Industrial Revolution: A Comprehensive History of Economic and Social Transformation

Posted on Aug 16, 2024 in History

The Industrial Revolution was one of the most relevant transformations for human history. In this period, important changes turned a pre-industrial society into a capitalist one. The Industrial Revolution was a changing process mainly based on the step from an agrarian and artisanal economy to another ruled by industry and mechanized production. Economic growth was determined by deep economic, technical, and social transformations.

Causes of the Industrial Revolution

Causes or push factors of the Industrial Revolution were numerous, but we can name social, political, economic, and cultural ones, accelerating the process and helping each other to the deep changes…

Social factor: The industrialization process in the UK was featured by the union of the English nobility and bourgeoisie initiative in business and the possibility of having workers in cities: the proletariat. The social status will change from the land’s property to wealth.

Political factor: The political situation helped the industry. After the bourgeois revolution of 1688, GB entered a stage of political stability, which made possible the capitalism triumph. At the same time, the aggressive policy developed by the European powers looking for raw materials and further markets overseas pushed governments to increase military spending and its related industry.

Economic factor: The private enterprise marked the difference in the UK, because bourgeoisie led new inventions and its application in manufacturing, invest money in new advances and promoted scientific and technical societies.

The intensive trade with colonies brought huge benefits, which could be accumulated, and later, this money would be invested in new business, providing more benefits and increasing the need of new markets and business. This capitalistic process ended up with hand-made production very quickly, and factories changed definitively the cities’ landscape.

Cultural factor: It is a characteristic of the culture of the time the improvement of the teaching quality and the relationships between scientists and businessmen. At the same time, the appearance of characters ruled a chain of new invents very quickly applied to industrialized processes.

1.3. Liberalism

As well as political liberalism was one of the “push factors” that helped industrialization in the UK, economic liberalism was the model to follow. Adam Smith, the ec. liberalism founder, presented his theory in his work: Investigation on the nature and causes of the wealth of the nations, starting a new period, known as the “classical economists”.

DEFINITIONS:

Capitalism: Economic and social system defined, overall, by the private ownership of the money and means of production, free trade, and free business without any State’s intervention. The social difference is marked by property. This system was widely spread over Europe at the end of the 18th century.

Manufacture: Industrial space where raw materials are being transformed into manufactured goods for a further selling.

Proletariat: Social working class. The word comes from Latin “proles”, meaning: “children”. In Ancient Rome it was the social class who serves to the State by having children. They were the only property a worker had.

2. Second Industrial Revolution

By 1870, the industrialization hastened notably and brought big changes in economy, culture, and industry. This transformation was so important that many historians have named it the second Industrial Revolution.

In the economic area, it happened an intensive process of increase of productivity. The demographic growth joined to the improvement of the education, consolidated a labor force increasingly qualified. At the same time, the rationalization of the work, supposed by the taylorism, improved the managerial yield. Taylorism brought the generalization of assembly lines at the end of the 19th century. The company Ford was one of the first in applying this system.

The increase of the productivity and the business yield produced technical changes that demanded big investments of the capital. The joint-stock companies were born, this way, to substitute the family enterprise, which already was not capable of contributing the capital now.

This new capitalism, known as nuclear capitalism, was imposed about the last third of the century, and evolved with the trend of the companies to monopolize markets to impose prices and to eliminate competitions.

All this led to the appearance of new forms of economic and financial concentration, as the cartels, trusts, and later the holding companies and the multinationals.

4. The spread of the Industrial Revolution

The industrialization was a process that developed differently according to the own country’s features: its production system, the workers, and the political conditions.

4.1. Europe

The Industrial Revolution began time later in the rest of Europe, due to different political and economic conditions.

• In Belgium. The industrialization process did not start until she separates from the Netherlands, in 1830. She was a pioneer in the continent since she already had a tradition in terms of industry. Its economic growth based on coal mining and metallic reserves and its working people.

• France. Her slow industrialization process had roots in the obstacles given by the Ancient regime, which impeached the creation of a whole market, and also played an important role the negative events of French Revolution (1789) and the Napoleonic Empire (1804-1814).

