Industrial Revolution, America and early Romanticism Agricultural and Industrial Revolution In the late seventeen hundreds, most people worked in the fields, on land they did not own. Those who own the land, called aristocrats, lived refined lives in elegant manor houses, servance raised their children and did their housework. The land owners and the people who worked for them dependent upon each other, it was a system that had existed for centuries. In towns across England and in the United States, a series of extraordinary innovations, stimulated by the scientific thinking, would have altered the way people lived and worked for the next 150 years. But, before starting to talk about Industrial Revolution, we have to say that is was preceded by another big revolution: Agricultural Revolution. At the end of 18th century, methods of farming and the manufacture started to change, as a result of the “Golden Age” evolution. The Agricultural Revolution didn’t happened quickly: first, small parcels of land were enclosed to make larger and more efficient arable farms, than, animals were started to be selected for producing more meat. The first process to be mechanized in this period, in the 1760s and 1770s, was the spinning wool. The textile being produced was cotton, the raw material from the Indian and American colonies. The first new machines were water driven, but, then, they were replaced by James Watt’s steam engines. They did the same work, only cheaper and faster; one machine attached to a spinning wheel could do the work of fifty people. During Industrial Revolution, inventors improved even more, finding new ways to harness nature’s energy, they built new kinds of machines, powered by water, steam and coal; the new machines replaced hand-powered tools. Much of the work was done outside the home, in specially designed buildings: the first factories. All these economic activity made it necessary to improve transports. New roads, called “turnpikes” or toll roads, were built, and made an improvement to the postal system, but land travel was still slow. With the development of locomotives and steamboats, during Industrial Revolution, manufactured goods could now be sold half way around the world. There had been a vast increase in trade, both domestic and colonial, which provided raw materials. In these years there was a shifting in population from the agricultural and commercials areas of the South to the North and the Midlands where the new factories where built. Families moved for the villages of they ancestors to new industrial towns and a new class of people emerged, workers who produced goods. Small towns, the so-called “mushroom towns”, were constructed to house the workers; but industrial cities lacked elementary public conditions and people used to live in these overcrowded ghettos, called slums. These conditions, together with an hard factory lifestyle, decreased life expectancy from forty to twenty years. Industrial labour imposes new work patterns which no longer depended on the weather or change of season, but were depended on the regularity of timetables. Fuel, clothing and food all began more affordable. Wealth turned England into a “consumer society”, people started to demand more “luxury” products to imitate the improving standards. But, while the Industrial Revolution brought wealth to some and jobs for others, it came with a price tag. Pollution from coal powered factories turned the cities’ black, and the demand for more and more goods and higher profits brought to the exploitation of workers. Industrialists, the people who owned the factories, employed hundreds (sometimes thousands) of people, and they made enormous profits in their industrial centers, thanks to the absolute freedom they had. For the labourers, or “hands”, the city environment meant long working hours and appalling living conditions. Woman and children were highly prized by employers because they could be paid less and were easier to control. Some of the worst conditions were seen in the textile mills on new England. By the 19th century, England had more than a million children workers accounting for 15 per cent of the total labour force. Early factory owners found that local labour was scarce and that those agricultural workers that were available were unsuitable for industrial production. They decided to create a new workforce composed by children, tailor made for the factories, cheap, malleable and fast-learning workforces. They weren’t paid, simply fed and given dormitory accommodation. The use of working-class children was, therefore, an expansion of an already long-established tradition of young workers employed as farmers or artisans. In was the hiring of children some as young as five years old throughout the eighteen hundreds and the early nineteen hundreds that outraged the public. Workers and reformers protested, they formed union and associations and fought for government regulation to limit the workday and protect children. These laws held address many of the abuses brought on by the Industrial Revolution. Today we are in the middle of another technological revolution. We live in what’s called the “global village”, because we can work anytime and anywhere and connect with people around the world as if they lived next door. Liberalism Liberalism is a group of political, social and economic theories that centres on the values of individual liberty, equality, economic freedom, limited and democratic government and the rule of law. Liberalism’s devotion to free markets and capitalism can be traced, in large part, to Adam Smith, an 18th century scottish philosopher who is most famous for his work “Wealth of Nations”. Smith argue that