The Industrial Revolution and its Impact: 18th-20th Centuries
The Industrial Revolution: The Machine Age
The Industrial Revolution marked the transition from an agrarian and craft economy to another marked by industry and mechanized production. It represents a radical change in all aspects of life (society, economy, political) and started in England in the mid-eighteenth century. During the nineteenth century, it became generalized at different rates for different countries in Europe, the USA, and Japan.
The economic boom that allowed the Industrial Revolution was due to economic liberalism, which advocated complete freedom and the removal of all obstacles to the free development of companies.
It produced a series of transformations that gave way to a new economy.
- Agricultural transformation: property, machinery, new techniques, and new crops. This provoked an accumulation of capital to invest in other sectors.
- Population changes: population growth. It is free labor for industry.
- Technical innovations: Watt steam engine, cotton spinning and weaving, metallurgy Stephenson locomotive. The craft shops are replaced by factories.
- The revolution in transportation: the railroad, the real engine of European industrial development.
- The expansion of the Industrial Revolution: After England, it was extended by France, Belgium, Holland, and outside Europe, the United States after its independence and Japan. The Mediterranean countries like Spain or Greece and Eastern Europe were behind this technology race.
The changes affected mainly in two areas:
- The textile industry.
- The steel industry.
From 1870, a series of changes in the global economy made us think that we entered a different stage, called by historians the Second Phase of the Industrial Revolution or Great Capitalism. Featuring: corporate concentration and diversification industry.
The petroleum and electricity were replacing coal, to be sources of cheaper energy and higher calorific value. Oil well again revolutionized transportation, since it allowed smaller engines and easy to assemble. It was crucial for the automotive industry, which is beginning to develop now. Oil’s importance was such that it triggered a fierce competition for its possession.
Electricity, in turn, allowed riding in areas without coal industries, with new regions to industrialize. It was used for public lighting for means of transport and communication and new industries such as chemicals.
Critical were the following:
- The top industry sectors: Bessemer converter, which cheapened and improved steel quality. Aluminum, although later, was also of great importance. The chemical industry was very booming, the manufacture of explosives, fertilizers, dyes and pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics.
- The development of transport and communications: stresses the telegraph, telephone, radio, the electric tram, etc. Also, the steamship and the opening of canals such as Suez (1869) and Panama (1914) shortened the time for intercontinental travel.
- New forms of work organization: The principles of rational and scientific organization of labor should be the engineer FW Taylor, inventor of the line work, which shall be first applied successfully to the Ford car factory, hence also known as Fordism.
The Revolution brought with it consequences of type:
- Demographic and urban consequences. The European population increased, which ceased to be rural and went to the cities, which grew dramatically. They were established distinct spaces for classes. The best example of these changes was the urban reform carried held in Paris, creating broad avenues, boulevards, and galleries, the history of our beloved malls. But the workers lived in squalid conditions with industries.
- Social consequences. Huge social difference between the bourgeoisie, class owns the means of production (machines, factories, capital, etc) and proletariat. The harsh conditions of the proletariat first reasoned critiques of capitalism, as well as demonstrations and protests, but we will see in the next issue.
- Economic consequences. It started the phenomenon of imperialism, we will see later.
- Cultural consequences. There was a significant change in the mentality and lifestyle of people
In Spain, the industrialization process was lagging behind European countries became more advanced and more incomplete and superficial.
The industry developed very slowly. Emphasize the textile industry, centered in Catalonia with the fabric of cotton and steel, in which the first industries were established in Malaga Spanish (by the proximity of iron), in Asturias (for coal) and a powerful development Vizcaya steel industry. The railroad, not development.
The causes of failure of Spanish industrialization are the shortage of investors. As a result, the Spanish industrialization is marked by strong territorial imbalances. Most of the Spanish industry was concentrated in the Basque Country, Catalonia, and Madrid.
During the nineteenth century, Andalusia remained an agricultural region, so that industrialization found serious problems such as shortage of investors, sources of energy and infrastructure, that is, as in the rest of Spain.
New Times, New Societal Problems
The Industrial Revolution brought about the birth of new social groups, the proletarian. The working class of the early industrialization had a peasant background and went en masse to the cities to work in new factories. They lived in dismal quarters, located near factories or mines in which working families aspired to be used. The working day lasted from 0:14 pm. Wages were very low. And had no rights as workers.
