Deze samenvatting gaat over hoofdstuk 6 (6.1 t/m 6.5) van BRICKS havo/vwo volume 3. De samenvatting is in het Engels.
This summary is about chapter 6 (6.1 t/m 6.5) from BRICKS havo/vwo volume 3. The summary is in English.
Between 1750 and 1900 Europe and North America changed. Manual work was replaced by
machines. This time period is the industrial revolution. After this revolution the modern age began.
A world changing revolution
Before the industrial revolution, people lived in an agricultural-urban society. work was done by
manual labour with(out) help of animal power. Transportation was done by walking or by help of
animals. During the industrial revolution machines were invented and new ways of transportation.
More changes occurred for example form candle light to electric light.
Why did the revolution start in Britain?
Britain was the first country to become industrialised. There were a lot of natural resources, people
were interested in technology and progress, there were many harbours to ship goods and
agriculture. Since the seventeenth century, an agricultural revolution occurred in Britain. Farmers
used new techniques, this led to an agricultural surplus. A lot of people moved to Britain. More
people meant that more clothes were needed. Before the industrial revolution, clothes were made
by farmers. There was a higher demand than farmers could handle with their spinning wheels.
Inventing new spinning machines
Inventors were inspired by this problem and started making inventions. One of the first machines
was made by James Hargrease, he invented the spinning Jenny. With this invention he increased the
spinning speed. The problem with this machine is that it had to be run by hand and the threads broke
easily. Then Richard Arkwright invented the Water frame, this machine worked on waterpower
which means that it doesn’t need a lot of manpower. The Water frame was placed in a watermill.
Because rivers did not always flow that well the steam power was invented. These machines needed
coal to burn (England had plenty of coal.
Steam power
The use of steam power was not new, in 1712 the first steam engine was used to pump water from a
mine. It became popular for more industries after James Watt made an adapted version, he made
the steam engine operate different machines. This rotary movement revolutionised industry. Steam
engines were placed in factories. Factories had to be built close to places with water and coal (the
coal was burned to heat up water to produce steam). Because of the steam locomotive these fuels
could be transported and factories could be built everywhere.
Life in an industrial city
Because of industrialisation less workers were needed in the agricultural and more people were
needed in industrial jobs and services. A lot of people had to work in factories in the city. Because of
this, cities grew (urbanisation). Workers had to live close to the factories. There was a shortage in
housing. The wages were low so they could only rent a very small house in special worker
neighbourhoods. This made it very unhygienic which caused illnesses to spread.
Families in the factories
The wages were very low, families could only survive if the mother and children also worked.
Children could not go to school so the situation could not improve. Men and woman operated the
machines and the children crawled into narrow spaces in mines or under machines to pick up cotton.
, 6.2
Charles dickens had to work in a factory as a child. When his dad was sent to prison he ended up on
the streets. Later Charles made books about his experience and he became a great author.
Differences in a new class system
A new class system developed all over industrialised Europe. The social differences became employer
and employee. Factory owners became the new rich. They hired labourers to work in their factories,
in exchange they paid them. Factory owners made their wages low so they could have a lot of profit.
Making profit
Employers used the profit to invest in their companies (buy new machines). This economic system to
make profit by investing money in your company is called capitalism. Employers also bought their
own comfortable lives; they had a big house while the employees struggled to survive. First there
was hardly any resistance to these inequalities. They believed that god wanted this.
A tough life for labourers
Labourers had a though life because of the physically hard labour they had to do. Standing behind a
machine all day was monotonous. This combined with exhaustion, illnesses, drunkenness, felling
faint of hunger, caused accidents. Also, factories were filled with smoke, dust and soot that damaged
the lungs. The factories were an unsafe environment. Still people worked there, it was hard to find
and keep a job. Also, people could get fired easily because there were a lot of demand for the job.
The start of socialism
Robert Owen was a factory owner but he wanted to improve the working and living conditions of his
employees. He made sure that his workers were paid higher wages, reduced their working days, he
built good houses and children could go to school. He had a good relationship with his workers. He
was considered to be one of the founders of socialism. Before the age of citizens and steam engines,
the government didn’t bother to protect the poor, which had always been a task for the church or
through donations from private benefactors. Socialists wanted the government to reduce the
difference between rich and poor by regulating the capitalistic free market and reducing exploitation
by factory owners. Labourers should be protected through laws and have more rights.
The first trade unions and social laws
Workers talked to other people, they got information from labourers in other cities and the lives of
the rich. They started to unite in trade unions (organisations of labourers and union leaders with the
goal of improving the work situation. Factory owners and governments responded by firing
labourers, cutting salaries or using violence. This did not work because the workers were with many
and so force the employers to negotiate and come to better terms.
The social issue
After hearing stories, the politicians sent commissions to visit the factories and check the working
conditions. Social laws were made to help the poor. In 1874 in the Netherlands the children’s law of
van Houten was made. This law forbade factory owners from hiring children under the age of 12. In
the years that followed socialists fought for more such laws which led to fewer working hours,
minimum wages and financial help for people who were old or unable to work. Preacher Ferdinand
Domela Nieuwenhuis was an important Dutch socialist leader.
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