The Industrial

Revolution
What was the Industrial
Revolution?
1. A change in manufacturing
methods from the Domestic System
to the Factory System.

2. The development of new sources

of power:

 Steam
 Electricity
 Coal
 Overview: The Industrial
Revolution
 Energy: coal and steam replace wind,
water, human and animal labor
 Organization: factories over cottage
industries
 Rural agriculture declines, urban
manufacturing increases
 Transportation: trains, automobiles
replace animals, watercraft
 Overview: Creation of New
Classes
 The Industrial Middle Class
 Urban Proletariat
 Shift in political power
 Inspiration for new political systems,
esp. Marxism

4
Causes of the Industrial
Revolution

1. Renaissance
 Humanism - people seeking
material comforts

2. Commercial
Revolution:
 Mercantilism - caused by
Colonialism and new markets
 Why Great Britain?
1. Markets: England had many overseas colonies (markets)

2. Population:
 skilled workers
 wealthy entrepreneurs
 vast number of laborers (workers)

3. Agricultural Changes:
 Enclosure Acts - tenant farmers forced off the farms; moved to cities (urban areas)
to find work in factories.

4. Natural Resources:
 coal, iron ore
 good harbors, canals
 colonies had raw materials - lumber, cotton

5. Government:
 stable & unified country; Parliament; Limited Monarchy
 fair taxes & solid banking system

6. Other Factors:
 Island - isolated; had not been through devastating wars
 capitalist economy
 encouraged science and research
The Enclosure Movement
Metals, Woolens, & Canals
 Early Canals

Britain’s Earliest Transportation

Infrastructure
 Coal Mining in Britain:
1800-1914

1 ton of coal 50, 000 miners

1800

1850 30 tons 200, 000 miners

1880 300 million tons 500, 000 miners

1914 250 million tons 1, 200, 000 miners

New Sources of Power
1. Steam - steamships, paddle
boats, steam locomotives

2. Electricity - light bulb

3. Petroleum - oil for

automobiles
James Watt’s
Steam Engine
 Condenser
 Increased
efficiency
Steam Tractor
 Trevithick’s Engine

In 1801, Richard Trevithick first attached a steam engine to a wagon.

Trevithick’s engine was not successful for moving people, but he had planted
the idea of human train transport.
The Spinning Jenny

Hargreaves’s machine
The Water Frame

Powering the spinning

jenny:
• Horses
• The water wheel
Steam Ship
Stephenson’s Rocket
An Early Steam Locomotive
The Impact of the Railroad
 Agricultural Changes

 Changes in Agriculture - a change from

primitive feudal farming methods to modern
machine methods.
 labor-saving machinery - plows, tractors, seed drills

 scientific advances - crop rotation, breeding

 Effects of
Agricultural
Revolution
1. Agricultural production
increased.

2. Less farmers - moved to

cities.

3. Farm work became easier.

4. Farming became big

business.
Factory System - factory replaced
the home as the center of production
1. Division of Labor - worker
does not make whole
product; performs one
operation (assembly line)
2. Assembly Line:

Advantages Disadvantages

More efficient use Very boring,

of workers and raw tedious
materials
 Limits creativity
Speedy output of
goods

 Lower priced
goods
The Factory System

 Rigid schedule.
 12-14 hour day.
 Dangerous conditions.
 Mind-numbing monotony.
First Industry to Mechanize:
Textiles
The Power Loom
 The Domestic or “Putting Out” System
 The textile
industry was
the most
important in
England

 Most of the
work was done
in the home
 Textile Factory
Workers in England

1813 2400 looms 150, 000 workers

1833 85, 000 looms 200, 000 workers

1850 224, 000 looms >1 million workers

Cotton Imported to Britain Between 1701 and 1800

1701 £ 1,985,868
1710 715,008
1720 1,972,805
1730 1,545,472
1741 1,645,031
1751 2,976,610
1764 3,870,392
1775 4,764,589
1780 6,766,613
1790 31,447,605
1800 56,010,732
Cotton Goods Exported by Britain
1701 to 1800
1701 £ 23,253
1710 5,698
1720 16,200
1730 13,524
1741 20,709
1751 45,986
1764 200,354
1780 355,060
1787 1,101,457
1790 1,662,369
1800 5,406,501
Total British National Income
Industrialization on the Continent
Railroads on the Continent
Capitalism
 Capitol =
money $$$
 Industrial
Revolution
created the need
for vast
amounts of
capitol to:
a. build
factories

b. purchase
machinery

c. purchase raw
materials

d. pay workers
 Basic Principles of
Capitalism
1. Private Ownership - individuals own the
means of production and distribution of
goods and services.
2. Free Enterprise - anyone can enter any
business

