Post on 19-Jan-2016
Industrial Revolution
Discuss the origins of the Industrial Revolution and the impact that it had
upon European society.
Origins-Great Britain• Agricultural Revolution of the 18th c. led to an increase in food
production; feed more people with less labor at lower prices—enabled people to purchase manufactured goods and led to surplus labor supply for the new factories
• Capital—profits from trade and the cottage industry, along with an effective central bank and credit facilities
• Entrepreneurs—political power rested in the hands of a group of people who favored innovation in economic matters
• Mineral Resources—coal and iron ore; minerals could be transported fairly easily along rivers and new canals, roads, and bridges to new industrial centers.
• Government—stable government and favorable laws created a favorable business climate
• Markets-Britain had a vast colonial empire created through 18th c. wars (Americas, Africa, the East + domestic market)
Coalbrookdale by Night, 1801, Philipp Jakob Loutherbourg the YoungerBlast furnaces light the iron making town of Coalbrookdale
Manchester from Kersal Moor, by William Wylde in 1857. Manchester acquired the nickname Cottonopolis during the early 19th century owing to its sprawl of
textile factories.
Technological Changes• Cotton Industry-flying shuttle, James Hargreaves’s spinning jenny,
Richard Arkwright’s water frame spinning machine, Samuel Crompton’s spinning mule, and Edmund Cartwright’s power loom increased production.
• Entrepreneurs bring workers to the machines and organize labor collectively in factories. Factories then bring families to live in the new towns.
• Steam engine-revolutionized the production of cotton goods and allowed the factory system to spread to new industries—iron.
• Transportation-Richard Trevithick pioneered the first steam-powered locomotive on an industrial rail line, and George Stephenson and his son improved upon it.
• Factories-system of time-work discipline• Great Exhibition of 1851-first industrial fair at Kensington in London
in the Crystal Palace (structure made of glass and iron that was a tribute to British engineering skills); housed a variety of products created by the Industrial Revolution. It displayed Britain’s wealth to the world and was a symbol of success.
Spread of Industrialization
• Spread to Belgium, France, and the German states (1815-1850: mainly coal and iron), along with the U.S (1860).
• Continental countries lagged behind due to the lack of good roads and problems with river transit; toll stations and customs barriers along state boundaries increased costs and prices of goods. Guild restrictions and fewer entrepreneurs existed, and Napoleonic wars disrupted developments.
• Governments-promotion of protective tariffs and joint-stock industrial banks
Social Impact
• Population growth—census taking began in 19th c.; The key to expansion is a decline in death rates due to a drop in major causes such as famines, epidemics, and war and an increase in food supply (better fed and disease resistant)- exception-Ireland with the Great Famine in 1845
• Emigration and urbanization
Living Conditions
• Rapid urbanization intensified problems• Unsanitary conditions• Small, overcrowded living quarters in row houses• Lack of municipal direction—city streets used as sewers
and open drains• Coal blackened towns• Deathly conditions• Edwin Chadwick-secretary of the Poor Law Commission;
investigated living conditions of the working classes and advocated a system of modern sanitary reforms-result, Britain’s first Public Health Act created the National Board of Health
London through the haze, ca. 1910
Gustave Dore Over London-By Rail, 1870
Industrial Workers
• 1st half of 19th c. the artisans/craftspeople constituted the largest group of urban workers along with servants
• Working conditions for factory workers included a 12-16 hour workday 6 days a week; no minimum wage or job security; dirty and unhealthy; women and children
• Poor Law Act of 1834
Poor Law ActIn 1834 a new Poor Law was introduced. Some people welcomed it
because they believed it would:• reduce the cost of looking after the poor• take beggars off the streets• and encourage poor people to work hard to support themselves.The new Poor Law ensured that the poor were housed in workhouses,
clothed and fed. Children who entered the workhouse would receive some schooling. In return for this care, all workhouse paupers would have to work for several hours each day.
However, not all Victorians shared this point of view. Some people, such as Richard Oastler, spoke out against the new Poor Law, calling the workhouses ‘Prisons for the Poor’. The poor themselves hated and feared the threat of the workhouse so much that in northern towns there were riots.
Close-up 1
This is an extract from an anti-Poor Law Poster drawn in 1837.a) How desperate are the people trying to get into the workhouse?b) What is the response of the workhouse master?
Close-up 2This is another extract from the postera) What work are these paupers doing?b) The paupers believe they are treated much worse than slaves in the West Indies. Why would this statement have shocked people at this time?c) Why do you think the paupers' heads have been shaved?
Close-up 3
This is another extract from the poster.a) What has ‘Joe’ got in the truck?b) What is he going to do with it?
Close-up 4
This is another extract from the poster.a) What does this part of the poster tell you about the treatment of the old?b) Why do you think that the government was keen to make sure that people inworkhouses worked?
Close-up 5
5. This is another extract from the poster.a) According to the poster how long were inmates expected to work each day?b) How many hours sleep were they allowed?c) What punishments can you see in the poster?6. What does the artist think about the new Poor Law?7. What are the problems of using this poster as evidence of what the workhouseswere like?
Efforts at Change• 1799 and 1800, British government outlawed labor organizations but not
trade unions (formed to limit entry into the trade and to gain employee benefits). Strikes, however, led to the government to repeal the Combination Acts in 1824 and to the tolerance of labor unions.
• Luddites-skilled craftspeople who attacked machines because they believed that machines threatened their livelihood (1812).
• Chartism-aim to achieve political democracy; named from the People’s Charter, a doc drawn up in 1838 by the London Working Men’s Association. It demanded universal male suffrage, payment for members of Parliament, the elimination of property qualifications for members of Parliament, and annual sessions of Parliament. Significant in its ability to organize millions of working class men and women.
• Government-series of acts; Factory Acts between 1802-1819 limited child labor between 9-16 to 12 hour days and employment under 9 forbidden; Factory Act of 1833 workdays for 9-13 limited to 8 hour days and factory inspectors + 2 hours of education; 1847 Ten Hours Act reduced work day for 13-18.
• Leader of the Luddites, 1812
The first general laws against child labor, the Factory Acts, were passed in Britain in the first half of the 19th century. Children younger than nine were not allowed to work and the
work day of youth under the age of 18 was limited to twelve hours.[1]