Unit 6 - Industrialization and its Effects

Why did the Industrial Revolution start in Great Britain?

1. culture of innovation cultivated by Scientific Rev. and Enlightenment and fostered by institutions sharing knowledge (ex. British Society of Arts: sponsored prizes for innovations in machinery and agriculture)
2. Strong Economy: cottage industry provided profit and wages, colonies gave raw materials, trade with colonies and India/China provided capital to invest in industry
3. efficient farming through continuous innovation + enclosure movement (small landowners had to work in the cottage industry/as agricultural laborers) = high productivity with little workers, more workers could work in industry
4. Abundant food and high wages encouraged a move towards commercialization (families worked for money to buy things instead of unpaid to produce thingss for the household); increased disposable income meant children could go to school and literacy/numeracy skyrocketed
5. Canals and rivers offered cheap shipping (esp. for iron and coal) while natural coal stores motivated manufacturers to mechanize instead of paying high wages
6. High taxes funded a navy to protect commerce and an army to prevent worker uprisings; Navigation acts protected the British market.

British cotton

- problem: one weaver needed 4-5 spinners 
- the cotton jenny reduced the number to 1 spinner per weaver
- the water frame, powered by water mills, allowed faster spinning but only coarse thread
- the mule could spin thin or strong thread
- Britain was able to produce thread more quickly because other countries did not have the money to invest
- agricultural laborers became weavers bc it was more profitable
power looms became mainstrem, but only in 1820s

the steam engine's invention

- Britain switched to coal in the 1700s to replace diminishing supply of wood for industry (esp iron)

• to pump water out of coal mines efficiently, steam engines were invented (coal burned to make the steam that powered pumps)

• innovation of James Watt and Mathew Boulton's business savvy made steam engines practical and commerically successful

steam-powered manufacturing

• steam powered cotton textile production, replaced water mills, and inconjunction with coke refined pig iron (crude form of iron) quickly and efficiently

• coke - moistureless coale

• by 1844 Britain had increased its iron production from 1740 over 150x

• iron was not cheap and used for everything

steam powered transportation

• steam locomotives (like Goerge Stephenson's Rocket) were developed once rails that could support them were maid
  railroads were built in Britain and the US in the 1830s and South America/British colonies in the 1950s, making shipping on land safe and cheap

  • markets grew -> larger, more sophisticated factories -> demand for unskilled laborers, pressure on cottage workers

• steamships in the 1770s made water travel safer, faster, and more efficient

Great Exhibition

• industrial fair celebrating British dominance

• held in the Crystal Palace (made only of iron + glass, which were now cheap)

The population and production race

• Population and production both skyrcoketed, with more stuff being made for more people and more people creating a large mobile workforce

• Thomas Malthus - population growth = disaster, marry late to have few kids (worried abt ppl's horniness)

• David Ricardo - iron law of wages: wages would always sink to just enough to survive

The British Catch-Up Game

• From 1800 to the 1860s, Britain was far superior to continental europe in production

• Europe tried to compete given that the 18th century gave them good agriculture, increased population/trade, and the cottage industry

  • Belgium: natural coal+ iron, new independence -> adopted British methods + experienced large growth

  • France experienced gradual growth

  • Second Industrial Revolution: fast growth in Germany + US after 1860

  • eastern/southern Europe experienced growth later (1880s)

  • apart from Japan, who copied European methods, non-western world experienced stagnation

Why Continental Europe Struggled

• upheaval from revolutionary + Napoleonic wars made development pause in western Europe till 1815

• British dominance in trade

• difficulty replicating complex British tech

• high investment cost

• workers unwilling to work in factories

Continental European advantages

• putting-out (cottage) enterprise, merchant capitalists, and urban artists allowed 4 quick adaption to new market

• technology could be copied (no need to invent it)

• strong independent governments promoted industry

• countries like France expanded the handicraft industry, for which they were already well known for, to satisfy demand as disposable income increased

Copying British Machinery

• Britain tried to gatekeep bu banning artisans/skilled mechanics from leaving till 1825 and the export of machines till 1843

• workers snuck out -> ex. William Cockerill built cotton spinning machines in Belgium and his son John made Liege, Belgium a center of industry by building a machine factory

• entrepreneurs invested in industry -> ex. Fritz Harkort brought machinery to Germany, though he lost lots of money

Preventing British Export Dominance

• countries set up tariffs to prevent flow of cheap British goods (ex. France)

  • Zollverein: only German states in the union could trade w/out tariffs

• governments bore the brunt of railroad building costs

• limited-liability banks replaced the conservative private banks hesitant to invest in industry because of risk

  • limited liability: stockholders only lost original stock if bank went bankrupt, which attracted investors

  • invested in + founded companies (also limited-liability) supporting industrial development

  • started w/ two Belgian banks

non-European Attempts at Industrialization

• most non-European countries tried to industrialize but failed

  • Russia brought in trains, steam boats, and cotton mills but economy still mainly relied on raw materials

  • Egypt could not compete with British cotton prices so mainly exported agriculture

  • widespread uprisings in China took resources that could have helped industrial development

Colonialism, Imperialism, and Industrialization

• European governments monopolized their colonies' raw materials + undermined industry -> colonies economically dependent on colonizers -> vulnerable to imperialism

  • colonies couldn't fight back with tariffs bc not independent

  • ex. India and South America: local cotton industry destroyed, forced to rely on raw cotton or coffee+sugar exports (machines used 4 agricultural production)

reluctance to work in factories

• cottage workers were reluctant to work in factories because...

