Industrial Society: Classes, Urbanization, and Movements
Industrial Society in the 19th Century
Industrial society, a society divided into classes, emerged with industrial workers. The abandonment of the countryside caused changes that affected traditions and the ties that bound families, leading to a new system of family life, employment, and social relations. This especially affected women.
Class Society
Class society was established after a long process, parallel to industrialization and the spread of liberal ideology. It brought legal equality but created a fundamental separation between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, who only received a salary in exchange for selling their labor power.
Urban Society
Factories were established in urban areas, leading to better communication, building development, and rail power. These economic transformations increased demographic pressures in Europe. This rural exodus produced a movement of people from the countryside to the city to find work and a new life, concentrating the population in cities. Great Britain was the country with the greatest degree of urbanization. Urban expansion included birth plans, construction of sewers, and street lighting.
The Bourgeoisie
The bourgeoisie shared much of the wealth, controlled business, and influenced political life. The great bourgeoisie was composed of businessmen and senior officials. The petty bourgeoisie consisted of artisans and traditional traders. A growing bourgeois class was engaged in commerce and professions.
The Industrial Proletariat
The industrial proletariat comprised farmers who left the field. The division of labor and adaptation to the machine’s rhythm turned workers into pieces in the production process. Excess labor and businesses seeking maximum profit led to 14-16 hour workdays and miserable wages. Conditions were very unhygienic. This led to the dehumanization of industrial work and the incorporation of child and female labor. Social relations of production were governed by free contracts between employers and workers, where employers imposed their conditions. There was no social legislation to protect workers against disease or workplace insecurity.
Old Aristocracy
The old aristocracy held the status of dominant noble classes. This condition still represented the greatest social prestige. The House of Lords was dominated by Lords. Junkers controlled the army and the power of imperial government institutions. Aristocratic landowners controlled social, political, and institutional aspects well into the 20th century, using methods such as caciquism to control and manipulate elections.
Peasantry
Lifestyles of peasants varied less than those of city dwellers.
The Females
Females were involved in the emergence and consolidation of industrial society. Political, economic, and legal discrimination were common. Industrialization fostered the incorporation of women into the workforce. The Suffrage Movement (voting rights) began in Seneca Falls.
Workers’ Movement
The Workers’ Movement was shaped as the answer to the problems of the working class caused by industrialization and capitalism. It acquired a collective consciousness.
Early Revolts
Early revolts were disorganized and violent riots directed against machines to defend the workplace. Labor demands led to the creation of anti-association laws and mutual aid societies. Robert Owen was involved in the first organizations.
Political Demands
Chartism marked the beginning of proper political demands to achieve universal male suffrage, aiming to expand social rights through reforms conducted in Parliament.
Utopian Socialism
A group of thinkers and politicians began to analyze the impact of industrialization.
- Robert Owen: A major cotton producer, he improved working conditions by reducing working hours, increasing salaries, promoting children’s education, and establishing cooperative production and consumption with great economic success.
- Saint-Simon: Proposed that scientists and intellectuals should guide society and create a cooperative social organization workshop.
- Charles Fourier: Proposed the creation of communities of production and consumption called “phalansteries.” He advocated for the disappearance of the bourgeois family and gender equality.
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: Defended conservative positions on women and rejected equality between the sexes.
Scientific Socialism
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels developed “scientific socialism,” also called Marxist socialism, aiming for social power to transform society.
Anarchism
Anarchism involved a critique of capitalist society and a defense of human liberty. It proposed an alternative model of society without authority or class hierarchies, rejecting the basic principle of any authority. The new society would be formed by producer and consumer cooperatives and mutuals that replaced the federated state. Methods included spontaneous fight and popular education. Mikhail Bakunin was a main theorist.