1750–1914 industry and nationalism · 2019-11-29 · 1750 1800 1850 1900 12chapter 1700–1914...

A Global ChronologyA Global Chronology

Scientific/TechnologicalScientific/Technological

Robert Owen initiatesutopian theory in Scotland.

1800

The United States purchases theLouisiana Territory.

1803 Great Britain oustsFrance from India.

1760

Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations.

1776

Eli Whitney inventsthe cotton gin.

1793 World‘s firstpublic railroad opensin Great Britain.

1825

PoliticalPolitical

Social/CulturalSocial/Cultural

1750 1783 1816

1750–1914

Industry and Nationalism

Chapter 12Age of Industry

Chapter 13 Cultural Revolution

Chapter 14 Democracy andReform

Chapter 15 Reaction andNationalism

Chapter 16 The Age ofImperialism

For centuries wealthy landowners in Europe con-

trolled a static agricultural economy. Peasant fami-

lies farmed strips of land, and small industries and trades met local

needs. Then, in England in the late 1700s, innovations in farming

made agriculture a profitable business. An agricultural revolution

helped start a revolution in industry, beginning in textiles. The fac-

tory system expanded the power and wealth of the middle class.

While scientific and medical advances improved life for many, in

much of Europe the poor remained powerless.

How long would it take you to walk to school? The railroad

began the revolution in transportation. When a German engineer

redesigned the internal combustion engine to run on gasoline, the

automobile took center stage. Within a few decades the automobile

would transform society in every industrial country.

henNow

370

U n i t4

See pages 504–505 forprimary source readingsthat accompany Unit 6.

Karl Marx publishes The Communist Manifesto.

1848 French impressionistshold first major exhibition in Paris.

1874

Bismarck unifies Germany.

1871 Revolution topples Qing dynasty in China.

1911

AlexanderGraham Bell inventsthe telephone.

1876 PanamaCanal opens.

1914

1849 1882 1915

371

Steam locomotive andwood car

The Industrial Revolution started in the late1700s and changed the way people lived.The introduction of modern machines andthe building of factories brought technicaladvancement but also a new set of problems.

To examine the social issues relatedto the Industrial Revolution, view videodiscChapter 3: The Industrial Revolution inTurning Points in World History.

and

Great BritainWorkshop of the World

The birth of industry needed certain preconditions: the sci-ence, incentive, and money capital to build machines; a laborforce to run them; raw materials and markets to make the sys-tem profitable; and efficient farms to feed a new group ofworkers. At the start of the 1700s, Great Britain possessed allthese conditions. Here industrialism first took root.

As with the development of agriculture, no one personcan be credited with the invention of industry. Instead, it grewfrom the innovations of individuals who developed machinesto do work formerly done by humans and animals. One inventor built on the ideas of another. In 1705, for example,Thomas Newcomen devised a crude steam engine to pumpwater out of coal mines. In 1769 James Watt improved uponNewcomen’s work and built a more efficient steam engine.Other inventors adapted Watt’s engine to run cloth-makingmachines. Business owners soon brought machines and work-ers together in a single place called a factory.

By the 1800s, industry had catapulted Great Britain into aposition of world leadership. “[Britain has] triumphantlyestablished herself as the workshop of the world,” boasted oneleader. It was impossible to monopolize this idea. Workshopsbegan to hum in America.

372 Unit 4

The rise of industry changedthe world forever. So dra-matic were the changes that

historians have labeled the period theIndustrial Revolution. Although the rev-olution began in Britain, it respected nei-ther time nor place. The revolution trav-eled beyond Britain to touch every nationon earth.

SpreadThe

of

The

ofSpread

IdeasIdeas

Great BritainJapan

United States

Industrialization

James Watt

Watt’s steam engine

Unit 4 Industry and Nationalism 373

The United StatesThe Revolution Spreads

Great Britain tried to keep the secretsof industry locked up. It forbade theexport of industrial machines. It alsobarred the people who built and operatedthe machines from leaving the country. In1789, however, a young factory supervisornamed Samuel Slater found a way toescape. He disguised himself as a farm-hand and boarded a ship for New York.

Working entirely from memory, Slaterbuilt a mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.On December 20, 1790, the mill turned outthe first machine-made cotton yarn pro-duced in America.

Within two years, Slater had sales offices inSalem, New York City, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.As Slater’s mills turned out cotton, the UnitedStates began churning out its own brilliant industri-al inventors. They produced more than justmachines. They came up with new industrial prin-ciples such as Eli Whitney’s use of standardizedparts and Henry Ford’s use of the assembly line.Together these two ideas gave the world mass pro-duction—a concept that would revolutionize peo-ple’s lives around the globe.

JapanThe Search for Markets

In 1853, the Industrial Revolution traveled toJapan in the form of a fleet of United States steam-ships sent to open the island to trade. “What wehad taken as a fire at sea,” recalled one Japaneseobserver, “was really smoke coming out of theirsmokestacks.”

The military power produced by United Statesindustry shook the Japanese. Recalled the sameobserver, “What a joke, the steaming teapot fixedby America—Just four cups [ships], and we cannotsleep at night.”

The Japanese temporarily gave in to Americandemands. But they also vowed that they too wouldpossess industry. By the start of the 1900s, Japanhad joined other industrial nations in the search formarkets. By 1914 Japan’s merchant fleet was thesixth largest in the world and their foreign tradehad increased one hundred-fold in value in fiftyyears.

LINKING THE IDEAS

1. How was the idea for a cotton mill broughtfrom Great Britain to the United States?

2. What feature of the American fleet mostimpressed the Japanese in 1853?

Critical Thinking3. Drawing Conclusions Why did the British

want to control the spread of an idea thatmade production of goods easier?

Samuel Slater’s mill

Matthew Perry’s steamboat in Tokyo Bay

Edmund Cartwright develops power loom.

1787

James Watt perfects steam engine.

1760s Henry Bessemerobtains patent for mass-producing steel from iron.

1855 Wright brothers make first airplane flight.

1903

1900185018001750

12C h a p t e r

1700–1914

Age of Industry

> Relation to Environment Beforethe Industrial Revolution most Euro-peans live in isolated rural villagesand depend on the land. Section 1

> Innovation Inventions and newprocedures in agriculture and indus-try transform economies in Europeand North America. Section 2

> Change Throughout the Westernworld, new urban centers based onindustry develop along with therise of new social classes. Section 3

> Conflict Workers in Europe andNorth America organize to gainbetter wages and improved work-ing conditions. Section 4

SThetoryteller

Change swept through Europe and North America as new

coal mines and iron works began to dominate rural landscapes.

Susan Pitchforth, an 11-year-old British girl, was just one of the

millions of men, women, and children who left farming villages

to find work in these growing industries.

Like countless others, Susan suffered difficult and danger-

ous industrial working conditions. When the British Parliament

investigated horrible conditions in coal mines, young Susan told

them her story:

“I have worked at this pit going on two years … I walk a

mile and a half to my work, both in winter and summer. I run

24 [loads] a day; I cannot come up till I have done them all.”

What changes took place in Europe and North Americaduring the Industrial Revolution? How does the IndustrialRevolution affect life throughout the world today?

Historical Significance

374

Chapter Themes

Chapter 12 Age of Industry 375

Build a time line of inventions of theIndustrial Revolution beginning with JohnKay’s improved loom and ending with thefirst airplane.

