase in general wealth there continued to be great disparity of wealth - usually the richest 5% got 1/3 of nat. income, the richest 20% got 50 to 60%.

There continued to be complicated class systems - not just two opposing classes as Marx had predicted. But some classes declined in power and numbers and others became more important.

Losing Ground

  • Rural Aristocracy - gradually lost power in Britain, France and Low Countries, but retained power in Russia and Germany until 20th C.
  • Peasants - As population moved into the towns, peasants became more and more marginal. But this movement took place at different paces. In France, for instance, peasants remained a politically important group until the second half of the 20th century.

New Social Classes Created by the Industrial Revolution

  • The Factory Owners
    Perhaps the first people to think of themselves as a class in the modern sense. They were locked into a highly competitive system.
    There was a lot of mobility in early Industrial Revolution -no need for massive investment
    But by mid 19th C. - move to assimilate with old ruling classes - buying titles and sending Kids to private schools - less mobility.
  • Origins of the Industrial Working Class (Proletariat).
    Movement into cities
    -Factories destroy old communities but new ones come into being.
    -by 1850 - awareness that Ind. Rev was creating riches
    -aim was to get it for the working people.
    -origins of trade unions (will be discussed under lecture on Socialism)

But the class system was more complex than just these two groups. There was a complicated system of rankings within the middle and working classes.

  • New Urban Middle Classes (20%)
    • The Capitalist Bourgeoisie (5%): Tried to ape aristocratic lifestyles after its early liberal period. e.g. it bought and built country houses but engaged in constant battles to cut their production costs and stay rich.
    • The Professional Middle Class: Merchants, lawyers, doctors: increases in power and importance as knowledge based skills come to the fore in society - Medicine, engineering.
    • The lower middle class - shopkeepers, white collar workers (a new class) - often identified with middle class even though they were no wealthier than workers - dentists, teachers, nurses all rise into the lower m/c from w/c status in 19th C.
  • Middle Class Culture
    • Lot of money spent on food
    • Use of servants
    • Well housed - apartments in Europe, houses in Britain
    • Values: Hard work, education, religion
    • Insecurity about social and economic position.
    • This was to lead to many of 20th C's political problems.
  • The Proletariat/Working Class (80%)
    As textbook makes clear only textiles were industrialized at first - but factory methods of production did spread to other industries. Other new industries were not factory jobs -e.g. construction jobs. But factory like discipline was imposed.  Proletariat - means workers for wages, who do not own the means of production.
    • Aristocracy of Labor (15% of w/c) - highly skilled/ craftsmen - printers, masons, foremen developed stern morality/Methodism. Tended to see itself as leaders of the w/c. It was always under pressure from new technology making its skills redundant.
    • Semi-skilled workers - bricklayers, pipefitters, some factory workers.
    • Unskilled Workers - dockers, helpers etc, + domestic servants (1/7 of workers in UK in 1911)
  • Working Class Culture
    • Characterized by middle class writers as all about drinking; sport - soccer, racing; music halls.
    • BUT ALSO: Working men's institutes/education; political activity - Chartism in England.
    • Religion more or less irrelevant to the working classes, although many continue to be baptized.  [Compare USA where churches thrived as a way of asserting ethnic identity - not an issue in Europe where churches were seen more as preserving the status quo]

D. Family Life and Sex

Here we are talking about all classes, and generalizing somewhat!

Marriage: the idea of romantic love triumphs.

  • There was an increase in pre-marital sex and illegitimate births up until 1850 - after 1850 a decline in illegitimate births as working class stabilizes. Probably just as much sex but contraceptives available + a tendency to get married when a woman got pregnant.
  • Economic factors still played a role in middle class marriages.
  • Marriage and kinship ties stayed strong for both middle and working class people - for working class people they were a source of support and welfare - industrialization does not of itself destroy the family.
  • But the family ceases to be a unit of production - it becomes a unit of consumption. Also as production rises you get a situation where often only the adult male in the family works - idea of breadwinner - and this reinforces male power in the home.

Sexuality

Cannot deal with this issue in full, urbanization not the only factor.

