INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT OF THE

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION • PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT OF THE THREE 18 TH CENTURY REVOLUTIONS • WHY? • BECAUSE IT TRANSFORMED EVERYTHING IT TOUCHED – Changed work patterns – Transformed European social structure – Altered international balance of power – Caused population explosion – Provoked rapid growth of cities – Sparked advancements in science, medicine, and agriculture • HELPED CREATE THE MODERN WORLD

WHY ENGLAND? • ENGLAND POSSESSED EXPANDING MARKET FOR MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS • Colonies • Agricultural Revolution – Resulted in large harvests, bountiful food supplies, relatively inexpensive food – Created discretionary income (money left over after paying for necessities) – Spent discretionary income on small purchases of manufactured items ( shoes, cloth, small metal products) – Small purchases added up to expanding market for manufactured goods

OTHER FACTORS • Cheap transportation • Effective central bank and welldeveloped credit facilities • Stable and predictable government

COTTON TEXTILES • FIRST SECTOR TO INDUSTRIALIZE • DOMESTIC SYSTEM • Also called “cottage industry” or “putting-out industry – Everything done by hand – People worked in their spare time from agricultural work – People worked in family units at home – Merchants dropped off raw materials and picked up finished product each week – Inefficient because of lack of supervision of workers • COULD NOT MEET ESCALATING DEMAND FOR COTTON PRODUCTS AFTER 1700

FIRST MACHINES • DEVELOPED IN RESPONSE TO NEED TO BOOST COTTON TEXTILE PRODUCTION TO MEET RISING DEMAND • SPINNING JENNY – Big and clunky – Water powered – Could spin 300 -400 spools of cotton thread simultaneously • POWER LOOM – Big and clunky – Water powered – Could do the work it took 100 hand loom workers a day to do in one hours

THE COTTON MILLS • Machines were to big, too expensive, and required regular operation—could not be adapted to domestic system • Had to be located in large, central location that met power and size requirements and where workers could be supervised • Birth of factories • Mechanized production made cotton products cheaper, thereby stimulating demand, thereby encouraging development of more and better machines and bigger factories— birth of the Industrial Revolution

SPREAD OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION • DRAWBACKS OF WATER POWER – Restricted location of factories – Restricted size of machines – Left production at the mercy of elements • SOLUTION: THE STEAM ENGINE – James Watt – More reliable, flexible power source – Stimulated iron and coal industries and promoted them to industrialize

THE LOCOMOTIVE • INVENTION OF THE LOCOMOTIVE – George Stephenson (1830) – Resulted in construction of rail network – Reduced shipping costs – More stimulus for iron, coal, and steam engine industries – Created unified national market for manufactured products

WORKSHOP OF THE WORLD Crystal Palace Exhibition • By 1850, England dominated world production of coal, iron, and cotton textiles • Had phenomenal annual growth rate • Had fasted growing population in Europe – Increasingly concentrated in cities • Industrial Revolution made Great Britain the first modern nation – Urban, industrial, wealthy, and militarily powerful

INTERNATIONAL GROWTH • Industrialization spread throughout western world once others realized its benefits – Belgium (1830 s) – France (1840 s) – Germany and United States (1860 s) – Sweden, Japan, and Russia (1870 s) – Brazil, South Africa, China, South Korea, India, and others (20 th century)

DOWNSIDE OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION • INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, IN THE LONG TERM, BENEFITTED THE COMMON MAN – Higher standard of living – Longer life expectancy – Better chance for social mobility – In general, a better quality of life • BUT IN THE SHORT TERM IT CREATED A VAST ARRAY OF NEW SOCIAL PROBLEMS – Tremendous upheaval in lives of early industrial workers – Ripped people out of their traditional ways of living and working – Threw into a new world for which they were unprepared and hence exploited • AS A RESULT OF NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES WITH EARLY INDUSTRIALIZATION, MANY WORKERS TURNED TO SOCIALISM FOR AN ALTERNATIVE

LABOR PROBLEMS • DOMESTIC SYSTEM – Laid-back system, families worked together, no supervision, no set schedules, and no set work pace – People worked when and as fast as they wanted to • FACTORY SYSTEM – Had to show up on time everyday and work steadily at pace set by machine – Could only take breaks at predetermined time – Had to adjust your life to the strict discipline of industrial production

CHILD LABOR • Adults refused to work in factories because they appeared hideous, inhuman places • CHILD LABOR – Orphans were terribly exploited – Situation was so bad that Parliament finally intervened and regulated child labor

URBAN SQUALOR

SOCIALISM • General socialist argument – Capitalism made a few people very rich but kept most people poor and miserable – Capitalism was unjust system • Early socialist schemes – “Utopian” communities (La Reunion) – Nationalization of industry – Violent revolutions • Replace unbridled competition with cooperation • Abolition of private property • Flaws – Misunderstood human nature – Wanted to “turn back clock” to days before industrial revolution Charles Fourier Robert Owen

SCIENTIFIC SOCIALISM (MARXISM) Karl Marx Frederick Engels • Published Communist Manifesto in 1848 • Corrected flaws in early socialism and proved it was workable and inevitable

FUNDAMENTALS OF MARXISM I • Human history characterized by one class exploiting another – Class—a social group bound together by common economic activity and interests • Ancient World – Slaveowners exploit slaves • Feudal Age – Nobles exploit commoners • Capitalist (modern) Age – Bourgeoisie exploits proletariat

FUNDAMENTALS OF MARXISM II • Industrialization would eventually create conditions for the overthrow of bourgeoisie by proletariat – By making bourgeoisie richer and smaller in number – By making proletariat poorer and larger in number – Creates “class consciousness” among proletariat—the realization that they are being exploited by the bourgeoisie and the desire to do something about it • Result? – Revolution by proletariat – Creation of communist society– heaven on earth where there are no classes and no exploitation

INACCURATE PREDICTIONS • Marxist regimes that have been established are hardly “heavens on earth” – Former Soviet Union, China, Cuba, North Korea • Most of the industrial world is still capitalist – No proletarian revolutions in sight • But Marxism does provide some insight into the extreme concern some had with the social ramifications of capitalism and industrializations during the early Industrial Revolution