Your History Journal

Coalbrookdale by Night by Philip de Loutherberg.Science Museum, London, EnglandArt&

History

Chapter Overview

Visit the World History: The Modern Era Web site at worldhistory.me.glencoe.com and click on Chapter 12—Chapter Overviewto preview the chapter.

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/worldhistory/whme2001/chapter12/overview.html

During the 1700s and 1800s, a series ofinnovations in agriculture and industryled to profound economic and social

change throughout Europe and the United States.Urban industrial economies emerged in these areasand eventually spread around the world. Thistransformation, which became known as theIndustrial Revolution, began when power-drivenmachinery in factories replaced work done inhomes—altering the way people had lived andworked for hundreds of years.

Cloth making provides a dramatic example ofthe far-reaching effects of the Industrial Revolution.In the 1700s a home weaver worked many hours toproduce a yard of cloth. A century later, a workeroperating machines in a textile mill could make 50times more cloth.

As adventurous businesspeople broughtmachines and workers together in factories, indus-tries produced mass quantities of goods. Millions ofpeople in search of new opportunities to make a living left rural villages to find factory work ingrowing towns and cities. A new era of mechaniza-tion had arrived.

A Harsh Way of LifeBefore the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in

the 1700s, people lived in much the same way theirancestors had lived for hundreds of years. Nature’sseasons and religious traditions measured time,and social change was rare. Relying almost solelyon farming to make a living, people planted andharvested fields, hoped for good weather, and livedalways under the threat of disease.

Families, both rich and poor, remained relative-ly small because of a very high infant death rate.One baby in three died in his or her first year of life,

376 Chapter 12 Age of Industry

> Terms to Definedomestic system

> People to MeetCharles Dickens

> Places to LocateLondon

Domestic system iswidespread in European townsand villages.

c. 1700s About 75 percent ofEuropeans live in rural areas.

c. 1750

17501700 1800

Landlords increased their income by remov-ing common farmers from their rented fields. Ananonymous poem passed judgment on the enclo-sure of Thornborough landlords in 1798:

Ye Thornbro’ youths bewail with me;Ye shepherds lay your pipes aside,

No longer tune the merryglee,

For we are rob’d of all our pride.

The time alas will soon approach,

When we must all our pasture yield;

The wealthy on our rights encroach

And will enclose our common field.

—adapted from English ParliamentaryEnclosure, Michael Turner, 1980

S e c t i o n 1

Living Fromthe Land

Haymaking inrural England

Read to Find Out Main Idea Daily life was based aroundvillages and agriculture before the rise ofmodern industry.

SThetoryteller

and only one in two peoplereached age 21. Life expectancyhovered around age 40. Peopleexpected life to be short andharsh. As one mother in the1770s said after her baby’sdeath, “One cannot grieve afterher much, and I have just nowother things to think of.”

Only 25 percent ofEuropeans lived in towns orcities in the 1700s. London wasthe largest city in Europe in1750 with about 700,000 people.Yet it too had a rural character.The famous British novelistCharles Dickens described aLondon morning in the early1800s:

By degrees, other shops began to beunclosed, and a few scattered peoplewere met with. Then, came stragglinggroups of labourers going to their work;then men and women with fish basketson their heads; donkey carts laden withvegetables; chaise carts filled with live-stock or whole carcasses of meat, milkwomen with pails; an unbroken con-course of people….

—Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, 1837

Most people in preindustrial times lived incountry villages consisting of a few hundred peo-ple. Many never went beyond their villages. Whenbraver people traveled to other cities and towns,their tales delighted their less worldly neighbors.

Village LifeVirtually all rural villagers were farmers. Wealthy

landowners controlled the majority of the villageland, renting most of it to small farming families.Families owned or rented small strips of land inseveral areas of the village. This practice ensuredboth fair land distribution and economic protectionshould disaster strike any one field. Farmersworked the land cooperatively, jointly decidingwhat crops to grow and when to plant and harvest.

In most of the villages, private and public landswere not separated or fenced off. The public lands,called the village commons, consisted of wood-lands, pastures, and less fertile land near the vil-lage. For centuries, farmers could gather wood and

graze their livestock on the commons. Poorer farm-ers even used these public lands for raising crops.

Village economies were limited largely to thelocal area because transporting goods to other areaswas difficult and unprofitable. Rain turned the fewroads into muddy rivers. For this reason, villageshad to be nearly self-sufficient. People grew enoughfood for their families and perhaps a small amountto sell to nearby towns. They made their ownhomes, clothes, and tools from products raised inthe fields or gathered from the land.

The richest rural landowners lived on sprawlingcountry estates with a huge main house, cottages,several barns, and extensive fields. Landowners andtheir families lived lavishly. Servants ran the house-holds and catered to the families’ needs.

People who rented land from the landownerslived quite differently. Most lived in small, smoky,poorly lighted cottages with dirt floors. Since thepoorest farming families often did not have barns,they sometimes shared their cramped living quar-ters with farm animals.

All daily activities revolved around farming, anoccupation dominated by tradition. Farmers usedthe same simple methods and tools their ancestorshad used and relied on nature to provide goodgrowing seasons. Nature, however, was never pre-dictable, and harvests ranged from plentiful to dis-astrously small.

Everyone in the farming family worked hard.From morning to night, husband, wife, and chil-dren worked together. Boys helped their fathers in


Harvest Scene by George Vicat Cole.Christie’s, London, England What were

the village commons?

Art&History

the fields or at the workbench. Girls helped theirmothers with chores such as milking cows, churn-ing butter, and preparing meals.

Early IndustriesIn addition to farming, many people worked in

small industries or in coal mines. These industriesmet local needs for goods such as coal, glass, iron,and clothing and employed a small number ofworkers. Since many workers were also farm work-ers, work schedules were coordinated with the agri-cultural cycle.

During harvest time nail makers, glassblowers,ironworkers, and miners helped farmers with thecrops; likewise, in the winter farmworkers workedin the mines and in the workshops. This close rela-tionship between farming and industry provided asteadier income to workers than either farming orindustry alone.

Making WoolIn Great Britain, the woolen industry had for

centuries been second only to farming in the num-bers of people it employed and in the volume oftrade it created. In the 1700s the demand for woolgrew so great that merchants hired workers to pro-duce woolens in their own homes. This system oflabor, called the domestic system, spread to otherindustries such as leather working and was widelyused throughout Europe in the 1700s.

The domestic system depended on a networkof workers. In the case of wool, a merchant firstbought the raw fiber and divided it among severalfamilies. Women and children usually cleaned,sorted, and spun the fiber into thread or yarn. Menusually did the actual weaving. Then the merchantcollected the yarn, paid the spinner a fee, and tookthe yarn to a weaver. The material next went to afuller, who shaped and cleaned the material, and at

last to the dyer for coloring. Finally, the merchanttook the finished products to market and sold themfor the highest possible price.

The domestic system had many benefits.Workers set their own hours and could tend toduties at home during work breaks. Women caredfor children, tended vegetable gardens, and cookedmeals while they earned money at home. Men car-ried on farming tasks, such as plowing and plant-ing fields. Children also helped their parents. In oneBritish region, children attended special schools tolearn the art of lace making. With this skill they con-tributed to the family income. The domestic systemprovided work and income during hard times, sav-ing many families from starvation. It later becamethe basis on which the technology and skills of theIndustrial Revolution were built.

