The Industrial Revolution: A Transformative Era
Demographic and Agricultural Revolutions
Demographic Revolution
Beginning in mid-eighteenth-century Europe, an organic growth process started. Increased food production, improved hygiene, and advancements in medicine led to reduced mortality and a slight increase in the birth rate.
Agricultural Revolution
Population growth increased demand for food, resulting in higher agricultural prices. Privatization of land and new cultivation methods and techniques emerged. Land became private property. Innovations included the Norfolk System, which replaced fallow with crops to feed livestock, and the mechanization of farming with new plows.
Technological Innovations and Industrial Growth
Steam, Factories, and the Textile Industry
Technological innovation began with machines powered by human strength and later by hydropower. The steam engine (James Watt, 1769), fueled by coal, revolutionized energy production. Factories, large industrial buildings housing machinery and workers, became the new centers of production. The British cotton industry was the first to mechanize, using inventions like the flying shuttle (1733) and the power loom (1785) to increase production.
Coal, Iron, and the Railway
The steel industry pioneered new techniques, producing more iron thanks to coke (1732) and inventing the converter to transform iron into steel. Railways, initially used to transport ore, saw innovations like new rail systems and steel wheels. Stephenson’s invention of the steam locomotive (1829) further revolutionized transportation. Iron steamships began to replace sailing vessels.
Economic and Social Transformations
Increased Trade and Capitalism
The Industrial Revolution gave rise to a market economy with increasingly larger markets. Improved transportation facilitated internal trade, and foreign trade expanded. Thinkers like Adam Smith defined liberalism, emphasizing personal interest, profit maximization, supply and demand, and limited government intervention. Capitalism, with its lack of planning and constant growth, led to cyclical economic crises.
Finance and the Expansion of Capitalism
Capital firms provided loans and direct investments (shares) to businesses, using checks and bills of exchange. They acted as intermediaries between savers and businesses. Corporations divided capital into shares, traded on stock markets. Industrial capitalism expanded to France and Belgium in the nineteenth century, and to Russia, Germany, the USA, and Japan between 1850 and 1870. Eastern Europe remained largely untouched until the 20th century.
The Second Industrial Revolution
New Energy Sources and Industries
The invention of the dynamo enabled electricity production, powering machines, transportation, communication, leisure, and lighting. Oil became a crucial fuel for automobiles in the nineteenth century. The diesel engine improved ship speed and capacity. Metallurgy advanced with the production of stainless steel and aluminum. Henry Ford invented the affordable automobile, and the chemical industry produced fertilizers, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals.
New Industrial Organization
The 20th century saw the rise of mass production and Taylorism, with workers specializing in specific parts of the production process. Cartels (mergers), holding companies (financial groups controlling banks and businesses), and monopolies (exclusive trading rights) emerged.
Social Classes and Labor Movements
The Bourgeoisie
The bourgeoisie became the dominant class. The *big bourgeoisie* consisted of bankers, landowners, and business owners. The *middle bourgeoisie* included professionals, officials, and traders. The *petty bourgeoisie* comprised employees and shopkeepers.
The Workers
Factory workers formed the urban industrial proletariat, working for wages. They were the largest and most disadvantaged group, facing harsh working conditions and insufficient pay. Women and children also worked in factories.
Early Labor Movements
Workers’ resistance included machine-breaking (Luddism) and the formation of mutual relief societies. The first trade unions, founded in 1825, aimed to improve working conditions, reduce working hours, increase wages, and regulate child labor.
Ideologies and Political Movements
Marxism and Socialism
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels criticized the exploitation of the working class and advocated for a workers’ revolution to overthrow capitalism. In the late nineteenth century, Marxist socialist parties emerged, aiming to achieve revolution through political participation and elections.
Anarchism
Thinkers like Proudhon, Bakunin, and Kropotkin championed individual freedom, criticized private property, and rejected authority. They envisioned a collectivist and egalitarian society.
Internationalism
The First International, founded by Marx, included Marxists, anarchists, and trade unionists. Ideological differences led to its dissolution. In 1889, socialist leaders founded the Second International, a socialist organization aiming to coordinate the programs and actions of various socialist parties. They adopted “The Internationale” as their anthem and established May 1st as International Workers’ Day.