• Germany. Its industrialization began time after the other but was stronger after political unification with Otto von Bismarck in 1871. The German chancellor stimulated the railroad construction and the production of his own railway industries.

• Russia. Russian industrialization began later because of the autocratic political system. One of its main promoters was Serguei Witte, Finances minister, who promoted a strong intervention of the State in industry, allowing the foreign investors in this process.

• Spain. Industrialization began very late in Spain, almost a century after the UK, and only in some areas in Andalucía, Basque Country, Catalonia, and Asturias in the second half of the 19th century.

4.2. United States and Japan

Out of Europe, the United States and Japan were the principal countries where the Industrial Revolution was consolidated more rapidly.

• United States. One of the characteristics of the North American model of industrialization was the north-south bipolarism, that is to say, a clear difference between the northern colonies and the southern ones.

• Japan. The country managed to give a jump from a medieval and handcrafted past to a modern state. The Meiji Revolution eliminated the above-mentioned feudal past of the hand of the young emperor Mitsuhito, who imitated the Western political and economic forms.

4.3. The rest of the world

The majority of the countries did not prosper industrially, because the selfish attitude of the big powers, which blocked any attempt of take off.

6. The Industrialization effects

The Industrial Revolution brought a new lifestyle for humanity. The more important effects of this process are the following ones:

• Technological. Technical innovations, scientific discoveries and its application, and the incessant appearance of new inventions modified substantially the way of life of the population. The sector more benefited by these transformations were the metallurgical one, the chemical and also the type of industries related to urban demand, such as food or domestic appliances. The technology applied to transport developed successfully the automobile industry and prepared the way to further aeronautical.

• Territorial. One of the major consequences of this revolution was the acceleration in the pace of growth and development in industrialized countries, which led to the need to find new markets. A two-pole world appeared between producing countries of manufactured articles and the countries holders of raw materials, which originated a colonial and imperialistic process in international trade, and also established the basis in the world’s division between a “rich industrialized” world and a “poor non-industrialized” one.

• Economic. During this period, people managed to accumulate enough capital to acquire places and machinery; the factory definitively displaced the workshop. The company, which was the element that best represents this economic evolution, needed more money. Therefore, the initial capitalism was substituted by a financial one, much more speculative and stock exchange one. All of this, led to a different idea of business organization, which gave place to the creation of monopolies, trusts, or cartels.

• Social. Social differences were no more based on estates of a family’s origin, but according to wealth. The middle class took more advantage of the situation and turned into the land’s owners, factory’s, and banks. The proletariat progressed in his social conquests very painfully and slowly. However, their living conditions improved, due to medical, educational, and scientific advances.

• Demographic. Subsistence’s crisis disappeared on having taken place a parallel process of increase in production as well as a population growth, close to an improvement of the hygienic and sanitary conditions. All this increased the life expectations of the population.

1. The Ancient Regime

During all the 18th century, the great European powers (excepting the UK and the Netherlands), were governed by absolute or authoritarian monarchs. The model of absolute monarchs par excellence was the French king Louis XIV, who said the famous sentence “The State, I am”.

The term “Ancient regime” designates the political, economic, and social system former to the French revolution and the liberal revolutions of the 19th century.

Its main characteristics were:

• A political system based on royal absolutism
• An economic system based on protectionism a little productive
• A demography characterized by a low natural increase
• A social system based on inequality facing law
• A culture based on tradition and controlled by the Church

The absolutist doctrine underlines the divine origin of the monarchy. There is no question about it. Thomas Hobbes, a 16th century’s philosopher, states the need of the royal absolutism. To him, the State guarantees peace and prosperity of the subjects and must be “absolute” because the king must perform freely to rule good.

The royal power was supported by a centralized administration and a powerful army, quite expensive. Therefore, they needed to tax people a lot to maintain the system. The Ancient regime was based on:

• Mercantilism
• A traditional and backward agriculture
• The democracy
• An estates society
• A culture based on tradition and under the Church’s control
• The crisis of awareness

2. The independence of the United States

On the eastern coast of North America, the thirteen British colonies had been experienced a great development during the 18th century. Problems arise when they felt unfairly treated. Their great contribution to the motherland, with taxes made a contrast with their political discrimination because they had any representation in London’s parliament. The North American society, made up by successive emigrants’ waves, had no political commitment or any nobility among them.

