19th-Century Social Classes and Movements
Social Classes in the 19th Century
Middle Classes
Representing less than 5% of the population, the middle classes occupied a position between the upper bourgeoisie and the workers. This group included landowners, merchants, small manufacturers, professionals, and civil servants. Their income depended on the success of their businesses.
Lower Classes
The majority of the population belonged to the lower classes, encompassing a range of social sectors disadvantaged by the liberal revolution. This included traditional artisans, poor peasants, landless laborers, and the emerging industrial proletariat.
Social Class Definition
Social class refers to a system of social stratification where individuals are grouped based on economic characteristics rather than legal status. According to Marxist thought, two primary conflicting classes existed: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
Agrarian Landowners
This group consisted of large landowners, nobles, and members of the bourgeoisie who profited from land ownership. The consolidation of land ownership was a key objective. The practice of selling land through auctions limited access to property, primarily benefiting nobles and clergy.
Proletariat
The proletariat emerged as a social class during the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century. Composed of industrial workers and resource-poor peasants, they exchanged their labor for wages. Displaced from the land, they opposed both the old regime and the bourgeoisie. This salaried workforce formed the working class of the 19th century.
Laborers
Landless peasants who worked for wages on the properties of agrarian landowners were known as laborers. Many became landless due to confiscations and liberal agrarian reforms. The number of agricultural laborers increased in the first half of the 19th century as peasants transitioned into wage earners.
Social and Political Movements
Utopianism
Utopianism was a philosophy aiming to create egalitarian societies based on collective ownership and equitable wealth distribution. With a positive view of history and human nature, it promoted internationalism, state intervention, armed struggle, and social transformation. Key figures included Saint-Simon, Proudhon, and Fourier.
Mutuals
Mutuals were mutual aid societies formed by workers to provide support during unemployment, illness, and death in exchange for a small fee. These associations acted as early forms of worker organization and resistance, replacing older forms of artisan protection.
Anarchism
Anarchism advocated for total individual freedom and the abolition of the state and private property. Key theorists of the 19th century included Proudhon and Bakunin. Bakuninism called for the collectivization of production and rejected the state as an instrument of oppression. In Spain, the anarchist movement split, with an internationalist faction and a Marxist-aligned faction that formed the core of the PSOE and the UGT.
Socialism
Socialism advocated for an economic system based on the socialization of the means of production under state control. Its goal was to dismantle capitalist society and establish a new order based on the emancipation of the working class. Marx and Engels, in The Communist Manifesto (1848), highlighted the antagonism between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Socialist doctrine envisioned two phases: a socialist phase and a communist phase. The failure of the Paris Commune and the rapid industrialization and urbanization of Western Europe led to a significant expansion of socialism.
Luddism
Originating in England, Luddism was a movement against the industrial system. It manifested in spontaneous and violent actions, including the destruction of machinery, which was blamed for unemployment.
International Workingmen’s Association (IWA)
Founded in London, the IWA, also known as the First International, was a worker’s organization with sections in several countries, led by a Central Committee. It advocated for worker emancipation and political power to overcome economic oppression and achieve social transformation. It encompassed socialists, anarchists, and trade unionists.
Spanish Regional Federation of the IWA
Established in 1870 at the Barcelona Congress, the Spanish Regional Federation, with 60,000 members, was led by followers of Bakunin. Declared illegal in 1872, it aligned with the anarchists, who were forced underground.
Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE)
Founded in Madrid, the PSOE advocated for social revolution and a reform program including the right of association, assembly, demonstration, universal suffrage, reduced working hours, and the elimination of child labor. The party gained support in Madrid, the Basque Country, and Asturias.
National Confederation of Labor (CNT)
Founded in 1910 in Barcelona, the CNT aimed to expand throughout Spain. Its ideology emphasized the independence of the proletariat from the bourgeoisie, trade unionism, and the overthrow of capitalism through expropriation.
Workers’ Federation of the Spanish Republic (FTRE)
With Bakuninist leanings, the FTRE adapted to the new law prohibiting internationally led organizations.