The Industrial Revolution: Causes, Developments, and Consequences
Causes:
- Growth of population: Led to higher demand for workers, which spurred the development of machinery and increased textile production.
- Agricultural Revolution: Changes in agriculture transformed farming into a source of wealth instead of mere subsistence.
Enclosure Acts
The Enclosure Acts were laws that divided land into large, private estates, including land previously for public use. These acts benefited large landowners, increasing their profits. However, small landowners suffered, often selling their land to work for large estates or migrating to towns in search of work. Farming became more profitable, leading landowners to invest in new methods and technologies to enhance productivity.
Trade and Banking Development:
- Machinery and Industry: Water power was replaced by steam. In 1769, James Watt created a steam boiler using coal to produce heat. New machinery replaced workers, changing work organization. Workers moved into large factories, each performing a simple task alongside machines.
- Revolution in Textile Industries: Demand for cotton fabric grew with the population and rising living standards. Machinery was invented to mechanize production, enabling large-scale fabric manufacturing.
Key Inventions in Textiles
- 1733: Flying Shuttle (John Kay): Traditional weaving required two men to pass the shuttle. Kay’s invention used wheels to move the shuttle along a groove, allowing weavers to create wider fabrics more quickly.
- 1764: Spinning Jenny (James Hargreaves): The steam engine powered these new machines, leading the textile industry to relocate to large factories in cities.
Revolution in the Iron Industries
Coal became the primary fuel source, producing high temperatures. Machines injected air into furnaces, increasing productivity. Henry Cort invented techniques to create more resistant iron, improving both productivity and quality.
Revolution in Transport:
The steam engine led to the development of railways and steamships, making transport faster, cheaper, and capable of carrying heavier loads. George Stephenson designed a locomotive that could cross hilly terrain in 1830, operating on the Manchester to Liverpool railway line, marking the beginning of the Railway Age.
Consequences:
- The New Class Society: Money and success, rather than hereditary lineage, became the primary social asset. Aristocrats maintained their status through land ownership, while factory owners, merchants, and businessmen formed the new wealthy middle class.
- The Proletariat: A new social class composed of farmers and laborers who migrated to towns. They faced poor living conditions, working 14 to 16 hours a day with no protection against illness, no retirement compensation, and very low wages. Factories and houses lacked proper ventilation and hygiene.
Labor Movement
- Luddites: Workers who destroyed machinery and mills in protest of mechanization.
- Trade Unions: Groups that fought for improved working conditions and political rights, such as the right to strike.
Socialism
Developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who believed private property caused class division. They proposed a revolution led by the Socialist Party to impose a transitional proletariat dictatorship, organizing a classless society with collective property.
Anarchism
Advocated by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Mikhail Bakunin, among others, who sought to achieve maximum personal freedom.