w. 40

Monday, 3 October

ENGLISH:

Large numbers have commas in them:

1,200

32,000

487, 909

1,593,000

and so on

Decimals have periods in them:

20.5%

0.1 ppm

1.2 billion

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Some key issues we covered:

-social consequences of the IR: (urbanization, rise of the middle class, increased in education for large sections of society)

-political consequences (formation of organizations such as labor unions, women’s rights movements, abolitionists, even animal rights activists)

-economic consequences (rise of the middle class, gradual increase in wages)

-further political/economic consequences (colonization or economic domination of lands in order to secure natural resources needed for industrial process AND/OR to secure trading partners and opportunities.

The IR is discussed in chapter 25 in your book. There are some very nice summaries, tables, and graphics. See, for example:

pp. 724–725: “The Day of a Child Laborer, William Cooper”

P. 727: “Industrialization” – a summary of some of the effects of industrialization + the growth of cities

p. 724: “Visual Summary – The Industrial Revolution”

The Industrial Revolution starts in England in the 18^th century. In class, I didn’t go into the reasons why the IR starts in England, but here’s a little info. If you need more explanations about this, let me know.

England had the necessary “factors of production”:

1.     land – natural resources – coal, iron ore (malm), + harbors that made it easy to transport

2.     capital – money, tools, machinery – rich Britons from 1700s (agricultural surplas à capital)

3.     labor – growth in population *                                (better agricultural methods meant that fewer farm workers were needed)

ALSO

A.    markets – overseas colonies, U.S., India

B.    best naval fleet in the world (by mid-18^th c. about ½ the world’s sea trade carried on Br. ships)

C.    laws to help business owners (Parliament passed laws that protected businesses)

Consequences of the IR:

 

Factories

With the move from making things by hand to making things with machines, factories are built to house the machines and workers. And as is discussed in Section 2, these factories were often dirty and dangerous. They were often also very uncomfortable places to work in terms of temperature, air, and general sanitation.  Often child and women were employed in the textile factories: there small hands made them suitable for adjusting parts in narrow spaces, and their lack of political and economic power made it easy to take advantage of them as workers.

Urbanization

As factory work expanded, more and more people moved away from the country into the city – which can also be called urban areas. People often lived in very cramped quarters, frequently without good sanitation.

Rise of Middle Class

Over time, wages for factory workers increased, and more people moved opened businesses, allowing them to rise in their socio-economic status.

Political Activism

With a more money and more time, people were able to participate in political activities working for expanded political and economic rights. Examples:

-       labor unions

-       women’s rights movements

-       abolitionist movements

-       animal rights movements

The basis for these political movements are found in the ideas of the Enlightenment. 

We can also note the publication of The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848.

Exploitation of Resources

With industrialization came the need for new and more resources, such as

-       raw material for textiles (cotton and wool)

-       material for making machines (various metals)

-       material for new inventions (rubber)

-       energy to run machines (such as coal and, later, oil)

Europeans took advantage of their presence in many parts of the world to continue to spread their political and economic domination of the Americas, Africa, and much of Asia. The marked increase in European colonies and other forms of domination in the 19^th century and early 20^th century is know as the Age of Imperialism. And we refer to this political/economic domination and exploitation as colonialism.

On p. 777 you’ll find a map of Africa after it was divided among the various European nations. And on p. 792 you’ll find a map of some of Europe’s possessions in Asia and the Pacific. While countries such as Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands are not found on the map on p. 777, they nonetheless played a role in systems of colonialism in Africa. Trading companies run either by the countries or businesses with the countries counted on trade that benefited the European countries. Many of these trade agreements were established at the Berlin Conference of 1884.