Industrial Revolution: Causes, Characteristics, and Consequences
The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a fundamental economic change in the manufacturing of products, as industries began to utilize machinery. Emerging in Britain in the late 18th century around 1780, it extended throughout Europe and later worldwide over the 19th century. The economic and social changes that caused the Industrial Revolution were either capitalist or socialist.
Principal Characteristics
- Appearance of machines
- Technological innovations
- Use of new energy sources
- Organization of labor in factories
- Division of labor
- Growing need for capital
The revolution would produce a change in the economic system, as the need for capital led to the emergence of industrial capitalism. The ideology of capitalism is the liberalism of Adam Smith, based on non-intervention and the following statement: “The individual pursuit of profit leads us to get the benefit of society.” The keyword is individualism.
During industrial capitalism, there were many small enterprises (family enterprises) that could finance themselves, although increasingly they would need more capital. The means of production were privately owned and concentrated in the hands of the bourgeoisie. The proletariat had no property, only the strength of their labor, which they sold for a wage.
Causes: Increased Population
Since the 18th century, plague epidemics were disappearing, and the development of agriculture allowed the growth of food production. There was a catastrophic decline in mortality from starvation, wars, and epidemics. European mortality, like infant mortality, declined. The birth rate was declining slowly but remained high, so the population grew significantly. The population increase was greater in the cities. There were also migrations, especially to America.
Improvements in agriculture continued to exist with enclosures (concentration of land on large estates) with the support of governments, allowing the introduction of technical improvements. In addition, some areas specialized in more profitable crops.
Favored in Four Ways
- Increased production allowed for feeding a rapidly growing population.
- Technical improvements reduced the number of farmers needed to work the land and provided labor for industry.
- Profits made by landowners were invested in agriculture, trade, and new industries.
- Metal requirements for agricultural tools and machinery demand led to the development of metallurgy and steel.
Technological Development
Increased demand for machinery led to technical innovations that increased production and profits. These inventions began in England in the textile sector. They were, at first, very simple inventions, built in wood and made by craftsmen and people with no scientific training.
Favored by Two Points
- What is important is not the invention but its diffusion in the industry. An invention only applies when the employer finds it profitable.
- Each invention is not important in itself, but because it brings new innovations.
The most important innovation was the steam engine of James Watt, which produced major consequences.
Consequences
Economic
Work performance increased greatly, and production costs were reduced, which reported a huge growth in the wealth of industrialized nations. Large capital companies accumulated, and anonymous societies developed. Design, development, and perfection in the lines of communication and transport enabled the exchange between nations. Chambers of commerce, insurance companies, and banks were created. Income systems on credit developed. Advertising methods and marketing skills arose. Crafts and manufacturing could not compete with large capitalist factories and gradually disappeared. The capitalist mode of production, which was formed within the feudal system, had now overcome all forms of pre-capitalist economy, dooming them to sink irretrievably.
Social
The process of the disappearance of the English peasantry was completed. Large cities appeared, which became industrial centers. The occupational structure of the population changed radically. The number of people employed in the various branches of industry increased on account of the agricultural population. Labor problems deepened, and workers organized into guilds, unions, etc. The two classes of capitalist society appeared: the industrial bourgeoisie and the industrial proletariat (capitalist and worker). The emergence of doctrines that claimed to provide solutions to social problems: socialism, utopian socialism, and social democracy, etc. Impetuous development brought an increase in luxury and wealth of the bourgeoisie and, in turn, poverty and destitution among the working masses.
Political
The bourgeoisie did not directly intervene in the economy but sponsored industrialization and legislation regulating social workers. Industry took a predominant position. Lifestyles changed: the population concentrated in cities with industrial activity, and mass production brought down the prices of many items. Living conditions improved, and domestic work became shorter. Thousands of women entered industrial work, and the family’s culture changed as women began working outside the home.