  • Urban middle classes develop a distinct sexual ideology: ideal of separating family from rest of life; ideal of order and naturalness; the cult of domesticity.
  • But this succeeds in making everything is made exciting - trouser legs, for instance, were rude to mention.  Women's were not supposed to show ankles.  At the same time there was a a use of  restrictive clothing -- bustles, girdles -- which emphasized the sexuality of women.
  • There was a a habit in the middle class of Medicalizing sexuality (rather than seeing it as sin)
    • Masturbation - obsession with Children's activity.
    • Homosexuality - from sin to sickness.
  • Men and Sex
    • Prostitution was very common - 30,000 plus prostitute women in London in Late 19th C.
    • The reason was that the poverty of so many meant that rich men found it easy to buy sex. The ideal of wife and mother, often left single women with no easy means of support.
    • Sexist attitudes to women continue - women blamed for venereal diseases (cf. Aids)
    • 1864-1886 - Contagious Diseases Act in UK.

E. Women

Work

  • Pre-Industrial pattern of working middle class women disappears - less need for their labor with new machines.
  • Women excluded from many good or responsible jobs - idea grows that women cannot work as effectively as men.
  • Teaching and later nursing were open to some lower middle class women.
  • Some working class women continued to have to work, but even in that class many begin to stay at home.
  • If they do work it was often on the land (France) or in domestic service.
    • paid lower wages.
    • demoting of women's work - women often very good at dexterous jobs.
  • Women had strategies to deal with these issues.

Ideals

Idealization of women's place always being at home, cooking and providing for men. The Home increases in emotional importance (Home Sweet Home - 1870).

In some families it was the wife who made all domestic decisions and gave her husband "spends."

New emphasis on Children

Loving parent-child relationships. Many rich and m/c women would now breast feed their own babies.

There were less children as time went on + lower death rate - each child valued more.

The birthrate fell - in order to maximize economic position.

But Children were controlled by parents and repressed.

Women's Sexuality

Seen as either Mother or Whore: although some French marriage manuals allowed that a women had a right to an orgasm.

Always the case but particularly evident to men in big cities who had his wife and many prostitutes available.

Women's Politics

Women excluded from all male politics But middle class women later in 19th C. began to question their subordination - -e.g. led action in GB vs. Contagious diseases Act. [See the section on Liberalism for more on this]

VI. Industrialization and European Economic Global Dominance

Industrialization gives Europe power - in Military production and Transport

Global Economic System - Comes into being from 17th C.

India, Americas, East Asia, Africa -- all become part of a system dominated from Europe.

A Lopsided world of Rich and Poor Nations

It was only in 19th C. that "Third World" fell behind Europe in Standard of living.

The debate has been whether the West caused this gap by exploitation

Trade and Foreign Investment

  • Britain plays a key role in enormous growth of world trade: imports raw goods (cotton) from poorer countries then used poor countries as its market.
  • Suez Canal, Panama Canal foster intercontinental Trade
  • Europeans from 1840s invest huge amounts abroad - in the US and in Russia

New Colonies and Emigration

  • Britain and France expand overseas
  • Half migrants go to the US

Economic Colonies

  • Opium Wars with China 1839-42, 1856-60
  • Hong Kong and Shanghai become western entrepots
  • Japan 1853 - opened by Perry (Meiji Restoration)
  • Railroads, steamships, refrigeration: all intensified this trade pattern - e.g. Argentina becomes a British economic colony in late 19th C.

Economic Dominance was accompanied by political and military control. There was also an immense spreading of European ideas - this included nationalism.

Reaction of the Colonized

As we have seen European ideas and practices were very easy to copy, e.g. Britain to France. Now they were copied, and developed, by the subject lands.

20th Century would see the rolling back of European dominance, but the continued spread and dominance of ideas and inventions that originated in Europe.

