1790-1950

What is the Industrial Revolution?

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transport, and technology had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions starting in the United Kingdom, then subsequently spreading throughout Europe, North
America, and eventually the world.

The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in human history; almost every aspect of daily life was eventually influenced in some way.

The first Industrial Revolution, which began in the 18th century, merged into the Second Industrial Revolution around 1850, when technological and economic progress gained momentum with the development of steam-powered ships, railways, and later in the 19th century with the internal combustion engine and electrical power generation.
The entire process was a transformation of how our world became urbanized...the beginning of a new era.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the late 1700s, manufacturing was often done in peoples homes, using hand tools or basic machines. Industrialization marked a shift to powered, special-purpose machinery, factories and mass production. The iron and textile industries, along with the development of the steam engine, played central roles in the Industrial Revolution, which also saw improved systems of transportation, communication and banking. While industrialization brought about an increased volume and variety of manufactured goods and an improved standard of living for some, it also resulted in often grim employment and living conditions for the poor and working classes.

Before the creation of the Industrial Revolution, most people resided in small, rural communities where their daily existences revolved around farming. Life for the average person was difficult, as incomes were meager, and malnourishment and disease were common. People produced the bulk of their own food, clothing, furniture and tools. Most manufacturing was done in homes or small, rural shops, using hand tools or simple machines.A number of factors contributed to Britains role as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. For one, it had great deposits of coal and iron ore, which proved essential for industrialization. Additionally, Britain was a politically stable society, as well as the worlds leading colonial power, which meant its colonies could serve as a source for raw materials, as well as a marketplace for manufactured goods.As demand for British goods increased, merchants needed more cost-effective methods of production, which led to the rise of mechanization and the factory system.

Innovation and Industrialization

Before mechanization and factories, textiles were made mainly in peoples homes with merchants often providing the raw materials and basic equipment, and then picking up the finished product. Workers set their own schedules under this system, which proved difficult for merchants to regulate and resulted in numerous inefficiencies. In the 1700s, a series of innovations led to ever-increasing productivity, while requiring less human energy. For example, around 1764, Englishman James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny (jenny was an early abbreviation of the word engine), a machine that enabled an individual to produce multiple spools of threads simultaneously. By the time of Hargreaves death, there were over 20,000 spinning jennys in use across Britain. The spinning jenny was improved upon by British inventor Samuel Comptons spinning mule, as well as later machines.

Before the creation of the steam engine, raw materials and finished goods were hauled and distributed via horse-drawn wagons, and by boats along canals and rivers.

In the early 1800s, American Robert Fulton built the first commercially successful steamboat, and by the mid-19th century, steamships were carrying freight across the Atlantic.

As steam-powered ships were making their debut, the steam locomotive was also coming into use. In the early 1800s, British engineer Richard Trevithick constructed the first railway steam locomotive.

Around 1820, Scottish engineer John McAdam (1756-1836) developed a new process for road construction. His technique, which became known as macadam, resulted in roads that were smoother, more durable and less muddy.

Transportation

Lifestyle

-The Industrial Revolution brought about a greater volume and variety of factory-produced goods and raised the standard of living for many people, particularly for the middle and upper classes. However, life for the poor and working classes continued to be filled with challenges. Wages for those who labored in factories were low and working conditions could be dangerous and monotonous. Unskilled workers had little job security and were easily replaceable.

-Children were part of the labor force and often worked long hours and were used for such highly hazardous tasks as cleaning the machinery. In the early 1860s, an estimated one-fifth of the workers in Britains textile industry were younger than 15.
Industrialization also meant that some craftspeople were replaced by machines.

-Additionally, urban, industrialized areas were unable to keep pace with the flow of arriving workers from the countryside, resulting in inadequate, overcrowded housing and polluted, unsanitary living conditions in which disease was rampant.

-Conditions for Britains working-class began to gradually improve by the later part of the 19th century, as the government instituted various labor reforms and workers gained the right to form trade unions.

