why did the industrial revolution first happen in england
...ubstituted for pepper. Urban reformers – To many of the well-to-do-middle classes, this situation presented a danger to society. They felt their own well being was in danger because of the large number of workers, crime, disease and immorality. Edwin Chadwick, urban reformer, became obsessed with eliminating poverty and squalor of the metropolitan areas. New Social Classes: Industrial Middle Class - The rise in industrial capitalism produced a new middle class. The new entrepreneurs were the bankers and owners of factories and mines who enjoyed much wealth. The new middle class bought great estates and acquired social respectability and sought political power. In time, their wealthiest members would merge with those old elites. New Social Classes: Workers in the Industrial Age – The middle class was trying to separate themselves from the laboring class. In the cities, craftspeople remained the largest group of urban workers during the first half of the 19th century. They worked in small industries as shoemaking, glovemaking, bookbinding, printing and bricklaying. They were not factory workers and organizd in guilds where they passed on their skills to apprentices. But guilds were losing their power in the industrialized countries. Fearful of losing out to new factories that could produce goods more cheaply, the craftspeople supported movements against industrialization. Workers in the new industrial factories faced terrible working conditions. Work hours ranged from 12 – 16 hours a day, six days a week, with half hour for lunch and dinner. There was no security of employment and no minimum wage. The worst conditions were in the cotton mills. Conditions were also harsh in the coal mines. Both children and women were employed in large numbers in early factories and mines. Children had been an important part of the family economy working in fields and spinning wool at home with the growth of the cottage industry and were exploited. Factory Act of 1833, the number of children employed declined and women took their places and dominated the labor forces of the early factories. Efforts at Change: The Workers – Workers joined unions which served two purposes: Preserve their own worker’s position by limiting entry into their trade and to gain benefits from the employers. WHAT WERE THE GOALS OF THE UTOPIAN SOCIALISTS Utopian socialists were against private property and the competitive spirit of early industrial capitalism. By eliminating these things and creating new systems of social organization, they thought that a better environment for humanity could be achieved. Early socialists proposed a variety of ways to accomplish that task. One group sought to create voluntary associations that would show the advantages of cooperative living. Charles Fourier (1772-1838) proposed the creation of small model communities called phalansteries. They were self-contained cooperatives, each consisting of 1,620 people who would live and work together for their mutual benefit. Fourier was not able to get funding for this idea. Robert Owen (1771-1858) a British cotton manufacturer – He too believed the idea of a cooperative environment. He was successful in transforming a degraded factory town into a flourishing healthy community. But when he attempted to create a cooperative community in the United States, bickering destroyed his dreams. Frances Wright bought slaves in order to set up a model community in Tennessee. The community failed, but Wright continued to work for women’s rights. Louis Blanc (1813-1882) a Frenchman had another social approach to a better society. In The Organization of Work, he said that social problems could be soled by government assistance. With their plans for the reconstruction of society, utopian socialists attracted a number of female supporters who believed that only a reordering of society would help women. A Belgian follower Zoe Gatti de Gamong established her own phalanstery which was supposed to provide men and women with the same education and job opportunities. Men and women were to share responsibilities for child care and housecleaning. Saint Simon’s cooperative society recognized the principle of equality between men and women and a number of working-class women published a newspaper dedicated to the emancipation of women. One female utopian socialist, Flora Tristan, traveled through France preaching the need for liberation of women. She published, Worker’s Union, with her ideas of reconstructing both family and work. Utopian socialists were ignored by their contemporaries because they felt the utopian socialists’ ideas were impractical. So in the first half of the 19th century, utopian socialists laid the groundwork for later attacks on capitalism that would lead to a much better result. DISCUSS FULLY ACTUAL REFORM PROCESS IN ENGLAND On July 26, 1830 Charles X issued a set of ordinances that imposed rigid censorship on the press, dissolved the legislative assembly, and reduced the electorate in preparation for new elections. His actions produced an immediate rebellion – the July Revolution. Barricades went up in Paris as a provisional government led by a group of moderate liberals was formed and appealed to Louis-Philippe, the duke of Orleans, a cousin of Charles X, to become the constitutional king of France. Charles X fled to Britain, a new monarchy had been born. Louis-Philippe was called the bourgeois monarch because political support for his rule came from the upper middle class. Constitutional changes that favored the upper middle class were instituted. Financial qualifications for voting were reduced yet remained high enough guaranteeing that only the wealthiest people would vote. To the lower bourgeoisie and the Parisian working class, who helped overthrow Charles X, it was disappointing because they had been completely excluded from political power. The rapid expansion of French industry in the 1830s and 1840s gave rise to an industrial working class concentrated in certain urban areas. Terrible working and living conditions and the periodic economic crises that created high levels of unemployment led to worker unrest and infrequent outbursts of violence. The legislature – Chamber of Deputies – had differences of opinion about the bourgeois monarchy and the direction it should grow. Two groups emerged, composed of upper middle class representatives. The Party of Movement – favored ministerial responsibility, the pursuit of an active foreign policy, and limited expansion of the franchise. The Party of Resistance – believed that France had finally reached the perfect form of government and needed no further institutional changes. After 1840, the Party of Resistance dominated the Chamber of Deputies and suppressed ministerial responsibility and pursued a policy favoring the interests of the wealthier manufacturers and tradespeople. Revolutional Outbursts in Belgium, Poland and Italy – Supporters of liberalism played a primary role in the July Revolution in France, but nationalism was the crucial force in three other revolutionary outbursts. In an effort to create a stronger, larger state on Frances’s northern border, the Congress of Vienna added the area known as the Austrian Netherlands to the Dutch Republic. This was not acceptable to the Belgians because of the two states with different languages, traditions and religions. So the Belgians rose up against the Dutch and succeeded in convincing the major European powers to accept an independent neutral Belgium. Belgium was designated a new king and a constitutional monarchy was established for the new state. It was different for Italy and Poland. Austrian troops were sent to crush revolts in three Italian states. Revolutionaries tried to end Russian control of Poland. Poland could not get support from France and Britain, and the Russians had crushed the revolt and established an oppressive military dictatorship over Poland. Reform for Great Britain - In 1830, new parliamentary elections brought the Whigs to power in Britain. The July Revolution in France brought about change in Britain. The Industrial Revolution led to an expanding group of industrial leaders who objected to the corrupt British electoral system, which excluded them from political power. The Whigs, realized that concessions to reform were superior to revolution; the demands of the wealthy industrial middle class could no longer be ignored. In 1830 the Whigs introduced an election reform bill that was enacted in 1832. The 1830s and 840s witnessed considerable reform legislation. The aristocratic landowning class was usually the driving force for legislation that halted some of the worst abuses in the industrial system by instituting government regulation of working conditions in the factories and mines. The industrialists and manufacturers now in Parliament opposed such legislation and were usually the driving forces behind legislation that favored the principles of economic liberalism. The Poor Law was based on theory that giving aid to the poor and unemployed only encouraged laziness and increased the number of paupers. The Poor Law tried to remedy this by making paupers so wretched they would choose to work. Those unable to support themselves were crowded together in workhouses where living and working conditions were intentionally miserable so that people would be encouraged to find profitable employment. Another kind of liberal legislation involved the repeal of the Corn Laws to help workers by lowering bread prices. Abolishing the Corn Laws would also aid the industrial middle classes, economic liberals, who favored the principles of free trade. Repeal came in 1846 when Robert Peel leader of Tories persuaded associates to support free trade principles and abandon the Corn Laws. The Year 1848 which witnessed revolutions in most of Europe, ended without a major crises in Britain. On the Continent, middle class liberals and nationalists were at the forefront of the revolutionary forces. In Britain, however, the middle class had been largely satisfied by the Reform Act of 1832 and the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. WHAT WERE THE RESULTS OF WESTERN IMPERIAL RIVALRY IN AFRICA A new class of African leaders emerged by the beginning of the 20th century. Some were educated in colonial schools and some even in the West. They were the first generation of Africans to know a great deal about the West and to write in the language of their colonial masters. Even though this “new class” admired Western culture and even disliked the ways of their own countries, many came to resent the foreigners and their arrogant contempt for colonial peoples. Westerners had praised democracy, equality and political freedom, but these values wee not applied in the colonies. There were few democratic institutions, and colonial peoples could only hold lowly jobs in the colonial bureaucracy. Also, the economic prosperity of the West was never brought to the colonies. To many Africans, colonialism meant the loss of their farmlands or terrible jobs on plantations or in sweatshops and factories run by foreigners. Even though Africans didn’t suffer to the extent that poor peasants or workers on plantations did, they had complaints. They qualified only for menial jobs in the government or business. The superiority of the Europeans over the natives was expressed in many ways. Segregated clubs, schools, and churches were set up as more European officials brought their wives and began to raise families. Europeans had a habit of calling natives by their first names or calling an adult male “boy.” Many of the new urban educated class were confused toward their colonial masters and the civilization they represented. They were willing to admit to the superiority of many aspects of the Western culture, but these new intellectuals hated colonial rule and were determined to assert their own nationality and cultural views. Out of this emerged the first stirrings of modern nationalism in Africa. During the first quarter of the 20th century, in colonial societies across Africa, educated native peoples began to organize political parties and movements seeking to the end of foreign rule. WHAT WERE RESULT OF WESTERN IMPERIAL RIVALRYIN ASIA China Humiliation of China by Western powers led to much antiforeign violence, but the Westerners used this lawlessness as an excuse to extort further concessions from the Chinese. A major outburst of violence against foreigners occurred in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900-1901. Boxers was the name given to Chinese who belonged to a secret organization called the Society of Harmonious Fists. Their aim was to push the foreigners out of China. The Boxers murdered foreign missionaries, Chinese who had converted to Christianity, railroad workers, foreign businessmen and the Ge...