Mining CoalThe domestic system also had its place in coal

mining. Coal fields often lay under farmland. Thepeople who worked the mines often became farmlaborers during the harvest, and farm horses pulledcoal wagons from the pits. In some coal fields,women and children even hauled baskets of coalfrom the pits. One observer described these loadedbaskets, saying it was “frequently more than oneman could do to lift the burden.”

With the money earned from mining or farm-work, country people might buy the few thingsthey could not manufacture. Craftspeople soldhandmade guns, furniture, and clothing in theirsmall shops. Some craftspeople sent their goods toforeign markets in exchange for imported goodsand traded the rest for food from nearby farmersand products from other local craftspeople.

Yet changes to this way of life were on the hori-zon. The development of new machinery andsources of power would soon upset the domesticsystem, transforming forever the way people livedand worked.


Main Idea1. Use a diagram like the one

below to list aspects of lifebefore the rise of industry.

Recall2. Define the domestic system.3. Identify the Industrial Revolu-

tion, Charles Dickens.Critical Thinking4. Predicting Trends As a result

of the Industrial Revolution,many traditions were aban-doned in Europe. How couldabandoning tradition help

Europe’s small farming villages?How might it hurt them?

Understanding Themes5. Relation to the Environment

Where did most people liveduring the period of historybefore the rise of industry?What was the most importantoccupation during preindustrialtimes?

SECTION 1 ASSESSMENT

Aspects of Life:Preindustrial Times


For hundreds of years, British farmershad planted crops and kept livestockon unfenced private and public

lands. Village society depended on this age-old sys-tem of farming and grazing. By the late 1700s, how-ever, wealthy British landowners would end thisopen-field system, which had been slowly givingway to private ownership since the 1100s.

The landowners felt that larger farms with en-closed fields would increase farming efficiency andproductivity. Parliament supported this enclosuremovement, passing laws that allowed landowners totake over and fence off private and common lands.In the 1700s the enclosure movement transformedrural Great Britain. Many small farmers dependenton village lands were forced to move to towns andcities to find work. At the same time, landownerspracticed new, more efficient farming methods.

To raise crop yields, landowners mixed differ-ent kinds of soils and used new crop rotation sys-tems. One landowner, Lord Charles Townshend,urged the growing of turnips to enrich exhaustedsoil. Another reformer, Robert Bakewell, bredstronger horses for farm work and fatter sheep andcattle for meat. The inventor Jethro Tull developeda seed drill that enabled farmers to plant seeds inorderly rows instead of scattering them over thefields. As innovation and competition replaced traditional methods, agriculture underwent a revo-lution that improved the quality, quantity, and prof-itability of farm goods.

Great Britain Leads the WayThis agricultural revolution helped Great

Britain to lead the Industrial Revolution. Successfulfarming businesses provided landowners withmoney to invest in growing industries. Many

British landowners extend enclosures and displace farmers.

c. 1700s Robert Fulton designsfirst practical steamboat.

1807 Edmund Cartwrightdevelops power loom.

1787

1700 1750 18501800

> Terms to Defineenclosure movement, capital, entrepreneur, factory system

> People to MeetJames Hargreaves, Richard Arkwright,Edmund Cartwright, Eli Whitney, JamesWatt, Henry Bessemer, Robert Fulton

About 210,000 men built the first railroads inBritain. They called themselves “navvies.” Mostlythe men worked in silence. The only Britishnavvies whose singing was noticed were theWelsh, whose songs were mainly hymns. Mostother songs that navvies sang while they workedhave disappeared. One tune, however, heard onthe railway in 1859 gives some insight into thenavvies’ lives:

…I’m a navvy on the line.I get me five-and-twenty bob a week,Besides me overtime.Roast Beef and boiled beefAn’ puddin’ made of eggs….

—adapted from The VictorianRailway, Jack Simmons, 1991

S e c t i o n 2

The Beginningsof Change

Early train

Read to Find Out Main Idea The Industrial Revolutionbegan in Great Britain.

SThetoryteller

displaced farmers became industrial workers.These factors added to the key elements for indus-trial success that Great Britain already possessed—capital, natural resources, and labor supply.

Money and IndustryCapital, or money to invest in labor, machines,

and raw materials, is essential for the growth ofindustry. Many British people became very wealthyduring the 1700s. Landowners and other membersof the aristocracy profited not only from new large-scale farming but also from overseas commerce andthe slave trade, as you learned in Chapter 6. At thesame time, an emerging middle class of British mer-chants and shopkeepers had grown more prosper-ous from trade.

Industry provided the aristocracy and the mid-dle class with new opportunities to invest theirmoney. By investing in growing industries, theystood a good chance of making a profit. Parliamentencouraged investment by passing laws that helpedthe growing businesses.

Natural ResourcesGreat Britain’s wealth also included its rich

supply of natural resources. The country had fineharbors and a large network of rivers that flowedyear-round. Water provided power for developingindustries and transported raw materials and fin-ished goods.

Great Britain also had huge supplies of ironand coal, the principal raw materials of theIndustrial Revolution. Iron and the steel made fromit proved to be the ideal materials for buildingindustrial machinery. An abundance of coal alsohelped to fuel industry.

Large Labor SupplyPerhaps the country’s greatest natural resource

was its growing population of workers. Im-provements in farming led to an increased avail-ability of food. Better, more nutritious food allowedpeople to enjoy longer, healthier lives. In just onecentury, England’s population nearly doubled,growing from about 5 million in 1700 to about 9million in 1800.

The changes in farming also helped to increasethe supply of industrial workers. With the intro-duction of machinery such as the steel plow, farmsneeded fewer workers. Former farmworkers lefttheir homes to find jobs in more populated andindustrialized areas.

Ambitious British people in the middle andupper classes organized and managed the coun-try’s growing industries. These risk-taking entrepreneurs (AHN•truh•pruh•NUHRS), or busi-nesspeople, set up industries by bringing togethercapital, labor, and new industrial inventions.

By the mid-1700s, the British domestic systemwas ready for change. The textile industry led the way.

Growing Textile IndustriesIn the 1700s people in Great Britain and over-

seas were eager to buy cool, colorful cotton cloth.Since the domestic system could not meet thedemand, cotton merchants looked for new ways toexpand production. A series of technologicaladvances would revolutionize cloth production.

Advances in MachineryOne of the first innovations in cloth making

occurred at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.Weaving cloth was difficult and time-consumingwork. Weavers had to push a shuttle back and forthacross a loom by hand. Then they had to beat the


The task of beating cotton by handwas replaced by a beating and lap-

ping machine in the 1700s. How did Parliament encour-age investment in industry?

HistoryVisualizing

CON

NECTIONS

CO

NNECTIONS

woof—the threads that run crosswise—down tight-ly against the previous row. The width of the fabricwas limited by the distance a weaver could“throw” the shuttle.

In 1733 British clock maker John Kay improvedthe loom with his “flying shuttle.” Instead of push-ing the shuttle by hand, the weaver simply pulledsharply on a cord, and the shuttle “flew” across theloom. Wider fabrics could be woven at a faster pace.

