4

Chapter 18: What is known as the "Industrial Revolution" occurred between 1750 and 1900. In some ways the Industrial Revolution continues today as more countries become industrialized. In its early stages the Industrial Revolution started in Western Europe and England in particular. There was a rapid growth in population in Western Europe China and Japan. This caused the main sources of energy wood and charcoal to go up in price and to go scarce. In the Industrial Revolution humans turned to fossil fuels, coal, oil and natural gas. Dependence on these continues today as the environmental costs grow higher each year. The new sources of energy and technological innovation which included the development of many new machines such as steam engines or the cotton gin and new means of communication meant that the textile industry could be developed along with iron and steal production, rail roads, steam ships, chemicals, electricity and much more. Even agriculture was changed as mechanical reapers and eventually tractors changed farming. the new nations that formed in Europe following the revolutions led to support for commerce and innovation. The states granted charters and monopolies to private trading companies and market based economies developed. Increased commerce between Europe and Asia caused inexpensive Indian textiles to flood the European market. This competition encouraged innovation in the British textile industry. Even the popularity of Chinese porcelain inspired production of imitations in England, France and Holland. The European textile industry also benefited from cheap slave-growing cotton.  Great Britain was the first center of the Industrial revolution. The government favored business by putting on tariffs to keep out cheap Indian textiles. The government passed laws to make it easy to form companies and to prevent workers from unionizing. As Britain and other countries became industrialized there was "an economic miracle" (page 832). Agriculture shrank and importance as there were huge increases in mining, manufacturing and services. The middle class benefited the most from the industrial revolution in England. Some business men got so rich they became part of the aristocratic class. For others of the middle class they felt that they had a chance to succeed and become wealthy. A lower class the laborers worked to make industrialization possible. They were drawn into the cities to work in factories. They poorly paid had no safety protections and lived in growing slums. They did protest against their conditions but had little power until trade unions were legalized in 1824. Some of the workers were drawn to various kinds of socialism such as that of Robert Owen and Karl Marx. Marx understood that industrial society was based on the capitalist class, those who owned the factories and the other means of production having power over the labor of the working class who did not own what they produced. Industrialization spread through Western Europe and at the end of the 1800's it was in progress in the United States, Russia and Japan. Everywhere the changes that happened in England happened where there was industrialization such as the creation of the middle class and a factory working class. Middle class women generally withdrew from paid labor and kept house for their working husbands. working class women did  not have that choice and suffered greatly. Socialism became popular in the United States just as it had in England as a protest against the powers of the huge companies such as the US steal corporation. There were wide spread labor protests and worker violence in the United States. One example is the strike in 1892 against the Homestead Steal Plant near Pittsburgh. American unions however were more conservative than those in Europe. Russia's industrial revolution did not really take hold until the late 19th century. It focused on rail roads and heavy industry such as steal production. As the middle class and class of factory workers grew they were attracted to Marx's socialism and built a movement that led to the Russian revolution in 1905.