The industrial revolution is defined as the period between the 18th and 19th centuries. The period started with the first cotton mill in 1733 in England. England wanted to keep its industrialization a secret. Samuel Slater was a famous and important name in these years. Samuel Slater was an early English-American industrialist known as the father of the American Industrial Revolution and the father of the American Factory System. In the UK, he was called ‘’Slater the Traitor’’ because he brought British textile technology to America.Although the industrial revolution is seen as appealing to many people, there are advantages as well as disadvantages.
The
industrial revolution marked a major turning point in the Earth’s ecology and people’s
relationship with their environment. The industrial revolution dramatically
changed every aspect of human life and lifestyles when machinery began to
replace manual labor. Fossil fuels replaced wind, water and wood and were used
for the manufacture of textiles and the development of the iron making process.
The full impact of the industrial revolution would not begin to be realized
until about 100 years later in the 1800s when the use of machines to replace
human labor spread throughout Europe and North America. This transformation is
referred to as the industrialization of the world. This process gave rise to sweeping increases in production
capacity and would affect all basic human needs, including food production,
medicine, housing, and clothing. Not only did society develop the ability to
have more things faster, but also it would be able to develop better things. That
process of industrialization continues
today. There have been movements and periods in history which have proved to be
important milestones leaving their mark on the years to come and forever
changing the social, economic and cultural landscape. Some were religious in
nature like The Reformation; some were artistic and philosophical like The
Renaissance; yet others were economic like The Industrial Revolution. The
former two movements have been widely studied but the latter is often
overlooked. In fact, this movement which started with the invention of the
spinning jenny and continued to impact all areas of business and social life
throughout the 18th and the 19th centuries had some far
reaching consequences.
There
is a wide discussion in many parts of the world as to the effects of the
Industrial Revolution. It is clear that working conditions, living conditions,
urbanization, public health, and life expectancy, child labor, working-class
families and the role of women, the emerging middle class, wealth and income
are important effects in this period. Actually, there remains some disagreement
as to how life for the average industrial worker was forever changed by
bringing wealth and power to Great Britain throughout the 19th
century. Therefore, the effects of industrialization
on society and on daily living in a new industrial city should be explored.
Firstly,
in terms of working conditions, workers made up 80% of society and landowners
were enclosing common village lands since the population was increasing in
Great Britain. Besides, having no bargaining power to demand higher wages,
fairer work hours, or better working conditions meant that working life was
very tough for the workers of that period. In addition, there is a big problem:
lack of medical attention due to the fact that injured workers would typically
lose their jobs and receive no financial
compensation for their injury to pay for much-needed health care. It is clear
that the government should have intervened in the free market to improve
working conditions and workers should not have been forced to work. That is to say,
the government should have established a commission to investigate working
conditions in the new factories and mills. If there are unsafe conditions, it
is the government’s responsibility to look out for the safety of its citizens
and set minimum safety standards.
Secondly,
in terms of living conditions, working in new industrial cities had an effect
on people’s lives outsides of the factories as well. But it is an undeniable
fact that during the first sixty years of the Industrial Revolution, living
conditions were, by far, the worst for the poorest of the poor. Obviously,
cities should have become places with opportunities for sport and
entertainment. It is the
duty of the government in any welfare state to provide legislation to ensure
that the living conditions of the working class are improved. This was not done
during the 19th century as the modern welfare state had yet to be
established. Instead it was believed that the government
should intervene as little as possible to improve living conditions for the
working class. After all, if the government gave handouts to the poor, there
would be no incentive for them to find work on their own.
Thirdly,
in terms of urbanization, this period witnessed the rise of cities. In pre-industrial society,
over 80% of people lived in rural areas. As migrants moved from the
countryside, small towns became large cities. As a result, working-class
neighborhoods were formed and they were bleak, crowded, dirty, and polluted. It was
believed at the time that the government should not intervene in the free
market to regulate industrial pollution or the filth in working-class
neighborhoods. In fact, the government should have established a commission to
investigate the negative effects of industrialization on urban life.
Fourthly,
in terms of public health and life expectancy, in the first half of the 19th
century, urban overcrowding, poor diets, poor sanitation, and essentially
medieval medical remedies all contributed to very poor public health for the
majority of British people. In addition, drinking water resources, such as
wells, were frequently contaminated with diseases such as cholera,
tuberculosis, typhus, typhoid, and influenza. Unfortunately, it is true that in
1849, ten thousand people died of cholera in three months in London alone. Poor
nutrition, disease, lack of sanitation, and harmful medical care in these urban
areas had a devastating effect on the average life expectancy of British people
in the first half of the 19th century. It was believed that, the
government should not intervene in the free market to improve public health.
Citizens, it was felt, should be free to
hire a doctor, go to a hospital, or seek their own medical remedies, as they had
been doing for centuries. The government, it was thought, had not been and
should not be in the business of building houses for poor people.
Fifthly,
in terms of child labor, unfortunately, child labor was integral to the first
factories, mines, and mills in England. The tedious and dangerous factory work
had negative effects on the health of children. There is one fundamental
question: Why was child labor used? Generally, as regards the causes of this,
it is claimed that child employees are better than adults due to the fact that
they are more obedient and child labor is cheap. What is more, most people
believed that these impacts were expected to intensify in the following decades
and unfortunately they were right because child labor is still a big problem in
the modern world, in the twenty-first century, according to research carried
out by international survey companies, especially in Southeastern Asia.
Sixthly,
in terms of classes, it is an undeniable fact that middle classes or ‘’
middling sort’’ emerged in industrial cities, mostly toward the end of 19th
century. The society consisted of aristocrats born into their lives of wealth
and privilege, and low-income people born into the working classes. Besides,
‘’white collar’’ workers such as
business people, shopkeepers, bank clerks, insurance agents, merchants,
accountants, managers, doctors, lawyers, and teachers emerged. However, it was
believed that the government should not intervene in the private family lives
of its citizens. The middle class it was felt, was doing fine. In fact the
government should invest in the public school system to educate its citizens
and encourage the continued rise of the middle class.
By
way of conclusion, the obvious conclusion to be drawn from all of these points
that have been explained so far is that the industrial revolution has had lots
of detrimental effects, what is more, the detrimental effects of the industrial
revolution are still going on constantly. Due to this reason, precautions
should be taken to minimize them. No matter what happens, nothing is more
important than human life so it should be given due importance and it should
not be endangered, that is to say, living properly is the most important thing
for people in the world. In other words, to put it differently, the revolution
led to negative results i.e. the social impacts of the industrial revolution in
cities brought poverty and harsh living conditions. There is one proverb about
this issue: ‘’stood on the shoulders of giants’’. It is not wrong to say that
the revolution played an important role in rapid urbanization.
KUBİLAY ESER
