-"global energy demands began to push against the existing local/regional ecological limits"
-massive extraction of materials from machinery negatively altered the landscape
-enormously increased output of goods and services (Britain = 50%)
-Britain & Europe moved ahead with coal-fired steam engine
- 2nd I.R. which focused on chemicals, telephone, etc.
- agriculture was affected (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.)
Why Europe?
-Europe had no significant advantage
- India: cotton textile production, sugar, agricultural innovations & math inventions
- China: technological innovations / Asia had economic advantage (life span, wages, etc)
- industrial development was occurring all over (China, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, etc.)
-favored innovation, failure to re-create unity of R. Empire may have acted as a stimulus
-well on their way toward capitalist economy/competitive states = innovation
-global network that gave diverse economic/technological resources
- Asia was home of exploration/new goods stimulated drive, Indian textiles fled Euro., America offered silver and other goods to sustain a population
Why Britain?
-most commercialized country: series of agricultural innovations increased output, kept prices low and freed up labor
-political life encouraged commercialization and economic innovation
-science was focused on observation, experiment, measurements, mechanical devices, & commercial applications (Euro.: logic, deduction, math reasoning)
-already had coal/iron ore, isolation to protect from invasions, adjustments for social changes
The First Industrial Society [Britain]
-dramatic increase in production in mining, manufacturing, and services / agriculture was no longer important
-epic transformation of social life
- destroyed old ways = traumatic, conflicts, false starts, insecurity
- free to discover or make themselves new, improved lives
- everyone was not affected in the same way
The British Aristocracy
-landowners used to dominate the British Parliament but declined with aristocracy
-urban/great wealth (business men, etc) became more important
The Middle Classes [20%]
-upper levels consisted of extremely wealthy factory/mine owners, bankers, & merchants
-majority were doctors, lawyers, scientist, smaller business men, teachers, etc.
-Reform Bill of 1832: broaden right to vote for middle class men (not women)
-"respectability": value of social status and virtuous behavior
- "ideas of thrift and hard work, a rigid morality, and cleanliness"
- women were to stay at home and teach children this value
- eventually started working as teachers, telephone operators (took over), etc
-lower class: clerks, salespeople, bank tellers, secretaries, telephone operators, etc.
- "employment represented a claim on membership in the larger middle class & a means of distinguishing themselves clearly from a working class tainted by manual labor"
The Laboring Classes [70%]
-manual workers in mines, ports, factories, construction sites, farms, etc.
-rapid urbanization: overcrowded, inadequate sanitation, polluted water supplies, etc.
-life expectancy was 39.5 years
-men worked tending the machines, supervisory, and more skilled positions
-women worked in textile mills, took "lighter" jobs (no advancement), not allowed in unions
- domestic servants, doing laundry, sewing clothes, etc.
Social Protest
-"friendly societies": working class self-help groups provided insurance, funeral, etc.
-others joined political arena by joining movements, unions, strikes
-Karl Marx
- "capitalism was unstable system, doomed to collapse in a revolutionary upheaval that would give birth to a classless socialist society, thus ending forever the ancient conflict between rich and poor"
- combined impact of Euro.'s industrial, political, & scientific revolutions found expression
- proclaimed scientist, discovered law of social development ("scientific socialism")
- Utopian vision of human freedom and community
-Labour Party (1890s): advocated a reformist program & peaceful democratic -> socialism
- "social democracy": rejecting class struggle & revolutionary emphasis of Marxism
-rise of middle & lower middle class (30%)
-wages rose, cheap imported food improved diets, mortality rates fell, etc.
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