Chapter 22 EQs: How did Europe develop economically while digress socially? What movements emerged in the mid-19 th C in reaction to the inequities in.

Chapter 22

EQs: How did Europe develop economically while digress socially? What movements emerged in the mid-19th C in reaction to the inequities in social

status? What were some of the impacts of economic growth in Europe during this period?

Economic Advance and Social Unrest

Britain had taken the lead in the Industrial Revolution through the end of the 18th century into the 19th century and was at least a century ahead of its competitors on the continent

The Continental Wars coupled with the events surrounding the French Revolution had pretty much kept industrial growth from rapidly occurring in other European nations…there were small pockets of industry in the Ruhr and Saar regions of Germany and in several scattered French cities, but nothing that compared to that of the British Midlands

Britain was able to first expand the world’s most powerful textile industry with very little competition (save the US) and then branch out into other production areas such as transportation, iron and domestic goods (house wares)…the British also had cornered the global market for their goods in Latin America and the US by the beginning of the 19th century

The Industrial Revolution and Impacts

The next serious impact associated with the Industrial Revolution was population growth…even though some areas were not fully industrialized, the advents in political revolution and agricultural development caused growth and migrations to cities

In early 19th century Europe, around 50% of a nation’s population lived in cities/urban areas (as opposed to less than 15% just 2 centuries before)…this change was precipitated by availability of opportunities coupled with the collapse of the feudal system

Conversely, this growth saw an increase in poverty, crime, disease and pollution in these growing urban areas, issues that nations would have to deal with during the 19th century

The Industrial Revolution and Impacts

The industrial revolution brought with it new innovations in transportation, first with the use of steam ships to speed up river transport (later over seas transport) and railroads, which revolutionized overland transportation

Railways were a cheap, efficient systems used to connect urban areas to resources and were first meant to transport goods…then they became a method of people transport

Railways inevitably spurred further industrial innovation, as iron and coal became easier to move in mass quantities

The Industrial Revolution and Impacts

Industry prized talent and efficiency…which was generally lacking in Europe’s populace…most peasants were “unskilled” labor and generally served in menial tasks in the factory

Other unskilled laborers worked in mines, in generally poor conditions OR in transport and movements of raw materials or goods (shoveling coal!)

Skilled workers earned the better wages yet still suffered in poor working conditions and generally still were property-less in their domestic life…this group became the proletariat (the property-less middle class)

This proletariat found themselves shut out by the property owners, not generally through prosperity, but mainly through the political process, in the factory AND locally/nationally

Proletariat artisans eventually found their position threatened by capitalist expansionists who began the mass production of particular items…metal workers, for instance, were not so threatened early on because their skills were not widespread…BUT clothing makers were greatly threatened by the factory process

The Labor Force

The proletariat did become politically motivated…though satisfied with their earnings, they became extremely dissatisfied with their place in the pecking order

The proletariat in England struck the first blow in the 1830s, forming the Chartist movement…reform minded, they had 6 simple demands Universal male suffrage Yearly House of Commons elections Secret ballots Equal election districts Universal representation in House (not

just by property) Salaries for House members

The movement was only modestly successful…parliament refused most of their demands…and the movement was divided between moderate and radical factions…none-the-less, it was the first of many workers oriented movements in Europe

The Labor Force

Political movements also began to focus on the working conditions within the factory

In the proletariat and lower classes, the ENTIRE family worked…dad, mom and the kids by certain ages…child labor became a preeminent issue amongst reformers…children did some of the most difficult tasks in the factory (size)

Women, likewise the children, also received less wages for their work, an inequality that reformers fought hard to change to no avail

Legal reforms that did occur, including the English Factory Act of 1833, only set the maximum number of hours a child could work a day (8) and forced the factory worker to provide and education for their child workers

The Conditions

As previously covered, the advent of industry defined the “supposed” roles of gender as we know them today…women became increasingly domestic and men came to be the sole support for the family

However, some industries used women based on the domestic skills they were best suited…women found lots of work in textile factories (it took a delicate hand!)…however, as time passed, unmarried women and widows were more likely to have factory jobs

Some work for women at home could still be found in what were called “cottage industries”…making delicate fabrics like lace and other time honored weaving (quilting, needlepoint, glove making)

