The Industrial Revolution: Causes, Development, and Social Impact

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UNIT 11: THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 1.The roots of the Industrial Revolution 1.1 The concept of the Industrial Revolution Strictly speaking, the Industrial Revolution may be understood as all the changes to goods production and consumption that took place due to the incorporation of machines in industrial manufacturing. These transformations happened over a long period of time and by slow and constant processes, affecting other sectors and radically changing the previous economy and society. The start of these changes took place in Great Britain around 1780 due to favourable economic and demographic factors.

1.2 The Agricultural Revolution and its consequences Agricultural activities experienced serious transformations, which were termed the 'Agricultural Revolution', led by Great Britain. They consisted of technical advances and changes to the system of land ownership. Technical progress The crop cultivation system based on triennial rotation was substituted with the Norfolk four-course system, consisting of constant crop rotation, including fodder crops for livestock. Thus, the amount of livestock increased and provided more manure as fertiliser, as well as meat and milk, which improved human nutrition by increasing protein consumption.

Other agricultural improvements were the spread of crops such as maize and potatoes, the use of seed drills and horse-drawn harvesters, the start of selective seeding, the selective breeding of livestock and the first use of chemical fertilisers. Changes in the system of land ownership The old open-field system, with large fields shared by the community, was not very productive. Hence, large English landowners pushed for the Enclosures Acts (1845) to turn common land into private property, making it obligatory to fence, or enclose.

As a result, many poor peasants who did not have money to make fences had to sell their land to aristocrats, bourgeois and rich peasants, and become wage workers or emigrate to cities to look for industrial jobs. 1.3 The demographic revolution The European population, especially in Britain, grew in the 18th century due to the Industrial Revolution and the so-called 'demographic revolution'. The main cause of this growth was a decrease in mortality. This decrease was initially driven by improvements to nutrition, thanks to agricultural processes and the decline of major epidemics. Furthermore, the population grew as a result of progress in urban hygiene and medicine.

In addition the birth rate remained high, causing a large natural population growth. The available workforce, as well as the demand for products, increased as a result of the demographic revolution. Moreover, agricultural and industrial innovations expanded as a way to accommodate this demand, and emigration to other continents increased. 1.4 Other basic factors Other factors that influenced the English Industrial Revolution were: Modernisation of means of transport and transport networks. Domestic trade intensified thanks to the improvement of road surfaces and the construction of canals.

Foreign trade, in turn, driven by the dominant British colonialism, reached a global level, and provided the industry with capital, raw materials such as cotton, and markets to sell their products. The growth of financial means. Profits from commerce and land were used to finance the most prosperous industrial sectors (mining, textile and steel). Moreover, the number of banks increased considerably. The availability of energy sources and raw materials. The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain had energy resources, such as coal, and raw materials, such as cotton and iron. 2. From the artisanal workshop to the factory In the Ancien Régime, industrial production was done in small workshops.

In these workshops, specialised artisans worked using manual tools and sold their products in their own shops. With the arrival of the Industrial Revolution, the number of artisanal workshops began to decline, to the point of practically disappearing, and taking their place were factories, which were large buildings with many workers and machines powered by a common power supply. This transformation was possible thanks to the use of new techniques and a new division of labour. The new techniques consisted of substituting manual labour with machines, which ran on powerful energy sources: first, water, and later steam, obtained by burning bituminous coal.

The new division of labour consisted of separating the work process into different phases, or simple tasks, and assigning each worker a specific task. In this way, tasks could be done by unskilled labourers with the help of machines. 3. The first wave of countries to industrialise The first countries to adopt industrialisation in around 1830 were the ones closest to England (France, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany), or those with close ties to England (the United States). They adopted technology that had previously been implemented in Great Britain, and received specialised machines and technicians from England. France did not initially use steam due to the abundance of water resources.

