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244 An Era of European Imperialism
1800–1914 The period of world history from 1800 to 1914 was charac- terized by two major developments: the growth of industri- alization and Western domination of the world. The Industrial Revolution became one of the major forces for change, leading Western civilization into the industrial era that has characterized the modern world. At the same time, the Industrial Revolution created the technological means, including new weapons, by which the West achieved domination over much of the rest of the world.
Use The World History Primary Source Document Library CD-ROM to find additional primary sources about An Era of European Imperialism. 䊱
Zulu lodging 䊳
Zulu king Cetewayo meeting with British ambassadors hy It Matters
W Hulton Deutsch Collection/CORBIS
Ltd. (U .S .) “The world’s surface is t Libr ar y Int’l. limited, therefore the great Br idgeman Ar object should be to take as much of it as possible.”
—Cecil John Rhodes
246 Industrialization The rise of industry changed the world forever. So dramatic were the changes that historians have labeled the period the Industrial Revolution. Although the revolution began in Britain, it eventually
touched every nation on Earth.
1705 Thomas Newcomen perfects the steam engine
1769 James Watt patents a more efficient steam engine
1787 Edmund Cartwright patents a power loom
➊ ➌ ➋
James Watt’s steam engine ➊
Great Britain Workshop of the World
The birth of industry needed certain preconditions: the technology, incentive, and money to build machines; a labor force to run them; raw materials and markets to make the system profitable; and efficient farms to feed a new group of workers. By the early 1700s, Great Britain possessed all these conditions.
Industry grew from the innovations of individuals who developed machines to do work formerly done by humans and animals. Inventors built upon each other’s ideas. For example, in 1769 James Watt improved upon Thomas Newcomen’s primitive steam engine. Other inventors then adapted Watt’s engine to run cloth-making machines. Business owners soon brought machines and workers together in factories.
By the 1800s, industry had catapulted Great Britain into a position of world leadership. “[Britain has] triumphantly established herself as the workshop of the world,” boasted one leader. Soon, however, America would be humming with its own workshops.
➋ The United States
The Revolution Spreads
Great Britain prohibited the export of machines and machine operators. In 1789, however, a factory supervisor named Samuel Slater escaped by disguising himself as a farmhand and boarding a ship to New York. Working from mem- ory, Slater built a cotton mill in Rhode Island in 1793.
Soon after, the United States began churning out its own industrial inventors. Standardized parts and the assembly line led to mass production—a concept that would revolutionize people’s lives around the globe.
Samuel Slater’s mill 1793 1855 1913 1914
Samuel Slater opens the first Henry Bessemer patents an inex- Henry Ford uses assembly Japan expands machine-run cotton mill in the U.S. pensive method of producing steel lines to mass produce cars foreign trade
➌ Japan
The Search for Markets
In 1853, the Industrial Revolution traveled to Japan in the form of a fleet of United States steamships sent to open the islands to trade. “What we had taken as a fire at sea,” recalled one Japanese observer, “was really smoke coming out of the smokestacks.”
The military power produced by United States industry shook the Japanese. They temporarily gave in to American trade demands, but they also vowed that they too would possess indus- try. By 1914, Japan’s merchant fleet was the sixth largest in the world, and its trade had increased one hundredfold in value in 50 years.
Matthew Perry’s steamship in Tokyo Bay Why It Matters
The increase in industry made it necessary to find new sources of raw mate- rials and new markets for manufactured goods. How could competition for
resources and markets lead to the wars of the twentieth century? UNIT 4 An Era of European Imperialism 247
ar y 1800–1870
Industrialization Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Libr and Nationalism The Big Ideas .
,
The Chapter 4 video, World History—Modern Times Video
“The Romantic Era,” chronicles cultural and social changes in nineteenth- century Europe.
1814 1830
Congress of First public railway Vienna meets line opens in Britain
1800 1810 1820 1830 The Clermont, built by Robert Fulton
1807
Robert Fulton builds the first paddle-wheel steamboat
248 248
Coalbrookedale by Night by Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg Artists painted the dramatic changes brought on by the Industrial Revolution.
