The Impact of Industrialization WHAP/Napp
“Between 1860 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, a ‘second industrial revolution’ further transformed world productivity, the ways in which humans lived their lives, and the power balances among the major nations and regions of the world. The principal technological advances came in steel, chemicals, and electricity. New technologies – the Bessemer steel converter (1856) in Britain followed by the Siemens-Martin open-hearth method of production (1864) in Germany – soon allowed iron ore to be converted to steel cheaply and abundantly. Steel production creates a much stronger and more versatile product. Germany, united as a country in 1871 under Otto von Bismarck, forged ahead. By 1900 it was producing more steel than Britain.
New entrepreneurs, men creating successful new industrial enterprises, often profited handsomely in this era. Yet handicraft workers were displaced by the new mechanization. In 1820 there were 240,000 handloom weavers in Britain; in 1840, 123,000; in 1856, 23,000. Some of these workers found jobs running the new power looms, but many could not make the transition and fell into poverty. While attending his father’s cotton mill in Manchester, Friedrich Engels (1820-95) compiled devastating accounts of The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845). His description of the St. Giles slum in London demonstrates the moral outrage that led him to join with Karl Marx in calling for revolution:
‘Heaps of garbage and ashes lie in all directions, and the foul liquids emptied before the doors gather in stinking pools. Here live the poorest of the poor, the worst paid workers with thieves and the victims of prostitution indiscriminately huddled together…[T]hey who have some kind of shelter are fortunate in comparison with the utterly homeless. In London fifty thousand human beings get up every morning, not knowing where they are to lay their heads at night.’ (pp. 34-38)
Government reports, although more restrained in tone, sustained these horrific views. Official committees studied conditions in the factories and neighborhoods of Britain’s growing industrial cities and in the mines. In 1831, a committee chaired by the Member of Parliament Michael Thomas Sadler investigated the conditions of child labor in cotton and linen factories. It found children beginning work at the age of six, usually for twelve- and thirteen-hour days. They were often given food so wretched that, despite their hunger, they left it for pigs to eat. Workplaces were cramped and dirty all year long, and were especially damaging to health during the long nights of winter, when gas, candles, and oil lamps added their soot and smoke to the air of the factory.” ~ The World’s History
1. From the perspective of the worker, the factory system meant(A) Better working conditions than piecework done at home.
(B) Better pay for skilled work.
(C) Greater opportunities for advancement within a free market system.
(D) Harsh discipline and close supervision.
(E) An opportunity for families to work together. / 2. From the perspective of the consumer, the factory system meant
(A) Cheaper manufactured goods.
(B) lower-quality manufactured goods.
(C) Fewer choices in manufactured goods.
(D) Manufactured goods priced beyond the means of many consumers.
(E) Acute shortages of many manufactured items.
Key Words/
Questions / I. Industrialization and the U.S.A.
A. U.S.A.: its size, natural resources, growing domestic market, political
stability allowed it to become leading industrial power by 1914
B. One-third of capital investment in U.S.A. came from Western Europe
C. Yet overall economic strength of U.S. was sufficient to avoid dependency
D. U.S. pioneered techniques of mass production, using interchangeable
parts, assembly line, and “scientific management”
E. Also generated a middle-class “culture of consumption”
F. But in 1892, entire National Guard of Pennsylvania was sent to suppress a violent strike at the Homestead steel plant near Pittsburgh
G. Still no major political party emerged to represent workers
H. Religious, ethnic, and racial divisions in USA affected workers
I. Higher standard of living made socialism less attractive in U.S.
II. Russia
A. Sole outpost of absolute monarchy
B. Tsar, answerable to God alone, ruled unchecked
C. In autocratic Russia, change was far more initiated by the state
D. Peter the Great (reigned 1689-1725): newly created capital of St.
Petersburg was to be Russia’s “window on the west”
E. Catherine the Great (reigned 1762-1796) continued Peter’s efforts to modernize and westernize Russia and was an Enlightened Despot
F. Freeing of serfs in 1861, an action stimulated by military defeat at the hands of the British and French in the Crimean War (1854-1856)
G. By the 1890s, Russia’s Industrial Revolution was launched
H. By 1900, Russia ranked fourth in the world in steel production
I. Although factory workers constituted only about 5 percent of Russia’s total population, developed an unusually radical class consciousness
J. Until 1897, a thirteen-hour working day was common
K. Large and unsanitary barracks added to workers’ sense of injustice
L. World War I provided radicals an opportunity for revolution
M. Hardships of the war, coupled with tensions of industrialization within
an autocratic political system, sparked Russian Revolution of 1917
N. Bolsheviks under the charismatic leadership of Lenin came to power
III. Other Regions
A. Beyond Europe and North America, only Japan during Meiji
Restoration (1868-1912) underwent a major industrial transformation
B. Part of that country’s response to threat of European aggression (Commodore Perry’s arrival and the ending of isolationism in Japan)
C. Latin America became closely integrated into world economy driven by industrialization in Western Europe and North America
D. Steamship cut sailing time between Britain and Argentina
E. By 1910, U.S. business interests controlled 40 percent of Mexican property and produced half of its oil
F. Majority of lower classes in rural areas worked on haciendas (large farms) where they suffered most and benefitted least
“The rising cities themselves were dirty, and most houses were small and lacked facilities for washing more than hands and face. At the end of the century, in the German city of Breslau, six or more persons were commonly living in one room. In Vienna, which by 1900 was one of the five biggest cities of the world, nearly half of the people lived in dwellings which consisted only of one room with perhaps a small kitchen attached. Some of these houses, bereft of even an outside window, were incubators of infection.”
