THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (18 - 19 CENTURY)

1. INDUSTRIALISATION OF EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES

Following the Industrial Revolution in Britain, new manufacturing processes spread
to other countries. This process is known as industrialisation.
Initially, the industrialisation of Europe was slow:
- The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars created political instability in
many European countries.
- Taxes and duties (aranceles) restricted trade between European regions and
countries.
- After the Congress of Vienna, most European countries had absolute
monarchies, and middle-class merchants and business owners had little
political influence.
- British industrialists tried to keep their innovations secret, and to stop
engineers and toolmakers from leaving the country.

In the end, the British could not prevent new manufacturing processes from
reaching other countries. The first regions to industrialize were Europe and the
United States. New factories and mines were often established using British capital
and by importing British engineers and skilled workers.

In the second half of the 19th century, the expansion of the railways, as well as the
unification of Germany and Italy, greatly accelerated the industrialisation of Europe
and the United States. Nevertheless, it proceeded at different speeds in different
parts of Europe.

2. LIBERAL ECONOMICS AND BANKING

- LIBERAL ECONOMICS
The changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution led to the development of new
economic theories. In the 18th century, most European governments believed in
mercantilism. In his book The Wealth of Nations (1776), Adam Smith proposed a new
theory: a nation’s wealth is all of the goods that it produces and its commerce, not just its
gold and silver.

According to Smith, the best way to increase wealth is to encourage free enterprise to allow
people to spend and invest their money however they like. His arguments for this were as
follows:
 - Smith argued that the state should not intervene in the economy, as the economy
adjusts itself naturally by means of the invisible hand. This refers to the way prices
and salaries are regulated by the law of supply and demand.
- Trade is good for both buyers and sellers: the buyer gets the product they want, and
the seller is paid. Governments should therefore allow free trade, rather than trying to
prevent imports and increase exports.
- Competition helps to keep prices low. If there is more demand than supply, prices
rise. This encourages businesses to make the product, so supply increases. Prices
come down again. In the long run, supply and demand balance.
Smith was also one of the first people to recommend the division of labor. Adam Smith’s
ideas had a big influence on modern capitalism, and he is considered the father of liberal
economics.

- BANKING
As trade grew during the 18th century, banks became increasingly important. Banks provided
various services:
- They acted as intermediaries between savers and borrowers: they accepted deposits
from savers and used these deposits to lend money to companies.
- They helped governments to borrow money particularly to pay for wars.
- They made it much easier for their clients to move money from one place to another.
If a person had money deposited at a bank, he could ask for a bill of exchange, which
was a piece of paper instructing another banker to pay him a certain amount of money.
This was much safer than carrying money, because the bill of exchange could only be
used by the person whose name was written on it.
As business was now carried out on a much larger scale, extremely large amounts of capital
were required. Different types of corporate groups emerged from mergers and agreements
between companies:
- Cartel. This is an association of companies in the same line of business who reach an
agreement to control production and distribution, and to set prices.
- Trust. This is a fusion of companies that together cover all the stages in the
manufacture of a product. Their goal is to control the market and eliminate
competition.
Governments sometimes had to pass laws to regulate cartels and trusts because they created
unfair monopolies.

3. THE SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

The Industrial Revolution initially led to a huge increase in the production of coal, iron,
textiles and ceramics, as well as a transport revolution. In the second half of the 19th century
(1840/60), the use of oil, steel and electricity led to further big changes in the economy. This
period is sometimes called the Second Industrial Revolution. This revolution didn’t just
happen in Britain – it took place in many industrialized countries, including Germany, France
and the United States.
 STELL ELECTRICITY OIL

Steel made it possible to
produce more powerful
weapons, while oil was used
to fuel warships and military
vehicles, including trucks,
tanks and airplanes.
- The electric telegraph
allowed messages to be sent
instantaneously over long
distances. The first telegraph
was used by the Great
Western Railway, and in
1850 an undersea cable
connected France and
England.
- In 1879 Thomas Edison
greatly improved the light
bulb. It soon replaced gas
lighting in factories, as it
was much safer. Light bulbs
were also installed in rich
people’s homes and used for
street lighting.
- In 1876 Alexander Bell
developed the first practical
telephone.
- Film and radio were
developed at the start of the
20th century, although early
films had no sound.
The first oil wells in the
1850s made it possible to
extract underground oil,
which turned oil into an
important source of fuel. Oil
was initially used for
lighting, but it became much
more important when two
new forms of transport were
invented:
- In 1886 Karl Benz
produced the first car with
an internal combustion
engine powered by oil.
- In 1903 the Wright
brothers flew the first
aeroplane. Petroleum was
also used to make many
other products including
plastics.

NEW SYSTEMS OF PRODUCTION

In the late 19th century, new systems of production were adopted:
•  Taylorism. The engineer Frederick W. Taylor invented a production process, which was
divided into small tasks that were timed. Each worker specialized in a certain task and was
paid according to the work they completed.
•  The assembly line was used by the businessman Henry Ford in his automobile factories.
Products were passed from one worker to the next along an assembly line. This eliminated
the time that a worker wasted between tasks and increased their output (producción).