Francis I, Austrian emperor
1865
1848 U.S. 1871 HISTORYRevolutions Confederate German erupt in troops unification Europe surrender achieved
1840 1850 1860 1870
1837 1853 1861
Victoria Crimean Czar becomes War Alexander II queen of begins frees the
Czar Alexander II
Great Britain
of Russia
Russian serfs
249 249 Queen Victoria uthors often use details and vivid description to create a picture of a person or event. They want to make the text come alive for the reader A by appealing to the senses. When you form a picture in your mind, or hear a sound, or remember a smell while reading, you are visualizing. Good readers take the time to use their imagination and visualize.
You can visualize by noticing when an author is using specific details and language that appeals to the senses. You can also look for photos and other images in the text that further help you visualize what you are reading about.
Read the following paragraph from this chapter describing indus- trial working conditions. Notice the number of details the author
uses:
Coal miners also faced harsh and dangerous conditions. Steam-powered engines could lift the
VISUALIZING coal from the pits to the surface, but deep below ground, miners had to dig out this “black gold” Use photographs, diagrams, and with sledges, pick axes, and chisels. Horses, mules, charts to support your ability to women, and children worked underground, too, visualize. Look at the photo- hauling carts full of coal on rails to the lift. Cave- graph on page 263 of the child ins, explosions, and gas fumes . . . were a way of miners. Does this help you life. The cramped conditions in mines—tunnels imagine their situation better? were often only three or four feet high—and their constant dampness led to deformed bodies and ruined lungs.
After you visualize what life was like for a coal miner, discuss the image with a partner. How closely did your partner’s image match your mental picture? Now read the passage again. Did your ideas change?
250
CHAPTER 4 Industrialization and Nationalism
- In 1800, Great Britain had one major city, London, with a population of 1 million, and six more cities had populations of 50,000 to 100,000. Fifty years later, London’s population had swelled to nearly 2,500,000. . . . nine cities had more than 100,000 residents. . . . By 1850, half of the people were urban residents.
- Cities grew faster than the basic facilities like a clean water supply and sewers. . . . industrial cities bred dirt and disease as workers crowded into ramshackle housing. . . . reformers called for government action. . . .
As you read this chapter, keep a run- ning list of the causes and effects of the Industrial Revolution. Don’t forget to notice primary sources, graphs, and maps. Once you’ve completed your list, focus on how migration was con- nected to the successes and problems of the Industrial Revolution.
O ne important way historians and geographers analyze change is by tracking large-scale migration—why it happens and the impact it has on societies.
Sometimes people are moving from a rural area to an urban area. Sometimes they move across national, and even international, boundaries. Read this excerpt from Chapter 4 about rural-to-urban migration and its effects in the early years of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain:
Consider what kind of lifestyle changes had to occur to move from an agricultural to an industrial society. What do you think happened in the countryside when a large part of its population moved to urban areas?
Chronological and Spatial Thinking: Standard CS 3 Students use a variety of maps and documents to interpret human movement, including major pat- terns of domestic and international migration, changing environmental prefer- ences and settlement patterns, the frictions that develop between population groups, and the diffusion of ideas, technological innovations, and goods.
251
Austrian emperor Francis I (left) hosted the Congress of Vienna.
The Congress of Vienna Why It Matters
n the fall of 1814, hundreds of foreigners began to converge The Congress of Vienna tried to find
I
on Vienna, the capital city of the Austrian Empire. Many of a way to undo the changes brought these foreigners were members of European royalty—kings, about by the French Revolution and archdukes, princes, and their wives—accompanied by their
Napoleon. However, the new forces political advisers and scores of servants. of change had become too powerful
Their congenial host was the Austrian emperor Francis I, to be contained. They called forth who was quite willing to spend a fortune to entertain the visi- political revolutions that would tors. A Festivals Committee arranged entertainment on a daily shake Europe for years to come. basis for nine months. Francis I never tired of providing
At the beginning of the nineteenth Vienna’s guests with glittering balls, hunting parties, picnics, century, another kind of revolution hot-air balloon displays, and sumptuous feasts. began to transform the economic and social structure of Europe. The
A banquet for 40 tables of guests was held every night in Industrial Revolution led to the the Hofburg Palace. Then, too, there were the concerts. Actors, industrialization that shaped the actresses, singers, and composers were engaged to entertain, modern world. and Beethoven even composed a new piece of music for the event. One participant remembered, “Eating, fireworks, pub-
List several
History and You
lic illuminations. For eight or ten days, I haven’t been able to inventions developed during your work at all. What a life!” lifetime. What are their purposes?