VII. Was the Industrial Revolution Good for People?

  • Introduction
    By 1851, Great Exhibition, UK was workshop of the world
    • - 2/3 of worlds coal,
      - 1/2 its Iron and Cotton.
    • Production
      1780-1800 Doubled
      1800-1851 rose 3 1/2 times
    • Population
      1780 - 9 Million
      1851 - 21 Million
    • Was it all worth it?
      The  Industrial Revolution was necessary to cope with rising population, if that population was to have any standard of living.
      Ireland did not industrialize - no infrastructure - dependence on potato - pop increase 3 to 8 Million from 1725 to 1845 - famine in 1845, 1846, 1851 - led to 1.5 M dead + massive emigration - economy remained agricultural and impoverished - this was the alternative to Industrialization]
    • The debate on Good or Bad has gone on since Industrial Revolution
      -Poets such as Blake and Wordsworth protested the treatment of workers.  Novelist joined in the attack -- Dickens, Disraeli, and Zola.
      -Others such as Ure and Chadwick claimed life was improving. The answers sometimes depend on what sources you look at.
    • Rural Life
      Rural life was not always happy - it too could be dirty and oppressive.
      -Movement off the land had already led to filthy cities before the Ind. Revolution
  • Marxist Views - Oppression of Workers
    • -F. Engels: The Condition of the Working Class in England 1844
      "At the bar of world opinion, I charge the English middle class with mass murder, wholesale robbery and all the other crimes in the calendar"
    • -Blue Books
      The first generation was sacrificed to the Ind. Revolution. Conditions worse in England than elsewhere as later industrializing countries followed English social improvements.
    • -Child Labor
    • -Slums
    • -hours of labor increased.
  • Revisionist Views - Material standards did rise.
    T.S. Ashton and Hartwell
    Use statistical methods.
    1750-1790 Conditions improve
    1792-1810 Conditions decline as prices rise.
    1815-1850 Wages rise again.
    -Material Standard of living goes up
    -meat, sugar, teas consumption all rises.
    -wages also rose. or stayed static while prices decline.
    -wages increase from #13/ 1801 to #24 /1850
    -it seems, then, that eventually there was substantial improvements
    Other Revisionist Ideas -
    -Child Labor a result of economic improvement as more children lived longer - also due to labor shortage as men resisted working in factories to start with.
    -The idea of poverty being bad is new - only Industrial Revolution makes idea of abolishing poverty possible.
  • Quality of life Issues
    Counter Attack on Revisionists - Eric Hobsbawm
    Industrial worker was like a slave - but not looked after like slaves in old age. Number of hours worked increases. (Its strange to see Marxists repeating arguments made by Southern slave owners)
    Stress on loss of workers independence and idea of Alienation. - nostalgia for village life.

Questions about the Readings

Sadler Committee

  • What industry ? What is Flax ?
  • What do you think about the hours kids and women worked?
  • Does the argument for rising wages compensate for these conditions?
  • Do you think regimentation was a necessary part of industrialization.

Engels and Gaskell

  • What were conditions of life in the new towns?

Ure

  • Where does Ure work?
  • What does he blame workers for ?
  • Do you think workers had reason to protest?
  • Do you realize from Ure that Unions were hardly legal, and could not force membership?
  • Why might workers want unions?
  • What incident is Ure describing here?
  • What do you think of Ure's view of child labor? Is it realistic ? Does he mention how much they were paid?
  • What about his comments on the inactivity of factory life ?
  • Why do you think Ure writes as he does?

Web Exercise

The Industrial Revolution is still happening! All the social problems that one finds in Europe and America in the 19th century - child labor, disruption of rural communities, very rapid economic transformations of society, vast new cities, pollution - can be found in the modern world.

Your task this week is to find information in reliable newspapers on the Net, and post to caucus the article you find, along with your comments on it, about "Industrial Revolution" type problems in a modern industrializing country. You can use American online newspapers, such as the New York Times or Washington Post, but I would be really much happier if you found information in one of the English language newspapers that are on the net, but published in the new industrial countries. Yahoo has a good list.

Here are some countries to look at (only do one):

  • Mexico
  • Brazil
  • India (see the Times of India)
  • Pakistan
  • South Africa
  • Thailand

Discussion Questions

  • How does the potato fit into the history of modern population growth? What other important plants were first domesticated by inhabitants of the Americas? [This is a general knowledge question]
  • What do you think was the most important cause of the Industrial Revolution?
  • Why was the cotton industry the first one to begin its expansion?
  • What affected life the most -- the French Revolution or the Industrial Revolution?
  • Was the effect of the Industrial Revolution the same on men and women?
  • How did the Industrial Revolution  support Western political expansion into other continents?
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created 9/11/1998 : revised 4/12/1999