THE Industrial Revolution it was the period of great technological development that began in England in the second half of the 18th century and that spread throughout the world, causing great transformations. It ensured the emergence of the industry and consolidated the process of formation of capitalism.
The birth of the industry caused great transformations in the world economy, as well as in the style of life of humanity, as it accelerated the production of goods and the exploitation of the resources of the nature. In addition, he was responsible for major transformations in the production process and in labor relations.
The Industrial Revolution was pioneered in England, from the second half of the 18th century, and this pioneering spirit is attributed to the English by the fact that it was there that the first steam engine appeared in 1698, built by Thomas Newcomen and perfected by James Watt in 1765. Historian Eric Hobsbawm even believes that the Industrial Revolution did not actually start until the 1780s.|1|.
One of the main inventions of the First Industrial Revolution was the steam locomotive.
The technological advance characteristic of the Industrial Revolution allowed a great development of machinery aimed at textile production, that is, clothing. With that, a series of machines, such as the “spinningjenny”, “spinningframe”, “waterframe" and the "spinningmule”, were created for weaving threads. With these machines, it was possible to weave an amount of yarn that manually would require the use of several people.
Later, at the beginning of the 19th century, the technological development was used in the creation of the locomotive and railways, which, from the 1830s, were built throughout England. The construction of railroads contributed to expand industrial growth, as decreased distances, by making trips shorter, and increased the locomotion capacity of goods.
The development of the railways took advantage of the prosperity of the English industry, as the the financiers of its construction were precisely the capitalists who prospered in the Revolution Industrial. This is because English industry could not absorb all the surplus capital, making investments in the railways happen.
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The worker in the Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution also generated major changes in the mode of production of goods. Before the emergence of industry, production took place through the manufacturing mode of production, that is, a mode of manual production that used the artisanal capacity of those who produced. Thus, manufacturing was replaced by machinofacture.
With machinery, it was no longer necessary to use several specialized workers to produce a product, as a person handling the machines would be able to do the entire process by herself. Thereby, the worker's salary plummeted, as employees with manual skills were no longer needed.
This is evidenced by the statistics brought by Eric Hobsbawm that show how the wages of the British worker fell with the rise of the industry. The example raised was Bolton, a city in the west of England. There, in 1795, a craftsman was earning 33 shillings, but by 1815 the amount paid had fallen to 14 shillings, and between 1829 and 1834 that wage had plummeted to almost 6 shillings. |2|. Here we noticed a sharp drop in wages and this process took place across England.
In addition to the low salary, workers were forced to deal with a work loadstrenuous. In English industries during the Industrial Revolution period, the daily workday used to be up to 16 hours with only 30 minutes of lunch break. Workers who could not make it through the day were summarily replaced by others.
There was no type of security for workers and constantly accidents happened. The most common accident was when workers got their fingers caught in the machine, and many lost them. Workers who were absent due to health problems could be dismissed and would not receive their salary. Only employees who worked effectively were paid.
This degrading situation caused the workers to mobilize little by little against their bosses. This led to creation ofworkers' organizations (better known in Brazil as unions) and calls in England from tradeunion. Workers demanded wage improvements and reduced working hours.
Representation of a 19th century workers' revolt.
Chartism and playfulness
Two major workers' movements emerged from these organizations were the playfulness it's the Chartism. O playfulness had outstanding performance in the period between 1811 and 1816, and its strategy consisted of invade factories and destroy machines. This was because the adherents of Luddism claimed that machines were stealing men's jobs and therefore should be destroyed.
O chart movement, in turn, emerged in the 1830s and fought for labor and political rights for England's working class. One of the main demands of the chartists was the universal suffrage masculine, that is, the right that all men could vote. The Chartists also demanded that their class have representation in the English Parliament.
The mobilization of workers resulted in some improvements throughout the 19th century. The pressure exerted by the workers was mainly through strike. One of the most noticeable improvements achieved by the workers was the reduction of the working day to 10 hours a day, for example.
The mobilization of workers as a class, that is, poor (proletarians), was not a phenomenon that arose specifically because of the Industrial Revolution. In the words of Eric Hobsbawm, the confrontation of the bosses by the workers happened, because the French Revolution gave them confidence to do so, while “the Industrial Revolution brought the need for permanent mobilization”|3|.
Read too:Proletariat - the class of workers without their own means of subsistence
Why did the Industrial Revolution first happen in England?
The Industrial Revolution first dawned in the second half of the 18th century in England and gradually spread across Europe and then throughout the world. But why did this necessarily happen in England? THE The answer to this is found a little in chance and a little in English history itself..