The American settlers had participated in the GB’s victory not only militarily but also economically in the Seven Years War (1756-1763). However, despite this help, the American only had new taxation on many manufactures and raw materials.

The 16th December, 1773, a revolt at the Boston harbor burst because of the new tax on tea trade and the concession to a British company of the tea trade (for the Eastern India Company). During the Tea Munity, some settlers dressed up as Indians threw to the sea three cargo’s load. The strong repression of the British troops caused the colonies unrest, increasing their independence concerns.

3. The Secession War

The slavery was a normal workforce in the lands of the Southern areas of the USA, but a feeling of reject against slavery widespread over the rest of the USA. In 1852, the publication of the “Uncle’s Tom cabin” helped to extend the abolitionist ideas.

When in 1860 was chosen the abolitionist Abraham Lincoln as USA’s president, the states of the South, (South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) decided to split from the Union and formed themselves a Confederation, with a new constitution and another president, Jefferson Davis. The Union has been broken.

When civil war burst, in 1861, the Northern federates were superior in population and industry, and their control of a wide maritime zone allowed them to stop cotton export from the South, blocking their harbors, burning their crops, and stopping their sales.

3. The French Revolution

The French Revolution is considered so relevant that most of the historians put the beginning of the Contemporary Era on it. The historical change produced since 1789, firstly with the revolution and then, with the Napoleonic Empire, transformed dramatically the former structures and destroyed the political, social, and economic bases of the Ancient Regime.

As the English Revolution brought the time of the new governments, the French Revolution brought the new societies era, based on the generalization of the principle of equality in law, and a new Liberal State, which guarantees freedom and a new social order.

3.1. Causes

• Political. The authority of the absolute monarchy, only limited by the power of the Church and of the nobility and established by divine right, prevented the bourgeoisie’s rise, which demanded the division of powers.
• Social. The backwards estates society produces constant unrest. The people’s problems were expressed in the “Complaints Notebooks”, presented by each estate in the Estates General. For the bourgeoisie, the revolution meant their social and economic rise, and the end of the closed estates that stopped its social and political development.
• Economic. The decline of living standards for craftsmen and peasants deepened with the last subsistence crisis, which provoked their rebellion. Society split up into a much reduced families very rich, and a huge mass of poor people, who could not afford to live with the rise of prices.
• Ideological. The enlightened thinkers, with their constant critical view were determined to end up with the privileges. This was a key factor in the revolutionary process.

3.2. Stages

1. The Estates General. Facing the deep financial crisis of France, the king Louis XVI called the Nobles Assembly in order to demand for their help. As they denied contributing with taxes, the king summoned the Estates General, which they were not called since 1614, which made necessary to call elections to choose their representatives.

Estates General: middle Ages assembly that reunites the three social estates (nobility, clergy, and people or Third estate), which aim was to take decisions after a royal proposal.

2. Constituent Assembly. The 9th of July, 1789, the National Assembly adopted this name considering that its main goal will be the working out of a Constitution. Louis XVI tried to dissolve the assembly, placing troops in Paris, but the 14th July, people of Paris stormed one of the most hated symbols of the Ancient Regime: the fortress of the Bastille. Facing these events, the king was forced to give up.

The Constituent Assembly began the process of drafting of the new Constitution and more fundamental declarations. In the year 1791, the Constitution was passed. Following the model of the American Constitution, it proclaimed: national sovereignty, the division of powers, and limited suffrage (to who pay an income tax).

3. The Legislative Assembly. The king did not accept his role of a constitutional monarch and tried to fly from France in June 1791 to Austria, by Varennes. They were stopped and locked in jail. The European powers tried to defend the king, and the revolutionary France was forced to declare war on Prussia and Austria. Hostility against the Austrian Marie-Antoinette and against the king, seen as a traitor to the revolution was constant. In 1792, during a great revolt at Paris, the people assaulted the royal palace and the Marsellais went to the capital singing a song that they called “The Marsellaise”. In August of the same year, the Jacobins seized the power with the “sans-culottes” help, dissolved the Legislative Assembly and called a new one, The National Convention.