Of course, not every waking hour was spent in pleasure Do they save time or make manual work easier? Have they affected during this gathering of notables, known to history as the society as a whole? Have there been Congress of Vienna. These people were representatives of all negative consequences to any of the states that had fought Napoleon. Their real business was to these inventions? Write a paper arrange a final peace settlement after almost 10 years of war. summarizing your thoughts.
252
• Industrialization urbanized Europe and
- Plentiful natural resources, workers,
- The pace of industrialization in Europe,
1764 Hargreaves invents spinning jenny
10.3.4: Trace the evolution of work and labor, including
the demise of the slave trade and the effects of immigration, mining and manufacturing, division of labor, and the union movement.
10.3.5: Understand the connections among natural
resources, entrepreneurship, labor, and capital in an industrial economy.
10.3.6: Analyze the emergence of capitalism as a domi-
nant economic pattern and the responses to it, including Utopianism, Social Democracy, Social- ism, and Communism.
Inventors Inventions
1782 Watt builds steam engine to drive machinery
1840 Steamships cross the Atlantic
10.3.3: Describe the growth of population, rural to urban
1833 Factory Act passed in Britain
1807 Steamboats make transport easier
✦ 1750
✦ 1770
✦ 1790
✦ 1810
✦ 1830
✦ 1850
253
migration, and growth of cities associated with the Industrial Revolution.
changes and new forms of energy brought about massive social, economic, and cultural change (e.g., the inventions and discoveries of James Watt, Eli Whitney, Henry Bessemer, Louis Pas- teur, Thomas Edison).
The Industrial Revolution Preview of Events
dynamic, migrate
Guide to Reading
Section PreviewWhen coal and steam engines powered new industry, people migrated to expand- ing cities to find jobs.
wealth, and markets explain why Great Britain was the country where the Industrial Revolution began. (p. 254)
the United States, and Japan depended on many factors, including government policy. (p. 257)
created new social classes, as well as the conditions for the rise of socialism. (p. 259)
Content Vocabulary
enclosure movement, capital, entrepre- neur, cottage industry, puddling, indus- trial capitalism, socialism
Academic Vocabulary
People to Identify
10.3.1: Analyze why England was the first country to industrialize. 10.3.2: Examine how scientific and technological
James Watt, Robert Fulton
Reading Objectives
1. Trace the advances that made the Industrial Revolution possible.
2. Describe how the Industrial Revolution affected women and children.
Reading Strategy
Categorizing Information Use a table like the one below to name important inventors and their inventions.
California Standards in This Section
Reading this section will help you master these California History–Social Science standards.
10.3: Students analyze the effects of the Industrial Rev-
olution in England, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States.
CHAPTER 4 Industrialization and Nationalism
The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain Plentiful natural resources, workers, wealth, and markets explain why Great Britain was the country where the Industrial Revolution began.
Fourth, natural resources were plentiful in Britain. The country’s many rivers provided the water power for the steam engine, as well as transportation for raw materials and finished products. The British landscape was also rich in the coal and iron ore that was necessary for manufacturing.
” Supervisors ensuring constant work
The normal working day begins at all seasons at 6 A . M . precisely and ends, after the usual break of half an hour for breakfast, an hour for dinner and half an hour for tea, at 7 P . M . . . . Workers arriving 2 minutes late shall lose half an hour’s wages; whoever is more than 2 minutes late may not start work until after the next break, or at least shall lose his wages until then. . . . No worker may leave his place of work otherwise than for reasons connected with his work. . . . All conversation with fellow-workers is prohibited. . . .
with a new kind of discipline. In 1844, a factory in Berlin posted the following rules: “
254
Finally, the British had a ready market in their vast empire, and British ships could transport manufac- tured goods anywhere in the world. At home, too, the market was growing because the population was growing. Since food was cheaper, the mass of the population were able to buy more than just their daily bread. With demand expanding, capitalists— those with money to invest—had a huge incentive to find methods to expand production.
Fifth, Britain had a relatively free society. Its gov- ernment did not heavily regulate the economy, and ideas also circulated freely. Inventors and capitalists felt they had the freedom to act on their ideas.
the factories needed to house them. Some wealthy people, called entrepreneurs, sought new business opportunities and new ways to make profits.