3. Profit - bottom line of business = to make

$$$

4. Market Economy - based on supply and

demand

5. Competition - forces production of

quality, lower-priced goods
The Industrial Revolution and
Society
 New Social Classes
 Economic factors result in decline of
slavery
 Capitalist wealth brings new status to non-
aristocratic families
 New urban classes of professionals
 Blue-collar factory workers
 Urban environment also creates new
types of diversions
 Sporting events
 The New Industrial Class Structure

The New Middle Class The New Working Class

 The Industrial Middle Class
 New class, evolved from guild
merchants in cities
 “bourgeoisie”
 Capitalists
 Begin to eclipse power and status of
agrarian landed classes
Class Structure of Industrial Revolution

 Upper Class: Very rich industrial

families; nobles
 Upper Middle Class:
Businesspeople and
professionals, including lawyers
and doctors
 Lower Middle Class: Other
professionals, including teachers,
shop owners, and office workers
 Working Class: Factory workers
and small farmers
 Impoverished/Poor: Itinerant
workers and the unemployed
 19th Century Bourgeoisie:
The Industrial Nouveau Riche
Lower and Middle Class Housing
Middle Class Housing

Tenements
“Upstairs” / “Downstairs”
An English Mill Town
Industrial Staffordshire
The New Industrial City
 Development of Slums
 London: 1 million in 1800, 2.4 million in 1850
 Wealthy classes move out to suburbs
 Industrial slum areas develop in city centers
 Open gutters as sewage systems
 Danger of Cholera
 First sewage systems, piped water only in
1848
Early-19c London by Gustave Dore
Problems/Issues of the Industrial Revolution
 Overview: Unexpected Costs of
the Industrial Revolution
 Genesis of an environmental
catastrophe
 Intellectual origins of human domination
over natural resources
 Unforeseen toxins, occupational hazards
 Social ills
 Landless proletariat
 Migrating work forces
 The Demographic Transition
 Industrialization results in marked
decline of both fertility and mortality
 Costs of living increase in industrial
societies
 Urbanization proceeds dramatically
 1800: only 20% of Britons live in towns with
population over 10,000
 1900: 75% of Britons live in urban
environments
Population Growth (millions)

55
 Transcontinental Migrations
 19th-early 20th centuries, rapid
population growth drives Europeans to
Americas
 50 million cross Atlantic
 Britons to avoid urban slums, Irish to avoid
potato famines of 1840s, Jews to abandon
Tsarist persecution
 United States favored destination

56
Labor Conditions Laborers often worked in dangerous
and hazardous conditions
 Women in the Workforce
 Agricultural, cottage industry work involved
women: natural transition
 But development of men as prime
breadwinners, women in private sphere,
working cheap labor
 Double burden: women expected to maintain
home as well as work in industry
 Related to child labor: lack of day care
facilities
Child Labor: Unlimited Hours

Factory children attend a Sunday school

Child Labor: Dangers

“Scavengers” and “piecers”

 Child Labor: Punishment

 Malnourishment
 Beatings
 Runaways sent to prison
 14-16 Hour workday
 Unfair/low wages
 Extremely dangerous
working conditions
Young Coal Miners
Child Labor in the Mines

Child
“hurriers”
Young “Bobbin-Doffers”
Stereotype of the FactoryOwner
 Monopolies, Trusts, and
Cartels
 Large corporations form blocs to drive
out competition, keep prices high
 John D. Rockefeller controls almost all oil
drilling, processing, refining, marketing in
U.S.
 German IG Farben controls 90% of
chemical production
 Governments often slow to control
monopolies
 Factory Wages
in Lancashire, 1830
Age of Worker Male Wages Female Wages
under 11 2s 3d. 2s. 4d.
11 - 16 4s. 1d. 4s. 3d.
17 - 21 10s. 2d. 7s. 3d.
22 - 26 17s. 2d. 8s. 5d.
27 - 31 20s. 4d. 8s. 7d.
32 - 36 22s. 8d. 8s. 9d.
37 - 41 21s. 7d. 9s. 8d.
42 - 46 20s. 3d. 9s. 3d.
47 - 51 16s. 7d. 8s. 10d.
52 - 56 16s. 4d. 8s. 4d.
57 - 61 13s. 6d. 6s. 4d.
Effects / Reforms of the Industrial Revolution
 Social Reform and Trade
Unions
 Socialism had major impact on 19 th
century reformers
 Reduced property requirements for male
suffrage
 Addressed issues of medical insurance,
unemploymnet compensation, retirement
benefits
 Trade unions form for collective bargaining
 Strikes to address workers’ concerns
 Child Labor:
Movements to Regulate

 Factory owners
argued that child
labor was good for
the economy and
helped build
children's characters
 Factory Act of 1833:
limited child labor
and the number of
hours children could
work in textile mills
 Labor Unions

 The 1871 Trade Union Act

Parliament passed the Trade
Union Act of 1871,
recognizing the collective or
corporate identity of trade
unions and effectively
legalizing them. Trade
unions were thereafter
allowed to organize all of
their own activities
 The Chartists

 Wanted political and social reform.

