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Industrialization of the West 1760-1900: A comparative view of the positive and negative COT. Capitalism-Socialism-Marxism. Debate about Industrialism. Three major themes dominate the period 1750-1914 Industrialization as it transformed economies and societies
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Industrialization of the West 1760-1900: A comparative view of the positive and negative COT
Three major themes dominate the period 1750-1914 • Industrialization as it transformed economies and societies • Political upheaval highlighted by revolutions • Importation of Western values and institutions by settler societies such as the United States and Australia
Changes • In 1750, almost all of Europe consisted of monarchies. By the end of World War I most were gone • In 1750, Europe was mostly agricultural and rural. By 1914, it was industrial with urban populations surpassing rural ones
Three forces worked to dramatically change Europe • Cultural • Enlightenment thinkers (Adam Smith- Wealth of Nations) • Economic • Businessmen sought greater political voice (Revolutions) • Artisans/villagers fought growing industrialization • Population increase resulted in more manufacturing, often in the home (cottage industry), dependent on urban merchants (proto-industrialization) • Demographic • Population revolution- better nutrition, less disease, lower infant mortality rate • More children caused upper classes to tighten grip on power, drove more people into the working class (proletariat)
Great Britain: The Perfect Storm • Favorable natural resources- rivers, coal, iron • Large population = large labor pool • Advantages in world trade and manufacturing • Foundations laid by the Scientific Revolution • Government committed to economic growth
Origins • Labor based on women and children • Steam engine – James Watt • Metallurgy – coal and coke; Bessemer process • Interchangeable parts – Whitney (US) • Telegraph, steam ship, railway • Advanced agriculture • The factory system
The Spread of Industry • Other nations quickly saw the need to copy Britain’s industrialization • Industrialization helped Britain hold out against Napoleon and brought in wealth • The French Revolution helped France’s industrialization by abolishing restrictions on trade, protecting private property, and abolishing artisan guilds • Without protective guilds or manors, workers could be used and paid as the market required • The Industrial Revolution was not a rapid process but happened gradually over time
The Disruptions of Industrial Life • Changes not just in technology but in lifestyles • Migrations (3 major migrations) • Rural to urban • To plantations • To transportation / construction • Young adults primary migrants
Cities ill-equipped for population increases • Housing shortages led to overcrowding • Overcrowding led to inadequate sanitation • Inadequate sanitation led to worsened health conditions • Increases in crime due to poverty
Social changes • Social divisions increased as middle-class moved to suburbs • Factory system separated families as family members worked outside the home • More stress as machines brought faster pace to work and less emphasis on leisurely, high-quality production • Backlash against industrialization – Luddite movement
Changes in Traditions of Popular Leisure • Factory owners tried to ban singing, napping, drinking, and other customary frivolities on the job • Punctuality and efficiency were seen as virtues • Changes in Family Life • Concept of family was redefined by middle class • Women and children were to be protected from the new working world • Women withdrew from formal occupations and took on new virtuous roles as mothers and housewives • Education for children took on new significance
From 1850 to 1914 • City growth continued – urban population surpassed 50 percent • City governments gained ground in sanitation, policing, housing, and health • City parks and museums were constructed • Crime rates dropped – due not only to more effective social control but also a more disciplined population
Family life adjusted to industrialization • Birth rates and death rates dropped • Children increasingly seen as source of emotional satisfaction rather than source of labor • Material conditions improved: families could afford newspapers, family outings, better diet, better housing • Infant mortality rate dropped from +30 percent to less than 10 percent • Discovery of germs by Pasteur resulted in better practices by medical workers reducing deaths in childbirth
Changes in Labor • Establishment of labor unions resulted in better working conditions • Unions stressed power of massed laborers • Strikes impacted factories and states • Peasants adjusted to industrial life resulting in fewer protests and uprisings • Peasants moved into cash crops
Emphasis on Consumption and Leisure • Better wages and shorter working hours • Growth of white-collar labor force • Advertising caused “needs” where none existed before • Creation of consumer fads- bicycle • First consumer fad • Changed social habits as women needed less cumbersome clothing and young couples could out-pedal chaperones Roxanne
Mass Leisure • Popularity of newspapers- crime, sports, comics • Popular theater- comedy, musical revues, vacations • Rise of sports teams • Olympics reintroduced in 1896 • Rising secularism
Advances in Science • Electricity • Chemistry improved products • Dynamite helped “development” • Rise of social sciences • Science applied to agriculture • Charles Darwin – evolution • Social Darwinism- belief “races” evolved differently • Albert Einstein – Theory of Relativity • Sigmund Freud – psychoanalysis I hate my relatives
COT Theses From 1750-1900 in the “West” new forms of technology like dynamite and Mechanization of military would see the dominance of “Western” military Powers, the rise of an enlarged middle class and “White collar” jobs would See an improvement in living conditions, however, the proletariat would still Live under terrible working and polluted cities. Western Europe 1750-1900 witnessed profound changes as a result of the massive industrialization and development of infrastructures like railroads and canals, the improvement of living conditions due to the increase of wealth and influence (museums, police, sanitation) however patriarchy persisted with the cult of domesticity and the expectation of the female sphere to be within the domestic domain. The 2nd Industrial Revolution in Western Europe 1850-1900 would see a dramatic increase in the health and well-being of the population with the bacteriological revolution (Louis Pasteur) and the decrease in infant mortality rates, the use of science to argue the evolution of one group of people over another (Social Darwinism) to justify imperialism, however the life of poor rural farmers would not increase dramatically having been left out of the industrial advances.
The 2nd Industrial Revolution in Western Europe 1850-1900 would see a dramatic increase in the health and well-being of the population with the bacteriological revolution (Louis Pasteur) and the decrease in infant mortality rates, the use of science to argue the evolution of one group of people over another (Social Darwinism) to justify imperialism, however the life of poor rural farmers would not increase dramatically having been left out of the industrial advances