Reading Connection Think about how computers are rapidly changing today’s world. Read to understand how the Industrial Revolution changed life in the nineteenth century.
capital, to invest in the new industrial machines and
Third, Britain had a ready supply of money, or
Second, with more abundant food supplies, the population increased dramatically. At the same time, Parliament passed laws in the 1700s that allowed landowners to fence off common lands. As a result of this enclosure movement, many peasants were forced to move to towns to find work. Britain thus had a plentiful supply of labor.
Contributing Factors First, Britain was producing much more food in the eighteenth century because its agriculture had improved. More farmland, better transportation, and new crops like the potato dra- matically increased the food supply. More people could be fed at lower prices with less labor.
A number of factors are necessary in order for this dynamic process of industrialization to occur.
When a nation industrializes, a major transforma- tion occurs. A society is transformed from a stable agricultural world to an industrial society of constant growth. For the workers of the day, this transforma- tion could be traumatic.
The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain sometime around 1780. Within about fifty years, industrialization took hold in the rest of Western Europe, but why did it occur in Britain first?
CHAPTER 4 Industrialization and Nationalism The new factories forced employees to comply
Factory workers Changes in Cotton Production
In the eighteenth century, Great Britain had already surged ahead of other countries in making inexpensive cotton goods. Making cotton cloth was a two-step process. First, spinners made thread from raw cotton. Then, weavers wove the thread into cloth on looms. In the eighteenth century, people performed this work in
Women beating and lapping cotton by hand (above);
their rural cottages, so the production method was
(below) a machine performing the same function called a cottage industry.
A series of technological advances in the eigh- teenth century made the cottage industry inefficient and outdated. First, the invention of the “flying shut- A series of complex developments brought about tle” made weaving faster. Now, the weavers needed the Industrial Revolution—two of these develop- spinners to produce thread more quickly since they ments included increased demand and the fact that could make cotton faster. some businesspeople had capital to invest. Another
In 1764 James Hargreaves invented a machine major step forward came when steam power could called the spinning jenny, which met this need. Other be used to spin and weave cotton. inventors made similar contributions. The spinning Because steam engines were fired by coal, they did process became so quick that thread was being pro- not need to be located near rivers. Before long, cotton duced faster than weavers could use it. mills powered by steam engines were found all over Yet another invention allowed the weavers to Britain. catch up. This was a water-powered loom, invented British cotton cloth production increased dramati- by Edmund Cartwright by 1787. It now became more cally. In 1760, Britain had imported 2.5 million efficient to bring workers to the new machines and pounds of raw cotton—or 1.14 million kilograms— have them work in factories near streams and rivers, for use in cottage industries. In 1787, imports rose to whose water powered the early machines. 22 million pounds (10 million kg), and by this time,
The cotton industry became even more productive most cotton was spun on machines. By 1840, 366 mil- when Scottish engineer James Watt improved the lion pounds (166 million kg) were imported each steam engine in the 1760s. Then, in 1782, Watt made year. Factory-made cotton cloth was Britain’s most changes that allowed the steam engine to drive valuable product and was sold everywhere in the machinery. world.
CHAPTER 4 Industrialization and Nationalism 255
256
engine was crucial to the Industrial Revolution, Britain had to have the coal for its engine. In Britain, coal seemed to lie everywhere under the ground. As more factories were built, more coal was needed. Inventors found ways to use coal more efficiently. These new methods aided another important indus- try—the iron industry.
Britain had plenty of iron ore as well as coal. In the early 1700s, the process of making iron had changed very little since the Middle Ages. In the 1780s, how- ever, Henry Cort developed a way to produce better iron with a process called puddling.
In puddling, coke, a coal derivative, was used to purify crude iron. The result was higher-quality iron, and the iron industry boomed. In 1740, 17,000 tons (15,419 t) had been sold, but once the puddling process came into use, production jumped to about 70,000 tons (63,490 t). In 1852, Britain produced more iron than the rest of the world combined—almost 3 million tons (2.7 million t). The new iron was used to make machines and to build railroads.
History through Art
Biermeister and Wain Steel Forge by P.S. Kroyer
Industry’s raw power captured the imagination of many artists. Kroyer, a Norwegian-born Dane, painted this scene in 1875. How do the conditions for workers compare to
industry today? Railroads In the eighteenth century, roads and
canals had already made moving goods more effi- cient. It was railroads, however, that dramatically improved Britain’s transportation.