Younger unmarried and even married women also found the most readily available employ in domestic service, as housemaids or nannies

The Conditions

Increased population = increased poverty = increased crime

There were a variety of solutions to deal with these issues… The first popular choice was to export

your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…colonization offered a release of the pressure, particularly for Britain (prisoners were sent early on)

The first organized police forces were established in urban areas…1828, Paris and London (bobbies, so named after Robert Peel) police forces patrolled the streets…those on the continent were armed…police in Britain were NOT

If prisoners were not sent to far flung colonies, they were put in new types of jails, ones that either separated some of the time or all of the time…some prisons promoted complete isolation (ie. Devil’s Island)…all prisons were now required to provide vocational training

The Conditions – “Law and Order”

Malthusian Theory Swede Thomas Malthus postulated in

1798 that the world, now about to reach 1 billion people by all estimations, would eventually reach a point where its “carrying capacity” could not support anymore people

Malthus explained basically that as population increases, food and resources decrease (now known as Neo-Malthusian theory)

Ricardo (Suave!) David Ricardo argued in 1817 that as

wages increased, more children would be produced (more money = ability to feed more mouths) and as wages fell, less children would be produced (this consequently would explain why some employers, through conservative aims, would try to keep wages down)

Theories of Classical Economics

Governments began to look at classical economic theories and adapt them, resenting the ideas of laissez faire France – The July Monarchy oversaw major

capital improvements to the infrastructure of France between 1830 and 1848…though social issues were left untouched (which is why there would be a revolution in 1848)

Germany – formed a free trade union called the Zollverein, which restricted regional tariffs (pre-cursor to the European Union)

In England, the theories of Utilitarianism ruled the day, a simple principle which purported “the greatest food for the greatest number” or “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” (really early socialism)

Utilitarians Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill pushed legislation through the House of Commons…the Poor Law set out to make poverty the most undesirable condition and put poor people in “workhouses”…the Corn Laws were also repealed in 1846 in the wake of famines

Theories of Classical Economics

Utopian Socialism The creation of the ideal community, very

Romantic in nature, since it dates back to Sir Thomas More’s inception of the concept…try to get as close to the Garden of Eden idea as possible

Saint-Simonianism Claude Henri (Saint Simon) said that society would

be best run by experts or rational managers Owenism

Brit Robert Owen determined that human character is shaped by circumstance. It can therefore be transformed by good working conditions, proper housing, and education

Foureirism A system for social reform advocated by Charles

Fourier in the early 19th century, proposing that society be organized into small self-sustaining communal groups (Fourier called them phalanxes, they would basically become communes).

Anarchism

Early Social -Isms

Marxism was nothing new, it virtually relied on all of the previous –isms in some way or another…what was different about it was it targeted capitalist industrialism (greed as evil) and decried government reform in favor of outright revolution

Marx and his buddy Freddie Engels relied on several past theories…Rousseau’s Social Contract established that private property causes antagonisms…Marx and Engels explained the main antagonism was between the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat…Saint Simonism argued for property re-distribution, which was to be a result of a revolution…Fourierism and Anarchy provided the base for what society should be like after the revolution

The result of the revolution would be the downfall of capitalism in favor of socialist anarchy or a classless society

MARXISM

No single factor caused the uprisings the sprung up through out Europe in this calendar year, rather a wave of discontent over the decline of social conditions coupled with famine and unemployment (through a mini-recession) caused outright revolution

In France the monarchy was defeated once and for all…Louis Philippe and the monarchist government were forced into exile and the Second Republic was born…the result was the rise of yet another empire under Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (aka Napoleon III) that eventually failed to alleviate social issues

Habsburg Austria faced growing nationalism from the Magyars in Hungary, the Czechs, the Tirolians (of Northern Italy) and from states in Italy bent on independence from France and Austria…these rebellions were defeated for the moment but would later set the stage for Italian Unification only a decade later

Prussia also experienced a liberal revolution as neighboring German states cried for greater freedoms…the people of Prussia demanded less absolutism and got it as Frederick William IV capitulated to all demands in avoidance of bloodshed…the neighboring German states also capitulated, to Frederick! When they could not establish their own organized government, they offered executive leadership up to the Prussian monarch, setting the stage for German Unification

The Revolutions of 1848