Using the flying shuttle, weavers could pro-duce two to three times more material; thus theyneeded more yarn than ever from the spinners. Toanswer this need, James Hargreaves, a weaver-carpenter, in the 1760s invented a more efficientspinning machine that he called the spinning jenny.Early models of the spinning jenny enabled oneperson to spin 6 to 7 threads at a time; later refine-ments increased this number to 80 threads.

While the spinning jenny revolutionized spin-ning in the home, another invention revolutionizedspinning in factories and industrial settings. In 1768Richard Arkwright, a struggling barber with agreat interest in machines, developed the waterframe, a huge spinning machine that ran continu-ally on waterpower.

By 1779 spinner Samuel Crompton combinedthe best features of the spinning jenny and thewater frame into a new machine called the “spin-ning mule.” It produced strong thread that could bewoven into high-quality muslin cloth. Until thistime, such fine cloth had to be imported from Asia.

Producing More ClothThe new spinning machines produced more

yarn or thread than there were weavers to use it. In1787 Edmund Cartwright, a British poet and minis-ter, answered this shortage of weavers with thedevelopment of a power loom. Running on horse,water, or steam power, the mechanical loom madeit possible for weavers to keep up with the amountof yarn produced.

These new inventions created a growing needfor raw cotton. Yet raw cotton was expensivebecause cleaning the seeds out of it was a slow andtedious job. In 1793 Eli Whitney, an Americaninventor, developed a machine that cleaned cotton50 times more quickly than a person could. The cot-ton gin helped the booming British textile industry to overcome its last major hurdle on itsjourney toward full mechanization.


An Industrial CityThe growth of industrial cities depended

on geographic factors such as the availabilityof raw materials and accessible routes. The

city of Manchester in northernEngland has had many geographicadvantages. It lies close to coalfields and the Irwell and Merseyrivers. A canal connects the city tothe Irish Sea, making Manchesteran inland port.

Despite being a wool tradecenter, Manchester retained arural atmosphere in the 1700s.Merchants lived in city town-

houses, and people enjoyed sailing on theIrwell River. During the 1800s, Manchestergrew into a textile-manufacturing city withworld markets. Mills and warehousesreplaced private homes in many areas, and

the Irwell became so polluted it wasdescribed as “a flood of liquid manure.”Some Britons at the time saw Manchester’stransformation as evidence of the evils ofindustrialization. Others, however, saw thechange as a symbol of progress.

During the first half of the 1900s, Man-chester’s production of textiles declinedsteadily. The growth of other businesses,however, helped the city and its surroundingcommunities to retain their economic impor-tance in the British economy. Today, Man-chester is England’s third largest urban area,after London and Birmingham, and is still amajor center of trade and finance.

Manchester,England

Discuss how Manchester becamean industrial city. Do you think thatwhat happened to Manchester can becalled “progress”? How do cities todaycompare/contrast with cities of the1800s?

The Factory SystemSince the new textile machinery was too large

and costly for most workers to use in their homes,cloth production gradually moved into large build-ings built near major waterways. This marked the

beginning of the factory system, which broughtworkers and machines together under the controlof managers. The waterways powered the machinesand provided transportation routes.

As the factory system spread, manufacturersrequired more power than horses and water couldprovide. In the 1760s a Scottish mathematiciannamed James Watt designed an efficient steamengine, which helped to set the IndustrialRevolution in full motion. Factories could now runcontinuously on steam power. They also could bebuilt far from waterways.

Industrial Developments The use of factory machinery increased demand

for iron and steel. In response, the iron industry devel-oped new technologies. In the mid-1800s WilliamKelly, an American ironworker, and Henry Bessemer,a British engineer, developed methods to inexpen-sively produce steel from iron. Steel answered indus-try’s need for a sturdy, workable metal.

Meanwhile, private companies began buildingand paving roads. Two Scottish engineers, ThomasTelford and John McAdam, established better drainagesystems and the use of layers of crushed rock.

Water transportation also improved. In 1761British workers dug one of the first modern canalsto link coal fields with the industrial city ofManchester. Soon, a canal building craze beganboth in Europe and the United States.

A combination of steam power and steel soonrevolutionized both land and water transportation.In 1801 British engineer Richard Trevithick deviseda steam-powered carriage and, three years later, asteam locomotive that ran on rails. Later, in 1807Robert Fulton, an American inventor, designed thefirst practical steamboat. Railroads and steamboatslaid the foundations for a global economy andopened up new forms of investment.



below to list the causes of theIndustrial Revolution.

Recall2. Define enclosure movement,

capital, entrepreneur, factorysystem.

3. Identify James Hargreaves,Richard Arkwright, EdmundCartwright, Eli Whitney, JamesWatt, Henry Bessemer, RobertFulton.

Critical Thinking4. Synthesizing Information

Write a diary entry for a Britishfarmer who has lost land dueto the enclosure movement.

Understanding Themes 5. Innovation Is an Industrial

Revolution still happening? Ifso, how have its developmentschanged modern life?

Eli Whitney’s original cotton gin wasa simple device that one person

could turn by hand. What task did the cotton gin perform?

HistoryVisualizing

Industrial Revolution

Causes Effect


Student Web Activity 12

Visit the World History: The Modern Era Web site atworldhistory.me.glencoe.com and click on Chapter 12—Student Web Activities for an activityrelating to steel production.

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/worldhistory/whme2001/chapter12/webact.html


In 1789 a tall, ruddy young British work-er boarded a ship bound for New York,listing his occupation in the ship’s record

as farmer. Although he looked like the farmer heclaimed to be, Samuel Slater was actually a smug-gler. Slater was stealing a valuable British commod-ity—industrial know-how. The 21-year-old spinnerheaded for the United States with the knowledge ofhow to build an industrial spinning wheel. Whenhe arrived two months later, Slater introduced spin-ning technology to the United States.

By keeping spinning and other technologiessecret, Great Britain had become the most produc-tive country in the world. To maintain its position,Parliament passed laws restricting the flow ofmachines and skilled workers to other countries.Until 1824 the law that Samuel Slater had ignoredprohibited craftspeople from moving to other coun-tries. Another law made it illegal to export machin-ery. Nonetheless, by the late 1820s many mechanicsand technicians had left Great Britain, carryingindustrial knowledge with them.

Spread of Industry As British workers left the country, Great

Britain gave up trying to guard its industrialmonopoly. Wealthy British industrialists saw thatthey could make money by spreading the IndustrialRevolution to other countries.

In the mid-1800s, financiers funded railroadconstruction in India, Latin America, and NorthAmerica. In Europe, British industrialists set up fac-tories, supplying capital, equipment, and technicalstaff. The industrialists earned Great Britain thenickname “the workshop of the world.” In otherlands, however, large-scale manufacturing basedon the factory system did not really take hold

Guglielmo Marconidevelops wireless telegraph.

1895 Germany builds its first major railway.

1839 The Standard OilCompany is formed in theUnited States.

18501800 1900

1870

> Terms to Defineindustrial capitalism, interchangeableparts, division of labor, partnership, corporation, depression

> People to MeetEli Whitney, Frederick Taylor, HenryFord, Samuel Morse, Guglielmo Marconi,Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Rudolf Diesel, Wilbur and Orville Wright

The people on the street in Paris waited impa-tiently for word from inside the store. “It works!”cried a spectator suddenly. Someone held up ahand. “Not so much noise. The people in Brantford[Canada] are talking ... and singing. It can be heardas plain as day.” Now everyone wanted a turn atthe receiver. Finally, at eleven o’clock the crowdwent home. Mr. Bell’s telephone was a success.