4. The National Convention. Amongst the first measures taken by the National Convention was the universal suffrage, even they people don’t work. Two groups of deputies can be remarked during the Convention, the Girondists, belonging to the middle class and led by Jacques Pierre Brissot, and the Jacobins or montagnards (because their seats paced up to the top of the grades), under the leadership of Maximilien Robespierre, Georges-Jacques Danton, and Jean Paul Marat.

5. The Directory. Known as well as the “Thermidorian period”, it belongs to the time when the moderate bourgeoisie took the power. A new Constitution was drafted, leaving the government to a Directory of five members. The legislative shared out between two chambers; the Council of Elderly, which passed the laws, and the Five Hundred Council, which drafted the laws. At this time, France began an expansionist policy: defeated the Austrian in Italy and carried out an expedition to conquer Egypt with the aim of cutting the British path to India. Limitations of the Directory arose very soon, and some people desired an executive much stronger. All this meant a reform of the Constitution and a new constituent process.

4.4. The Armed peace

The Armed peace (1891-1914) it supposed a draft in international relations. In 1892, France and Russia made an alliance, The French-Russian Entente, to which lately associated GB. Europe remained divided up between two faced blocks: On the one hand, the Triple Entente, joining France, Russia, and GB, and on the other hand, the Triple Alliance, made up by Germany, Austria, and Italy. The first crisis in Morocco (1905) was a colonial conflict that faced German, English, and French, with a little Spanish participation. The Algeciras’s Conference (1906) solved the crisis establishing the French supremacy over the area. In the second crisis of Morocco (1911), France ended to get the Moroccan protectorate, despite giving part of the Congo to Germany. The first Balkan’s crisis began in Bosnia (1903). Serbia tried to create a State made up by all the Slaves peoples. To go further on in this aim supported the Bosnia-Herzegovina’s nationalists, which provoked the immediate reaction of Austria, who invaded Bosnia-Herzegovina and incorporated her within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1912-1913 the Balkan wars out broke against the Ottoman Empire that ended with its dominion over the Balkan territories.

1.1. The revolutions of 1820

1820’s revolutions took place principally, in the Mediterranean European zone, from military uprisings and led by revolutionaries organized in secret societies.

• Greece was under the Ottoman Empire’s control. The assaults of the peasants against the collectors of taxes were the first indicators of revolt and opposition. With the raising awareness of the intellectual ones there arose the secret societies, germ of the fight for the independence supported by the European powers, which pressed Turkey in order to sign the Adrianópolis Treaty (1829), first step to the independence of Greece (1830). This support violated the agreements of the Congress of Vienna.

• In Spain, Fernando VII had to suffocate the raisings of the American colonies and fight against the liberal ones. The troops of coronel Riego, prepared to embark towards America, revolted in Cabezas de San Juan (Cádiz), in a “pronunciamiento endorsed by the liberals. The king met obliged to restore the Constitution of 1812.

The independence of the Spanish American colonies

When the Napoleonic troops invaded the Iberian Peninsula (1808), in several places of Spanish America there were Juntas which proclaimed their loyalty to Fernando VII. The independence of the Spanish colonies took place in several stages:

• First stage (1808-1816), featured by the failure of the independence movements, except in Argentina. The secessionist Argentine movement constituted his first meeting in 1810. In Tucuman, the National Congress met, and elaborated, on July 9, 1810, the declaration of independence. The Spanish troops, nevertheless, managed to control the situation in the rest of the viceroyalties.

The principal commander of the independence, Simón Bolívar, was obliged to shelter in Haiti. In Mexico, the priest Hidalgo initiated the movement of independence with the “Shout of Dolores”. After the Hidalgo’s execution, the independence movement was continued by Morelos, also executed.

• Second stage (1817-1824), characterized by the triumph of the independentists. The Revolution of 1820 in Spain favored the situation of the revolted, in stooping the sending troops to control the incessant insurrections there.

