world history essay

The Industrial Revolution

I.

I. Causes and Resources

A. Population

1. population growth continues rapidly in the nineteenth century

2. Increases over 50% from 950 million to 1.6 billion

3. Food production increases linked to much of this growth

a. large areas of new land come under cultivation for farming or grazing

b. railways, steamships, allow for rapid transport from remote areas

c. new fertilizers increase production, open new areas for farming

d. use of industrial technology accelerates food production and processing

4. Increased population provides both greater labor and consumer markets

5. Yet industrialization does not occur in densest population centers (India, China) where labor is very cheap

a. more expensive labor in U.S., Europe, Japan encourages use of labor saving devices

b. very cheap labor in India, China, discourages it

B. Energy

1. significant switch to fossil fuels, coal and peat, then oil

2. used primarily for steam power

3. allows for woodlands to be used for farming - no longer needed for fuel

C. Mechanization

1. steam powered factories in 1800s are several hundred times more productive than hand labor

2. steam powered railways and ships brought raw materials from remote areas, opened up global markets to rapid shipping

D. Militarization

1. larger populations allow for larger armies - which must be supplied

2. governments invest in increased production, accelerating industrialization

3. arms race competition fuels technological advances

II. Industrialization around the world

A. Europe

1. Begins in Britain, with Belgium close behind

2. Patchwork of industrialized areas spreads across Europe

a. certain areas (Belgium, north England, Basque region, others) focus on industrialization

b. other areas mechanize farming, supply industrial zones

3. rapid urbanization in industrial regions

4. Industrial manufacturing largely serves these growing cities

B. United States

1. Heavy immigration in northeast provides labor and market for industrialization

2. Midwest mechanizes food production, develops synergistic relationship with industrial north

3. The South, with slavery before 1865 and sharecropping after, sees only modest industrialization

4. U.S. come to lead the world in production by end of the 1800s

C. Japan

1. Japan already had a large, but largely unmechanized, manufacturing economy in the mid-1800s

2. Heavy state investment helped spur mechanization 

3. used capital from tea, cotton, and silk trade  to fund this mechanization

4. tight relationship between state and private enterprise develops

D. Latecomers

1. China

a. industrialization was limited

b. focused on military technology

c. largely remained focused on providing raw materials to Japan and the world market

d. government more concerned with peasant uprisings, fending off invaders

e. industrialization scattered, not well integrated into national economy

2. India, Egypt, Latin America

a. industrialization often funded by Europe, U.S.

b. generally served the interests of these investors

i. Britain built railroads in India - to move its troops around

ii. Britain and the U.S. build railroads in Latin America - to serve mines and other operation they owned

c. local elites had mixed attitudes about industrialization

i. some seriously pursue it, but needed to borrow capital, creating financial impediments and spotty industrialization

ii. others opposed industrialization as socially disruptive or as unnecessary

III. The Factory and its Impact

A. Working conditions

1. workers move from a life governed by cycles of nature in agricultural work to discipline of mechanical rhythms

2. workers work as individuals; agricultural work had been communal or family based

a. tends to break down family cohesion

b. workers receive individual pay - not as dependent on the family for survival

3. very long work hours - 10-16 common in most of the 19th century

4. working conditions often hazardous - high possibility of injury, frequent exposure to toxins

B. Discipline and paternalism

1. Machine rhythms required a disciplined workforce 

2. Frequently the lives of workers were highly regimented by factory owners

3. This discipline sometime translated into somewhat benign paternalism

a.  living conditions of workers often poor

b. some factory owner provided services to improve workers' lives, such as educational activities

i. born out of an ideology that held the poor lived in bad conditions because they didn't know any better

ii. also from a concern by some factory owners that poor living conditions might lead to social unrest

C. Reform movements develop in the id 19th century

1. often had roots in Christian churches, and emphasized moral reform as a road to uplift

2. communities move towards greater rational city planning, often resulting in cites designed along grids

3. mid-19th century also saw a greater emphasis on public health, notably in dealing with sewage

