Robert Bello Jacob Hunt 1

HIST 102-001
Fall 2016

The rhetoric and ideas of the enlightenment sparked the two most significant revolutions

in European history: The French revolution and the Industrial revolution. These revolutions

changed the entire world politically, economically, and socially. Both revolutions owe some

credit to the actions of upper-class bourgeoisie seeking power and influence. In France the

bourgeoisies desire for political power lead to the first major acts of rebellion against the

monarchy and aristocracy, while the bourgeoisie of England sought to maximize profit by

financing risky inventions and technologies that increased production.

In terms of political impact, the French revolution overshadows practically every other

event of the early modern era. Whereas absolutism and constitutional monarchy undermined and

subverted the traditional feudal system, the French revolution figuratively, and literally in some

cases, burned the feudal system to the ground. Starting with the National Assembly and the Oath

of the Tennis Court, the French bourgeoisie attempted to gain power during the Estates General

by gaining support for the masses of France with rhetoric about inalienable rights like liberty,

property, security, and resistance to oppression. (Declaration of the Rights, National Assembly

of France, p 1) The bourgeoisie intended to dismiss the masses once pro-bourgeoisie policies and

reforms passed, but the mob did not intend to let the bourgeoisie skimp on the promise equality.

After the events of Bastille day, the participation of the masses, and thus the common man, in

politics was legitimized. With every man having a political voice came the need for every man to

have a political position. Man and woman of similar views and beliefs concerning the best form

of government organized themselves into political clubs such as monarchist, democrats,

republicans, and other more specific categories. These political clubs and their members not only

dictated the rhetoric and policies of France during the revolution, but also laid the foundations

for todays political parties.

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While the French revolutions political impact is the most significant, the political effects

of the industrial revolution also hold significance. New inventions like the Water Frame and even

the steam engine still needed manpower to operate. Cities of workers grew around textile and

steel mills, but these cities and mills provided horrid living and working conditions for factory

workers. Men, woman, and children worked, suffered, and lived together in densely populated

metropolises, and through shared experiences and increased interaction between families a class

consciousness began to form. Much like people in the French revolution grouped into political

clubs based on shared views, workers of the Industrial revolution began organizing labor

syndicates and unions to collectively demand better pay and working conditions from mill

owners. The birth of unions and the working class, a shared will and feeling of belonging among

the common workers, shapes politics to this day as workers and unions push for laws to benefit

their interest.

With these political changes also came economic changes. English bourgeoisie applied

scientific methods introduced in the Enlightenment to maximize profit from agricultural yield.

Efficient methods of farming reduced the number of workers required of farms, thereby forcing

now unemployed workers to move about the country to look for work. This mobile labor pool in

combination with Englands near global market and established system of credit and shares laid

the foundations for the industrialization of England. Rich bourgeoisie bought shares to finance

the construction and operation of mills and new machinery. These mills hired displaced workers

to operate machines, and the products were sold in the market for profit. New machines and

processes continued to increase productivity and profit, but the common workers wages did not

increase with the profit. Thomas Malthus argued in The Iron Law of Wages that if common

workers were paid more, they would have more children, and the expenses of raising these
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children would drag them back to the same poverty as before. Because of this sentiment held by

Malthus and other economists in the Manchester School of Economics, workers wages stayed

low until united labor syndicates collectively refused to work if not paid higher wages.

Changes in politics and economics inevitably brought great social changes as well.

Before industrialization nearly everything needed for survival was made or grown at home, with

the men working in the fields on a seasonal schedule. In industrialized mills, however, men,

women, and children all worked for wages to produces large quantities of the single products

away from home, with daily schedules based on hours set by mill owners. Owners cared mainly

for profit and productivity, so they fired tardy workers and replaced them with other laborers

looking for work. As being late could lead to unemployment, punctuality in arriving at and

leaving work became normal, establishing the concepts of work time and work space. With

little free time previously solitary tasks like washing cloths and making meals become communal

tasks where many families cooperated. Just as novels depicting upper-class merchants

communicated their shared expectance and allowed the formation of bourgeoisie class

consciousness, workers sharing experiences at community events allowed a feeling of belonging

among all workers, and the aforementioned working class was born. Working men, women, and

children felt unified a rather than the more isolated view of life in pre-industrial villages.

While a working class consciousness did not properly form from the French revolution,

political consciousness and the newly formed nationalism completely restructured social life. In

the feudal system a good peasant merely obeyed his king and his lord and bowed the right way,

but with mass politics and political clubs introduced, the model citizen participated in political

discourse and actively supported his cause against counterrevolutionary threats and enemies.

French men felt the need to protect the freedoms promised by the revolution and gained a sense
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of nationalism, placing ones identity and pride in being a member of a nation. As fear of

counterrevolution grew paranoia set in, and the Committee of Public Safety was formed to

defend the French republic from all foes external and internal. Internal foes tended to be citizens

suspected of aiding counter-revolution in any way. Even posture and dress could be used as

grounds for accusation followed by execution. Violence and execution caused thousands of

deaths during this time, known as The Tyranny. In 1794 paranoia died down and the

Committee of Public Safety fell out of favor, and its leaders were executed. Afterwards the

bourgeoisie who sparked the revolution regained some control and power in the new French

republic, but the wars of the revolution continued, and in 1799 a general named Napoleon

Bonaparte seized control of the government and dismantled the republic (Hunt et al., p 653).

Enlightenment rhetoric about natural law and the rights of men lead the bourgeoisie of

Europe to seek their class interests. The bourgeoisie of France wanted a political voice in

government and mobilized the masses to do so. When they failed to demobilize the masses, the

political environment of Europe changed in dramatic ways, and with political change social life

changed as well. Bourgeoisie in England used the scientific approach of the Enlightenment to

maximize production in agriculture and other products. The mills built by rich contributors

created large and dense cities for their workers, and this new environment allowed the formation

of the working class.