The Role of Women:
-Whether it was childbearing or childrearing, the stage of a womans life cycle defined her role within the family wage economy.
-Age, marital status, and occupation were completely inseparable. The family of procreation naturally became the family of orientation as children were born and directed toward their prescribed futures.
-Consequently, two-thirds of a wifes married years involved reproduction.
-Women were never given the opportunity nor allowed the freedom to choose their own future because parents provided lifes blueprint.
-A daughters dowry was the necessary component of entering into a marriage contract during the early industrial revolution.
-Later when the family wage economy was in full force, dowries and heirlooms lost their importance with potential suitors because women instead needed to bring a wage earning occupation to the marriage.

Continued... -From the moment of birth, women took on the important responsibility of managing the household and feeding their children.
-Peasant families knew that although the father may be the main breadwinner, the woman was responsible for managing all the resources to ensure the health and nutrition of her offspring.
-Providing food could mean growing vegetables, tending chickens and goats or trying to bargain for the best food prices at the market. In a peasant family, the duties of the mother of the family were overwhelming; they were summed up in one word: food.
-Working class women had no choice but to work while trying to balance the familys production with consumption.
-As children grew, they, too, were expected to contribute to the family wage economy.
-Once children were able to do this, some mothers were able to manage the domestic sphere full time.

Within cities, fathers with a specialization often taught their sons a specific trade. Many became apprentices at a very young age and could earn a living in the family business. If a daughter could not contribute to the family wage economy, they were often sent elsewhere until they could. Oftentimes, young, unmarried females between fifteen and upwards to the age of sixty-five became domestic servants. As soon as a family member was old enough to sell his/her labor to support the family, they did so. Like rural households, the family unit was preserved whenever it was economically feasible. Only under duress, when the balance between wages and consumption was upset, were females sent away to workhouses or other forms of servitude. Decisions were always made in terms of the needs of the group versus the individuals. They must work to the best of their ability for the prosperity of the family and for the designated heir. Sometimes this meant migrating into the city to seek employment. Families had to seek relief in hard times and during food shortages.


-Workhouses were where poor people who had no job or home lived. They earned their keep by doing jobs in the workhouse.
-Orphaned (children without parents) and abandoned children, the physically and mentally sick, the disabled, the elderly and unmarried mothers.
-Women, children and men had different living and working areas in the workhouse, so families were split up. To make things even worse they could be punished if they even tried to speak to one another!
-The education the children received did not include the two most important skills of all, reading and writing, which were needed to get a good job.
-Upon entering the workhouse, the poor were stripped and bathed (under supervision).
-Food was also distasteless and the same, day after day.

Conflict theory emphasizes the role of coercion and power in producing social order. This perspective is derived from the works of Karl Marx, who saw society as fragmented into groups that compete for social and economic resources. Social order is maintained by domination, with power in the hands of those with the greatest political, economic, and social resources. When consensus exists, it is attributable to people being united around common interests, often in opposition to other groupsAccording to conflict theory, inequality exists because those in control of a disproportionate share of societys resources actively defend their advantages. The masses are not bound to society by their shared values, but by coercion at the hands of those in power. This perspective emphasizes social control, not consensus and conformity. Groups and individuals advance their own interests, struggling over control of societal resources. Those with the most resources exercise power over others with inequality and power struggles resulting. There is great attention paid to class, race, and gender in this perspective because they are seen as the grounds of the most pertinent and enduring struggles in society.

Conflict Theory

In many ways, conflict theory is the opposite of functionalism but ironically also grew out of the Industrial Revolution, thanks largely to Karl Marx (18181883) and his collaborator, Friedrich Engels (18201895). Conservative intellectuals, feared the mass violence resulting from industrialization, whereas Marx and Engels deplored the conditions they felt were responsible for the mass violence and the capitalist society they felt was responsible for these conditions. Instead of fearing the breakdown of social order that mass violence represented, they felt that revolutionary violence was needed to eliminate capitalism and the poverty and misery they saw as its inevitable result.According to Marx and Engels, every society is divided into two classes based on the ownership of the means of production (tools, factories, and the like). In a capitalist society, the bourgeoisie, or ruling class, owns the means of production, while the proletariat, or working class, does not own the means of production and instead is oppressed and exploited by the bourgeoisie. This difference creates automatic conflict of interests between the two groups. Simply put, the bourgeoisie is interested in maintaining its position at the top of society, while the proletariats interest lies in rising up from the bottom and overthrowing the bourgeoisie to create an egalitarian society.

Conflict Theory & the Industrial Revolution

Popular Works of the Industrial Era