In 1804, the first steam-powered locomotive ran on an industrial rail line. It pulled 10 tons (9 t) of ore and 70 people at 5 miles per hour (8.05 km per hour). Better locomotives followed. The Rocket moved on the first public railway line, which opened in 1830 between Liverpool and Manchester. Today the trip would take an automobile a half hour, but in 1830, it took the Rocket two hours as it sped along at 16 miles per hour (25.7 km per hour). Within 20 years, the speed of locomotives almost tripled. By 1850, rail- roads crisscrossed much of the country—about 6,000 miles (9,654 km).
Railroad expansion caused a ripple effect in the economy. Building railroads created more jobs and less expensive transport made goods cheaper to buy. Cheaper goods created more sales and more sales led to more factories. When business owners profited, they invested profits in new and better equipment, which increased economic growth. In the old agricul- tural society, growth was rare and intermittent. In an industrial society, economic growth is permanent.
CHAPTER 4 Industrialization and Nationalism The Coal and Iron Industries Since the steam
45
15 Railroad Track (in thousands of miles) Railroad Track
15 Britain United States Comparing Britain and the United States*
Population (in millions) 1830 1870 1900 1830 .023
1870
53.0 1900 195.0
90
75
60
45
30
(in thousands of miles) 210 180 150 120
The New Factories The factory was very important
90
60
30 Britain United States
210 180 150 120
90
60
30 Britain was the leading industrial nation in the
early and mid-nineteenth century, but countries such as the United States eventually surpassed Britain in industrial production.
1. Comparing How did Britain’s population
growth, from 1830 to 1870 and 1870 to 1900, compare to the United States’s growth? How did Britain’s expansion in railroad tracks com- pare to that of the United States during the same period?
30
60
highest percentage of railroad track miles in comparison to total square miles in 1870? In 1900?
In the early 1830s, Prussia, one of the largest German states, took an important 257
to industrialization. Early on, factories were situated near water and powered by mills. When new energy sources were developed, however, factories could be located in cities near workers.
This new industrial economy created an entirely new labor system. Because factory owners wanted their machines producing goods constantly, workers were forced to work in shifts to keep the machines going.
Early factory workers migrated from rural areas. In the country, they were used to periods of hectic work, followed by periods of rest. Factory owners wanted workers to work without stopping. They dis- ciplined workers to a system of regular hours and repetitive tasks. Anyone who came to work late was fined, or quickly dismissed for misconduct, espe- cially for drunkenness. Child workers were often beaten.
Describing Why did employers feel they needed to discipline factory workers?
Reading Check The Spread of Industrialization The pace of industrialization in Europe, the United States, and Japan depended on many factors, including government policy.
Reading Connection Are some groups more willing to change than others? Read about the factors that help explain why nations adapt to change at different speeds.
By the mid-nineteenth century, Great Britain, the world’s first industrial nation, was also the richest. It produced half the world’s output of coal and manu- factured goods. Its cotton industry alone was equal in size to the combined industries of all other Euro- pean countries. Most of them were just beginning to industrialize.
The Industrial Revolution spread to continental Europe at different times and speeds. Countries with more urban areas and a tradition of trade industrial- ized earlier. Belgium and France did not have all of Britain’s advantages, but both countries showed significant industrial growth after 1830.
In the German states, it was another story. There was no single nation, but more than 30 states, many very small. Instead of sell- ing goods in a national market, manufac- turers had to face multiple governmental units and regulations.
1830 1870 1900 1830 .032
75
1870
11.0 1900
18.6
90
24.0
31.0
12.9
38.6
76.0
41.0
2. Problem Solving Which country had the
- As you compare, keep in mind the vast difference in area between Britain and the United States. Britain (England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland) totals 94,548 square miles (244,879 sq km); the continental United States, 3,717,796 square miles (9,629,091 sq km).
CHAPTER 4 Industrialization and Nationalism Population (in millions)
step by creating a free trading zone. Industrialization began, but it did not transform the economy until 1870 when Germany was united.
Industrialization of Europe by 1870
Paris Bordeaux Cologne Hamburg
Copenhagen Oslo Stockholm St. Petersburg
Warsaw Breslau Prague Berlin
Munich Vienna Pest Venice
Rome Florence Genoa Milan
Turin Marseille Glasgow Birmingham
The Industrial Revolution spread throughout nineteenth- century Europe.