  • long + monotonous hours

  • relentlessly fast machine

  • harsh punishment for breaking rules

  • resemblance to "poorhouses" = homeless shelters or industrial prisons

reluctance to work in factories

• cottage workers were reluctant to work in factories because...

  • long + monotonous hours

  • relentlessly fast machine

  • harsh punishment for breaking rules

  • resemblance to "poorhouses" = homeless shelters or industrial prisons

pauper apprentices

• children as young as 5 worked as pauper apprentices

• 13+ hours per day without pay

• disciplined harshly

• criticized a lot

the working class

• established as steam-powered factories in urban areas attracted workers

• family units worked together (ex. kids sorted coal in mines while moms hauled coal and dads hewed)

Irish factory workers

• fled from Ireland's pop. growth, economic deterioration, and the potato famine

• found community in ethnic ties

banning of pauper apprentices

• Factory Acts: Parliament's response to protest

  • limited child workdays, decided on base safety/hygiene

  • workers and Rick Owens (manufacturer) testified

  • broke the family units apart

the new role of women (seperate spheres)

• expected to stay home and take care of kids

• earned side income w/ putting-out crafts and boarders but husband was main income 

• women without a husband (who could work) were stuck in dead-end textile jobs

why were jobs gendered?

• unsupervised young men/women were causing a boom in illegitimate children

• Mines Act 1842 - women and girls couldn't work underground in mines

  • no one wore much clothes -> suspicions of …. activities

• some women complained about being excluded from pay

• most women (who coud afford it) found caring for the family more comfortable + economical

  • encouraged by middle class seperate spheres ideology

working class living standards

• wages were low till the 1840s (at first because of war with France, then after 1815 because women/children worked less)

  • more work 4 less money, purchasing power stayed really

• cities (Glasgow, Manchester) were flooded with people

  • expensive, overcrowded apartments; rising infant mortality, disease, malnutrition, accidents

• by 1840s/50s new food, the small pox vaccine, anesthesia, telegraphs, trains, and gas lights meant a better quality of life

• loss of village communities and traditions in the anonymous cities caused lots of loneliness

new class of factory owners

• lower class geniuses couldn't break in as easily (except for v expensive college)

• industrialists were usually heirs

Negative Responses to Industrialization

• Romantic poets - William Blake called factories "satanic mills," William Wordsworth criticized the destruction of rural life and land

• Luddites - textile workers who smashed mills in protest

• Friedrich Engels - revolutionary, colleague of Karl Marx, son of rich cotton manufacturers

  • The Condition of the Working Class in England: industrial poverty is worse because of capitalism

class-consciousness

• awareness of being in a class

• working and middle (industrialist) class have conflicting interests

support for the Industrial Revolution

• Andrew Ure said conditions were good

• Edwin Chadwick praised increasing purchasing power

anticapitalist protests

• Combination Acts (to prevent the protest) outlawed unions and strikes

  • ignored by artisan guilds, who continued striking

  • repealed in 1824

• Grand National Consolidated Trades Union: national union founded by Robert Own, cotton manufacturer who experimented w/ socialist communities

• after the GNCTU's collapse, craft unions were founded while Chartist (suffrage for all men), shorter workday, and cheap bread movements emerged

industrialization and slavery

• credit institutions were based on the slave trade

• trade profits were a large part of industrial revolution investments

summit diplomacy

• meeting of delegates/rulers in office and social events (for side deals)

  • covered by newspapers and cartoonists

• first instance: Congress of Vienna (September 1814 - June 1815)

  • Quadruple Alliance's rulers (Tsar Alexander I, King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, Emperior Franz II of Austria, Lord Castlereagh of Britain), the new Bourbon monarch, and delegates from most European countries

the Congress of Vienna and France

• leniency - important not to antagonize the defeated nation

  • first treaty of Paris: restoration of Bourbons, large borders of 1792 restored, had to pay reparations

  • second treaty of paris: some territory lost, paid indemnity, army of occupation for 5 years