1.2. The bourgeois revolutions of 1830

• France. The union of the nationalisms of the beaten peoples and the European coalitions provoked the fall of the Napoleonic Empire. In France took place a geo-political and economic change. She was obliged to reduce her borders to the ones of in 1791; she had an economic sanction of 700 million of francs and the occupation by foreign troops for three years. In the French throne was restored the Bourbon’s dynasty with Louis XVIII, Louis XVI’s brother. His successor, Charles X who carried out unpopular reforms: he eliminated the “carta otorgada”, put major restrictions to the census vote, suspended the freedom of press and dissolved the chamber of the deputies. Opposite to these measures, workers, students, and intellectuals went to the streets to demonstrate and fought in barricades against the army, provoking the abdication of the king. Lafayette proposed Louis Philip of Orleans as candidate for the throne. The new king restored the ·carta otorgada”, reestablished freedom of press, extended the vote and introduced the tricolor flag (revolutionary symbol).

• Belgium. The revolutionary burst meant the independence of the Netherlands. There were created in 1815 to be used as a “buffer state” with France. However, this union was artificial because the religion, the economy, the language, and also the customs were totally different. The revolution blows up in Brussels on August 25, 1830. The king Willem I of Prussia sent 6.000 soldiers to repress it, but this provoked a national uprising. The Dutch troops moved back, and the provisional Belgian government declared the independence on October 4, 1830.

• Poland. It did not exist as a nation because it was shared between Prussia, Austria, and Russia, which controlled much of its territory. Liberal and Nationalist raisings were hardly repressed by Russian troops.

• In the Vatican States, Modena, Parma, and Bolonia, the Austrian repression drowned the liberal hopes. The same for the German states, which suffered a hard repression.

1.3. The democratic revolutions of 1848

The revolutionary wave that shook Europe since mid 19th century was based on socialist and democratic ideas. Not only demanded political rights but also labor improvements. The potato’s disease, the lack of cereals, the rise of prices, and the industrial crisis rises up the idea of a bad-administered society.

• France. Louis Philip Orleans turned little by little into an authoritarian king and became more unpopular. His PM Guizot forbids a meeting in a restaurant of the “Champs Elisées” organized by the republicans, “the Banquet 71”. The republican journal “Le National” invited people of France to demonstrate against this decision. Later, another demonstration in Place Concorde suffered a hard repression by the National Guard. Guizot resigned, but the riot went on. A group of soldiers shoot at the crowd, as always, producing a number of 20 deaths. The new spreads over Paris like “gunpowder”, and caused the fall of the government of Louis Philip and the runaway to England.

The two forces that carried out the revolution, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, brought face to face for the sharing out of the conquests. The new government called new elections with male suffrage. Louis Napoleon, with the guarantee of a revolutionary past, won the elections and was appointed president of the II Republic.

• Germany. Due to the risings, the king promised in Berlin a Constitution. In Prussia and other German states revolts also occurred. The crown was offered to Willem of Prussia, who rejected it because he did not want to turn into a constitutional king. The first unifying attempt of the German states failed, as a result.

• Italy. The majority of the Italian states which revolted claimed for a Constitution and an extension of voting. At first, the revolution succeeded, and the Austrians were expelled. The king of the Piedmont declared war on Austria, but the triumphs of the general Johan Joseph Radeztky led the Austrians to occupy Milano once again. With the Piamonte’s defeat the idea of unification was left away.

• The Austrian Empire. The Empire emerged in 1806, was a complex mosaic of nationalities, ethnics, and religions. The monarchy was authoritarian and was supported by the army, the Catholic Church, the police, and bureaucracy. Franz Joseph was named emperor in 1848 and ruled the destiny of the Empire until 1916. After the 1848’s revolution, the desires of liberalism and the nationalist vindications made necessary changes that took shape in 1867 with the “Ausgleich” o Commitment by which the empire transformed into an Austro-Hungarian “Dual Monarchy”. The political stability created a strong economic rise on the western part of the Empire, whereas the eastern one remained stuck to agrarian structure. Politically, rivalry with Russia in the Balkans led the Austrians to get close to the German Empire.

