Industrial Revolution

Guiding Question 1. Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in Britain, how did it develop between 1780-1850?

Cottage Industry

• Cheap cotton goods produced by families in the countryside. 

• Materials are brought to them, and then the products are brought to the city. 

• Traditional methods already gave Britain an economic advantage in the cotton products before the new innovations that made it much better.

James Hargreaves

• inventor of the spinning jenny in 1768, enabled production of yarn in greater quantities.

Richard Arkwright

• Invented the water frame spinning machine. Helped increase yarn production.

James Watt

• Scottish engineer who invented the steam engine that could pump water 3 times faster than previous engines. 

• Made a rotary engine that could drive machines via steam. 

• Made it possible for steam powered cotton factories to not be next to a river because it uses coal. 

• Revolutionized production of cotton goods and opened up lots of factories, ensuring success of Industrialization.

Henry Cort

• created a process called puddling where coke burnt away impurities in pig iron (smelting iron ore with coke) to make wrought iron (higher quality, stronger iron). 

• Revolutionized iron industry.

George Stephenson

• Built better locomotive engines (Rocket, 16 mph) 

• led to the construction of the first modern railways in Britain and faster trains.

Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851

• The first industrial fair in London to praise British engineering skills. 

• Displayed Britain's wealth and demonstrated their huge success.

Thomas Malthus

• Supported "government should not interfere with economics" through his work Essay on the Principles of population.

• Stated how an unchecked population will grow geometrically whilst food supply increases at a slower and arithmetic rate, resulting in overpopulation and starvation.

• Law of nature will inevitably cause misery and poverty, and government should not interfere with it.

• Europe population was booming during the industrial revolution: death rates declined (less famine, disease, and war), but birthrates decreased.

David Richardo, Iron Law of Wages

• further developed Malthus's ideas in Iron Law of Wages. 

• Stated that more population means more workers, causing lower wages, resulting in misery and starvation and reducing population.

  •  Then the cycle repeats as wages increase again. 

• Don't modify wages or else the cycle is disturbed.

Guiding Question 2. How did countries in Europe and around the world respond to the challenge of industrialization?

Challenges to Industrialization

• While Britain, Belgium, U.S.A., France, and Germany increased in industrialization, other countries like Austria, Italy, Russia, China, and India did not keep up.

John Cockerill

• Brought the industrial revolution to Belgium by developing machine shops at Liege. 

• Belgium was the first country in Europe to be transformed economically.

Tariffs

• Used to encourage industrialization. 

• Had to use (especially Germany and France) to protect growing industry in response to cheap British goods that filled the market.

US industrialization

• Population grew from 5 mil to 30 mil, surpassing Britain. 

• Lots of machinery borrowed from Britain (textile factory, power looms). 

• Since the US was big, they needed railroads, steamboats, roads and canals. 

• Their economy became very labor-intensive. 

  • Many went west for more farming, others (mostly women) worked in textile and shoe factories. 

  • Plenty of child labor. 

• Unskilled immigrants replaced lots of laboring women and children. Rich got richer, poor stayed the same.

Guiding Question 3. How did work evolve during the Industrial Revolution, how did daily life change for working people?

IR Cities

• More factories in towns and cities because of steam engine.

• Living conditions became very bad because of overcrowding and pollution, especially in London.

• Poverty became an alarming issue.

King Cholera

• It was caused by sewage interfering and contaminating drinking water (people were encouraged to dump waste in rivers, where they drank) and spread rapidly thanks to overcrowding.

• Very bad and dangerous medical treatment; suggested prevention includes eating lots of garlic, burning tar, removing human waste and pollution, etc.

• A man called John Snow created a map of the neighborhood showing the source of deaths from cholera as the pump (water), which finally convinced people that cholera is water-born, and the outbreak stopped.

Demographic changes:

• Population rapidly increased from 1801-1851, especially in England and around big cities (urbanization).

• More and more cities emerged, especially around London, but not a lot in Scotland.

• The industry was most concentrated around Manchester, Birmingham, Plymouth, Glasgow, and other big cities.

Life and Adventure of Michael Armstrong

• Most factory workers were poor women, men, and CHILDREN.

