Industrial Revolution
Give the name of the Industrial Revolution to a series of changes in productive activities, which began around 1760 in England. At that time and in the following decades, the production process has been accelerated by a series of inventions whose central point was the use of steam as the driving force.
The technical development was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution, but not its only element. Whereas the term revolution in its historical significance, indicates a set of deep transformations, the Industrial Revolution fully corresponds to this meaning.
Technically, there were changes not only in the production of capital goods (machinery, equipment) and consumer goods, as well as in agricultural techniques and means of transport. But above all, the Industrial Revolution was marked by economic and social changes. And yet caused changes in the political, intellectual and behavioral field.
The Industrial Revolution was therefore a historical event of enormous magnitude, involving such extensive transformations that deserve to be called revolutionary.
Technological, economic and social changes recorded between 1760 and 1860 correspond to the First Industrial Revolution . The period was characterized by the use of steam engines, made of iron and having as fuel coal.
In the 1860s, the steam-coal-iron triad began to be replaced by electricity, oil and steel , ushering in the Second Industrial Revolution.
Stages of industrial activity
The word industry is of Latin training; in its original sense, it pointed the way to transform raw materials into products to be used or consumed. In this sense, the industry covers three processes: handicraft, manufacture and maquinofatura - the first two being prior to the Industrial Revolution.
The craft is the simplest form of industry. In it, all stages of production are carried out by the same person. For example, in weaving, who also produced the wire weaving. As the craftsman worked at home, aided only by the family, this kind of industrial activity is known as domestic production system.
The manufacturing is a more advanced stage of industrial activity. In it, a number of workers is concentrated at the site of production, which is a division of labor or specialization: the production process is segmented and each worker becomes executai- a specific task without moving or changing tools. Thus, there is a productivity gain. Manufactures arose in Western Europe during the late Middle Ages , driven by commercial and Urban Renaissance.
The maquinofatura , featuring the Industrial Revolution, distinguished by the use of machinery, which either replace the tools of craftsmen as the equipment used in manufacturing.
We must therefore remember that the word industry may eventually be applied to situations prior to the Industrial Revolution. Of course, in these cases, it has the sense of craft or manufacturing - never the maquinofatura.
Handicrafts producers enjoyed a certain independence thanks to the ownership of production tools. With the advent of manufacturing, many self-employed domestic workers took to employees. Stopped buying raw material and have own tools, which were controlled from your employer (usually a large merchant who also owned manufacturing).Thus, the former craftsman only receive payment for their work, without any involvement in the possible profits from the sale of products.
A variant of the domestic production system, which emerged with the Commercial and Urban Renaissance and survived for a long period, were the handwork. Accordingly, the owner worked together with some employees, who received pay or, in certain cases, they share in sales. This was the system regulated by craft guilds of the Middle Ages.
In the modern age, despite the growing importance of manufacturing, the domestic system of production and craft workshops continued to exist, albeit in increasingly precarious conditions.
Industrial English Revolution factors
Several factors contributed to making England the pioneer in industrialization. In addition to the strictly technical elements (inventions related to textile production, improvements in metallurgical and steam job as a driving force), we must consider economic, social, political and mental.
Mercantilist practices adduced to England a huge amount of gold and silver (metal amoedáveis therefore equivalent to money), plus other forms of accumulation, such as piracy and the slave trade . This financial availability would facilitate investment in the industry.
On the other hand, from the Navigation Act of 1651, and especially after winning the Netherlands (then the hegemonic maritime power), the British expanded their trade worldwide. The naval supremacy assured them the field of oceanic routes and, consequently, consumers and supplies raw materials markets.
Another economic aspect was the fact that England, despite relatively poor in mineral resources, has abundant deposits of iron andcoal - the latter needed as fuel to produce steam, but even more important in iron metallurgy.
Among the social factors of the industrial revolution, the most important was the rise of the English bourgeoisie , both in terms of economic strength and political power and social prestige. This rise had two interrelated causes the enrichment provided by the expansion of trade and the victory against absolutism, achieved with the Spanners Revolutions of the seventeenth century.
Another highlighted socioeconomic factor was the huge availability of skilled labor , as a large number of unemployed (which Marx calls the reserve army) inhibits the claims of those who are engaged and holding down wages, increasing the profits of the business.
At the time of the Industrial Revolution was in English cities thousands of people out of work - mostly displaced from rural areas by virtue of the enclosure. These had started in the fifteenth century, in order to protect the cultivated areas against the voracity of sheep flocks. In the eighteenth century, the process of surrounding fields has intensified, to the detriment of the class of yeomen - small farmers living from agriculture, grazing and often also of wool production.
Supported by the bourgeoisie in parliament, the landed aristocracy expanded the enclosure of rural areas. Many yeomen, dispossessed of the land they cultivated, concentrated in the cities, the disposal of urban manufactures and nascent Industrial Revolution.
Politically, the Spanners seventeenth century Revolutions (Puritan and Glorious) gave the capitalist bourgeoisie effective participation in the government of the country.This made in the eighteenth century, the authorities implement measures to increase of trade, such as improving roads, open channels and modernizai 'ports. The movement of goods was facilitated both by eliminating some fees as the standardization of others.
Finally, we consider the mental factors (or psychological) of the Industrial Revolution.Thus, when analyzing the economic activities in England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, one can not underestimate the influence of Puritanism.Although this was not the majority Protestant branch in the country, gained strong momentum in the hundred years before the Industrial Revolution. But the Calvinist ethic of the Puritans contributed to the development of capitalism as it encouraged work and savings, in addition to considering the enrichment a demonstration of God's favor and hint of soul salvation.
The reasons for the pioneering English:
The Industrial Revolution outside Europe
The first country to hold the Industrial Revolution was England, from the mid-eighteenth century, then in the nineteenth century by other European nations: Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, and Russia.
Outside Europe, only the United States and Japan held their Industrial Revolution while the countries of Europe. In most developing countries the industrialization process came about two hundred years late compared to England. It is sunset of the Industrial Revolution in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, India ...
The geographical area of the highly industrialized countries of Western Europe is characterized by at least three aspects: intense industrialization, urbanization and strong optimal use of physical appearance for agriculture and animal husbandry on modern bases.
The Industrial Revolution of the European countries Western relied on several factors, which are briefly:
- capital accumulation due to the intense exploitation of commercial activity in the world and particularly in the American colonies, in factories and in Asian and African colonies.
- Existence of abundant reserves of coal, iron ore and other industrial raw materials in many European countries.
- Great development of production techniques by applying money on scientific research.
- Availability of labor and intense exploitation of the worker's labor force or worker by paying low wages.
- Expansion of multinational or transnational companies in developing countries.
They emerged then, in the century. XIX, therailroads, which greatly facilitated the transport of manufactured goods, making them cheaper and contributing to the Industrial Revolution. The invention of the blast furnaces very developed the iron and steel industries.The population of cities increased too: an increasing number of people left the countryside to work in factories. The people suffered a lot with the various problems related to wages and working conditions, taking Britain to import more and more food products to meet their ever - increasing population.
Category: General history
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