Sheffield Bradford Liverpool Manchester
1. Interpreting Maps What was the predominant indus-
try in the United Kingdom?
2. Applying Geography Skills What patterns do you
see in the distribution of the major industries? What geographical factors could account for these patterns?
Coal mining Iron working Textile production
Industry: Manufacturing and industrial area Major industrial center Major railways by 1870
Bristol London Amsterdam Brussels
Black Sea
NORWAY
SWEDEN R U S S I A PRUSSIA POLAND SERBIA AUSTRIA-HUNGARY ITALY SWITZERLAND SPAIN FRANCE BELGIUM UNITED KINGDOM NETH. DENMARKGERMANY
Edinburgh LeedsIn Britain, a freer society, private entrepreneurs took the lead. In France, Belgium, and the German states, governments tended to be active in promoting industrialization. Often governments funded roads, canals, and railroads.
50 °N 45°N
One of the most important facts in modern history is that Western Europe and the United States indus- trialized first. They therefore had an immense advan- tage in becoming wealthy, powerful nations, nations that soon dominated other parts of the world.
One Asian country, Japan, followed the Western example. Japan had seen the importance of industrial power in 1853. In that year, American admiral Matthew Perry steered his steam-powered ship into the Japanese harbor and demanded that Japan trade with the United States. Many Asian countries hesi- tated to change their culture and adopt some Western ways, but the new Japanese government of 1868 decided that it must copy Western technology to become a strong nation.
258
Chamberlin Trimetric projection 400 kilometers 400 miles N S E W
0° 5°W 20°E 10°W 15°W 55
°N
Atlantic Ocean E br o R . L oir R e . V ist u l a R.
A d ri a ti c Se a
Po R .
Da nub e R. N e man R.
Ba l ti c
S e a
North Sea M e d i te r ra n e a n
S e
a
CHAPTER 4 Industrialization and Nationalism
259
ger travel. The first line to handle both passengers and goods opened between Liverpool and Manchester in 1830. What does the style of the rail coaches remind
you of?
History substantial majority of textile workers. Early capital- ists even advertised for whole families. In Utica, New York, one newspaper ran this ad: “Wanted: A few sober and industrious families of at least five chil- dren each, over the age of eight years, are wanted at the cotton factory in Whitestown. Widows with large families would do well to attend this notice.”
Evaluating Why was the railroad important to the industrialization of the United States?
Social Impact in Europe Industrialization urbanized Europe and created new social classes, as well as the conditions for the rise of socialism.
Reading Connection Do you know any entrepreneurs who run their own businesses? Read about how early entre- preneurs contributed to the Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution drastically changed the societies of Europe and, eventually, the world. The major signs of this change were the growth of cities and the emergence of two new social classes, the industrial middle class and the industrial working class.
Growth of Population and Cities In 1750, Euro- pean population stood at an estimated 140 million.
By 1850, the population had almost doubled to 266 million. The key to this growth was a decline in death Reading Check
In the United States, the pace of industrializing was fairly quick, especially considering that Ameri- cans were also busy expanding across the continent. In 1800, six of seven American workers were farmers, and no city had more than 100,000 people. Between 1800 and 1860, the population of the United States grew from about 5 million to 30 million. In the same period, cities grew, too. Nine cities had populations over 100,000, and now only half of Americans worked as farmers.
Once the United States extended to the Pacific, a national transportation system was vital. Thousands of miles of roads and canals were built to link east and west. Robert Fulton built the first paddle-wheel steamboat, the Clermont, in 1807. By 1860, a thousand steamboats plied the Mississippi River and made transportation easier on the Great Lakes and along the Atlantic coast. It was the railroad that really brought the nation together. In 1830, there were fewer than 100 miles of track (160.9 km). By 1860, about 30,000 miles of track (48,270 km) had been built.