—adapted from The Chord of Steel,The Story of the Invention of theTelephone, Thomas B. Costain, 1960

S e c t i o n 3

The Growth of Industry

Alexander GrahamBell’s telephone

Read to Find Out Main Idea New technology advancedthe growth of industry.

SThetoryteller

until 1870 or later. The major exceptions wereFrance, Germany, and the United States.

Because the French government encouragedindustrialization, France developed a large pool ofoutstanding scientists. In spite of this, France’sindustrialization was slow-paced. The NapoleonicWars had strained the economy and depleted theworkforce. For a long time the French economydepended more on farming and small businessesthan on new industries. Yet with the growth of min-ing and railway construction, railway lines radiat-ed in every direction from Paris by 1870.

Germany’s efforts to industrialize proved moresuccessful. Before 1830 Germans brought in somemachinery from Britain and set up a few factories.In 1839 they used British capital to build the coun-try’s first major railway. In the following decade,strong coal, iron, and textile industries emerged.Even before the German states united in 1871, gov-ernment funding had helped industry to grow.

At the same time, industrialization increased inthe United States, especially in the Northeast.British capital and machinery, combined withAmerican mechanical skills, promoted new indus-

try. In time, shoe and textile factories flourished inNew England. Coal mines and ironworks expand-ed in Pennsylvania. By 1870 the United Statesranked with Great Britain and Germany as one ofthe world’s three most industrialized countries.

Growth of Big Business A major factor in spurring industrial growth

was free enterprise, or capitalism, the economicsystem in which individuals and private firms, notthe government, own the means of production—including land, machinery, and the workplace. In acapitalist system, individuals decide how they canmake a profit and determine business practicesaccordingly.

Industrialists practiced industrial capitalism,which involved continually expanding factories orinvesting in new businesses. After investing in afactory, industrial capitalists used profits to hiremore workers and buy materials and machines.


Beirmeister and Wain Steel Forge by P. S. Kroyer. Statens Museum,Copenhagen, Denmark Industrialization spread throughout

Europe. What were the three most industrialized nations in 1870?

Art&History

Mass ProductionLooking to increase their profits, manufactur-

ers invested in machines to replace more costlyhuman labor. Fast-working, precise machinesenabled industrialists to mass-produce, or to pro-duce huge quantities of identical goods.

In the early 1800s Eli Whitney, inventor of thecotton gin, contributed the concept of interchange-able parts that increased factory production.Whitney’s system involved machine-made parts thatwere exactly alike and easily assembled orexchanged. In the past, handmade parts were notuniform—each differed from the next to some degree.

By the 1890s industrial efficiency had become ascience. Frederick Taylor encouraged manufactur-ers to divide tasks into detailed and specific seg-ments of a step-by-step procedure.

Using Taylor’s plan, industrialists devised adivision of labor in their factories. Each workerperformed a specialized task on a product as itmoved by on a conveyor belt. The worker thenreturned the product to the belt where it continueddown the line to the next worker. Because productswere assembled in a moving line, this method wascalled the assembly line.

American automobile manufacturer HenryFord used assembly-line methods in 1913 to mass-produce his Model T automobiles. Ford describedthe assembly line this way:

The man who places a part does not fas-ten it. The man who puts in a bolt doesnot put in a nut; the man who puts on thenut does not tighten it. Every piece ofwork in the shop moves; it may move onhooks, on overhead chains…. No work-man has anything to do with moving orlifting anything. Save ten steps a day foreach of the 12,000 employees, and youwill have saved fifty miles of wastedmotion and misspent energy.

—Henry Ford, Ford, 1913

As Ford produced greater quantities of his cars,the cost of producing each car fell, allowing him todrop the price. Millions of people could then buywhat earlier only a few could afford.

Organizing BusinessAs production increased, industrial leaders

developed various ways to manage the growingbusiness world and to ensure a continual flow of cap-ital for business expansion. In addition to individualand family businesses, many people formed partner-ships. A partnership is a business organization

involving two or more entrepreneurs who can raisemore capital and take on more business than if eachhad gone into business alone. Partners share man-agement responsibility and debt liability.

Corporations take the idea of partnershipmany steps further. Corporations are business orga-nizations owned by stockholders who buy shares ina company. Stockholders vote on major decisionsconcerning the corporations. Each vote carriesweight according to the number of shares owned.Shares decrease or increase in value depending onthe profits earned by the company. In the late 1800s,as industries grew larger, corporations became oneof the best ways to manage new businesses.

Business CyclesAs market needs grew more complex, individ-

ual businesses concentrated on producing a partic-ular kind of product. This increase in specializationmade growing industries dependent on each other.When one industry did well, other related indus-tries also flourished. A great demand for cars, forexample, led to expansion in the petroleum indus-try. Likewise, bad conditions in one industry oftenspread rapidly to other related industries.

The economic fate of an entire country came torest on business cycles, or alternating periods ofbusiness expansion and decline. Business cycles fol-low a certain sequence, beginning with expansion.In this “boom” phase, buying, selling, production,and employment rates are high. When expansionends, a “bust” period of decreased business activi-ty follows. The lowest point in the business cycle isa depression, which is characterized by bank fail-ures and widespread unemployment. As industryincreasingly dominated the economy, more peoplesuffered during “bust” periods.

Science and Industry Amateur inventors relying heavily on trial and

error produced most industrial advances at thebeginning of the Industrial Revolution. By the late1800s, manufacturers began to apply more scientif-ic findings to their businesses.

CommunicationsScience played an important role in the devel-

opment of communications. In the 1830s SamuelMorse, an American inventor, assembled a workingmodel of the telegraph. Using a system of dots anddashes, the telegraph carried information at highspeeds. Soon telegraph lines linked most Europeanand North American cities.



Coal, iron, and steel; railroads, steamships,and airplanes; factories, skyscrapers, andsteel forges: This was the new world of theage of industry depicted by artist Thomas

Hart Benton in this mural painted in 1930. This sec-tion, called “Steel,” was taken from a drawing Bentonhad sketched of a Maryland steel plant. The workers inthe mural are skilled and strong, the kind of Americancitizens who will make the American democracy, orig-inally designed for an agricultural world, thrive in theindustrial environment.

The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain inthe late 1700s. By applying steam power to ironmachinery the British profoundly transformed howthings were made. These new industries began tochange how people worked, where they lived, howthey ate, and what they needed to know in order tosurvive. After 1870 the United States and Germanybegan to take the lead in industrialization, and steelbecame the most important metal used in industry. Inthis mural Benton welded a new industrial image to anolder republican ideal. �

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Other communications advances occurred. In1864 British physicist James Clerk Maxwell theo-rized that electromagnetic waves travel throughspace at the speed of light. In 1895 Italian inventorGuglielmo Marconi devised the wireless telegraph,later modified into the radio. The invention of thetelephone in 1876 is credited to Alexander GrahamBell, a Scottish-born American teacher of the deaf.