New textile and steel factories were located in northern France. The rest of its production consisted of traditional items for the country's still predominantly rural society. Belgium experienced rapid industrial development, largely due to its large population growth, the availability of cheap transport (rivers and canals, railway networks) and financial investments. The textile sector benefited from an artisan tradition; the iron and steel industry from raw materials (coal and iron). Germany began promoting new industries starting in 1820 thanks to the coal mines in the regions of Ruhr, Saarland and Upper Silesia.

But, the main push came after the creation of the Zollverein in 1834, which was a customs union that included Prussia and the central and southern German states. Industrialisation was stopped short due to political fragmentation and did not pick up again until 1850. The United States had several positive factors, such as vast land areas for growing cotton; mining resources; high demand, due to domestic growth and immigration; and the railway. The textile and steel sectors were located in the east and midwest of the U.S. 4.

The development of capitalism The increase in economic inequality Since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, countries began to be measured by their industrial power instead of their geographical size or military strength. Industrialisation led to a division between industrialised or developed countries, which began to control the world, and non-industrialised or developing countries that became dependent on industrialised countries. Industrialisation led to a division between industrialised or developed countries, which began to control the world, and non-industrialised or developing countries that became dependent on industrialised countries. 5.

The rise of the bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie rose as a social group. They gained political power, became wealthy through their economic activities, formed part of an elite culture due to secondary and university education, and imposed their ideology, which was based on values of work, personal success, family and polite manners. The upper commercial and industrial bourgeoisie was at the top of this social group. Their wealth came from manufacturing (industrial companies and mines), businesses (banks, insurance companies, railway financing, speculating on urban property, etc.), and agricultural exploitations.

The petite bourgeoisie, or middle class, was made up of small merchants and industrialists, civil servants and members of liberal professions, such as doctors and lawyers. 6. The birth of the proletariat Industrial workers made up a new social group, called the proletariat*, comprising of peasants who had migrated to the cities and former artisans who had gone bankrupt due to industrial mechanisation. It was a cheap workforce who had hardly any professional qualifications.

Workers were easily fired, and they had to bear harsh working conditions: long shifts from 14-16 hours; very low wages, either paid hourly or based on production; loud and constant noise from machinery; extremely high temperatures in summer and extremely low temperatures in winter, etc. Anywhere from 30 to 75 % of the industrial workforce was made up of women and children, who began working at very young ages. They did not have insurance for accidents, illness, job loss or retirement, and in the factories they were treated with strict discipline and were punished for leaving their workstation or talking while working. 7. The Labour movement.

The deplorable conditions of the proletariat, as well as their political marginalisation and the lack of labour legislation, led to the labour movement. It was made up of a group of proletariat organisations that fought for a better economic and political situation through their collective actions. In the beginning, the labour movement consisted of protests directed against mechanisation. This included the destruction of the new machines (Luddites), which they blamed for their situation. At a later date, trade unions, or workers' associations, were created.

Their objectives were to improve labour conditions by reducing the length of the working day, increasing wages, obtaining political rights (association, universal suffrage), and organising ways to fight for their rights through negotiations, protests and strikes. Chartism, Socialism and Anarchism Parallel to the development of trade unions, workers began a political battle with the goal of achieving equal rights. Thus, Chartism arose in Great Britain, followed by two other new ideologies that ran counter to capitalism: socialism, or Marxism, and anarchism.

The term Chartism comes from the People's Charter, which was a document sent to the British Parliament in 1838 by the London Workingmen's Association. In the Charter they demanded, among other rights, secret ballots, universal male suffrage and yearly elections for Parliament. Socialism was developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Its objective was to end private property, considered to be the cause of the separation between the bourgeoisie, who were the owners of the means of production, and the proletariat, who, lacking property, had to sell their work in exchange for miserable wages Anarchism was founded by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Mikhail Bakunin, among others.

Its objective was to achieve maximum individual freedom by eliminating anything that limited this freedom: the State, private property or religious beliefs.