Introduction for Chapter 20

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20

The Revolution in Energy and Industry

ca. 1780–1850

While revolutions in France and across the Atlantic were opening a new political era, another revolution was beginning to transform economic and social life. The Industrial Revolution took off around 1780 in Great Britain and soon began to influence continental Europe and the United States. Non-European nations began to industrialize after 1860.

Industrialization profoundly modified much of human experience. It changed patterns of work, transformed the social class structure and the way people thought about class, and eventually altered the international balance of political power. Quite possibly only the development of agriculture during Neolithic times had a comparable impact and significance.

What was revolutionary about the Industrial Revolution was not its pace or that it represented a sharp break with the previous period. On the contrary, the Industrial Revolution built on earlier developments, and the rate of progress was slow. What was remarkable about the Industrial Revolution was that it inaugurated a period of sustained economic and demographic growth that has continued to the present day. Although it took time, the Industrial Revolution eventually helped ordinary people in the West gain a higher standard of living as the widespread poverty of preindustrial Europe gradually receded.

Such fundamental transitions did not occur overnight. National wealth rose much more quickly than improvements in the European standard of living until about 1850. This was because, even in Britain, only a few key industries experienced a technological revolution. Many more industries continued to use old methods. In addition, wage increases were modest until the mid-nineteenth century, and the gradual withdrawal of children and married women from paid work meant that the household as a whole earned the same or less.

image
Life in the Industrial Revolution Daily life for industrial workers was harsh, especially for the many child laborers who worked in the new factories and in other industries, like the glassworks pictured here. Long hours of work, strict discipline, and low wages were the lot of most industrial workers, whose living standards did not improve until the 1840s.
(The Falcon Glassworks, c. 1840, [oil on canvas]/© Museum of London/HIP/The Image Works)

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CHAPTER PREVIEW

The Industrial Revolution in Britain

Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in Britain, and how did it develop between 1780 and 1850?

Industrialization in Europe and the World

How did countries in Europe and around the world respond to the challenge of industrialization?

New Patterns of Working and Living

How did work evolve during the Industrial Revolution, and how did daily life change for working people?

Relations Between Capital and Labor

How did the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution lead to new social classes, and how did people respond to the new structure?

Chronology

ca. 1765 Hargreaves invents spinning jenny; Arkwright creates water frame
1769 Watt patents modern steam engine
ca. 1780–1850 Industrial Revolution; population boom in Britain
1799 Combination Acts passed in England
1802–1833 Series of Factory Acts passed by British government to limit the workday of child laborers and set minimum hygiene and safety requirements
1805 Egypt begins process of modernization
1810 Strike of Manchester cotton spinners
ca. 1815 Western European countries seek to adopt British industrial methods
1824 Combination Acts repealed
1829 Stephenson’s Rocket, an early locomotive
1830s Industrial banks in Belgium
1834 Zollverein erected among most German states
1842 Mines Act passed in Britain
1844 Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England
1850s Japan begins to adopt Western technologies; industrial gap widens between the West and the rest of the world
1851 Great Exhibition held at Crystal Palace in London
1860s Germany and the United States begin to rapidly industrialize