• Shows how working conditions were horrible for children, and the division between middle class and laborers.

• Poverty was normal. The middle class child pitying the child laborer shows how poverty was treated as something that needed pity, not change.

Edwin Chadwick

• Was an urban reformer who really wanted to get rid of poverty in urban areas.

• He concluded that the causes of disease were: polluted air from decomposing matter, damp and filth, and overcrowded living.

• He said this could be eliminated, advocating for modern sanitary reforms with efficient sewers and piped water, so Britain made their first Public Health Act and created the National Board of Health.

Quakers and new Industrial Entrepreneurs

• Industrial Entrepreneurs were greedy people who made factories, purchased machines and found where markets were.

• Quakers were often from religious minorities who had to direct their ambitions toward industrial capitalism; they were industrial leaders.

• They were replacing traditional entrepreneurship, got a lot of wealth, and wanted to get some political power.

Factory Acts (1802 to 1833)

• They were created to try to make the working conditions of children better.

• Limited the working hours of women and children.

• Resulted in a declination of children in factories and were replaced by women.

1842 Mine Acts

• Made in response to the working conditions (of women and children) in coal mines.

• Banned all underground work for women and girls, and <10 yr old boys.

• More and more acts followed to increase safety and make working conditions better.

1834 Poor Law Act

• Established workhouses where the poor and unemployed were forced to live (new poverty relief system).

• The policy was made based on the assumption that the poor were responsible for their bad conditions and was aimed to make it a "prison".

• 200k people were locked in these workhouses, and children were often taken to get put into factories.

Guiding Question 4. How did changes brought about by the IR lead to new Social classes and how did people respond to the new SS?

Robert Owen (1771-1858)

• One of the leaders of the Trade Union Movement.

• Believed that voluntary associations would show the benefits of cooperative living over competitive living.

• Guided the plans of The Grand National Consolidated Trades Union.

William Blake (1757-1827)

• English poet, painter, and printmaker focusing on religion and poverty who wrote Jerusalem.

• Criticized industrialization (e.g. dark satanic mills), but the mills also are a metaphor for the Church of England.

• He calls to action (e.g. Bring me my Chariot of Fire!), saying he will not stop until the Brits have built Jerusalem in "England's green and pleasant land."

Trade Unions

• New associations formed by skilled workers in many new industries.

• The purpose was to preserve the workers' position by restricting entry into their trade and gaining benefits from employers.

• They preferred a working-class struggle against employers, but only to benefit members of their trades.

Chartist movement

• It was the first important political movement of workingmen organized in the 19th century. Millions of workers, including females, joined the movement.

• The parliament declined both petitions (1839 & 1842), stating that it removes the purpose of government and is incompatible with civilization.

• The movement was not that impactful, but it was significant for gathering millions to petition and give them a working-class consciousness.

Luddites 1811

• Skilled craftspeople who attacked machines that they thought were threatening their livelihoods.

• Failed to stop the industrial mechanization in Britain; viewed as naive.

• They had amazing local support, showing the negative feelings the population had on unrestrained industrial capitalism.

The Grand National Consolidated Trade Union

• guided by Robert Owen and formed in 1834.

• It was a national federation of trade unions that aimed to plan a strike to improve working conditions.

• Collapsed due to a lack of real working-class support, and the union movement reverted to trade unions for individual crafts.

1851 Amalgamated Society of Engineers

• It was the largest and most successful trade union after the collapse of the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union.

• Provided good unemployment benefits in return for a small weekly payment.

Combination Act 1799 and repeal in 1824

• Made in response to the radical French revolutionary working classes, outlawing associations of workers.

• It failed to prevent trade unions who went on strike to attain their goals.

• It was repealed in 1824 due to the illegal strikes, and how the act alienated workers that they had to form unions.

Peterloo Massacre 1819

• Named after Waterloo and was caused by the terrible corn laws that made bread unaffordable (hunger) and that only 2% could vote.

• 60k peaceful protestors wanting reform were attacked by the military after panicking and attacking the Yeomanry (a group of men who held small landed estates) who were ordered to arrest the speakers.

• It was influential in ordinary people winning voting rights and led to the Chartist movement.