First, it is important to establish that technological and industrial development in England was possible, because the bourgeoisie established itself as a class and ensured the development of the English economy towards capitalism. This happened in the 17th century, with the glorious revolution.
The Glorious Revolution took place in 1688 and consolidated the end of absolutist monarchy in England (which had already been weakened since the Puritan Revolution, in the 1640s). With that, England was transformed into a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, in which the power of the king was not above Parliament or the Constitution, in the case of England the Bill of Rights – Bill of Rights.
Thus, the bourgeoisie was able to consolidate itself as a class and govern in a way that served its economic interests. A key event in the development of English commerce took place in the middle of the two seventeenth-century revolutions cited above. In 1651, Oliver Cromwell decreed the actsinNavigation, law that decreed that goods bought or sold by England would only be transported by English vessels.
This law was fundamental, as it protected trade, weakened British competition, and ensured that British ships controlled maritime trade routes. This enriched the English bourgeoisie and allowed them to accumulate capital. This capital was used in the development of machines and in the installation of industries.
But capital surplus alone was not enough to guarantee industrial development. Workers were needed, and the 18th century England had surplus labor. This is related to the enclosures which took place in England and which intensified from the 17th century onwards.
The fences happened due to the Law of Enclosures (EnclosureActs), English law that allowed common lands to be fenced off and turned into pasture. Common lands were part of the feudal system, which stipulated certain areas to be occupied and cultivated by peasants.
With the enclosures, the peasants who inhabited these lands were expelled, and the land was turned into pasture for raising sheep. The raising of sheep was what provided the wool used on a large scale in the country's textile production. Peasants expelled from their land and having nowhere to go moved to the big cities.
Without any kind of qualification, these peasants were forced to work in the only places that provided jobs – the industries. Thus, the industries that developed in England had surplus labor. This guaranteed the employers bargaining power, as they could force workers to accept starvation wages for an exhausting daily journey.
THE adhesion of workers to industriesoccurred massively also by an English law that forbade people to "loose". Thus, people who were caught wandering the streets without a job could be punished with physical punishment and even death, if they were repeat offenders.
Finally, it is noteworthy that chance and fortuity also contributed for England to emerge as a pioneer. The development of machines and industries only took place, because the England had large reserves of the two essential materials for this: coal and iron. With abundant reserves of coal and iron, England was able to develop its industry wildly.
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Phases of the Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution corresponds to the economic and technological changes that consolidated the capitalist system and allowed the emergence of new forms of organization of society. Technological, economic and social transformations experienced in Western Europe, initially limited to England, in the mid-eighteenth century, had several developments, which we can call phases. These phases correspond to the evolutionary process of the developed technologies and the consequent socioeconomic changes. Are they:
- First Industrial Revolution;
- Second Industrial Revolution;
- Third Industrial Revolution.
→ First Industrial Revolution
THE First Industrial Revolution refers to the process of technological evolution experienced from the 18th century in Western Europe, between 1760 and 1850, establishing a new relationship between society and the environment, as well as enabling the existence of new forms of production that transformed the industrial sector, giving start to one new consumption pattern. This phase is especially marked by:
- replacement of energy produced by man by energies such as steam, wind and hydraulics;
- replacement of artisanal production (manufacture) by industry (machinofacture);
- existence of new working relationships.
The main inventions of this phase that changed the entire scenario experienced at the time were:
- the use of coal as an energy source;
- the consequent development of steam machine and of the locomotive;
- development of Telegraph, one of the first means of almost instantaneous communication.
Production has changed, reducing time and increasing productivity; the inventions enabled a better flow of raw materials, as well as consumers, and also favored the distribution of the goods produced.
→ Second Industrial Revolution
Oil started to be used in the Second Industrial Revolution as a source of energy for the combustion engine.
THE Second Industrial Revolution refers to the period between the second half of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th century, having its end during the Second World War. Industrialization advanced the geographic limits of Western Europe, spreading to countries like the United States, Japan and other countries in Europe.
It comprises the phase of technological advances even greater than those experienced in the first phase, as well as the technology improvement already existing. The world could experience several new creations, which further increased the productivity and consequently the profits of the industries. During this period, there was also a great incentive for research, especially in the field of medicine.
The main inventions of this phase are associated with the use of Petroleum as a source of energy, used in the new invention: the combustion engine. THE electricity, which before was used only for the development of research in laboratories, during this period, began to be used for the operation of engines, with emphasis on the electric and explosion motors. Iron, which was previously widely used, was replaced by steel.
