Industrial Revolution

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Industrial Revolution

• Discuss the origins of the Industrial Revolution
  and the impact that it had upon European society.

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Origins-Great Britain

• Agricultural Revolution of the 18th c. led to an
  increase in food production feed more people
  with less labor at lower pricesenabled people to
  purchase manufactured goods and led to surplus
  labor supply for the new factories
• Capitalprofits from trade and the cottage
  industry, along with an effective central bank
  and credit facilities
• Entrepreneurspolitical power rested in the hands
  of a group of people who favored innovation in
  economic matters
• Mineral Resourcescoal and iron ore minerals
  could be transported fairly easily along rivers
  and new canals, roads, and bridges to new
  industrial centers.
• Governmentstable 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)

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Coalbrookdale by Night, 1801, Philipp Jakob
Loutherbourg the YoungerBlast furnaces light the
iron making town of Coalbrookdale
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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.
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Technological Changes

• Cotton Industry-flying shuttle, James
  Hargreavess spinning jenny, Richard Arkwrights
  water frame spinning machine, Samuel Cromptons
  spinning mule, and Edmund Cartwrights 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 industriesiron.
• 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 Britains wealth to the
  world and was a symbol of success.

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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

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Social Impact

• Population growthcensus 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

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Living Conditions

• Rapid urbanization intensified problems
• Unsanitary conditions
• Small, overcrowded living quarters in row houses
• Lack of municipal directioncity 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, Britains first Public
  Health Act created the National Board of Health

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London through the haze, ca. 1910
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Gustave Dore Over London-By Rail, 1870
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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

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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.

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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?
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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?
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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?
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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?
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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?
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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 Peoples Charter, a doc drawn up
  in 1838 by the London Working Mens 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.

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• Leader of the Luddites, 1812

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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