Industrial Revolution: Social Classes, Labor & Ideologies
Proletariat
The proletariat, or poor working class, lacked ownership and struggled to support families on a single wage. The rapid growth of industrial companies created a diversified market with increasing demand, but also led to overcrowded factories and worker housing. The bourgeoisie and nobility lived in separate areas. Cities expanded rapidly in the late nineteenth century through planned enlargement.
Social Problems of the Industrial Revolution
- Workers lost ownership of their labor.
- Work became monotonous, repetitive, and performed in deplorable conditions with low wages and long hours.
- Lack of social protection and labor rights.
- Overcrowded housing with inadequate infrastructure.
- Increased exploitation of women and children.
- Industrial diseases and labor uncertainty.
Sir Robert Peel
Spearheaded protective measures for children and women in the House of Commons in 1802.
Workers and Peasants
A distinction is made between agricultural (peasant) and industrial (worker) laborers, both forming the proletariat and living in precarious conditions. Field workers produced food, the base of wealth generated by the industrial proletariat. Workers faced 16-hour workdays with little protection against illness or unemployment.
Bourgeoisie
The bourgeoisie, with property rights and legal equality, emerged as a consequence of industrialization and capital accumulation. Society became more open and dynamic. The bourgeoisie emulated aristocratic tastes and lifestyles. Aristocratic privileges gradually diminished as wealth became the dominant factor. The development of real estate and the stock market facilitated rapid economic enrichment. The bourgeoisie gained economic and political power throughout the nineteenth century, becoming the ruling class of capitalist society.
Formation of the Proletariat
Urban development during the Industrial Revolution led to mass migration from rural areas to urban centers, creating housing shortages, neighborhood overcrowding, infrastructure problems, and psychological issues. Urban population growth resulted from an excess of births over deaths, rural migration, and foreign immigration (e.g., Italians and Irish to New York).
Social Changes and Worker Movements
Society became polarized into the wealthy bourgeoisie and the impoverished proletariat. The rise of socialist thought in the second half of the nineteenth century contributed to the formation of political parties and labor unions, collectively known as the worker’s movement.
Social Issues and Proposed Solutions
Utopian Socialism
An early 19th-century idealist movement that proposed solutions to labor problems, often considered impractical or “utopian,” referencing Thomas More’s work describing a perfect society.
Scientific Socialism
Founded in the second half of the nineteenth century by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. They developed Marxism, a doctrine asserting that economic factors determine historical events and social structures. Marx argued that the history of society is the history of class struggle. In his time, the antagonistic classes were the bourgeoisie (owners of factories, banks, and businesses) and the proletariat (impoverished workers). Marx believed that capitalism only served to enrich the bourgeoisie and impoverish the workers, exacerbating social inequality. His solution was for workers to unite, overthrow the bourgeoisie, and establish a “dictatorship of the proletariat,” with state ownership of the means of production to meet people’s needs rather than generate profit. This transitional period would lead to a communist society: a classless, stateless society free from exploitation.