MASS PRODUCTION
A lot of identical parts of a product were manufactured in machines for having more products
than before. And later were joined together.
 4. CLASS SOCIETY: A GROWING MIDDLE CLASS
During the Industrial Revolution a class society developed, where people’s social status
depended on their wealth, job and power.
Normally we divide this society into three classes:
- The upper class consisted of the richest business people, such as factory owners, and
the nobles.
- The middle class included merchants, managers, lawyers, doctors, civil servants,
farmers and small business owners like shopkeepers (tederos). The middle class grew
very quickly during the Industrial Revolution.
- The working class were wage laborers like factory workers, servants and agricultural
laborers.
It was difficult to move between the classes, but not impossible: working class people could
reach high positions in society by earning lots of money and doing well in business.
The growth of industry, banking, transport and trade led to a need for more managers, office
workers, lawyers and salespeople. These middle class people:
- Were the new consumers; they had more money than they needed to buy essential
goods like food and clothes, so they could afford products such as textiles, pottery and
even pianos.
- Did not need to work long hours, so they had leisure time.
- Employed servants in their homes, which meant that middle class women did not do
much housework, although they did have to manage the servants.
- Thought that education was very important, so many middle class children – both
boys and girls – went to secondary school.
In their free time, the middle classes went to musical evenings in people’s homes and
attended plays at the theater. Many sports became popular in Britain, including rugby, cricket
and tennis. Most British middle class families took an annual holiday, either abroad or to
seaside resorts such as Scarborough and Brighton. Spa towns like Bath were also popular
tourist destinations.

THE WORKING CLASS

Very many working class people moved from the countryside to cities during the Industrial
Revolution, because there were more jobs and wages were higher. This led to rapid
urbanization.
Most working class people lived in slums (barrios marginales/tugurios) with lots of social
problems, including extreme poverty and high rates of crime and alcoholism.

HOUSING
Most people lived in small terraced houses, with earth floors and no running water. Several
families lived in each house, and the outdoor toilets were shared between many houses.
Sewage was dumped near people’s houses or in rivers. This contaminated the water supply,
causing diseases like typhus and cholera. People used coal for cooking and heating, which
created terrible pollution in cities. This led to high rates of respiratory diseases.
THE ROOKERIES
- Extreme poverty
- NO ventilation / hygiene
- A lot of people live in one room

WORKING CONDITIONS
Factory owners didn’t need to treat their workers well, and working conditions were
generally bad:
- The working day lasted 12-14 hours.
- The work was often dangerous.
- Workers could be fined for talking or if their machines were not clean enough, while
child workers were often beaten.
- If workers did not go to work, for example because they were sick or pregnant, they
were not paid, and they could even lose their jobs.
Some factory owners provided good housing and schools for their workers, either out of
kindness or because they believed that people worked harder if they were treated better…

UNEMPLOYMENT
Unemployment was a big problem in cities. Some people came from the countryside and
were unable to find jobs, while others lost their jobs when factories closed, or when new
machines were introduced. There was no unemployment benefit during the Industrial
Revolution, so unemployment often resulted in extreme poverty. The government provided
workhouses for people who had no money. There they had to work all day, but they were
given food and had a roof over their heads. Some poor people also turned to crime or
prostitution…

EARLY LABOR MOVEMENTS

The Industrial Revolution began in Britain, which was where workers first organized
themselves into groups to pressure factory owners and governments. Working together in
harsh conditions, workers saw the labor movement as the only way to improve their situation.

LUDDISM CHARTISM

In the early stages of the Industrial
Revolution, new technologies made skilled
workers lose their jobs in the textile
industry. In response, some of them
destroyed factory machines. This developed
into the Luddite movement (which was
named after a legendary English figure
called Ned Ludd).
was the first organized labor movement with
political goals. Between 1838 and 1848, this
movement had millions of supporters and
presented its People’s Charter to the British
Parliament. The movement demanded labor
rights and universal suffrage, as at that time
workers could not vote.

The first forms of worker protest were detected in Great Britain in the second decade of the
19th century when the Luddite arose.
At the start of the 19th century, many textile mills (fábricas textiles) introduced new
machines. These machines produced cloth more quickly, and could be operated by unskilled
workers, whose wages were low. The skilled artisans who used to produce cloth were no
longer needed. Unemployment rose, and wages fell. Meanwhile, the Napoleonic Wars were
causing high inflation. In 1811 there were protests against the new machines all over northern
England. The protestors said that their leader was called Ned Ludd, so they were known as
the Luddites. The Luddites destroyed machines, and sometimes even set fire to factories.

In April 1812, a mill owner told his men to shoot into a crowd of 2,000 protestors. Three
people were killed, and British soldiers killed five more Luddites the next day. This only
made the protests worse. The government was very afraid that the protests would harm the
economy, so in 1813 it held a mass trial of 64 Luddites. 17 were given the death penalty, so
that other people would be afraid of joining the Luddites. After this, there were fewer
protests...