In the early years, factory workers came from the farms of the Northeast. Women and girls made up a
CHAPTER 4 Industrialization and Nationalism This English train of the mid-1840s shows early passen-
rates, wars, and diseases such as smallpox and Cities grew faster than the basic facilities like a plague. Because of an increase in the food supply, clean water supply and sewers. Thus industrial cities more people were better fed and resistant to disease. bred dirt and disease as workers crowded into ram- Famine largely disappeared from Western Europe. shackle housing. Upset by disease and human suffer-
Cities and towns in Europe grew dramatically in the ing, reformers called for government action, but their first half of the 1800s. The growth was directly related pleas were not met until later in the century. to industrialization. By 1850, especially in Great Britain
The Industrial Middle Class Capitalism had
and Belgium, many factories were located in cities, existed since the Middle Ages, when men with capi- which now grew rapidly—factories were a magnet for tal could invest in long-distance trade for profit. In anyone looking for work. this period, industrial capitalism, an economic sys-
In 1800, Great Britain had one major city, London, tem based on manufacturing, took hold. With a new with a population of 1 million, and six more cities kind of economy, a new social group emerged—the had populations of 50,000 to 100,000. Fifty years later, industrial middle class. London’s population had swelled to nearly 2,500,000.
In earlier times the term bourgeoisie, or middle Growth was seen all over Britain now—nine cities class, referred to burghers, or town dwellers. They had more than 100,000 residents, and 18 had popula- were merchants, artisans, professionals such as tions between 50,000 and 100,000. By 1850, half of the lawyers or doctors, and government officials. The people were urban residents. This process of urban- bourgeoisie were not noble, but they were not poor. ization was going on in other European countries, Some were quite wealthy. but it happened more quickly and more completely
During the Industrial Revolution, a new group was in Britain than in many other countries. added to the middle class. The industrial middle class were the men who built the factories, bought the
History machines, and figured out where the markets were.
They had initiative, vision, ambition, and quite often, A late-nineteenth-century photo shows housing condi- tions in England. Typically, houses backed up against greed. As one manufacturer put it, “Getting of money one another, creating narrow alleyways that did not
. . . is the main business of the life of men.” allow for a patch of grass. How did the Industrial
The Industrial Working Class The Industrial Rev- Revolution contribute to such scenes?
olution also created a new kind of worker, the indus- trial worker. Industrial workers worked from 12 to 16 hours a day, six days a week, with only a half hour for lunch and dinner. They had no minimum wage and could be fired at a moment’s notice.
In the cotton mills, the heat was stifling. “In the cotton-spinning work,” it was reported, “these crea- tures are kept, 14 hours in each day, locked up, sum- mer and winter, in a heat of from 80 to 84 degrees.” Dirt and dust filled the air, and machines operated without safety codes for the workers.
Coal miners also faced harsh and dangerous con- ditions. Steam-powered engines could lift the coal from the pits to the surface, but deep below ground, miners had to dig out this “black gold” with sledges, pick axes, and chisels. Horses, mules, women, and children worked underground, too, hauling carts full of coal on rails to the lift. Cave-ins, explosions, and gas fumes (called “bad air”) were a way of life. The cramped conditions in mines—tunnels were often only three or four feet high—and their constant dampness led to deformed bodies and ruined lungs.
As in the United States, women and children made up a high percentage of workers in the cotton industry
260
CHAPTER 4 Industrialization and Nationalism
—about two-thirds by 1830. Reformers condemned the factories for enslaving children. The situation improved after the Factory Act of 1833. It set 9 years of age as the minimum for child labor, but children between 9 and 13 could still work 9 hours a day, and those between 13 and 18 years of age could work 12 hours.
3. Describe the importance of the rail- roads in the growth of cities in Europe and the United States.
Revolution
CA WA2.3b Causes Effects Industrial
7. Informative Writing You are a nineteenth-century journalist. Write a brief article depicting the working conditions in cotton mills and an explanation of how mill owners defend such conditions.
CA HI 1
6. Examine the picture of female textile workers shown on page 255 of your text. How does this picture reflect the role that women played in the Indus- trial Revolution?
Analyzing Visuals
5. Cause and Effect Use a diagram like the one below to list the causes and effects of the Industrial Revolution.
4. Connecting Ideas Analyze how the Industrial Revo- lution changed the way families lived and worked.
Critical Thinking
Reviewing Big Ideas
As the number of working children declined, more women were employed, and before 1870 they made up half of the labor force in British textiles. Women were mostly unskilled and were paid half or less than half of what men received. Excessive working hours for women were outlawed in 1844.
