Transcript Industrial Revolution

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 Younger
Blast 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
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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 Act
In 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 2
This is another
extract from the
poster
a) 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 in
workhouses
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 workhouses
were like?
Efforts at Change
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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]