Industrial Revolution Flashcards
What was the Agricultural Revolution?
Europe started to have more food and new crops
This meant more food for regular people and poor people got healthier
More food = more babies and babies tend to live longer because they’re healthier
Set the stage for industrial revolution
How was the Factory System born?
More kids lead to urbanization and over saturation of labour
It begin with textiles
Because of an interest in science there were technological advancements (sewing machine, loom)
Big profits came out of this industry
What was the Factory System?
Workers and machines under the same roof
Profitable because you paid workers wages (before they were paid for labour, now they’re paid for time)
What were some important advancements that helped the Industrial Revolution prosper?
Steam engine (first in England which meant they were ahead of everyone)
They started to dig up iron and make steel (triggered the growth of many other industries)
Railroad (brought markets closer together)
What were some of the downsides of the Industrial Revolution?
Everybody is working because of low wages
Children worked as well because there was no school
12-16 hours a day, 6 days a week
Air was bad, lots of noise, light was blinding
Why were labour unions started?
Poverty created social cohesion and a sense of community so they started to call for improvements
People called for reforms and workers went on strike
In 1831 a series of investigations into the lives of workers revealed to the people at the top that there were more uprisings brewing
What changes did labour unions bring in?
Passed laws to limit hours of children workers, made mines safer, 10 hour work day
Slowly unions brought changes as employers recognized that if their workers were treated better they worked harder
Government set up insurance for workers and some governments established pension funds
What was the Enclosure Act?
Stated that land owners could build fences around their land
Got rid of public access to grazing land so people moved to the cities to find jobs
What was Laisse-Faire Capitalism?
Means let it be
Adam Smith latched on to the idea and his book the Wealth of Nations became the Bible of capitalism
Government should stay out of the economy and you should make decisions for yourself
What did Thomas Malthus believe?
That charity would interfere with natural population selection
What did David Ricardo believe?
The Iron Law of Wages
Wages go through cycles: high wages means people are happier and make more people. More people cause lower wages and less people. Less people causes higher wages and the cycle repeats
What does Welfare Capitalism mean?
The government should only interfere with the economy if workers were miserable
Not equality but everyone is benefiting in someway
What did Jeremy Bentham and J.S. Mill believe?
They believed in capitalism but wanted to correct the abuses
They also believed that everyone should vote
What did Socialists believe?
A nation should support all its people
Recognized that capitalism is as economic feudalism (workers are taken advantage of)
What are Utopian Socialists?
The world would be a better place if wealth was distributed so everyone had a good life (not equal)