D. Urbanization increases

1. Industrialization makes massive growth of cities possible

a. factories provide large numbers of jobs in a concentrated area

b. explosion in trade brings resources an jobs to ports, other transportation centers

c. new technologies also enable city growth, such as water treatment

2. Cities over one million begin to become common in late 1800s

3. Explosive growth leads to greater emphasis on urban planning

4. Mass economics of the megacities allows for greater amenities

E. Underdevelopment

1. Explosive growth of industrial economies mirrored by economic distortions in non-industrial regions

2. Agriculture

a. peasant farmers often pushed off land to make room for commercial productions

b. industrialized farms need less labor to produce goods, increasing unemployment (and migration and city growth)

c. many regions begin to focus heavily on industrial and commercial crops for export

d. as local crop diversity decreases, so does local autonomy

3. Mining

a. several regions shift heavily to industrialized mining to supply factors with raw materials

b. labor tends to be harsh and dangerous

c. mines often located in isolated areas, separated from regional economies, and foreign-owned

4. Monoculture becomes more common

a. economies dependent on a single ram material export product, like coffee or cotton

b. highly susceptible to rapid shifts in prices

c. increasingly, price of raw materials does not keep up with the cost of manufactured goods

IV. Labor and Migration

A. Slavery

1. Slavery would seem to violate free trade principles of the Industrial Revolution

2. But high demand for labor intensive crops like cotton in sugar actually increased slavery in the early 19th century

3. In the mid to late 19th century, slavery would gradually decline in the Western world, due to mechanization, free trade ideology, and anti-slavery religious movements

4. For similar reasons, serfdom also largely disappears in the later 19th century

5. Coerced labor, however, does not end

a. convict labor becomes more common

b. millions of Chinese and Indians are exported around the world for very poorly paid jobs in harsh conditions

c. child labor becomes extensive in 19th century factories

B. Migration

1. Transportation technology and rising populations leads to extensive migration

2. Densely populated regions like China and Europe produce tens of millions of migrants in the later 19th century

3. Chinese migration primarily effects southeast Asia, while Europeans go mostly to the Atlantic seaboard of North and South America

4. Underpopulated regions like Siberia and the American Midwest see a dramatic rise in populations

5. Migrants in such numbers dramatically change culture they move into, particular displacing nomadic and semi-nomadic people in thinly populated regions

Global Imperialism

I. Industrial age sees Europe build larger land empires

A. Prior to 1800s, European imperialism outside of Europe was largely maritime and coastal

B. New technologies open up new possibilities

1. Quinine (1850s) enabled Europeans to combat malaria

2. Ocean-going steamships (1819) made regular and rapid travel possible, called for coaling stations

3. Telegraph (1830s) and railroad (1811) would also help to open up interior regions

4. Gatlin (machine) gun (1860s) gave Europeans an important military advantage 

C. Rationale 

1. Legal Justifications

a. Belief that it was legal to take unoccupied, sparsely occupied lands

b. Ignores farmers, cattle raising nomads, and areas of dense population

2. Civilization vs. Barbarism

a. Depends on a racial view of superiority vs. inferiority

b. Based on pseudo-science of Social Darwinism

c. Widely stated (though unclear in practice) belief in a civilizing mission

3. Religious Justifications - as part of the "civilizing mission," many Westerners felt a strong need to evangelize

4. Economic Justifications

a. Colonies a source of profit, of raw materials and of markets

b. Lenin saw imperialism as stage of capitalism

5. Competition and Rivalry

a.  Fueled, again, by industrial needs for markets, raw materials

b. Also fueled by age-old rivalries and belief in Social Darwinism

c. England sought to protect trade routes to India

D. Process of imperialism

1. The Scramble for Africa (1880-1905)

a. Prior to this period, little of Africa was ruled by Europeans

b. European presence primarily in trading posts, small enclaves

c. Coast and interior of Africa already tied to international capitalism by trade

d. Berlin Conference 1884-85

i. Meant to minimize conflicts between colonial powers

ii. Laid out rules

1. Establishment of trading rights, treaties with local rulers would give precedence

2. In essence, first come, first served

3. Europeans would recognize each others rights to territory

4. Maps drawn up to show spheres of influence

5. These maps had little to do with local ethnic and linguistic realities

6. Under these rules, by 1905 all but Ethiopia and Liberia under European control

2. Expansion of older empires

a. move into Africa often extended from established coastal colonies

b. island colonization, notably in Pacific and Caribbean, expands with growing importance of coaling stations

c. settler empires in Canada, Australia, South Africa extend their reach

d. Russia, United States, Argentina, elsewhere, see extensive campaigns against plains and steppes nomads to open lands for colonization

