THE INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION, NEW
IDEAS, AND
IMPERIALISM
How did the industrial revolution
change the society that we live in
today?
The Industrial Revolution
• What was it?
• New way of producing goods and products that used new technologies to
dramatically increase productivity
• What are the major features of the industrial revolution?
•
•
•
•
Factories
Cities
New technologies
More stuff: because of new technologies each person could make more goods
than before, more goods per person means what?
• When was it?
• Began in the 1750’s is still going on today
• Where did it start?
• England, but soon spread to the rest of Europe, North America, Asia, and the
rest of the world
• Why is it significant?
• Changed almost every aspect of life: increased standard of living, new roles for
women, big cities, new social classes, new ideas, new sources of power for
countries
Example of an Early New Technology:
Spinning Jenny
Power Loom Inside an Early Factory
Early Steam Engine
Pump
Early Steam-Powered Locomotive
Bad living conditions in industrial cities
The Industrial Revolution Leads to New Ideas:
Socialism
• Socialism: the idea that the people (the government) should control
the economy and private property in order to benefit all of society
and not just a few individuals
• What caused this idea?
• Poor working and living conditions due to industrialization made many
people unhappy
• Pros and Cons
• Pros—the people are in control of the economy (democratic), gave people
a way to fight poverty and poor working conditions in factories
• Cons—the people (govt.) get to tell private individuals what to do with
their property, also will socialism even work?
• Other ideas that were a part of socialism:
• Democracy—let everyone vote (rich/poor, men/women, racial/ethnic
minorities)
• Women’s rights—equality between men and women
The Industrial Revolution Leads to New Ideas:
Communism (Marxism)
• Communism: the idea that all economic activity should be owned
and controlled by the community. Ideally there would be no social
classes and no state, just people living, working, and sharing wealth
together
• Question: In what ways does communism sound similar to
socialism, in what ways does it sound different?
• Communism was related to socialism but more radical and more violent
• First written about in a book: The Communist Manifesto written by
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels – 1848
• Other ideas related to communism
• Class consciousness
• Anti-religion
Communism (Marxism) Cont.
• Marx believed that throughout history there had always been a class of
haves and have-nots (rich and poor)
• As technology improved and the economy changed the groups also
changed, but the rich always oppressed the poor
• With industrialization problems had gotten much worse, workers were
barely making enough to survive
• Eventually things would get so bad for workers that they’d have two
choices:
1.
2.
Keep working and slowly starve to death
Join forces with other workers and start an international revolution against
the rich
• After this worldwide revolution Marx predicted that eventually a society
with no classes (no rich and no poor) and no government would
eventually emerge—this society would be communism
• Pros and Cons of Communism?
• How would the industrial revolution have helped create an idea like
communism?
Flow of History According to Marx
Stage of
History
Ancient Times
Middle Ages
Industrial
Revolution
Haves
Patricians
Nobility
Middle/Upper
Class:
Bourgeosie
Have-Nots
Slaves/Plebes
Serfs
Working Class:
Proletariat
Communism
One united
social class
Older ideas that are still influential
• Nationalism
• Liberalism
• Conservatism
Recap: Battle of Ideas
• New ideas that wanted to change the social, economic, and political
order (radical ideas) versus conservatism
• Radical Ideas: very radical (left)
• Communism (most radical)
• Socialism
• Moderate Ideas: only a little radical (middle)
• Liberalism
• Nationalism
• Conservative Ideas: the opposite of radical (right)
• Conservatism
• Europe during the first half of the 1800’s was a battleground for
these ideas, conservatism was fighting everything else
• Lots of Revolutions in 1830 and 1848
Late 1800’s: Communism and Socialism vs.
Nationalism
• Second Industrial Revolution
• Industrialization spread to almost every type of job
• Industrialization spread from England throughout the rest of Europe and
even North America and Asia (Japan)
• As industrialization spread its advantages and its problems spread too
• Socialism and communism became important forces in most European
countries as poor working and living conditions spread
• Marx’s theory seemed to be coming true
• Question: Why did Marx’s inevitable communist revolution never
take place?
• Answer: Several things combined to prevent the revolution
• Technologies improved the quality of life for workers
• Governments reformed themselves and gave ordinary workers more say in
the government
• Nationalism proved to be a more powerful idea than communism
Problems with Nationalism
• We vs They mentality
• Nationalism united people of the same ethnicity, but what about people who were
different?
• Wars of nationalism
• Italy
• Germany
• Balkans
• Conflicts within countries
•
•
•
•
AustriaAustria-Hungary
Russia
Ottoman Empire
Ireland
• Intense rivalries between nations
• Bad treatment for those regarded as outsiders
• Anti-Semitism: hatred of Jews
• Dreyfus Affair in France
• Anti-Semitism led to the creation of Jewish Nationalism—Zionism
• Theodore Herzl
• A homeland for the Jewish nation somewhere—eventually settled on Palestine