ElectricityBy the early 1900s, scientists were able to har-

ness electrical power. As a result, electricityreplaced coal as the major source of industrial fuel.In 1831 British physicist Michael Faraday had dis-covered that a magnet moving through a coil ofcopper wire produced an electric current. In the1870s, this principle led to the development of anelectric generator. During the same decade,American inventor Thomas Edison developed thephonograph, which reproduced sound. He alsoinvented incandescent lightbulbs, making electriclighting cheap and accessible.

Energy and EnginesAdvances also occurred in the making of

engines. In the late 1880s, Gottlieb Daimler, a Germanengineer, redesigned the internal-combustion engineto run on gasoline. The small portable engine pro-duced enough power to run vehicles and boats.Another German engineer, Rudolf Diesel, devel-oped an oil-burning internal-combustion engine thatcould run factories, ships, and locomotives. Theseinventions ushered in the age of the motor car.

Gasoline engines influenced aviation technolo-gy. In the 1890s Germany’s Ferdinand von Zeppelinstreamlined the dirigible, a balloonlike inventionthat could carry passengers. Other scientists exper-imented with flying heavier aircraft. In 1903, theAmerican inventors Wilbur and Orville Wright

carried out the first successful flight of a motorizedairplane. Five years later, the brothers flew theirwooden airplane a distance of 100 miles (161 km).

Vehicles needed a steady supply of fuel forpower and rubber for tires. As a result, petroleumand rubber industries skyrocketed. Advances intransportation, communications, and electricity spedthe world into an era of increasing mechanization.



below to list new technologiesthat advanced the growth ofindustry.

Recall2. Define industrial capitalism,

interchangeable parts, divisionof labor, partnership, corpora-tion, depression.

3. Identify Eli Whitney, FrederickTaylor, Henry Ford, SamuelMorse, James Clerk Maxwell,Guglielmo Marconi, Alexander Graham Bell, Michael Faraday,Thomas Edison, Rudolf Diesel,Wilbur and Orville Wright.

Critical Thinking4. Synthesizing Information

Imagine you are living in theearly 1900s. Describe how oneinvention mentioned in thissection has changed your life.

Understanding Themes5. Change What effects do you

think industrial advancements,such as mass production andthe assembly line, have had onworkers’ lives?

Milestones of Free Enterprise

Modern free enterprise, or capitalism, which has its roots in medieval Europe, has increased the production of goods, raised standards of living, and advanced trade throughout the world. Below are some milestones of capitalist development in world history.

• 1200s– European merchants use currency instead of barter and develop banking

procedures.

• 1500s– European joint-stock companiesfinance large ventures for overseas exploration, colonization, and trade.

• 1700s– Beginning in Great Britain, entrepreneurs bring together energy sources, machines, and workers to form factories that allow for efficient and increased production.

• 1800s– Large corporations in North America and Europe unify management, limit individual investment risk, and rely on banks for large amounts of capital.

• 1900s Multinational corporations link activities in an emerging global economy. North America, Europe, and Asia’s Pacific Rim are leading centers of free enterprise.

1500s

1700s

1800s

1900s

AROUND THE

NewTechnologies


Before the Industrial Age, a person’sposition in life was determined atbirth, and most people had little

chance of rising beyond that level. Few managed torise above their inherited place in the rigidEuropean society.

As the Industrial Revolution progressedthroughout the 1700s and 1800s, however, newopportunities made the existing social structuremore flexible. Many people, such as inventorRichard Arkwright, used their talents and theopportunities presented by the Industrial Age torise from humble beginnings to material success.

The youngest of 13 children of poor parents,Arkwright trained to become a barber. Yetmachines, not his barbershop, occupied his timeand energy. Spurred by the developments in thetextile industry, Arkwright developed the hugewater-frame spinning wheel that was powered bywater and spun continuously. Arkwright persuad-ed investors to join him in establishing textile millsthroughout Great Britain.

Soon Arkwright’s mills employed more than5,000 people. He amassed a great fortune, becameactive in politics, and was eventually knighted byGreat Britain’s King George III.

The Rise of the Middle Class Although few businesspeople in Europe and

America prospered as Arkwright had, industrial-ization did expand the size, power, and wealth ofthe middle class. Once made up of a small numberof bankers, lawyers, doctors, and merchants, themiddle class now also included successful ownersof factories, mines, and railroads. Professionalworkers such as clerks, managers, and teachersadded to the growing numbers.

Many wealthy manufacturers and other mem-bers of the middle class strongly believed in educa-tion as the key to business success. Politically


> Terms to Definelabor union, collective bargaining

> Places to LocateMassachusetts

Labor unionmembership grows steadily in Europe andNorth America.

c. 1900 Massachusetts millworkers petition state forbetter working conditions.

1845 British Parliament legalizes labor's right to strike.

1870 CombinationActs passed by BritishParliament ban labor unions.

c. 1800

18501800 1900

Factory inspectors interviewed a little boywho worked carrying coal early in the IndustrialRevolution:

I don’t know how old I am; father isdead; mother is dead also. I began to workwhen I was about 9. I first worked for a manwho used to hit me with the belt or with toolsand fling coals at me. I left him and went tosee if I could get another job. I used to sleepin the old pits that had no more coal in them;I laid upon the shale all night. I used to eatwhatever I could get; I ate for a long time thecandles that I found in the pits. I work nowfor a man who serves me well; he pays me

with food and drink.

—freely adapted fromHard Times, HumanDocuments of theIndustrial Revolution, E.Royston Pike, 1966

S e c t i o n 4

A New Society

Child at work

Read to Find Out Main Idea The Industrial Revolutionaffected people’s lives greatly.

SThetoryteller

active, they became involved inmany reform efforts, includingeducation, health care, prisonimprovements, and sanitation.

Middle-Class LifestylesAs European and American

middle-class men rose in societyand assumed the role of soleprovider for families, family lifebegan to change. By the end of thelate 1800s, stereotypes emergedfrom the middle class that createdand reinforced the idea that menand women occupied differentroles based on differences in theircharacters. Men centered theirenergy on the workplace, whilewomen concentrated their effortson maintaining the home andbringing up children.

As soon as the family could afford it, a middle-class woman would hire domestic help. The num-ber of her servants increased with her wealth. In1870 an English guidebook listed the sequence inwhich women hired new help. First she “hires awasherwoman occasionally, then a charwoman,then a cook and housemaid, a nurse or two, a gov-erness, a lady’s maid, a housekeeper….” Servants,usually women, did the more difficult and unpleas-ant household chores, such as carrying loads ofwood and coal, washing laundry, and cleaninghouse.

As middle-class women freed themselves frommore tedious labor, they devoted their time to otheroccupations, such as educating their children,hand-sewing and embroidering, and planningmeals. Magazines for women proliferated at thistime, instructing housewives in everything fromcooking and housekeeping to geography and nat-ural science.

A typical day for one American middle-classwoman in the early 1800s began at 6:00 A.M. andlasted until after 10:00 P.M. After waking up thefamily, the woman fed her infant son and then satdown to breakfast with her family. She read theBible to her other three children, prayed with theservants, and then ordered the meals for the day.During the day she wrote letters, took one child tothe park, and supervised the older daughters infeeding the younger children and folding up thelaundry. The woman’s schedule continued afternightfall. “After tea,” she wrote, “read to [the chil-dren] till bedtime….”