Britain was the first country in which the working class began to organize and fight for their rights. This constant struggle is what is known by the name of fighting organized labor movement or working class to improve their living conditions, usually by peaceful means and violent at times.
The first examples of working-class struggle in England were to carry out attacks against the machines. It is known as Luddism. The first labor unions were born in England in the early nineteenth century and were called Trade Unions (Trades Union), the origin of modern unions.
Since 1825, the British unions are legally recognized and started the modern trade unionism. The next step was the British labor movement’s fight for the right to political participation of the working class.
It is known as the Chartist movement demanding the right to political participation of the working class, because in 1838 the English Parliament introduced a document called People’s Charter. Until 1918 it was not granted Britain the right to vote to all men. However, motivated liberal governments began to adopt tentatively the first laws regulating employment conditions.
Soon they began to lead to proposals for change:
• Utopian Socialism: raised the need to create a new type of social organization more just and equal that would end the exploitation of the working class. Stand Fourier, Owen, and Cabet.
• Internationalization of the labor movement: in 1864 representatives of workers’ associations from various countries succeeded in founding the first International Workers Association (AIT). This partnership sought to integrate labor unions of all countries to raise common strategies of struggle. Its objectives were:
• the struggle for an 8-hour workday,
• the abolition of child labor
• improving working conditions of women,
• the abolition of standing armies and
• the socialization of the means of production.
• It was also said that the strike was the most effective means to achieve these objectives.
• The European labor movement was divided mid-nineteenth century in two trends:
• The libertarian socialism or anarchism, with Russian leader Mikhail Bakunin highlights. Proposes the elimination of the state and hosts.
• The scientific socialism, or Marxism, which followed the ideas of the German Karl Marx. Engels defends with the creation of a social system without private property or economic inequalities. They propose the destruction of the bourgeois liberal through armed revolution. And establish a dictatorship of the proletariat. Led by the Communist Party.
The international labor movement will be definitely divided into three factions, each telling its own international partnership:
• Trade unions and anarchist-inspired groups maintained the original name of International Workers Association (AIT) for international organization.• Political parties and trade unions Marxist who left the path of violent revolution were integrated into the so-called Second International.
• The communist parties and trade unions agreed to follow the revolutionary path and the strategy set by the Russian Communist Party founded the so-called Third International.
The Spanish labor movement, developed with less advanced countries of the Industrial Revolution pioneers, will have a similar evolution to that of other European countries.
Although Spanish anarchism in some cases adopted violent means in the form of peasant revolts and terrorist attacks, finally consolidated a large anarchist union. In the early twentieth century was born the National Labour Confederation (CNT).
Born in 1879 the Spanish Socialist Workers Party and 1888, the General Union of Workers. Its founder, Pablo Iglesias, was a worker of the press, but from the very beginning, Spanish socialism had prominent members not belonging to the working class (intellectuals, doctors, middle-class employees …).
Although without giving up its aspirations to create a socialist society, the Socialist Party agreed to participate in the electoral game. Pablo Iglesias in 1910 achieved a record of deputy and led to the Spanish parliament for the first time, the voice of the working classes.
In the early twentieth century, the two major branches of the Spanish labor movement had evolved along different paths. The Anarchists were still in their aspiration to create a new company by the revolutionary general strike to destroy the capitalist system. The PSOE and the UGT, meanwhile, gave up the armed revolution, accept the participation in the liberal democratic system to get from the inside, improving the living conditions of the working classes.
Started the twentieth century, after the Russian Revolution, the Socialist Party suffered a split of Marxist supporters to imitate Spanish armed revolution, they founded, following the instructions of the Russian Communist Party, the Communist Party of Spain.
Europe Dominates the World: 19th-Century Imperialism
The nineteenth-century imperialism was the logical consequence of the development of the industrial revolution. On the one hand, the growth of industry and capitalist economy needed new territory, markets, raw materials … It penetrated Africa and exploration in Asia. The white man was superior to the rest of humanity and right to dominate.
The causes of the imperialist expansion of Europe in the nineteenth century, around the world are manifold:
• Growth of the European population: In the second half of the XIX century the European population increased from 300 to 450 million people, thanks to advances of the Industrial Revolution that we saw. This caused a heavy population pressure on economic resources.