3. Non-Western Imperialism

a. Japan initiates imperial ventures in the west Pacific in response to rising population and expanding Western power

b. Ethiopia under Menelik II (r. 1889-1913) expands its territory, fights off Italians

II. Methods of Imperialism 

A. Indirect Rule

1. Many imperial projects, particularly under the British, used indirect forms of rule

1. These methods were appealing because they involved less cost and less personnel

1. Generally, indirect rule meant reliance on local rulers to handle day-to-day local governance

1. Local rulers cooperated with imperial powers because:

4. they proved useful in providing technologies, specialized expertise

4. they enabled local rulers to defeat rivals, expand their power base, and keep population under control

2. Direct rule

2. British in particular transported groups from on part of empire to another to control locals

1. importing soldiers and bureaucrats from elsewhere cut down on possibility of alliance against the imperial power

1. also gave the imported group an elevated level of prestige, strengthening ties to the empire

2. Peasant production colonies

2. Imperial power would tax local exports and traditional economic activities 

2. Meanwhile, imperial power controlled trade network and imports, while traditional merchants pushed out

2. Settler colonies

3. In this case, the imperialists take direct control of land and any manufacturing

3. Local farmers pushed off land; made to work for wages, pay taxes

3. Mechanized farming introduced

3. Only settles  in many cases allowed to grow certain crops, primarily those used for export

3. Any manufacturing would be shut down if it competed with production in the imperial power's home country

2. Alternatives

4. French turn Burkina Faso into a labor reserve for Sierra Leone's plantations

4. In South Africa, lacks become a labor pool for mines and industry

2. Economic imperialism

3. Generally a form of "indirect rule," in that it rarely involved direct conquest

3. Imperial power would come to dominate local economy without taking control of government

3. This form of imperialism was seen most frequently in Latin America

3. Imperial powers could gain control of a local economy in a number of ways

4.  industrial production could enable them to flood a market with cheap goods, destroying local production

4. local governments, desperate for loans, would make heavy concessions to lending countries

2. foreign investors might be exempted from taxation or any form of regulation

2. railway companies were given free land in exchange for building railroads

2. mining concessions given free of charge to those who would pay to build mines

4. failure to pay debts would give imperial power excuse to seize control of ports or custom houses

c. Often economic imperialism resulted in enclave economies

5. Foreign investors built infrastructure that befitted them, not national economies

1. Railroads would be built from foreign-built mine to the port (itself often foreign built) 

1. They would not be built in a way that linked existing communities or economic activities

e. generally paid very low wages, or paid in scrip that could only be used in company stores

e. also tended to pay little or no taxes

e. thus they frequently contributed little to local national economies

Politics and Thought of the Industrialized World

I. Growth of Nationalism

A. New concept of nation emerges in Europe in early 19th century

B. Defined as a people who share:

1. ethnicity

2. language

3. race

4. culture

C. Nationalism holds that nations are indissoluble and should rule themselves as a single unit

1. linked to Romantic belief in adherence to the truth of nature

2. advanced by populist and democratizing influence of American and French revolutions

3. related also to Roseau's General Will

D. Politically explosive in Europe

1. rejected the idea that a country is defined by the sovereignty of a king

2. some multi-ethnic states begin to suffer instability

3. some multi-ethnic states embark on efforts homogenize their populations as a result

a. can result in violent ethnic cleansing

b. more commonly, seen in efforts to enforce use of a single language and denying the separate existent of certain ethnic groups

E. Originates largely in Europe, soon spreads to other regions

1. Latin America

a. inspires in part the independence wars of 1807-26

b. helps insure that the Spanish empire will break apart into several different countries

c. Portuguese empire remains intact in Brazil in large part because of unifying national symbol of the emperor

2. Ottoman Empire

a. gradual decline inspires nationalist movements

b. tends to work against replacement by a new Empire, but by local national entities like Egypt

