Chapter 17
• This period of industrialization and
urbanization, bringing in its wake intense
social and economic change, began first in
Britain.
The Industrial Revolution Begins
• A Booming Commercial Economy in the West
– The Western and non-Western Worlds
• Intellectual traditions and politics
• Britain’s Unique Set of Advantages
– Commercial Vigor
• In the eighteenth century, Britain became Europe’s leading
commercial and colonial power
– Transportation
• Water transportation played a crucial role in moving the coal,
iron, cloth, and machines pumped out by Britain’s new
factories and mines
– Raw Materials
• Coal, iron, and cotton
The Industrial Revolution Begins
– Labor
• Rural laborers grew
– Capital
• Britain had the capital to invest in industry
• Inventors, innovators, and those who saw an opportunity
could more easily find the means to start an industrial
enterprise in Britain than elsewhere
– Entrepreneurship
• More socially acceptable in England than elsewhere
• A Revolution in Agriculture
Chapter 17
• Urbanization and growing wealth fueled an
increased demand for manufactured
goods which was met by entrepreneurs
who applied new mechanical inventions to
the factory system.
New Markets, Machines, and
Power
• The Rising Demand for Goods
– Inventors and Entrepreneurs
• Some were landowning aristocrats; others rose from rags to
riches
• Cotton Leads the Way
– Weaving and Spinning
• John Kay invented the flying shuttle, James Hargreaves
invented the spinning Jenny, Richard Arkwright invented the
water frame, Edmund Cartwright invented the power loom,
and Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin
• Iron: New Processes Transform Production
New Markets, Machines, and
Power
– Smelting with Coal
• Abraham Darby’s discovery started in 1708 – an efficient way
to smelt iron with coal in a blast furnace
• The Steam Engine and the Factory System
• Coal: Fueling the Revolution
• Railroads: Carrying Industrialization Across the
Land
– Effects of the Railroad
• Coal fueled the industrial revolution
• Britain’s Triumph: the Crystal Palace Exhibition
Chapter 17
• After 1830, industrialization began to spread
more rapidly, but unevenly, outside Britain, as
entrepreneurs from the continent traveled to
learn from the British example and British
technicians were enticed to other European
countries.
Industrialization Spreads to the
Continent
– Governmental Aid
• Continental governments took a more active role in
supporting industrialization than British rulers had
• They enacted tariffs, and subsidized new industries
– Remaining Traditional Economies
• Most of southern, central, and eastern Europe remained tied
to subsistence farms or large agricultural estates.
• Exceptions were: Austria’s Bohemian lands, St. Petersburg,
and Moscow
Chapter 17
• Industrialization impacted working conditions,
home life, and social relationships, but it affected
the working and middle classes in very different
ways.
– New Wealth
• Britain’s national product increased more than three-fold
between 1780 and 1850
– Population Growth
• From 1780 to 1850, Britain’s population more than doubled
Balancing Benefits and Burdens of
Industrialization
• The Middle Class
• The Working Classes
– Factory Labor
• Employed children
from six o’ clock in the
morning till seven in the
evening
– Insecurity
• Wages plummet, jobs lost
C. 1830 EUGENE DELACROIX
LIBERTY LEADING THE PEOPLE
Balancing Benefits and Burdens of
Industrialization
– Risks of Injury
• Factory owners made no provisions for safety
– Lifestyle Changes
• Employers maintained discipline with fines, curses, and
whippings
• Poor housing, overcrowded rooms
• Developing Working-Class Consciousness
– Workers’ Organizations
• Fraternal societies, trade organizations, and mutual aid
societies
– Luddism
• Forms of protest – rampages, smashing machines to pieces,
or campaigning
Chapter 17
• As urban areas expanded because of population
growth and opportunities for work, settlement in
cities followed certain patterns but remained
unplanned, while concerns about social
problems such as crime and environmental
pollution grew.
– Urban Growth
• The cities, with their promise of jobs and the lure of beer halls
and theaters, attracted people
• Most cities flourished through industrial activity, such as
mining and manufacturing
Life in the Growing Cities
• The Promise and Pitfalls of Work in the Cities
• Living with Urban Growth
– Environmental Changes
• Rivers became polluted with waste, and air from the dirty
coal fires
• No modern sewers, sorely inadequate toilet facilities, and not
enough clean water
– Different Neighborhoods
• Middle classes lived in lower-floor apartments, and had the
benefit of some running water
• Working class sections and poverty-stricken areas lived “the
poorest” of the worst-paid workers rub shoulders with
thieves, rogues, and prostitutes
Life in the Growing Cities
• Worrying About Urban Society: Rising
Crime
– Crime and Law Enforcement
• Robert Peel
• “Bobbies”
Chapter 17
• Industrialization brought a variety of health
problems, from injuries on the job to the
spread of disease, which affected the poor
more than the rich and made life in the
cities less healthy than in the countryside.
Public Health and Medicine in the
Industrial Age
• The Danger of Disease
• Tuberculosis and diphtheria killed millions during
the nineteenth century
• Cholera killed some 100,000 in France and 50,000
in England
– Causes of Disease
• Physical weakness and immorality, contagion,
environental forces
• Seeking Medical Care
– Doctors
• Visiting a doctor was more likely to be hurt than
helped, so people consulted physicians reluctatly
Public Health and Medicine in the
Industrial Age
– Alternative Medicine
• Herbal drugs and natural remedies, vegetable laxatives, and
faith healers
– Surgery
• A last resort
• Anesthesia and antiseptics
• Dying from an infection
• Promising Developments for Public Health
– New Developments in Medicine
• European doctors applied scientific methods
• Physical exams, feeling the pulse, taking blood pressure, and
looking down the throat
Chapter 17
• Family life changed during this period as
the middle class developed new ideals
about how the family should operate and
the working class experienced added
pressures.
Family Ideals and Realities
• Middle-Class Ideals: Affection, Children, and
Privacy
– Marriage
• Affection, love, and emotional compatibility, social rank and
wealth exerted less influence than they had in the past
– Family Size
• Women gave birth to two or three rather than the five or six
– Children
• Mothers and fathers began investing more time, effort, and
other resources in child rearing
– The Home
• The home represented a protected, glorified place for a
satisfying personal life
Family Ideals and Realities
• Separate Spheres: Changing Roles for MiddleClass Women and Men
– The Man’s Sphere
• Had legal authority over his wife and children
• Had control over his wife’s personal property and any money
she earned
• Only men could vote
– The Women’s Domestic Sphere
• Provide emotional support for her husband and cultivate a
virtuous home environment
• Care for children, clean house, serve meals, supervise
servants, manage sewing and administering household
accounts
– Middle-Class Success
Family Ideals and Realities
• Working-Class Realities
– Women Workers
• Factory employers preferred to hire women because they
worked for lower salaries
• Prostitution
• Stress and Survival in the Working Classes