• The needs of the new European economic system: Getting raw materials and cheap energy sources, which in Europe were scarce. Also over time, the markets began to show signs of saturation. It was necessary to find a new market in which to place these funds.
• Political causes of imperialism: After the triumph of the bourgeois revolutions in Europe, the bourgeoisie increasingly evolved toward more conservative positions for fear of protests by the masses. In addition, various European powers were trying to achieve military and commercial control of major sea and land routes, trying to keep out competitors in the area of influence of each nation.
• Ideological and scientific factors: It strengthened the promotion of geographical and anthropological studies. Geographical societies reached an extremely important and helped to disseminate the findings through conferences and congresses. Darwinism, with its assumptions about the evolution of the species justify the predominance of whites.
During the nineteenth century spread the great colonial empires:
• The British Empire: it was the longest of all. Reached maturity during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). His dominions extended from Asia, the Mediterranean, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.
• The French Empire: it was the second-largest empire in importance and extent. Your maximum driver was Jules Ferry. It spread through Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas.
• Other colonial empires were those of Russia, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Spain and at the end of the century, joined the process the United States and Japan.
The colonial empires, had the following forms of colonial domination and organization
• Colonies of direct administration. It was the most widespread type
• Protectorates. It was a model used by France (Morocco) and Britain (Burma).
• Domains. Were the cases of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
• Metropolitan area. This was the case of Algeria for France.
Contrary voices were soon raised as the work of the Second International. Other consciousnesses who criticized the policy were the missionaries, witnesses of imperialist action.
As his career progressed Imperialism, also increasing disputes between the powers. To avoid such conflicts, organized the Berlin Conference (1884-1885), adopted these resolutions:
• The settlement would be tracing the major African rivers.
• Any power that had dominated coastal area right inside the territory.
• It is recognized Leopold II of Belgium, Congo’s sovereignty, against France.
The consequences of colonial imperialism were:
• In terms of population. As many births continue to occur, there was a high population growth and the resulting imbalance between population and resources, which lasts until today.• Economic impact. Got better products for export to the metropolis, such as coffee, cocoa, rubber, tea, sugarcane, modifying them landscapes and lifestyles. When necessary infrastructure to move these products were established ports, but following the interests of the colonizers.
• Policy implications. All colonies were dependent on their cities. This anti-imperialism brought in response.
• Social consequences. There was an overwhelming majority of local people marginalized and exploited.
• Cultural implications. The desire to convey to the entire world the values of Western civilization was one of the causes of the advance of imperialism (as we have seen). It tried to impose by force the European customs, the Christian religion, language … which caused a process of religious syncretism and acculturation.
The consequences for cities were noted in the economic field. But tensions were inevitable, leading to the outbreak of World War I (1914-1918).
The World at War: The First World War (1914-1918)
Between 1914 and 1918 the world experienced the First World War.
The First World War is a logical consequence of capitalism that developed in the second phase of the Industrial Revolution.
The First World War also meant the failure of labor internationalism.
A number of issues were creating tension between the major European powers. The main causes of conflict:
• Territorial disputes between the European powers.
• The unequal distribution colonial.
• The rise of national feelings.
In the early twentieth-century military spending of all European states increased considerably.
The European powers had been completed under two large blocks rivals
• In the heart of Europe, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, formed the Triple Alliance. To which Italy also rose.
• Russia and France formed the Triple Entente. When he joined Britain, in case one of the members entered the war the members had to intervene to help.
The spark that finally triggered the war was an attack on the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, who was shot and killed in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina today.
The game of alliances came into play and the Great War broke out.
The war had several stages:
• War of movements (1914)
• Trench warfare (1915-1918)
• The end of the war (1917-1918). Since 1917 a critical year because Russia holds the Soviet Revolution and the United States entered the war.
The march in front of millions of men and their supplies led to an enormous financial and organizational effort. It has been estimated that for every fighter production was required three workers to provide troops in arms, ammunition, medicines, uniforms, etc.
The economy of all countries suffered during the war, lack of manpower, by the march of men in front, and shortages of raw materials and staples.
The need for money from governments covered in the case of the allies, with loans from the U.S., that from now become the leading economic power in the world, to which the allied countries must largely, his victory.