 Chartists wanted the government to adopt a “People’s Charter”
 Influenced the struggle for universal voting rights
The Chartists

Key
Chartist
settlements
Centres of
Chartism
Area of plug
riots, 1842
 Government Response
 Abolition of slavery in the colonies
in 1832 [to raise wages in Britain].

 Sadler Commission to look into

working conditions
* Factory Act [1833] – child labor.

 Poor Law [1834] – indoor relief.

* Poor houses.

 Bill [1832] – broadens the

vote for the cities.
 The “Peoples’ Charter”
 Drafted in 1838 by William Lovett.
 Radical campaign for Parliamentary reform of the
inequalities created by the Reform Bill of 1832.

 Votes for all men.

 Equal electoral districts.
 Payment for Members of Parliament.
 Annual general elections.
 The secret ballot.
New Ways of Thinking
 Social Reform and Trade
Unions
 Socialism had major impact on 19 th
century reformers
 Reduced property requirements for male
suffrage
 Addressed issues of medical insurance,
unemploymnet compensation, retirement
benefits
 Trade unions form for collective bargaining
 Strikes to address workers’ concerns

77
Methodism
 John Wesley
 “Instant salvation”
 Appealed to the
working class
 Karl Marx
Philosopher, social 1818–1883
scientist, historian and
revolutionary, Karl
Marx is regarded by
many as the most
influential economic
and social thinker of
the 19th century
 Karl Marx (1818-1883) and
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
 Two major classes:
 Capitalists, who control means of
production
 Proletariat, wageworkers who sell labor
 Exploitative nature of capitalist system
 Religion: “opiate of the masses”
 Argued for an overthrow of capitalists in
favor of a “dictatorship of the proletariat”
 The Socialists:
Utopians & Marxists

 People as a society would operate and own the

means of production, not individuals.
 Goal was a society that benefited
everyone, not just a rich, well-connected few.
 Tried to build perfect communities [utopias].
 Robert Owen 1771–1858

 Utopian socialist

 Founded New Lanark Mills in Scotland as a model cooperative factory

 Many industrialists visited New Lanark, and a few adopted aspects of Owen’s cooperative
Thomas Malthus
 Population growth will
outpace the food supply.

 War, disease, or famine

could control population.

 Poor should have

less children.

 Supply will then keep up

with population.
 The Utilitarians:
Jeremy Bentham & John Stuart Mill

 The goal of society is the greatest good

for the greatest number.
 There is a role to play for government
intervention to provide some social safety
net.
Cultural Impact of the
Industrial Revolution
 Transcontinental Migrations
 19th-early 20th centuries, rapid
population growth drives Europeans to
Americas
 50 million cross Atlantic
 Britons to avoid urban slums, Irish to avoid
potato famines of 1840s, Jews to abandon
Tsarist persecution
 United States favored destination
Cultural Impact: Romanticism
The Romantics
glorified the
divine power of
nature as a
reaction to the
Industrial
Revolution’s
achievement of
controlling
nature through
technology.
 Cultural Impact: The Visual Arts
French artist
Honore Daumier
painted the poor
and working
classes. In Third-
Class Carriage
(shown here), he
illustrates with
great compassion a
group of people on
a train journey.
 Cultural Impact: Literature
Depiction of a scene from Oliver Twist

Charles Dickens
(1812–1870)
“Impact”
Were the changes brought about by
the Industrial Revolution favorable
or harmful to our culture and
society?
Industrialization in Russia and
Japan
 Slower starts on industrial process
 Russia constructs huge railway network
across Siberia under finance minister
Count Sergei Witte
 Japanese government takes initiative by
hiring thousands of foreign experts
 Reforms iron inudstry
 Opens universities, specializing in science
and technology
 Global ramifications
 Global division of labor
 Rural societies that produce raw materials
 Urban societies that produce manufactured
goods
 Uneven economic development
 Developing export dependencies of Latin
America, sub-Saharan Africa, south and
south-east Asia
 Low wages, small domestic markets