Middle-class parents sent their boys to school

to receive training for employment or preparationfor higher education. Sons often inherited theirfathers’ positions or worked in the family business.Most daughters were expected to learn to cook,sew, and attend to all the workings of the householdso that they would be well prepared for marriage.

Lives of the Working ClassAs the middle class in Europe and America

grew, so too did the working class in even greaternumbers. The members of this class enjoyed few ofthe new luxuries that the upper and middle classescould now afford. Most people in the workingclasses had once labored on rural farms and nowmade up the majority of workers in new industries.Workers depended solely on the money theyearned to buy what they needed. Unlike in earlierdays, they did not grow or make what their familiesneeded.


ShampooIn the early 1900s, 25-year-old Joseph Breck tried in

vain to find a cure for premature baldness. Hisefforts, however, led to a full line of hair careproducts that replaced the harsh soaps used atthat time. Breck’s businesses soon led the UnitedStates in shampoo production.

During the late 1800s, the middle classes in NorthAmerica and Great Britain stressed the importance of

leisure activities shared by the entire family. How did middle-class maleand female roles differ?

HistoryVisualizing

At the Mercy of MachineryWhen British and American industrialists first

established mill towns such as Lowell, Manchester,Sheffield, and Fall River, work conditions were tol-erable. As industrial competition increased, howev-er, work became harder and increasingly more dan-gerous. Managers assigned workers more machinesto operate and insisted that workers perform theirtasks as fast as possible throughout the day.

Under the system of division of labor, workersdid the same tasks over and over again, and did not have the satisfaction of seeing the completedwork. The combination of monotonous work andheavy, noisy, repetitive machinery made the slight-est interruption in the work potentially dangerous.Many workers—often children—lost fingers andlimbs, and even their lives, to factory machinery.

Time ruled the lives of the industry workersdown to the second. On the farms, workers’ dayshad followed the sun and the weather. Now rigidschedules clocked by ringing bells commandedtheir every minute. One woman who worked in a

Lowell, Massachusetts, textile mill wrote about herfrustration in 1841:

I am going home, where I shall not beobliged to rise so early in the morning, norbe dragged about by the factory bell, norconfined in a close noisy room from morn-ing to night. I shall not stay here…. Upbefore day, at the clang of the bell—andout of the mill by the clang of the bell—into the mill, and at work in obedience tothat ding-dong of a bell—just as thoughwe were so many living machines.

—anonymous worker, The Lowell Offering

In the textile mills, workers spent 10 to 14 hoursa day in unventilated rooms filled with lint anddust. Diseases such as pneumonia and tuberculosisspread throughout the factories, killing manyworkers. In coal mines, workers faced the danger ofworking with heavy machinery and of breathing incoal dust in the mines.

of theof the

The Industrial AgeIndustrialization brought new products and

leisure activities to many people. It also producedterrible working conditions that gave rise to laborunions.

390

A badge of an early laborunion represents the coopera-tive efforts of workers to seekfair wages and a more humaneworkplace.

For these long hours at dangerous work,employees earned little to support themselves andtheir families. Factory owners kept workers’ wageslow so that their businesses could make profits.Women often made half the wages as men for thesame job. Children were paid even less.

Workers’ LivesTo earn enough money, whole families worked

in the factories and mines, including small childrenas young as 6 years old. Children often worked 12-hour shifts, sometimes longer and through thenight, with only a short break to eat a small meal.

Working-class children did not usually go toschool, spending most of the day working instead.Many became crippled or ill from working underunhealthful and dangerous conditions. In 1843 anobserver wrote that a child worker in the brick-fields “works from 6 in the morning till 8 or 9 atnight … Finds her legs swell sometimes … and[suffers] pains and aches between the shoulders,and her hands swell.”

For many women, the industries offered newopportunities for independence. For centuries,women’s choices were limited almost entirelyeither to marriage or to life in a convent. Now theycould earn a living. Textile mills in New England,for example, provided young single women anopportunity to make money while making newfriends. These “mill girls” lived together in millboardinghouses where they often gathered in studygroups devoted to reading and discussing literature.

Yet for the majority of working-class womenand their families, life consisted of a difficult work-ing life and an uncomfortable home life. Workersoften lived in crowded, cold apartments in poorlyconstructed tenement housing near factories.Sometimes whole families lived in one or two rooms.

Because the mill owners often owned the work-ers’ housing, they controlled the rent and decidedwhen and whether to improve living conditions.New urban problems complicated life. Human andindustrial waste contaminated water supplies andspread diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

391

Children of the working classwere often underfed and withoutschooling. Many in this London tenement lived withdiscouraged parents. Others worked along-side adults.

REFLECTING ON THE TIMES

1. Why did labor unions organize in the industrialperiod?

2. How did the Industrial Revolution tend todivide people into separate classes?

Edison’s Vitascope, an early typeof motion picture projector, fascinated large audiences.

Workers Unite

Although governments in western Europebegan to recognize the workers’ complaints and initi-ate reforms, workers still labored under harsh con-ditions. Only through forming organized laborgroups were workers able to begin to improve theirworking conditions in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Workers knew that they could not fight suc-cessfully as individuals against the factory owners.They had to join together into groups to make theirproblems heard. In Great Britain, many workersjoined to form worker associations, which weregroups dedicated to representing the interests ofworkers in a specific industry. The associationshoped to improve the wages and working condi-tions of their members. Eventually these workerassociations developed into labor unions both inEurope and in the United States in the 1800s.

Union TacticsWorkers in labor unions protested in many

ways. They organized strikes, in which every work-er refused to work. In sit-down strikes, workersstopped working but refused to leave the work area.

Despite these efforts, unions faced great oppo-sition. Manufacturers complained that the shorterhours and higher wages would add to productioncosts, increase the price of goods, and hurt busi-ness. To discourage workers from joining unions,factory owners added the names of suspectedunion members to a blacklist to prevent them fromgetting jobs throughout the industry. The BritishParliament even banned unions in the CombinationActs of 1799 and 1800.

Yet British workers kept their cause alive, andin the 1820s Parliament agreed that workers couldmeet to discuss working hours and wages. In thefollowing years, skilled British workers formedunions based on a specific trade or craft. Becausethey had valuable skills, trade union members wereable to bargain with employers. When union lead-ers meet with an employer to discuss problems andreach an agreement, they practice collective bar-gaining. The British unions’ power increased in the1870s after Parliament legalized strikes.

Following the skilled trade unions’ success,unskilled workers formed unions in the late 1880s. Bythe beginning of the 1900s, union membership grewsteadily in Europe and the United States.



below to list effects of theIndustrial Revolution on people’s lives.

Recall2. Define labor unions, collective

bargaining.3. Identify Combination Acts.Critical Thinking4. Analyzing Information Why

were industrialists in westernEurope and the United Statesoften able to subject factory

workers to poor working conditions?

Understanding Themes5. Conflict What were some

of the social and economicproblems that early factoryworkers faced? Why did theyform labor unions to solvethese problems?

Through posters, early labor unionscalled for unity, realizing that the

individual worker was powerless. How did factory owners try to prevent unionization?

HistoryVisualizing

Effects OnMiddle Class Working Class



Suppose you see a billboard showing twohappy customers shaking hands with“Honest Harry,” the owner of a used-car

sales business. The ad says, “Visit Honest Harryfor the best deal on wheels.” That evening yousee a television program that investigates used-car sales businesses. The report says that manyof these businesses cheat their customers.