2. People Identify: James Watt, Robert Fulton.
1. Vocabulary Define: dynamic, enclo- sure movement, capital, entrepreneur, cottage industry, puddling, migrate, industrial capitalism, socialism.
Reading Check 261
Describing How did socialists respond to new and harsh working conditions?
One utopian socialist was Robert Owen, a British cotton manufacturer. Owen believed that if only peo- ple lived in a cooperative environment, they would show their natural goodness. At New Lanark in Scot- land, Owen transformed a squalid factory town into a flourishing community. He created a similar com- munity at New Harmony, Indiana, in the 1820s, which failed. Not everyone was as committed to sharing and caring as Owen himself, and New Har- mony split up in the late 1820s.
by Sir Thomas More.) To this day, we refer to the early socialists in this way.
Utopia, a medieval work describing an ideal society
Early socialists wanted to replace competition with cooperation. They wrote books about the ideal society that might be created, a hypothetical society where workers could use their abilities and where everyone would be cared for. Later socialists said that these ideas were impractical dreams. Karl Marx con- temptuously called earlier reformers of this group utopian socialists. (He borrowed the term from
Some reformers opposed a capitalist system which they saw as responsible for destroying people’s lives. They advocated socialism. Socialism is an economic system in which society, usually in the form of the government, owns and controls important parts of the economy, such as factories and utilities. In social- ist theory, this public ownership of the means of pro- duction would allow wealth to be distributed more equally to everyone.
not easy. Although workers’ lives eventually improved, they suffered terribly during the early decade of industrialization. Their family life was dis- rupted, they were separated from the countryside, hours were long, and pay was low.
Early Socialism The transition to factory work was
One reason women and children began by work- ing such long hours in factories was that families were accustomed to working together in cottage industry. When laws limited working hours for women and children, a new pattern began to be established. Men would be expected to work outside the home, while women took over running the home. Women continued to add to family income by taking low-paying jobs that could be done at home, such as washing laundry or sewing.
CHAPTER 4 Industrialization and Nationalism Checking for Understanding
The Industrial Revolution C
hildren had been an important part of the family economy in preindustrial times. They worked in the fields or at home in cottage industries. In the Industrial Revo- lution, however, child labor was exploited.
Children represented a cheap supply of labor. In 1821, 49 percent of the British people were under 20 years of age. Hence, children made up a large pool of workers. Children were paid only about one-sixth to one-third of what a man was paid.
The owners of cotton factories in Eng- land found child labor especially useful. Children had a delicate touch as spinners. Their smaller size made it easier for them to move under machines to gather loose cotton. They were also more easily trained to factory work than adults.
In the cotton factories in 1838, children under the age of 18 made up 29 percent of the total workforce. In cotton mills, chil- dren as young as age seven worked 12 to 15 hours per day, six days a week.
Discipline was often harsh. A report from a British parliamentary inquiry into the condition of child factory workers in 1838 stated:
“
It is a very frequent thing at Mr. Mar- shall’s . . . for Mr. Horseman to start the mill earlier in the morning than he for- merly did; and provided a child should be drowsy, the overlooker walks round the room with a stick in his hand, and he touches that child on the shoulder, and says, ‘Come here.’ In a corner of the room there is an iron cistern; it is filled with water; he takes this boy, and takes him up by the legs, and dips him over head in the cistern, and sends him to work for the remainder of the day. . . . What means were taken to keep the children to their work?—Sometimes they would tap them over the head, or nip them over the nose, or give them a pinch of snuff, or throw water in their faces, or pull them off where they were, and job them about to keep them awake.
” The same inquiry also reported that, in
some factories, children were often beaten with a rod or whip to keep them at work.
The textile industry was the earliest to be industrialized. This young American textile worker stands next to the spinning machine that she worked at for long hours. In the 21st century, child labor can still be found in the textile industry, especially in Asia.
➤ CORBIS
C ONNECTING TO THE P AST
1. Identifying What kind of working condi-
tions did children face in the factories during the early Industrial Revolution?
2. Analyzing Why did factory owners permit
such conditions and child labor?
3. Writing about History Write an essay con-
trasting current factory conditions with those of 100 years ago.
In this engraving, a young boy of the upper class comforts a factory boy. The father in the background might be a reformer, asking the factory manager questions. The image was for an 1840 novel, The Life and Adventures of Michael Armstrong, the Factory Boy.