The first organized movement with LABOR and POLITICAL PURPOSES was CHARTISM
(1838-1848). He achieved large mobilizations in Britain, by presenting The People's Charter
to Parliament (where labor rights and universal suffrage were claimed, since workers did not
have the right to vote).

EARLY LABOR MOVEMENTS

Trade unions: (sindicatos). At the beginning of the 19th century workers formed mutual aid
societies, which helped members in case of illness or unemployment. The right of assembly
was first granted in Great Britain in 1824, and after that, the first trade unions appeared.
These associations of workers demanded better salaries, shorter work days, an end to child
labour, etc. Their main means of pressure was the strike, in which workers refused to work
until certain demands were met.

5. WORKERS ORGANIZATIONS
THE NEW SOCIAL SOLUTIONS
In the new industrial society, several thinkers spoke out against the injustices created by
capitalism and proposed new models of social organization.
- The utopian socialists (Saint-Simon, Proudhon and Fourier) were the first to suggest
that private property was the main cause of inequalities and to propose forms of
collective ownership (propiedad colectiva.)
- In the mid-19th century, some thinkers advocated the need for a revolution to end
capitalism and build a new egalitarian society. These ideas gave rise to two major
revolutionary movements: Communism and Anarchism.

THE SOCIALISM
Socialism is a philosophical current of economic, social and political thought. Based on the
defense of public, collective or cooperative ownership of the means of production, instead of
their ownership in private hands.
MARXISM AND COMMUNISM
- Both are socialism
- Marxism is the theorization of an idea
- Communism is the idea carried out (llevada a cabo).

THE PHALANSTERIES
They are self-sufficient rural communities, which would be the basis of social transformation.
The phalansteries would be created by the voluntary action of their members and should
never be made up of more than 1,600 people, who would live together in a building with all
the collective services. All people would be free to choose their job, and could change it
whenever they wanted.
It prevented the completely free development of the qualities of the human being. To solve it,
he proposed the construction of a rigid liberating community: the phalanstery. The
phalanstery was the minimum social unit, it brought together some 1,000 people, it had land
for agriculture and for various economic activities, for housing and for a large common
house. Everything was regulated, everything had to follow a very particular order, even love
and sex.

USEFUL WORDS:
Marx called wage laborers the proletariat, and the people who employed them the
bourgeoisie.
Commune: a group of people living together and sharing responsibilities and possessions.
Strike: when workers refuse to work in order to demand better conditions.
Repression: using force, violence and threats to control people.
Marxism: the political and economic theories of Marx; communism.

COMMUNISM
Karl Marx is considered the father of communism. In 1848 he wrote the Communist
Manifesto, which explained the beliefs and aims of the communists:
- There is a class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
- In industrial cities, so many people live close together in bad conditions that a violent
revolution is inevitable. This will initially lead to a dictatorship of the proletariat, with
state control over the economy. Gradually the state institutions can be removed,
because they will not be needed. This will lead to stateless communism (comunismo
SIN estado).
- Capitalism and private property will be abolished. Instead, people will work for the
benefit of the whole society, and will receive whatever they need in return. As a
result, everybody will be completely equal.
ANARCHISM
Anarchism is a political ideology which is based upon the principle of individual liberty of
citizens. According to the believers of anarchism, the ideal society should be one which
would be bereft (estar despojado) of any government, any constitutional authority, any law, or
any police, or any other authority that could monitor or control or influence individuals or
collective thoughts and actions of citizens. The core of the doctrine of anarchism is
opposition and rejection of any state authority over the will of the citizens. The anarchists
believe in freedom and authority of individuals. The first anarchist philosopher and writer,
Max Stirner declared in his famous book The Ego & His Own.

The anarchists also believed in complete equality, but they wanted a different kind of society
to the communists. Anarchists opposed any form of state. According to the anarchists:
- People should be free to do whatever they want.
- The state and Church are always bad, because they want to control people’s lives.
- Property should be owned collectively by small communes that take decisions jointly.
- People should take direct action to create the kind of society they want. This includes
starting revolutions. Revolutions should be led by ordinary people, and not by
political leaders.

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL

In 1864 workers’ movements from all over Europe formed the First International. This
organization, which encouraged cooperation between workers in different countries, included
trade unionists, communists and anarchists. Two of the leading members were Karl Marx and
Mikhail Bakunin. The disagreements between them caused conflicts within the organization,
and in 1872 Marx expelled Bakunin from the International. In 1889, a few socialist leaders
founded the Socialist International (or Second International) to coordinate Marxist labor
organisations.This organization created well-known labor symbols, such as International
Workers’ Day on 1st May of each year.
The Internationale is the most famous song of the labor movement. It is considered the
official anthem of the workers of the entire world and of most socialist and communist parties
as well as anarchist organizations. Was written by Eugène Pottier in 1871