Industrial Revolution: Agricultural, Technological, Financial and Social Changes
The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a historical process characterized by the introduction of new machinery in the production and transport of goods.
Agricultural Revolution
Changes in land use, mixed with new machinery and new techniques (4-year crop rotation), increased production and reduced the number of people needed to do the same work.
Demographic Revolution
The availability of products (food) increased a lot. The population increase, mainly in Europe, surpassed the number of people needed in factories, so many people moved to other places to find a job.
Technological and Transport Revolution
The first engine was invented at the beginning of the 18th century, but it was inefficient and was only applied to coal mining. It was the Scottish inventor James Watt who improved this steam engine around 1764. The combination of the steam engine and different means of transport caused a revolution in travelling possibilities and in the transport of goods around the earth. In Spain, the first train line was opened in 1848 between Barcelona and Mataró.
Financial Revolution
Technical development led to an increase in population and trade, which expanded business and created bigger companies, leading to the stock market.
First Industrial Revolution
- Start: around 1770 in England, then Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany
- Energy: coal and steam
- Machinery: steam energy
- Industry: textile, iron and steel industry
- Transport: navigation and train
- Workers: in factories and mines, and disorganised
Second Industrial Revolution
- Start: around 1870 in Europe and, for example, Japan
- Energy: oil and electricity
- Machinery: combustion engine
- Industry: iron and steel, chemical and electrical industries
- Transport: expansion of navigation and railroads; early development of cars and planes
- Work: the assembly line was developed by Henry Ford; workers began to form trade unions and political parties
The Labour Movement
During the first decades of the Industrial Revolution, workers were not organised. The first workers' associations were benefit societies: workers invested small amounts of their salaries into these societies, which would then help them when needed by paying medical leave, treatments and even pensions. Later, workers started to form trade unions, which aimed to coordinate the fight for better working conditions for workers and their families.
Socialism and Anarchism
- Socialism: an ideology that proposes that the means of production (factories, machines) should belong to the workers.
- Anarchism: an ideology that opposes all forms of authority, political or corporate. Anarchists seek the self-organisation of all people without states or any other political authority.
Class Society
- High class: owners of factories, bankers and the traditional aristocracy
- Middle class: owners of small businesses, lawyers, doctors and small landowners
- Lower class: factory workers and peasants, the largest part of society