4.2 Rise of Social Classes

4.2 Social Impact of

Industrialism

Rapid Urban Growth

●Industrialized areas saw an increase in standard of living

●Urbanization - the movement of people to cities - was rapid as

industrialization grew

●Small town around coal or iron minced quickly bloomed into cities

●Manchester in the 1750’s began with 17,000 people and within by 1780 it

was 40,000, then 70,000 by 1801

●People could see and describe the “cloud of vapor” above the city

New Social Classes

A new middle class grew from industrialization

•Bourgeoisie- upper middle class

– Entrepreneurs benefited most

– Took pride in hard work and success

– Lived in pleasant neighborhoods

– Little sympathy towards the poor

•Proletariat- working class

– Lived in slums, or tenements - multistory buildings divided into apartments; often very unsanitary and lacked basic

necessities

– Work long hours, hard labor (mining)

– Cheap, unsanitary, substandard living

Match

Match the following

• Bourgeoise

• Urbanization

• Proletariat

• Tenements

Upper Middle Class

Movement of people to cities

The working class

small multistory apartments

• Upper Middle Class

• Movement of people to cities

• The working class

• small multistory apartments

Protests

●Proletariat - the working class - had no protections

○Workers were taken advantage of

○Low wages, long hours, dangerous conditions

●Labor Unions - organizations of workers who bargained for better pay and

working conditions - did not exist at first

●1811 to 1813 - Workers protested conditions and machines that were replacing

their jobs

○Luddites - smashed machines and burned factories, they were quickly crushed

●Workers continued to protest despite being forbidden to form worker

associations and protesting was outlawed

Open Ended

Describe the emergence of new social classes

Describe the emergence of new social classes

With rapid urbanization and advances in industry, small towns turned into

busy cities. Increases in population would allow for new social classes to

emerge like the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie lived in

pleasant neighborhoods and valued hard work, but had little sympathy for the

poor. The proletariat, or the working class, lived in slums and tenements while

working long hours without any protections from labor unions.

Methodist Movement

●Many workers found comfort in a religious movement known as

Methodism

●Stressed the need for a personal sense of faith

○Encouraged people to improve themselves

○Follow a sober life

○Follow a moral life

●Took this message to the slums

●Helped channel anger away from revolution and to reform

Working Conditions

●On the farm people worked long hours for low wages, but at their own

pace based on the season.

●In factories, people worked 12-16 hour shifts six to seven days per week

●Had to work at the overseers pace - if not careful, could lose finger, limbs,

or lives from accidents with machines that had no safety features

Working Conditions

●Textile Factories

○Lint in air

○damaged lungs

○if you got sick you could lose your job

●Many factories used women

○smaller fingers

○paid less

●Still expected to do house duties after work

The Mines

●Conditions were even worse than in factories

●Worked in darkness

●Coal dust destroyed workers’ lungs

●Dangers of explosions, flooding, collapses

●Women and children worked in the mines

●Could climb through narrow shafts

●Spent most of their day crawling with heavy baskets

Children at Work

●Initially accepted since children had worked on farms

●Started working around ages seven or eight

●Small enough to crawl under machinery

●Nimble fingers and quick moving

●Worked in blinding dust or darkness

Multiple Choice

Why was it common for children to work in factories and mines?

• Children had worked on the farm so it made sense they could work in factories

• They could climb through narrow shafts

• They had small fingers to work on machines

• All of these

Factory Acts

●Early efforts to limit the work of Child labor was ignored

●Michael Sadler headed a committee to look into child labor practices

●Sadler report brought harsh conditions to light

●New regulations were passed to ease working conditions

●Over time more laws would be passed

○10 hour day

○Children being educated

○Stop hiring women and children for work in mines

Open Ended

Describe the working conditions in factories and mines

Describe the working conditions in factories and mines

Working conditions were difficult and dangerous. Many people would inhale

unhealthy air that could damage their lungs. Without labor unions, if someone

got sick or injured, they could lose their job. Often times children were

employed at the ages of seven or eight and work in pure darkness or blinding

dust, and be required to carry heavy baskets of coal while risking cave ins,

inhaling coal dust, and falling from poorly made ladders. Many people would

work long 12 to 16 hour shifts and have to work at the pace the factory owner

set.

Benefits of Industrial Revolution

●Standard of living - the level of material goods and services available to

people in society - rose for most people

●People could enjoy the “finer things” in life

●New inventions were constantly being created

●New ideas were spread

Social and Political Impact

●Opened new opportunities for success which allowed for…

●Social mobility - the ability for individuals or groups to move up the social

scale

●Before this, birth determined your status and rank in society

●Many people embraced the “rags to riches” idea

●More political rights came about for the middle class

○Right to vote for middle class workers

○Labor unions won the right to bargain with employers for better wages

Match

Match the following

• Level of material goods available to society

• Organization of workers who bargained for better pay and working conditions

• the ability to move up within a social hierarchy

Standard of living

Labor Unions

Social Mobility

• Standard of living

• Labor Unions

• Social Mobility

What were some benefits and challenges to
industrialization?