Finally, the technological and scientific breakthrough that occurred to try to improve the machinery of war. During the war years, there were significant improvements and innovations in land transport, air and sea, or telecommunications
The consequences of the Great War were:
• There were almost ten million dead and more than twenty million wounded and maimed.
• Huge loss of property in areas close to the war front.
• Need for major economic investment. Becoming a United States since 1918 in the great global banker, and their loans allowed the reconstruction of Europe, but created a huge dependence had negative consequences.
The negotiations to sign a final peace treaty took place in Versailles (France) for almost six months in 1919. In meetings attended by representatives from over 32 countries. The major decisions are taken the United States, France, and Britain.
In the final agreement was imposed on Germany harsh conditions, being considered the greatest responsibility for the war. Among others we can highlight:
Other resolution adopted at Versailles was the creation of an international organization with the mission of trying to keep peace in the future. It was called the League of Nations and is the precursor to the present United Nations Organization (UNO). This body was weakened by failing to join it nor the United States or Russia or Germany.
New Map of Europe After WWI
In addition, the winners designed a new map of Europe and the world.
The Working Class Power: The Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution represents the conquest of the state by a party worker who attempt, through the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat, creating the new socialist society in Russia.
At the beginning of the twentieth century Russia was an empire of enormous extent, covering much of Europe and Asia, had about 175 million inhabitants and integrating peoples from diverse nationalities, languages, cultures, and religions.
Despite its size and population, the early twentieth century Russia was a backward country in all aspects,
• The form of government in Russia was absolute monarchy by divine right, the last remaining in Europe. Its emperors used the title of Tsar.• Russian society was dominated by a nobility who owned almost all the wealth of the country and filled all important government posts.
• The Russian bourgeoisie was weak, had little economic power and no political clout. It consisted of small businessmen, officials, intellectuals … He had not developed a commercial and industrial bourgeoisie.
• The majority of the population was made up of a rural poor, illiterate, and superstitious.
Since the mid-nineteenth century Russia had developed in opposition movements to the absolutist system of government and maintaining the privileges of the nobility.
In 1905 the situation of the lower classes of Russia was desperate. The economic crisis and the high cost of living had been issued after a resounding defeat of Russia in a short war against Japan (1904).
The government’s response to the demands of the strikers and protesters were bloody.
The beginning of the First World War was disastrous for Russia. The war accentuated the economic crisis and prices of staples, which were scarce in the city soared. The discontent of the masses grew hungry at times and increasing protests across the country.
Tsar Nicholas II, who already has the backing of the army, resigned and organized a provisional government.
The head of the provisional government went to Kerensky, the moderate Socialist who tried to calm the Social Democrats (Marxists) who controlled the city by the Soviets. He promised to hold elections by universal suffrage to elect a Constituent Assembly to draft the constitution for the new republic.
Defeats at the front and rear continued the hunger and hardship did not improve, the Soviets had been created, now controlled by the Bolsheviks of the Social Democratic Party, refuse to dissolve and begin to organize their own popular government, supported by workers and soldiers.
The arrival to Russia from exile of the leader of the Bolshevik Party, Lenin, in April 1917 that identifies the objectives to be pursued by the Soviets controlled by his party:
Lenin’s proclamation is summarized in the words All Power to the Soviets.
Following the instructions of Lenin, the Russian Communist Party, which controlled the Soviets of the major cities, prepared an armed insurrection against the Provisional Government.
On the night of October 24, troops loyal to the Soviets took over strategic points of the capital. President Kerensky managed to escape.
The Bolsheviks created a Council of People’s Commissars, headed by Lenin, which proclaims to the whole of Russia as the country’s new interim Government.
Between 1917 and 1924, the year of his death, Lenin led the Russian government. There were still many forces opposed to the Communist Party organized to resist and provoked a civil war that lasted until 1921.
The new Russian government workers in late October issued a series of decrees that made it clear that his intent was to gain the support of the masses of workers and peasants of the country.
• Decree on Peace..
• Decree on the ground.
• Decree about nationalities.
• Decree on banks and companies
• Decree on elections
Between 1918 and 1921 the communist government faced a civil war against their opponents and harsh economic measures to maintain the war. These are the years that are known as war communism.
Finally, the mighty Red Army, organized by Trotsky, Russia won the war and was finally converted into a Federal Socialist Republic of Soviets of Russia.
