Date post: | 26-Dec-2015 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | louise-fisher |
View: | 215 times |
Download: | 0 times |
1) Urbanization = growth of cities (as workers migrate to cities to find work)Problems: miserable living conditions for the working class (middle & upper classes live outside cities in larger suburban estates):
Problems of rapid urbanization:• No city planning to manage growth = chaotic &
unorganized development (growth is too much, too fast… outpaces needed public services)
• No sanitation codes = dirty & polluted (sewage & trash disposed of in unpaved streets & rivers; coal soot covers buildings)
• No building codes = poor housing (poorly built, overcrowded slums… fire hazard!)
• Poor sanitation + overcrowding = epidemics & disease, shortened lifespans (no public health services)
• Inadequate (or absent) police & fire services• No public education• No parks, libraries
2) Urban problems are SLOWLY fixed over the next two centuries, as [MUNICIPAL] governments collect taxes from individual income, property, and business profits to eventually respond with investments in public services:
→ paved streets
→ sewers
→ parks
→ modern municipal services (fire, police, trash collection, building code inspection &
enforcement)
3) Industrialization fosters growing CLASS DISTINCTIONS:
I. UPPER CLASS: • Traditional upper class: landowners and aristocrats
(inherited wealth, based on land ownership and family legacy)
• New industrial upper class: factory owners & entrepreneurs, merchants, bankers (begin to rival, then join upper classes economically; initially resented by the traditional upper class!)
3) Industrialization fosters growing CLASS DISTINCTIONS:
II. A new & emerging MIDDLE CLASS: • Upper Middle: government employees, doctors, lawyers,
managers, accountants, business professionals, wealthy farmers
• Lower Middle: skilled workers, tradesmen, mechanics, overseers (lower-level managers)
3) Industrialization fosters growing CLASS DISTINCTIONS:
III. WORKING CLASS (aka: lower class):Less skilled, less educated laborers Which do YOU come from?
4) CLASS TENSIONS RISEWorking class increasingly reacts to immense differences in wealth, income, living & working conditions:
1. RIOTS, DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY (Luddites*)
2. PROTESTS & DEMONSTRATIONS
3. ORGANIZATION → FORMATION OF LABOR UNIONS
4. EMIGRATE!
*The original “rage
against the machine”:
Property to be protected
with force... while
workers' lives were
considered expendable.
5) GOVERNMENT REACTIONS to working class unrest:
• Arrest, sometimes shoot demonstrators (or allow companies to hire their own security force to do so)
• Protect property, and the ECONOMY, from “the mob”
Reasoning: uphold “law & order” and protect property, using violence against workers (if necessary… and sometimes when not necessary!)
• LAISSEZ-FAIRE policies (for owners to profit, not for workers to organize) will continue well into the 20th century; unions are eventually tolerated, and later given legal recognition (not until 1935 in the U.S.)
• Slow, creeping government reform occurs only when forced to after conditions become too terrible to ignore, and workers gain sympathy from a wider public audience
(early examples: Factory Act (1833), Mines Act (1842))
6) NEGATIVES OF EARLY INDUSTRIALIZATION… widespread suffering:
- dangerous & unhealthy working conditions
(factories & coal mines were dirty, poorly lit, and lacking in safety… workers were often injured by machines & industrial accidents, with no compensation)
- polluted air & water (at work and in the environment)- child labor (no nationwide public education until 1920's)- low wages (esp. for children & women)- long hours (14 hours a day, 6 days a week)- dull, repetitive work (machine pace, round the clock)- DE-HUMANIZING CONDITIONS (owners regard workers
as disposable, easily replaced)- wealth & income disparity: large income gap between working class and middle & upper classes, leads to… - class tensions (working class v. middle & upper classes), sometimes resulting in violence & social instability
7) POSITIVES OF INDUSTRIALIZATION
+ Job creation & growth in employment opportunities+ Gradually rising wages (esp. compared to farming)+ More affordable consumer goods+ Technological progress, more comforts & conveniences+ Growing national wealth (but very unevenly distributed!)+ A rising standard of living (over the long-term) for most people (today’s middle class routinely enjoys what previous generations would consider to be luxuries)+ More education (due to need for skilled workers)+ Growth of the middle class (wealth no longer dependent on land ownership)+ Eventually (long term), improved working & living conditions (unions, labor laws)+ Longer life spans (more food, better medicine & health)