APEHThe “First” Industrial

RevolutionTimeframe = ca. 1700-1850

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

1. Aristocrats made $ through land ownership (rents); general disdain for work

1. The middle class—bourgeoisie—earned money through management & ownership of factories; valued hard work

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

2. Largely agrarian/agricultural society (religiosity of rural areas)

2. Move towards urban/industrial societies (secularism of urban areas despite Hannah More and Sunday school movement); ultimately flight from urban areas to suburbia

The Industrial Revolution in Britain by 1850

A New Industrial Town

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

3. Generally high quality of goods b/c of artisans → higher prices

3. Declining quality of goods to mass production (however, lower prices)

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

4. Agrarian society and the lack of social mobility (static)

4. Industrial society = chance for social mobility; dynamic = could improve lot in life

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

5. Family relationships = lots of family time, even if working together

5. Family relationships = deteriorate as parents/children “go to work”; impact on women = paid less, doubly hard since more responsibility?; however, opportunity to earn $ and challenge stereotypes?

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

6. Time = more relaxed; at own pace; seasons and length of day tended to dictate length of time worked

6. Time = clock = regulated existence/rigid discipline (link to existence at school?)

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

7. Cottage industries (putting out system)

7. Factory system =harsh conditions = Factory Acts that tried to eliminate worse abuses

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

8. Space 8. Overcrowded; cramped; miserable living conditions; unsanitary; poor hygiene; countered by work of Edwin Chadwick (Public Health Act of 1848)

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

9. Child labor in farms 9. Child labor in factories (danger inherent in factories); child labor later regulated due to compulsory education laws ; Ten Hours Act (1847) → for children b/w 13-18 and women

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

10. Non-scientific farming (less food available; inefficient; 3 field system)

10. Scientific farming (+ farm journals) + enclosure movement = food surpluses = labor supply for factories

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

11. Classical or liberal education

11. Practical education (technical)

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

12. Natural resource abundance

12. Natural resource depletion (for instance, wood in England); connection to imperialism (more resources and markets); Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of World Capitalism (1916)

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

13. Less pollution 13. More pollution (smoke, river, noise, countryside altered with the introduction of railroads)

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

14. Energy = wood, water, wind; human and animal labor

14. Energy = improved water mills; steam, coal, and iron

Watt steam engine

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

15. Sedentary lifestyle 15. Mobility; possibility of tourism (railroads = birth of tourism industry)

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

16. Economic theory = mercantilism and small-scale capitalism

16. Economic theory = capitalism, utilitarianism, socialism (“utopian” and “scientific” / “Marxist” = mixed economies

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

17. Self-sufficiency 17. Interdependence (law of comparative advantage)

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

18. Humans are creative workers (homo faber → “man the maker”)

18. Humans alienated from labor; become wage laborers = specialized laborers don’t see the fruit of their labor; scientific management; workers as “appendages” of the machines

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

19. Make necessities 19. Purchase necessities and luxuries (wants)

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

20. Disorganized labor 20. Organized labor = trade unionism = tactics like the strike or even general strike; brutally suppressed at outset (e.g. Peterloo Massacre in 1819); repeal of Combination Acts by 1824

A Trade Union Membership Card

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

21. Job security fairly stable

21. Less job security (no social welfare!)

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

22. Wooden ships and hulls

22. Steam ships with iron hulls (replaced in late 19th century by steel hulls)

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

23. Largely human-made (with the aid of animals) goods

23. Machine made (mechanized = take job of humans = Luddites)

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

24. Open (3) field system; no selective breeding; scattering method

24. Enclosure movement; selective breeding; mechanical seed drill; iron plow; fertilizers; crop rotation; scientific farming spread by journals; creation of food surplus and excess labor pool to work in factories

25 reasons why the IR was revolutionary:

25. Communal focus in countryside

25. Increasing loneliness and isolation in the city

The Industrialization of Europe by 1850