Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
Describes a period of time when western society abandons a new way of producing, and creates a new way
Stems from agriculture
The Cottage Industry
Skilled craftsmanship passed down from generation to generation
Determined last name beginning after the end of the black plague
Serfs didn’t have last names, identified by occupation
England early 1700s, wealthy land owners began to buy “family farms” for large scale agriculture
Planter society, cash crops
Enclosure movement
Fencing off with the goal to grow crops in the land they acquired
Investing in new techniques and devices to increase production
Crop rotation
Seed drills
Leads to larger populations
Birth rates and moving to where food was in abundance
Those selling small farms move into cities looking for work in family occupations
Swelling of city populations
Cities begin reaching modern populations
Urbanization
Evolution of Factory System
The Steam Engine (1765)
Landowners seek new ways to make greater profits on their properties
Northern England, Southern Scotland
New industry emergence in the production of wool
Seek to sell in cities like London, located in south
Need to transport southward, as fast as possible
Eliminate competition, law of supply and demand
Best way, by boat
Sailboats are ineffective and unpredictable
Need for a better solution
Spending money to make money
Landowners approach educated people to come up with solutions
James Watt
Propellor for when wind does not work, allows for steam to power ship and guarantees delivery time better than sailboats
No patents
Once competitors see the steam engine, they make their own steam engines
Now everyone has a steam engine! Yippee! (but not for Watt)
Canals
Dug throughout England to allow for transportation within England without transporting first to the coast and then to the capital
Combined with steam engines, cuts back travel time substantially for goods and people
Steam engine will be applied to locomotives, allowing for land travel
Railways begin to connect British cities
Increased the need for manufacturing to be as fast as possible and as much as possible to make finished product
“What if we hired weavers, paid them an hourly wage, and weave this into a finished product”
Cranking out this stuff
Other devices made, like Spinning Jenny
Cost of product goes down, decreasing value of handmade items
Decreases the need to be a skilled laborer, easy to use machines
Urbanization causes competition over these jobs
Wages go down due to population growth
New Class structure develops in Britain
Lower middle class- small business owners, factory managers, bankers
Working class- factory workers and low level clerks (hourly wage)
Working conditions deteriorate
Poor people willing to work in more unsafe conditions and for less money
Machines meant to produce, not for safety in mind
Think of the mangle
No incentive to make machines safer
Those injured in work, were then unable to work
Employers paying as little as they possibly could
Creates turmoil
Low wages means working hours for just enough to survive on
No limitation on shift limits, long hours
“If you don’t like it, quit!”
As long as you could see, you could work
Often a requirement for the entire family to work
Child labor
Children useful in compact machines where adults cannot fit, subjected to dangerous conditions
Chimney sweeps
Families all working at survival level
Families living in tenements
Very small living spaces, one room apartments
Bathrooms were communal in courtyards
High rates of crime, alcoholism, poverty
First modern serial killer, Jack the Ripper
Sets him apart in that the case was driven by media
He was writing letters to newspaper
Never identified, killings suddenly stopped
Spreads to United States
Eli Whitney- Cotton Gin
Came up with the concept of interchangeable parts
Did it for the army
Before, gunsmiths would be on army staff
“If we make these guns out of identical parts, if a part breaks, we can just swap it out”
Invents the cotton gin
Late 1700s, slavery was dying out (allegedly)
Early 1800s, cotton hits the agricultural south
Revives slavery for a time
Again, dying out again
Eli Whitney wanted to finally end slavery
Cotton gin takes away the most labor intensive part of cotton harvesting (removing the seeds)
Backfires dramatically
Allows south to produce a lot of cotton very quickly
Henry Bessemer- Steel Making Process
Iron was used to make most things that required durable metal
Steel was very expensive
New process of heating up and cooling off large tubs of molten iron, making steel more abundant
Makes a factory in Pennsylvania
Beginnings of company US Steel
Pittsburgh Steelers
Fascinating
Spreads to Belgium and Germany
Following Napoleon’s defeat
Access to coal and iron ore
Found in Northern Europe
Non-industrialized countries (France, Spain, Russia, Italy) fall behind
Northern Europe breeds economic powers (Britain, German States)
New Political Philosophies
Adam Smith
Economist in England
Theorized that “Greed is good”
Society has benefited from the greed of the wealthy
Enclosure movement
Wool producers
Factory owners
The Invisible Hand
Societies with good economies are stable
No revolts or rebellions
Instability occurs when government interferes
Laissez Faire
“To let do”
Government doesn’t touch the economy
Father of Capitalism
People invest private wealth for future profit
Karl Marx
Theorized that the conditions in industrial societies, conditions would worsen
Working class would eventually uprise and create their own society
Ruled by the public, all profit would go to the profit
The government would use this to provide for the needs of the people
Leftover money would be spread across populace equally
Das Kapital
Communist Manifesto
Communism
Socialism is like Communism Lite
Only certain aspects of wealth are controlled to go to the public
All of this begins with the Jacobins
Not really true
Worker’s reforms
Collective bargaining: unions are able to negotiate better conditions
Strikes, walk outs, etc.
Power of the majority
Later 1800s, citizens began to pressure governments to pass laws in hopes of improving working conditions
Civil petitioning
Set work week hours
40 hours
Overtime
Minimum wage
Based on cost of living
Workman’s compensation and disabilities
OSHA
Child labor laws
Allow for education to escape the cycle of policy
Medical breakthroughs
Edward Jenner- vaccinations
Milkmaids were less susceptible to diseases that were knocking out the populations
Hence the name vaccination (la vache)
Louis Pasteur- Germ theory, heat kills germs
Heat kills bacteria, discovers there are smaller microorganisms that cause illness
Allows for sanitation of medical materials
Massive drop off in disease spread
“Pasteurized” meaning substance has been heated to eliminate disease
Jacob Lister- alcohol also kills germs
Isopropyl alcohol, mouthwash
Listerine