When the Communists ended up controlling power in the different territories of the former Russian empire soviet socialist republics creating them is ultimately organized the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which maintained this organizational structure until the end of the twentieth century
Lenin died in 1924 and the Communist Party, which had ended by becoming the real owner of the State, opened a personal struggle to seize power. The rise of Stalin in the party had allowed him to control all the high positions, people you trust, so easily seized state power.
Since 1924, the dictatorship of the proletariat, which had become the dictatorship of the Communist Party, will be transformed into a personal dictatorship of Stalin. But we’ll see in the next block.
The Evolution of Painting: From Goya to the Vanguards
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes was born in the Aragonese town of Fuendetodos (near Zaragoza) on March 30, 1746. In 1763 he traveled to Madrid, where he befriended Francisco Bayeu, court painter, whose sister Josefa married in 1774. He is due to participate in important commissions for the basilica of Our Lady of Pilar de Zaragoza.
He also traveled to Italy (Rome, Venice, Genoa …) and his return to Spain he moved to Madrid and began working for the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Barbara.
In the winter of 1792, Goya contracted a serious illness which left him totally deaf and marked his style. Between 1797 and 1799 drew and etched the first of his great series of etchings, Los whims, which, with deep irony, social satire defects and superstitions of the time. Other series were the Disasters of War, Bullfighting, and Follies.
During the War of Spanish Independence (1808-1814) depicts human cruelty. In 1814 he conducted the May 2, 1808 in Madrid: the burden of the Mamluks and the May 3, 1808 in Madrid: the executions on Principe Pio hill.
After the war of Independence the decrease in the number of orders marked its evolution. That era is the famous series of Black Paintings (1820, Museo del Prado), named for its content and color. They are a bitter denunciation of the darker aspects of being human.
With the political situation in Spain during the absolutist reign of Ferdinand VII, he settled in France. He died in Bordeaux on the night of 15 to April 16, 1828.
Considered by many as “The Father of Modern Art” has greatly influenced later artistic movements such as Impressionism, Expressionism, Surrealism, etc.
Realism
Realism appeared in France around 1850, and tries to capture reality as it is, so that anyone can understand the work and that is accessible to the whole society.
Realism is based on progressive social and political approaches, do not forget that 1848 is the year of publication of the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels.
Also intended as a scientific art, because it is based on what our senses pick up, without giving it metaphysical or spiritual values. Was determining the influence of photography, developed at the time, which allowed capture moments of life.
Realistic painting can be divided into two trends: paintings of landscapes and figures.
Landscape Painting
Stresses the Barbizon School, a group of painters who serve as transition between the romantic scenery and Realism. They were the inventors of the painting plain air au “, ie that made the air. Whose only reason for painting the landscape.
Figure Painting
The main teachers of this facet of realism are Courbet, Daumier, and Millet.
Impressionism
The Impressionists, which emerged in 1865, took the latest optical theories of the time, and based on the following principles:
• Recruitment of light
• Colors
• The drawing disappears
• Appearances successive
• Work outdoors
The main impressionist masters are:
• Edouard Manet
• Claude Monet.
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Edgar Degas.
Post-Impressionism
When the Impressionists began to run low, ie in the 80s, emerging artists a series of even more innovative and will have a lot of impact on twentieth-century painting.
The first movement is Pointillism or divisions, by artists such as P. Signac and G. Seurat.
Other heterogeneous movements of the late nineteenth century will be the Symbolism and Modernism
Stresses Gaugin. Their work begins in Impressionism, but soon leaves it, primarily interested in color, which introduces flat spots without perspective and vivid colors. Though no longer leave this trend will gradually introducing into his paintings primitivism that both attracted him, fascinated by the art of native peoples with whom he lived and Japanese art.
Cezanne felt that everything that exists in nature is geometrizable, ie, simplify and reduce the basic geometric shapes such as circles, cylinders, cubes …
Van Gogh. Its originality makes unclassifiable in any style, but it can be considered a precursor of several, such as Expressionism, for his obsession with capturing the states of mind, and Fauvism, for freedom and intense use of color. It is unmistakable classic stroke your thick and twisted, as if it were the product of this emotional imbalance, twisted lines.
Toulouse-Lautrec is a revolutionary graphic art, especially the cartoon and poster. He left a deep impression, because with its sharpness, flat colors and spontaneous drawing, just like him to capture the gay life, movement, and the party.