The independence processes were, most of the times, contradictory. Hungary intended to get independent from Austria, but wanted to have under control the Croats, Rumanian, and Slovenes.

Despite of the failure of majority of the raisings, some conquests were obtained, such as the disappearance of feudalism in many countries, the conquest of parliamentarian regimes, and the people’s participation in some of the revolutions.

2. The political evolution of France

The revolution of 1848 instituted in France the II Republic, and Louis Napoleon, thanks to an agreement with his uncle Napoleon I, was chosen as president of the Republic. According to the article 45 of the French Constitution, he could only be reelected after passing four years since his last mandate. The solution to remain in the power was to reform the Constitution. With the possibility of having a bad result, he did a coup and his first measure was to dissolve the Assembly, “because it turned into a nest of conspirators”, measure legitimated by a referendum that confirmed the citizen’s support in 1852, similar to the Napoleonic one, which divided the legislative power into three chambers: Assembly, Senate, and Council of the State. On December 2, 1852, the Second Empire was established.

4.2. The German unification

The German union was achieved by means of the joint of two parallel efforts, but of different nature: the diffusion of the concept of German mother land for an intellectual minority and Bismarck’s policy.

• Custom Union. After the Vienna’s Congress (1815), 34 principalities and four free cities turned Germany into a great customs network that was impeding the trade exchange and the industry development. To reach and industrial level able to compete with France and GB, on January, 1834, the Zollverein (Customs union) was created.

• Political Union. The 34 principalities and the four free cities made part of the Confederation of German States, presided by Austria, with a parliament (Diet) at Francfort. The Austrian legitimism was backed by the protestant Church, a mercenary army, the bureaucracy, and a traditional aristocracy. The nationalist backed on liberal and bourgeois intellectuals, who wished a constitutional regime.

• Territorial Union. To get the whole union it was necessary the incorporation of the States of the South. The solution needed the consent of both emperors, the Austrian and the French, who did not allow it, so that, Bismarck had to fight with both empires.

In this process there were two conflicting positions: “The great Germany”, including Austria, and the “Little Germany”, excluding Austria and under Prussian control. In 1861 Willem I occupied the throne, and thought that Bismarck was the right man, who was

4.1. The Italian unification

In the Italian unification there were three different ideas:

• The Young Italian, supported by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who wanted a whole Unitarian republic presided by Giuseppe Mazzini.
• The Catholic nationalism by Gioberti, which defended a Confederation of States presided by the Pope.
• The parliamentarian monarchy of Piedmont, helped by the newspaper “Il Risorgimento” and the Italian National Society, led by Cavour that was claiming the unification by means of a parliamentary monarchy personified by the king of Piedmont Victor Emmanuelle II.

Cavour modernized the army, increased the fleet, created associations to organize the unification, separated the State from the Church in order to attract the liberals, and also reform the agriculture and industry.

He turned the dream of constructing a new nation with the help of Mazzini. To get the union was necessary to expel the Austrian invaders. Therefore, he established relationships with France and GB. Napoleon III agrees with the Italian cause and GB shared the liberal ideas of the nationalists.

This Napoleon III’s perfidy exasperated patriots as Garibaldi, which realized that it was no sense to expect foreign help. Garibaldi with the consent of the Savoy’s government organized the “Red Shirts expedition” and in May 1860 leaved from Genoa to Sicily, controlled the island and crossed to the continent. In Naples, Garibaldi proclaimed himself dictator of the Two Sicilies and Cavour sent an army to help him, recognizing Victor Emmanuelle king of the whole Italy. In 1861, the Torino’s parliament gave Victor Emmanuelle the title of “king of Italy. Venice was annexed after the Italian support to Prussia in the war against Austria. Rome was the Pope’s residence and was protected by French troops. When the snap of the French-Prussian war, Napoleon III withdrew the troops that were protecting the Vatican States. Soon after as the French defeat of Sedan was known, the Italian government occupied Rome, and was declared the capital of the Italian kingdom.

the Italian kingdom.