For many people, the standard of living rose during industrialization and so
they could afford more goods and services than before. Social mobility
allowed for people to advance in social status and class and many success
stories of “rags to riches” became known.

Some challenges were the health risk to workers as well as having no
protection from labor unions to bargain on the behalf of workers with their
employers. Tenements and slums were run down and full of overcrowded
families that lacked basic necessities.

Open Ended

What were some benefits and challenges to
industrialization?

Laissez-Faire Economics

●Physiocrats - enlightened thinkers on economics - thought that leaders

should have a “hands off” approach to the market

●Adam Smith - asserted that a free market would benefit everyone. This is

a markets with unregulated exchange of goods and services.

●Believed it would produce more goods at lower prices so they were

affordable to everyone

Thomas Malthus

●Laissez-faire thinker whose writings influenced economic ideas

●Grimly predicted that poverty wa inevitable

●Population increasing faster than food supply

●Said that the only checks on population growth were war, disease, and

famine

●As long as population keeps increasing, the poor will suffer

●Many took sides with this bleak view

●However, food supply did grow with the population as time went on

Socialist Thought Emerges

In an effort to end poverty, new ideas began to emerge.

• Socialism- The people as a whole, rather than individuals,

would own and operate the means of production

• Means of production: farms, factories, railways and other

large businesses that produced and distribute goods

Socialist Thought Emerges

●Grew out of the enlightenment faith in progress and human nature

●Many socialist governments gained power in the 1900’s

●In practice the distribution of goods would often prove inefficient

●Forms of socialism could be vastly different from one another

Robert Owen

●Social communities would try and create a classless society

●In theory this eliminated fighting and no distinction between rich and

poor as everyone owned property in common

●These socialists were called Utopians

●Robert Owen - Utopian social reformer who set up a model community at his

cotton mill in Scotland

Multiple Choice

Farms, factories, railways and other large businesses that produce and distribute goods are known as

• Urbanization

• The means of production

• Labor unions

• Social mobility

Marx and the Origins of Communism

Karl Marx and the Origins of Communism

●Karl Marx - German philosopher who, with Frederick Engels, published The Communist

Manifesto predicting class struggle - known as the founder of Communism

○Saw Utopians as unrealistic

○Despised capitalism

○Brought prosperity to the few and poverty for many

●According to Marx, communism would bring a classless society to the world where the

means of production would be owned in common for the good of all

●Believed there was a class struggle between the "have" and "have nots"

○Proletariat?

○Bourgeoisie

Karl Marx and the Origins of Communism

●Marx predicted that the proletariat would be triumphant in the class struggle

●Workers would take control of the means of production and set up a classless,

communist society

●Struggles of the past would be gone and wealth and power would be equally shared

●Wherever communism came to be practiced:

○Led by a small elite

○Controlled economy and political life

○Authoritarian control over the people

○Command economy

Multiple Choice

What was the main idea behind communism?

• For the proletariat to bargain for better wages in exchange for the means of production

• For the proletariat to revolt and create a new capitalist society based on merit and social mobility

• For the proletariat to revolt and create a classless society where wealth and power was shared equally

• For the proletariat to revolt and a new elite class to emerge who controlled all of the economy to spread as they saw fit

Marxism Finds Support

●In time would gain support

●Political parties emerged and promoted goals of violent revolution

●Goal to achieve a classless society

●1860’s - socialists adapted Marx’s beliefs to form social democracy - a

political ideology in which there is a gradual transition from capitalism to

socialism and NOT a violent overthrow of the system

●Rift began to form between strict Marxists and social democrats

Marxism Finds Support

●Russian socialists embraced Marxism and formed a communist party

●In 1917 The Russian Revolution set up a communist government that

lasted until 1991

●Many other countries adapted these ideas

●Asia, Latin America, and Africa

Did it Work?

• Standard of livingof the working class improved in industrialized

nations. The amount of goods produced, lowered the cost and now

that they could afford the ‘finer things’, life wasn’t so bad…

• Predicted workers of the world would unite, instead nationalism

intensified

• Workers identified as German or Italian, rather than with working class

people of all nations

Describe the origin and characteristics of socialism and
communism

With the goal of ending poverty and injustice, people tried to find a solution in socialism where the

means of production would be owned by the people as a whole and not private individuals or large

businesses. This would also bring about a movement of Utopian societal ideas. Where everyone

worked well with one another and there would be no social classes or fighting.

Karl Marx believed that there was always a class struggle between the have and have nots. In his

theory, Marx suggested that the workers would unite to overthrow the bourgeoisie and take control

of the means of production. This would lead to a classless society where power and wealth would be

shared equally.

Open Ended

Describe the origin and characteristics of socialism and communism