II. New Ideas in Governance

A. Constitutionalism

1. written, explicit constitutions defining state powers and citizens' rights slowly emerge in 19th century Europe

2. support the idea that government obtains its powers from law, not tradition or religion

3. tended to expand public participation in government, but not universally

4. outside of Europe

a. Japan authors a conservative constitution in 1882

b. new Latin American countries write constitutions that are largely ignored

c. other experiments in constitutionalism emerge in places on the fringes of European empires

B. Rise of the modern, centralized state

1. Militarization

a. industrialized armies allow for greater centralization of power

b. United States, Germany, Italy, and Japan all see industrialized regions win wars of centralization

c. creation of large armies provides opportunities for expansion or creation single national cultures

d. new industrialized militaries without loyalty to a centralized state will prove dangerously destabilizing

2. Bureaucratic centralization

a. Increasingly, decentralized and hereditary officials replaced with professional, centralized bureaucrats

b. new bureaucrats marked by importance of education, loyalty to central governments

c. aided by expansion of new information technologies, such as telegraph and modern bookkeeping techniques

d. along with military, used as a powerful centralizing force - the most successful modern states have the most efficient bureaucracies

III. New Political Trends

A. Democracy

1. Modern democratic state originates in the United States

a. representative legislature

b. widespread suffrage

c. political parties

d. effectively republican - either no monarchy, or very limited monarchies

2. Resisted in early 19th century Europe

a. violence of French Revolution strengthened anti-democratic attitudes of European elites

b. initial efforts at constitutionalism reinforced elite power

c. new states emerging from Ottoman Empires embrace democracy as a way to repudiate old aristocracy

d. Industrialized states like France and Britain slowly embrace suffrage as a means to accommodate and incorporate rapidly expanding populations

e. In most parts of Europe, remains more limited than U.S. democracy in19th century

B. Socialism and its critics

1. Rooted in Enlightenment ideals of egalitarianism and the perfectibility of mankind

2. Many schools of thought, centered around certain common themes

a. communal ownership of property

b. amelioration of the plight of workers

c. importance of self-help and education of the working class to bring about socialism

d. transition to socialism would be voluntary

3. Karl Marx (1818-1883), Germany (does much of his work in Britain)

a. most influential of the more radical socialist thinkers

b. saw history as passing through stages, each based on the conflict between the owners of the modes of production and everyone else

c. saw current stage of industrial capitalism as marked by the conflict between workers (proletariat) and the ownership class (bourgeoisie)

d. this conflict would inevitably lead to revolution because of the problem of the surplus value of labor

i. workers are paid only a fraction of the value they create, enough to survive on

ii. factory owners invest this "surplus value" into more efficient technology, resulting in the need for less labor

iii. cost of labor goes down, which makes it harder for workers to survive, and means customer base shrinks, financial basis of capitalism becomes unstable

iv. workers gain a revolutionary consciousness, and revolt

e. end result would be Communism, a state managed utopia in which which class conflict would be removed through communal ownership of property

4. Anarchism

a. in general, a belief that the state must be dismantled in order to ensure human freedom 

b. becomes a basis for violent terrorist attacks in the the late 19th century

c. like Marx, most anarchists believed that violent revolution was inevitable and necessary

d. unlike Marx and most more moderate socialists, rejected the state as the means for creating or managing utopia

e. Anarchist thinkers like John Most (1846-96) argued revolution should begin with violent destruction of elites and state power

5. Utilitarianism

a. critical of capitalist state, but also rejects socialism as avenue of reform

b. Jeremy Bentham’s (1748-1842)

i. no natural rights, only pain vs. pleasure

ii. society should maximize pleasure for the greatest number

iii. reform society along pleasure maximization laws

iv. "social utility" - what creates the greatest good for the greatest number - is the guide for reform

c. John Stuart Mills (1806-1873)

i. adds natural rights to utilitarianism, rejecting the idea that the greatest good for the greatest number is the guide for reform

ii. rather, the state should act to prevent harm to the individual

iii. freedom for the individual is paramount

iv. this freedom must however, take place in the context of social priorities

v. those who benefit from society must give something in return as well