• defense - to prevent French resurgance

  • French Belgium + Netherlands -> Kingdom of the Netherlands, France's German territories were given to Prussia, German Confederation united scattered German speaking states -> protective border

the balance of power in the Congress of Vienna

• very very important

• Austria/Britain/Prussia/Russia all wanted land back, but Russia had to recede almost all of its claims on Poland and Prussia had to give up its claim on Saxony to preserve the balance of power

Congress System

Quadruple alliance agreed to meet sometimes to maintain peace + balance power

Metternich’s political conservatism

• defense of monarchy because human nature was selfish → ruler could prevent chaos

  • proved by French Rev./ Napoleonic war

• liberalism caused bloodshed

  • partially because liberals liked nationalism, which was problematic for Austria

• tradition over anything else

• religion for unity

the Holy Alliance

• Austria, Russia, Prussia

• meant to repress revolution and spread Christianity

• Karlsbad Decrees - response to German Confederation’s protests for German unification

  • no liberal orgs, no free speech, secret police for surveillance

• Decembrist Revolt (1825) - liberal revolutionaries protested new tsar, shot at and send to Siberia

Revolution in S. America

• Simon Bolivar defeated Spain + established Gran Colombia (1819 - 1830), Jose de San Martin defeated Spain in the South

  • by 1840 Gran Colombia collapsed because people weren’t used to a constitution and most people had no vote

• caudillos (warlords) ruled South America

Upper class liberalism

• wealthy industrialists supported liberal laissez fair economy (free trade, no gov. interference) for profit

  • used these ideas to outlaw unions, restrict voting rights

Republicanism

• universal male suffrage

• equality for all

• gov. supported jobs

• less social difference

• reaction to moderate upper class liberalism

Nationalism

• ppl w/ a common language, history, culture, and territory = united

• popular because of increasing literacy, compulsory education, conscription armies

• desire for each ethnicity to have its own state increased when communication improvements encouraged a standardized language

• us vs. them mentality

Modern Socialism (1830s, 40s)

• modern capitalism encouraged individualism and broke apart community

• class equality required state/community ownership

• utopian socialists - impossible

  • Saint-Simon: positivism (industrialization, public works projects, sole focus on helping the poor)

  • Fourier - self-sufficient, collective ownership communities

    • capitalism was bad for women’s rights

Louis Blanc

• universal voting rights 4 workers

• from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs

Marxism

• society is motivated by class struggle

• constant conflict will end in communism

Romanticism

• intuition, imagination, spontaneity instead of Enlightenment reason

• nature focused (mourned industrialization’s ruining of nature)

• while and chaotic lifestyle

• in Central and Eastern Europe romantic writers documented histories → inspired ethnic desires for independence

National Liberation in Greece

• rebelled against Ottomans inspired by nationalism (1821)

  • conservatives wanted the Ottoman empire to remain strong as an obstacle to Russia, but support from educated ppl (Greek history), Russia (always orthodox), and romantics → Ottomans defeated, Greece declared free

Corn Laws

• aristocrats voted for strong tariffs on imported grain, increasing profit but making bread super expensive

• Tory gov. ended rights of peaceable assembly + trial

  • Peterloo Massacre: killing of protestors

  • Six Acts: restricted press and freedom of assembly

Liberal reform in Great Britain

• pushed for by industrialists

• Reform Bill 1832 - class-equal House of Commons made more powerful than the House of Lords → increase in voter rates

• People’s Charter of 1838: tried to get universal suffrage for men (didn’t work)

• Anti-Corn law League + risk of famine prices in England because of Potato famine → laws repealed

• Ten Hours Act (1847): women/children could only work 10 hrs

• government now had to compete for working class’s support

The Revolution of 1830 in France

• Charles X = reactionary → caused war in Algeria for popular support

  • removed the Constitutional Charter, censored press, and removed middle class votes in 1830

• insurrection put Louis Philippe on the throne (called the Bourgeois monarchy)

  • did not improve political situation

The Second French Republic

• revolt in 1848 because of stagnation and corruption → establishment of 2nd republic

• 2nd republic disagreed on whether to do socialism (state-sponsored workshops 4 employment, which did happen) or to not even allow male suffrage

• June Days - working class revolution after the dissolution of the National Workshops (crushed)

• Louis Napoleon won by a landslide in December 1848 elections (name promised order)

1848 Revolution in the Austrian Empire

• revolts across Austrian empire → Ferdinand I promised liberal constitution

  • abolishment of serfdom (serfs were now happy and didn’t want revolution)

  • revolts eventually put down

German Unification…maybe

• revolts in Berlin made Friedrich Wilhelm IV capitulate to a constitutional monarchy in centralized Prussia

• very moderate National Parliament was too slow

  • plans to create a German state w/ parts of Austria fell thru → asked Friedrich to rule the state

  • revolts broke out, Friedrich disbanded the parliament by force

• Friedrich Wilhelm IV tried to unify Germany on his own, but Austria forced him to renounce unification