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The Long 19 th Century

The Long 19 th Century. 1789-1914. Dual Revolutions. Hobsbawm analyzed the early 19th century, and indeed the whole process of modernization thereafter, using what he calls the twin revolution thesis .

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The Long 19 th Century

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  1. The Long 19th Century 1789-1914

  2. Dual Revolutions Hobsbawm analyzed the early 19th century, and indeed the whole process of modernization thereafter, using what he calls the twin revolution thesis. This thesis recognized the dual importance of the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution as having given rise to modern European history, and – through the connections of colonialism and imperialism – all of world history.

  3. Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution The great revolution of 1789–1848 was the triumph • not of liberty and equality in general, but of the middle class or ‘bourgeois’ liberal society • not of ‘industry’ as such, but of ‘capitalist industry’; • not of the ‘modern economy’ or of the ‘modern state’ but of the economies and states in a particular region of the world

  4. Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution But it is not unreasonable to regard this dual revolution – the rather more political (French) and the industrial (British) revolution – not so much as something which belongs to the history of the two countries which were its chief carriers and symbols, but as the twin crater of a rather larger regional volcano.”

  5. Industrial RevolutionEvolution or Revolution? 1st Phase: 1740-1860in Britain…

  6. Why Britain? • Lack of war/conflict within Britain • Vast market colonial system – excess capital • Strong, sizeable Navy, merchant fleet • Access to ports & Internal water trade routes • Favorable government policies • Private landownership – enclosure acts • Mobile society – labor force • Coal & iron resources

  7. Spinning Jenny

  8. Power Loom

  9. Newcomen , then Watt Steam Engine

  10. Evolution… • Proto-industrialization to factory system • Worker/employer relations & imbalance in production • simple, common items (textiles)– mass production • Big profits, unlike France – luxury items • Automation: spinning jenny, power loom, steam engine • Internal Improvements: canals (Suez 1869), steamboats (trans-Atlantic 1838), railroads • “Agricultural Revolution” reaper thresher, steel-tipped plow (canning, refrigeration) • Rise of Corporations (easier to raise capital)

  11. Manchester

  12. Impact … • Population growth (poverty) • Vertical to horizontal stratification of society • New urban centers: Manchester • Unsanitary, overcrowded, polluted, Child labor • Laissez Faire ideology among most middle class (unless favorable to business)

  13. Impact on Economics & Sociology • David Ricardo: Iron Law of Wages • Thomas Malthus: Food supply & population growth • Herbert Spencer: Social Darwinism

  14. Ricardo’s Iron Law of Wages

  15. Charles Darwin, from his autobiography. (1876) "In October 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic inquiry, I happened to read for amusement Malthus On Population, and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long- continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The results of this would be the formation of a new species. Here, then I had at last got a theory by which to work".

  16. Starting at 1750, 50 year intervals Measure in Billions

  17. In nature plants and animals produce far more offspring than can survive, and that Man too is capable of overproducing if left unchecked. Concluded that unless family size was regulated, man's misery of famine would become globally epidemic and eventually consume Man. Not popular among social reformers who believed that with proper social structures, all ills of man could be eradicated. Malthus, Essay on the Principle of Population (1798)

  18. Social Darwinism

  19. Reform?? The “Condition of England” Question • Aristocracy: noblesse oblige • Social Gospel/Christian Socialism • Robert Owen: Utopian Communities • Temperance Movements • 1st Phase reform: (Sadler Commission, 1832) • Factory Act of 1833 • Repeal of Combination Acts 1824 • Jeremy Bentham’s Utilitarianism (late 18th C) • Socialism: Karl Marx & Frederich Engels (1848)

  20. Jeremy Bentham It is the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong. It is vain to talk of the interest of the community, without understanding what is the interest of the individual.Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jeremy_bentham.html#ixzz1nsOBW07S

  21. On the Continent?… • Britain had little competition until 2nd phase • Slow to change, picked up after 1860 • Napoleonic wars • Poor transport • Fewer raw materials • Internal tools/tariffs • Investment ‘ungentlemanly’ • Required more government involvement

  22. Second Phase • mid 19th century ,Technological Revolution • rapid growth of railroads, steel, steamships, electricity, chemicals, telecommunications • End of British leadership • US, Germany leadership • Japan, France, Low Countries • larger scale investment in more industries • beginnings of big corporations dominating industries, able to invest more money in new technology • capital industries which produce goods for other industries, not for consumers

  23. Impact… What do the documents tell us about the impact industrialization had on … The people and politics of Europe? The World?

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