the best way for a society to generate wealth and prosperity was from the division of labour and decentralized decision-makers acting in their own interest. Basically, he supported Laissez-faire (“let do”), an economic system in which transactions between private parties are free from government intervention such as regulation, privileges, tariffs, and subsidies. A summary Before Industrial Revolution: work was made by hands the workers were artisans people worked into labs or at home people worked alone or with relatives workers didn’t have timetables workers produced the goods from raw materials every good was different from the other the production of goods was slow and expensive After Industrial Revolution: work was made by machines the workers were manufacturers people worked with others manufacturers workers had strict timetables workers produced just a part of the final good → alienation and dehumanization → mental illness all the goods were the same the production of goods was faster and cheaper Pros of Industrial Revolution: there was an increase of work and production there was an economical development new machines were invented cities developed the production of goods became faster and cheaper trade improved there was the development of a new social class railways and roads improved Cons of Industrial Revolution: worker were exploited alienation brought to mental issues wages were low pollution increased goods were of low quality people lived in ghettos → slums the gap between rich and poor people increased Adam Smith’s theory spread The American War of Independence In the 18th century, England lives a period of domestic stability and economic expansion under the reign of George III, grandson of George II, who remained in power for 60 years. England had fought against France for domination; the wars, such the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years’ War, gave Britain the advantage in colonial expansion, creating 13 colonies on the east coast of America. These 13 colonies were particularly important because they provided raw materials. Furthermore, the english system of mercantilism prevailed thanks to the “Navigation Acts”, that gave England the absolute monopoly on oversea trade. Much of the fighting against France happened in North America; in 1763 French Canada and the lands down the Mississippi were ceded to Britain. The British government wanted the Americans to help pay for their defence and imposed taxes to collect some of his debt. These taxes where the catalyst for the rebellion. A the Boston Tea Party (1773), the rebels, dressed up as Native Americans and threw the hated British tea in the harbour. The rebels maintained that the taxes were unjust, as the colony had no political power: their motto was “no taxation without representation”. In England, Edmund Burke recognised the justice of their cause and Tom Paine’s Common Sense stimulated the desire for a republic. Americans divided into Patriots and Loyalists and the War of Independence started in 1775. While the Patriots had no army they knew the land and had no capital to be attacked. English were sent to suffocate the “civil war” but couldn’t afford the unity of Americans, France and Spain, that, meanwhile, decided on their position. On the 4th of July 1776 in Philadelphia the Congress signed the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, a lawyer from Virginia. It claims that: the colonies were now “a new independent nation”; all men had the natural right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”; governments can have the right to rule if they have “the consent of the governed”. The British government recognised their loss and the independence of its former colonies with the Treaty of Versailles in 1783. America became the symbol of a “new start”, where people from all European countries could melt into a new race. → the American dream In 1787, the United States of America adopted a federal constitution and George Washington, head of the army, became the 1st president. The colonists who remained loyal to Britain crossed into Canada. They, also, created their flag, known as “stars and stripes”. It is composed of 50 stars, that represents the 50 states that joined this union, and 13 stripes, that reminds of the 13 former colonies. Early Romantic Age The last 30 years of the 18th century are referred to as the Early Romantic Age, characterized by a new sensibility, anticipated by Richardson and Sterne, the became dominant and influenced everything, even the classical Thomas Grey. The Enlightenment and the rational outlook proved unsatisfactory. The supremacy of reason as the only to the knowledge and progress, had led to the repression of emotions and feelings. Men started to give importance to the impression of their senses and to privilege the individual over the communal. Many factors produced this change. The serenity of the countryside replaced the noisy activity of the towns. There was a growing interest in humble, everyday life and, especially, melancholy, often associated with the suffering on the poor and on the death. The rediscovery of the art, architecture and popular traditions of the Middle Ages manifested itself in the “Gothic”, no longer synonymous with barbarous. The concept of nature changed. The classical view, the nature as something to exploit and control with reason, was replaced by the new of nature as a living being. The higher value became the individual consciousness rather than the imitation of the precepts of the nature or the classics. The Scottish philosopher David Hume, denying Locke’s objectivity, said: “Beauty is no quality in things themselves: it exist merely in the mind”.