Each message expresses a bias—an inclina-tion or prejudice that inhibits impartiality. Mostpeople have preconceived feelings, opinions,and attitudes that affect their judgment on manytopics. For this reason, ideas stated as facts maybe opinions. Detecting bias enables us to evalu-ate the accuracy of information.

Learning the SkillIn detecting bias, first identify the writer’s or

speaker’s purpose. For example, a billboard ad is a marketing tool for selling cars. We would expectthat it has a strong bias.

Another clue to identify bias is emotionallycharged language such as exploit, terrorize, andcheat. Also look for visual images that provoke anemotional response. For example, in the televisionreport an interview with a person who bought a“lemon” automobile may elicit a strong response.

Look for overgeneralizations such as unique,honest, and everybody. Notice italics, underlining,and punctuation that highlights particular ideas.Finally, examine the material to determine whetherit presents equal coverage of differing views.

Practicing the SkillIndustrialization produced widespread

changes in society and widespread disagreementon its effects. While many people hailed theabundance of manufactured goods, others criti-cized its impact on working people. Karl Marxand Friedrich Engels presented their viewpointon industrialization in the Communist Manifesto in1848. Read the following excerpt and then answerthese questions.

1. What is the purpose of this manifesto?2. What are three examples of emotionally

charged language?3. According to Marx and Engels, which is more

inhumane—the exploitation by feudal lords orby the bourgeoisie? Why?

4. What bias about industrialization is expressedin this excerpt?

The bourgeoisie [the class of factoryowners and employers] … has put an endto all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations.It has pitilessly torn asunder the motleyfeudal ties that bound man to his “natur-al superiors,” and has left remaining noother nexus [link] between man and man than naked self-interest, than cal-lous “cash payment.” It has drowned the most heavenly of ecstasies of reli-gious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm …in the icy water of egotistical calcula-tion.… In one word, for exploitation,veiled by religious and political illusions,it has substituted naked, shameless,direct, brutal exploitation.

Applying the SkillFind written material about a topic of inter-

est in your community. Possible sources includeeditorials, letters to the editor, and pamphletsfrom political candidates and interest groups.Write a short report analyzing the material forevidence of bias.

For More PracticeTurn to the Skill Practice in the Chapter

Assessment on page 395.

Detecting Bias

Critical ThinkingCritical Thinking

The Glencoe SkillbuilderInteractive Workbook, Level 2provides instruction and practice in key social studies skills.

Reviewing Facts1. Technology/Society Use a chart like the one

below to list factors that contributed to thegrowth of big business during the IndustrialRevolution.

2. Technology/Society Identify the IndustrialRevolution, and list its causes and effects.

3. Technology Explain the role of steam engine inthe development of the factory system.

4. Technology/Society Discuss the impact ofindustrialization on working-class women andchildren.

5. Science Identify three inventors in industry,transportation, and communication, and listtheir individual contributions.

6. Technology/Society Track the spread of indus-try. How did industrialization differ fromcountry to country?

Critical Thinking1. Apply How did the Industrial Revolution

affect Great Britain’s social structure?2. Analyze In what ways did the life of a farm

laborer differ from the life of a factory worker?3. Synthesize Great Britain had an early lead in

industrialization. Which factor was the mostcritical in this development? Why?

4. Evaluate What do you see as the positive andnegative effects of the Industrial Revolution?

Using Key TermsWrite the key term that completes each sentence. Thenwrite a sentence for each term not chosen.

a. factory system g. industrial capitalismb. partnership h. entrepreneursc. division of labor i. labor unionsd. corporation j. domestic systeme. enclosure movement k. capitalf. collective bargaining l. depression

1. The lowest point in the business cycle is a_________, which is characterized by bank fail-ures and widespread unemployment.

2. A _________ is a business organization ownedby stockholders who buy shares in the companyand vote on major decisions concerning thefuture of the business.

3. When union leaders and an employer meettogether to discuss problems and reach anagreement, they practice _________________.

4. Under a _____________, workers perform a par-ticular task on a product as it is moved by on aconveyor belt.

5. Money invested in labor, machines, and rawmaterials is known as ___________.


From your time line of inventionschoose one invention that you believeaffects your life every day. How wouldpeople live today without this invention?Write a paragraph describing life without it.

Using Your History Journal

CHAPTER 12 ASSESSMENT

Factors in the Growthof Big Business

1.2.3.4.

Self-Check Quiz

Visit the World History: The Modern EraWeb site at worldhistory.me.glencoe.com and click on Chapter 12—Self-Check Quiz to prepare for the Chapter Test.

Using E-mail Locate an E-mail address for yourchamber of commerce.Compose a letter requesting information aboutvarious industries in your area. Create an illus-trated pamphlet of information about areaindustries. Include advancement of technologywithin these industries, and their impact on thecommunity. Provide a circle graph illustratingthe percentage of people employed by specificindustries within your community.

Technology Activity

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/worldhistory/whme2001/quiz.shtml?BOOK=005&CHAPTER=12&TITLE=Age+of+Industry

this chapter, illustrate this statement. 3. Change Do you think that progress is a neces-

sary result of change? Give examples.4. Conflict How have differences between

employers and workers produced positiveeffects for workers in the modern world?

1. What effects do you see from the IndustrialRevolution in your everyday life?

2. What changes and challenges has industrypresented society in recent years?

3. The Industrial Revolution replaced manyhandcrafted items with mass-producedones. What things that we use today aremade mostly by hand?

Skill PracticeRead the following excerpt from “The Gospel ofWealth,” an 1889 essay by Andrew Carnegie. Then answer the questions that follow.

The contrast between the palace of the mil-lionaire and the cottage of the laborer withus today measures the changes which hadcome with civilization. The change, howev-er, is not to be deplored, but welcomed ashighly beneficial. It is well, nay, essentialfor the progress of the race that the housesof some should be homes for all that ishighest and best in literature and the arts,and for all the refinements of civilization,rather than that none should be so. Muchbetter this great irregularity than universalsqualor.

1. Does the term cottage coincide with the descrip-tion of how workers lived that is found on page615?

2. How does Carnegie’s use of this term indicatebias?

3. How does Carnegie justify large differences inlifestyle between rich and poor?

4. How does Carnegie describe the condition ofmost of humanity, except the wealthy?

5. Evaluate How can consumer demand influ-ence technological development?

Geography in History1. Region Refer to the map below. Why did

England have an advantage in developingheavy industry?

2. Place What industrial center is closest to sever-al iron ore and coal fields?

3. Movement Railways in northern Scotland andIreland were not built for transporting iron andcoal. How can you tell this from the map? Whatmay have been transported on these railways?

Understanding Themes1. Relation to Environment How were industry

and farming related during the period beforethe Industrial Revolution?

2. Innovation It is often said that “necessity is themother of invention.” Using one invention in


Iron ore fields

Coal fields

Railways, 1850

Railways developed,1850-1870

Industrial centers

ENGLAND

SCOTLAND

WALES

IRELAND

Glasgow

Leeds

Manchester

Liverpool

Sheffield

Birmingham

London

Belfast

Dublin

Cardiff

Stockton

ATLANTICOCEAN

NorthSea

Industrial Revolution: England 1850–1870

CHAPTER 12 ASSESSMENT