The Industrial Revolution

1. The Industrial Revolution Its Impact upon European Society

2. Introduction • While the French Revolution and the upheavals of the Napoleonic period changed the political face of Europe, another revolution, an Industrial Revolution, was transforming the economic and social structure of Europe • Began in Britain during the 1760’s and would spread to the rest of Europe by the mid 19th Century • By 1850, Britain was the richest nation in the world and fifty years later Germany and the United States would outstrip it in industrial production

3. Industrial Revolution in Great Britain: Origins • Capital for Investment • Influence of the Agricultural Revolution of the 18th Century • Ready supply of capital for the investment in new industrial machines and factories • Effective central bank and well-developed, flexible credit facilities • Mineral Resources & Transportation • Britain also had ample sources of coal and iron ore, essential for the manufacturing process • Ease of transportation • Linking of the major industrial centers of the North, the Midlands, London, and the Atlantic

4. Industrial Revolution in Great Britain: Origins • Government Favorable to Business • Stable government and passing laws that protected private property • Allowed freedom for private enterprise - fewer restrictions on private entrepreneurs than any other European state • Ready Markets • Lastly, a supply of markets gave British industrialists a ready outlet for their manufactured goods • This markets not only included domestic, but also foreign as British goods were exported to the Americas, Africa and the East satisfying a demand for cheap manufactured goods

5. Technological Changes:Cotton Industry's Power Looms • In the 18th century, Britain surged ahead in the production of cheap cotton goods, mainly through the traditional cottage industry, but new methods soon increased production further • Development of flying shuttle, the spinning jenny, and Samuel Compton’s “mule” • Edmund Cartwright’s power loom, invented in 1787, allowed the weaving of cloth to catch up with the spinning of yarn • Through these means, the cotton industry was able to expand and this expansion, driven by the increase in demand for cotton goods, created pressure for new and more complicated technology…

6. Technological Changes: James Watt's Steam Engine • Introduction and influence of the steam engine • The steam engine began as a way to pump water out of deep mines • James Watt and the first steam engines • In 1760, James Watt was asked to repair a steam pump and transformed it into the first steam engine • This steam engine was more efficient than the previous pumps as it could pump water three times as quickly • Drawbacks of the first steam engines

7. Technological Changes: James Watt's Steam Engine • Addition of a rotary engine to the steam engine (1782) • Steam power could now be applied to the spinning and weaving of cotton, increasing its production • Also, there was now no need to situate factories near water giving entrepreneurs more flexibility in their choice of location • The steam engine was indispensable in Britain’s Industrial Revolution • What made the steam engine run was coal, and this increased the demand for coal, which in turn furthered the development of other industries, specifically the iron industry

8. Technological Changes: The Iron Industry • The Industrial Revolution radically transformed the iron industry in Britain, but the process of producing iron had not changed since the Middle Ages • By the 18th century, new methods of smelting iron ore to produce cast iron were devised based upon the use of coke from coal • Henry Cort and puddling • Created a boom in the British iron industry – 1740, 17,000 tons; 1780’s, 70,000 tons; 1840’s, 2 million tons; 1852, 3 million tons, more than the rest of the world combined • Again, the development of iron furthered the development of other industries

9. Technological Changes:The Railroad • Railroads had been in existence, in one form or another, since the 1500’s • Importance to the Industrial Revolution • Richard Trevithick's Locomotive • In 1804, he pioneered the first steam-powered locomotive on an industrial rail line in Wales pulling 10 tons of ore and seventy people at 5mph

10. Technological Changes:The Railroad – The Rocket • The engines built by George Stephenson and his son were much superior and it was their engines, built at Newcastle-upon-Tyne that the locomotives for Britain’s first modern railways were built • His Rocket was used on the first public railway line, opening in 1830 which extended 32 miles from Liverpool to Manchester

11. Technological Changes:The Railroad • The railroad contributed significantly to the success and maturing of the Industrial Revolution • The demand for coal and iron furthered the growth of those industries • The huge capital demands for railway construction created a whole new group of middle class investors • Railway construction created new job opportunities, especially for farm laborers and peasants • More importantly, a cheaper and faster means of transportation had a rippling effect on the growth of an industrial economy as it reduced the price of goods, creating larger markets which required more factories and machinery reinforcing the self-sustaining nature of the Industrial Revolution

12. The Industrial Factory • Initially a product of the new cotton industry, the factory became the chief means of organizing labor for the new machines • New type of discipline • Time schedule • Strictly enforced rules for the workplace • Aided and reinforced by the new evangelical churches

13. Spread of Industrialism in Europe: What Limited Its Spread? • Lack of Transportation Systems • Poor road network • Problems with river transit, especially toll stations • Traditional Habits of Business • Continental entrepreneurs were less enterprising than British counterparts • Tended to adhere to traditional business attitudes such as dislike of competition, high regard for family security, an unwillingness to take risks and an excessive worship of thriftiness • Upheaval of Wars • From 1790 – 1815 the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars • Europe lost contact with what was going on in Britain • Lack of Technical Education

14. Spread of Industrialism in Europe: What Encouraged Its Spread? • Entrepreneurs with Technical and Business Skills • Europeans learned from the British and a new generation of skilled mechanics from Belgium and France was by the 1840’s spreading their knowledge east and south • Rise of Technical Schools in Germany and France • Government Support • Continental governments were accustomed to playing role in economy • They provided costs for technical education, awarded grants to investors and foreign entrepreneurs, and financed factories • Government also bore the cost of building roads, canals, and railroads • Issuing of protective tariffs to protect native industries • Joint-Stock Investments Banks

15. Centers of Continental Industrialization • Belgium • France • Germany

16. Social Impact: Population Growth • European population goes from 140 million in 1750 to 187 million in 1800, then to 266 million in 1850 • Decline of death rate from diseases and famine as well as a general decline in the death rate • Industrialization did not increase population, only the population of industrialized areas

17. Social Impact: Growth of Cities • Irresponsible and Irresponsive Governments • Wretched Sanitary Conditions & Housing • Adulteration of Food (Fraud) • Addition of alum to make bread white • Watering down beer and milk • Substitution of red lead for pepper

18. Social Impact: New Industrial Middle Class • Out of Mercantile Trades – Merchants who went into industry • Out of Dissenting Religious Minorities – went into industry because other occupations were restricted • To a New Elite • Intermarriage between the new Industrial Middle Class and the Gentry/Nobility

19. Social Impact: New Working Class • Laborers • Servants • Working Conditions • In the Mines • Pauper Apprentices • Child Labor • Women Workers • Factory Acts At Last – passed in the 1830’s and 1840’s

20. Social Impact: Worker Efforts at Change • Robert Owen's Utopian Socialism & Trade Unions • Owen believed in the creation of voluntary associations that would demonstrate to others the benefits of cooperative living • Chartism's Petition to Parliament – attempt to achieve political democracy • Universal male suffrage • Payment to MP’s • Annual sessions of Parliament

21. Social Impact: Government Efforts at Change • Factory Act of 1833 • Strengthened earlier labor legislation • Children between 9 & 13 could only work 8 hour days, 13 & 18, 12 hour days • Coal Mines Act of 1842 • Eliminated the employment of boys under 10 and women in the mines • Soon men would benefit from reduction in factory hours