→ Third Industrial Revolution
The Third Industrial Revolution became known as the Techno-scientific Revolution, especially for the development of robotics.
THE Third Industrial Revolution, also known as RevolutionTechno-scientific, it began in the mid-twentieth century, after World War II. This phase represents a revolution not only in the industrial sector, as it started to relate not only the technological development aimed at the production process, but also the scientific advance, moving from being limited to just a few countries to spreading across the world.
The transformations made possible by technoscientific advances are experienced to the present day, and each new discovery represents a new level reached within this phase of the revolution, consolidating what became known like capitalismfinancial. The introduction of biotechnology, robotics, advances in genetics, telecommunications, electronics, transport, among other areas, transformed not only production, but also social relations, society's way of life and space. geographical.
all this development provided by the advances obtained in the various scientific areas are related to what we call globalization: everything converges to the time decrease and of thedistances, connecting people, places, transmitting information instantly, thus overcoming the challenges and obstacles that permeate geographic location, cultural, physical and social differences.
Consequences
In general, the Industrial Revolution transformed not only the economic and industrial sector, but also social relations, relations between man and nature, causing changes in people's way of life, in consumption patterns and in the environment. Each phase of the revolution represented different transformations and consequences according to the advances made in each period.
THE First Industrial Revolution represented a new organization in the capitalist mode. During this period there was a significant increase in industries, as well as a significant increase in productivity (production in less time). The man, when replaced by the machine, left the countryside to go to the cities in search of new opportunities, starting the process of urbanization.
This process culminated in the growthunrestrainedof thecities, in the marginalization of a large part of the population, as well as in social problems such as poverty, violence, hunger. In this phase, too, society organized itself into two poles: on the one hand the bourgeoisie and on the other the proletariat.
THE Second Industrial Revolution had as main consequences, through the greatest technological advance, the increased mass production in much less time, consequently the increase in trade and modification in consumption patterns; Many countries started to industrialize, especially the richest, then economically dominating several other countries (territorial expansion and exploitation of raw materials).
The advance in transport made it possible bigger and better flow of goods andTrafficinpeople; the major cities and with them also the problems like overpopulation; increase in disease; unemployment and an increase in cheap labor and new labor relations.
THE Third Industrial Revolution and the new integration between science, technology and production made it possible advances in medicine; the invention of robots capable of doing extremely detailed and precise work; there were advances in the area of genetics, bringing new techniques that improved people's quality of life; as well as reduction of distances between peoples and greater dissemination of news and information through new media; financial capitalism was consolidated and there was an increase in the number of multinational companies.
And not least, all these transformations made possible by the Industrial Revolution as a whole transformed the way in which man relates to the environment. THE appropriation of natural resources to enable productions and technoscientific advances has caused a great environmental impact.
Currently, the changes caused in the environment have been widely discussed by international communities, bodies and entities, which express the importance of changing the economic development model that exploits natural resources without thinking about future generations.
readalso:Relationship between urbanization and industrialization
Summary
England was the pioneer nation in industrial and technological development in the world.
Through the Industrial Revolution, capitalism was consolidated as the current economic system.
The development of the steam engine is considered to be the starting point of the Industrial Revolution.
It caused profound changes in the mode of production and also in the relationship between employer and worker.
During the height of the Industrial Revolution, British workers received very low wages and were forced to endure a long working day.
The intense exploitation of the work of the proletariat caused the workers to organize themselves into unions.
Two workers' movements were very important in the 19th century: Luddism and Chartism.
The Industrial Revolution took place in a pioneering manner in England due to a combination of factors, which include the country's large coal reserves, the fences, the surplus capital existing in the country. country etc.
The economic, social and technological transformations brought about by the Industrial Revolution are divided into phases, according to productive advances, in the scientific field and in several other areas of the economic and industrial.
The Industrial Revolution can be divided into: First Industrial Revolution, Second Industrial Revolution and Third Industrial Revolution.
The consequences of the Industrial Revolution were diverse. There was an increase in productivity, changes in work relations, changes in society's way of life and consumption patterns; the relationship between man and nature has changed, there have been advances in various fields of knowledge, among other changes.
Grades
|1| HOBSBAWM, Eric J. The Age of Revolutions 1789-1848. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 2014, p. 59.
|2| Idem, p. 79.
|3| Idem, p. 326-327.
By Daniel Neves
Graduated in History
and
Rafaela Sousa
Graduated in Geography
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/revolucao-industrial.htm
