The Industrial Revolution Spreads
chapter 9 section 1
Honors World History
I. New Industrial Powers
• A. Britain’s influence
diminishes
1. Belgium became the first
European country outside of
Britain to industrialize after
British mechanic William
Cockerill opened a factory there
in 1807.
2. Only a matter of time before
other nations would challenge
Britain’s industrial supremacy.
Look out Britain:
not top dog anymore!!!!
• B. New Pacesetters: Germany, France,
United States
1. more abundant supplies of coal & iron
2. advantage of following Britain’s lead
3. 1900: American industry led the world
in production
C. Uneven Development
• 1. Eastern and Southern European countries
often lacked natural resources or capital to invest
in industry.
• 2. Japan, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
thrived.
D. Impact
• 1. Rapid urbanization
• 2. Working conditions slowly improved after
1900
3. Factory system produced huge
quantities of new goods at lower
prices than ever before.
• a. Workers were buying goods that in earlier
times only the wealthy could afford.
• b. The demand for goods created jobs, as
did the building of cities, railroads, and
factories.
II. Technology and Industry
• A. Marriage of science,
technology, and industry spurred
economic growth
• B. Steel
1. Produced by British engineer
Henry Bessemer who developed
a process in 1856 to purify iron
ore and produce this new
substance.
2. Was lighter, harder, and more
durable than iron
3. Became a major material in
tools, bridges, and railroads.
4. By the 1880s, had replaced
iron as the symbol of the
Industrial Revolution
Left:
Bessemer
converter
Bottom:
Bethlehem
Steel, 2003.
Seeing is believing!!!!
Last car in 1930 to cross
the steel bridge at
Conklingville NY.
The first bridge at Conklingville
was built in 1852 and lost to high
water in 1860. In 1861 a new
bridge was built of steel and
lasted until the valley was flooded
in 1930.
One-lane steel bridge built in the late
1800's & restored in 2006 / 2007.
Located in Neshanic, NJ.
Photo taken Dec. 25, 2007 facing east.
How about railroads, cars, and
skyscrapers??!!??!!
1st Steel Skyscapter
Vital Statistics:
Location: Chicago, Illinois,
USA
Completion Date: 1885
(demolished in 1931)
Height: 138 feet
Stories: 10
Materials: Steel
C. Chemicals
• 1. Hundreds of new products, from medicines
such as aspirin to perfumes and soaps and
fertilizers.
• 2. 1866: Alfred Nobel invented dynamite
a. Widely used in construction (its intended
purpose) but also war.
b. Earned Nobel a huge fortune which he willed to
fund the famous Nobel prizes that are still
awarded today!
D. Electricity
• 1. Replaced steam as the
dominant source of industrial
power.
• 2. Key milestones
a. Italian scientist Alessandro
Volta developed the first
battery around 1800
b. English chemist Michael
Farraday created the first
electric motor and the first
dynamo, a machine that
generates electricity.
c. American inventor Thomas
Edison made the first
electric light bulb in the
1870s
E. New Methods of Production
• 1. Interchangeable Parts:
identical components that
could be used in place of one
another.
• 2. Assembly Line: style of
production where workers
add parts to a product that
moves along a belt from one
work station to the next –
made production faster and
cheaper.
III. Technology Speeds
Transportation and Communication
• A. Automobile Age Begins
1. 1886: Karl Benz received a patent for the
first automobile, which had three wheels.
2. 1887: Gottlieb Daimler introduced the first
four wheeled automobile.
3. “horseless” carriages
4. American carmaker, Henry Ford, was the
first to make a model that reached the
breathtaking speed of 25 miles per hour – made
the U.S. a leader in the automobile industry
B. Conquest of the air!
• 1. 1903: Orville and Wilbur Wright made
history at Kitty Hawk, NC
• 2. Commercial air travel would not begin until
the 1920s (after WW I)
C. Rapid Communication
1. Telegraph invented by Samuel F.B. Morse
a. First line between Baltimore and
Washington, D.C.
b. 1844
2. 1876: Scottish – born American inventor
Alexander Graham Bell patented the
telephone.
3. 1890s: Italian Guglielmo Marconi invented
the radio.
IV. New Directions for Business
A. Rise of Big Business
1. By the 1800s, large companies dominated
industry.
2. To raise capital, they sold hundreds of
thousands of shares of stock.
a. These businesses formed giant
corporations – businesses that are owned by
many investors who buy shares of stock.
• b. Stockholders risk only the amount they
invest in the company and cannot be held
responsible for any debts of the corporation.
B. Move Toward Monopolies
1. Alfred Krupp in Germany:
steelmaking
a. bought up coal and iron
mines as well as shipping lines.
b. Later, he and his son,
acquired plants that made
tools, railroad cars, and
weapons.
2. John D. Rockefeller in the
U.S.: Standard Oil Company
(Empire)
a. gained control of oil
wells, oil refineries, and oil
pipelines
b. dominated the American
petroleum industry
3. Cartels crush competition
• a. set production levels.
• b. fixed prices
Andrew Carnegie (steel)
Andrew Mellon
J.P. Morgan (finance, industrial
consolidation
(finance, oil)
John D.
Rockefeller
(oil)
Cornelius
Vanderbilt
(water
transportation &
railroads
Charles Schwab (steel)
4. Move Toward (Gov’t.) Regulation
• a. Economic leaders: Robber barons?
• b. Economic leaders: Captains of Industry?
•
•
•
•
Robber Barons
J. Bradford DeLong
University of California at Berkeley, and NBER
first draft October 13, 1997; second draft January 1, 1998
•
•
I. Introduction
"Robber Barons": that was what U.S. political and economic commentator Matthew Josephson
(1934) called the economic princes of his own day. Today we call them "billionaires." Our capitalist
economy--any capitalist economy--throws up such enormous concentrations of wealth: those lucky
enough to be in the right place at the right time, driven and smart enough to see particular
economic opportunities and seize them, foresighted enough to have gathered a large share of the
equity of a highly-profitable enterprise into their hands, and well-connected enough to fend off
political attempts to curb their wealth (or well-connected enough to make political favors the
foundation of their wealth).
Matthew Josephson called them "Robber Barons". He wanted readers to think back to their
European history classes, back to thugs with spears on horses who did nothing save fight each
other and loot merchant caravans that passed under the walls of their castles. He judged that their
wealth was in no sense of their own creation, but was like a tax levied upon the productive workers
and craftsmen of the American economy. Many others agreed: President Theodore Roosevelt--the
Republican Roosevelt, president in the first decade of this century--spoke of the "malefactors of
great wealth" and embraced a public, political role for the government in "anti-trust": controlling,
curbing, and breaking up large private concentrations of economic power.
Their defenders--many bought and paid for, a few not--painted a different picture: the billionaires
were examples of how America was a society of untrammeled opportunity, where people could rise
to great heights of wealth and achievement on their industry and skill alone; they were public
benefactors who built up their profitable enterprises out of a sense of obligation to the consumer;
they were well-loved philanthropists; they were "industrial statesmen."
THINK ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
•
•
•