~ A Short History of the World
1. Which common trait helps to explain Russian and Japanese ability to modernize in the nineteenth century?(A) Extensive experience with cultural imitation, Russia imitating Byzantium and the West, Japan imitating China
(B) Prior adoption and variation of Christian teachings, providing a basis for westernization
(C) Royal appreciation of the democratic tradition
(D) Presence of abundant natural resources, particularly coal and iron ore deposits, within traditional territorial confines
(E) Preexisting traditions of widespread public education and literacy
2. Which of the following was the main reform put in place as a result of the 1905 Revolution in Russia?
(A) Unions were legalized.
(B) Freedom of the press was established.
(C) A national representative assembly, the Duma, was created.
(D) Czarism was abandoned in favor of representative democracy.
(E) Agriculture was collectivized.
3. Among settler societies, which emerged as leading power by 1914?
(A) Australia
(B) The United States / 4. Which pair of regional powers was able, by 1914, to initiate substantial industrialization and resist Western domination?
(A) Ottoman Empire and South Africa
(B) Russia and Japan
(C) South Africa and Russia
(D) Ottoman Empire and Japan
(E) Argentina and Ottoman Empire
5. Which of the following was experienced by Russia but not Japan by 1914?
(A) Mass revolutionary upheaval
(B) Rapid urbanization
(C) State-directed industrial development
(D) Expansion of educational opportunity
(E) War for territorial acquisition
6. In which Latin American nation did indigenous people play the most prominent political role during and after the winning of independence?
(A) Argentina
(B) Colombia
(C) Brazil
(D) Mexico
(E) Cuba
7. Thesis Practice:
Analyze similarities and differences in the impact of industrial revolution on the U.S.A. and Russia.
Reading: Women and Industrialization
“In English-speaking countries the period from about 1850 to 1901 is known as the ‘Victorian Age.’ The expression refers not only to the reign of Queen Victoria of England (r. 1837–1901) but also to rules of behavior and to an ideology surrounding the family and the relations between men and women. The Victorians contrasted the masculine ideals of strength and courage with the feminine virtues of beauty and kindness, and they idealized the home as a peaceful and loving refuge from the dog-eat-dog world of competitive capitalism.
Victorian morality claimed to be universal, yet it best fit upper- and middle-class European families. Men and women were thought to belong in ‘separate spheres.’ Successful businessmen spent their time at work or relaxing in men’s clubs. They put their wives in charge of rearing the children, running the household, and spending the family money to enhance the family’s social status.
In contrast, working class women experienced different circumstances. In the new industrial cities, men and women no longer worked together at home or in the fields. The separation of work and home affected women’s lives even more than men’s lives. Women formed a majority of the workers in the textile industries and in domestic service. Yet working-class women needed to keep homes and raise children as well as earn their living. As a result, they led lives of toil and pain, considerably harder than the lives of their menfolk. Parents expected girls as young as ten to contribute to the household. Many became domestic servants, commonly working sixteen or more hours a day, six-and-a-half days a week, for little more than room and board. Their living quarters, usually in attics or basements, contrasted with the luxurious quarters of their masters. Without appliances, much of their work was physically hard: hauling coal and water up stairs, washing laundry by hand.
Female servants were vulnerable to sexual abuse by their masters or their masters’ sons. A well-known case is that of Helene Demuth, who worked for Karl and Jenny Marx all her life. At age thirty-one she bore a son by Karl Marx and put him with foster parents rather than leave the family. She was more fortunate than most; the majority of families fired servants who got pregnant, rather than embarrass the master of the house.
Young women often preferred factory work to domestic service. Here, too, Victorian society practiced a strict division of labor by gender. Men worked in construction, iron and steel, heavy machinery, or on railroads; women worked in textiles and the clothing trades, extensions of traditional women’s household work.” ~ The Earth and Its Peoples
How did industrialization affect gender roles? Note continuities and changes as well as the complexities of class divisions.
______