The industrial revolution an age of reform study guide summary chapter

 


 

The industrial revolution an age of reform study guide summary chapter

 

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The industrial revolution an age of reform study guide summary chapter

Chapter 25-  The Industrial Revolution
An Age of Reform – Section 4

  • Many business leaders believed that progress opened a gap between rich and poor
  • Reformers felt that governments should play an active role in bettering conditions for the poor

 

Philosophers of Industrialization

  • Laissez Faire – refers to the economic policy of letting owners of industry and business set working conditions without interference – ‘Hands off’ approach
    • Favors free market unregulated by the government
    • ‘let people do as they please’

Laissez-Faire Economics

  • Comes from Enlightenment thinkers
    • Argue that government regulation only interfered with the production of wealth
    • Philosophers believed that if the government allowed free trade – (flow of commerce in the world market w/o government regulation) the economy would prosper  
  • Adam Smith defended the idea of a free economy, or free market in the 1776 book ‘Wealth of Nations’
    • Stated that economic liberty guaranteed economic progress – government should not interfere with the economy

The idea of Malthus and Ricardo

  • Malthus and Ricardo supported Smith’s basic ideas
    • Believed that natural laws governed economic life
    • Foundation for Laissez-Faire Capitalism
    • Capitalism – is an economic system in which money is invested in business ventures with the goal of making a profit (helped bring about the industrial revolution)
  • Laissez – Faire thinkers such as Smith, Malthus, and Ricardo opposed government efforts to help poor workers
    • They thought that creating a minimum wage law, and better working conditions would upset the free market system, lower profits and undermine the production of wealth in society

Rise of Socialism

  • In contrast to laissez-faire philosophy, other theorists believed that governments should intervene
    • Believed that people or the government must take action to improve people’s lives

Utilitarianism

  • Jeremy Bentham introduced the idea of Utilitarianism which was modified from Adam Smiths ideas
  • Utilitarianism – people should judge ideas, institutions, and actions on the basis of their utility, or usefulness
    • Government should try to promote the greatest good for the greatest amount of people
    • In general the individual should be free to pursue his or her own advantage without interference from the State
    • John Stuart Mill – led the Utilitarian movement
      • He questioned unregulated capitalism
      • Mill wished to help ordinary working class people
      • Favored a cooperative system of agriculture and women’s rights (right to vote)
      • Wanted to do away with great differences in Wealth

Socialism and Marxism

  • Socialism – the factors of production are owned by the public and operate for the welfare of all
  • Grew out of : optimistic view of human nature, a belief in progress, and a concern for social justice
    • Argue that the government should actively plan the economy rather than depending on free-market capitalism to do the job
    • Argued that government control of factories, mines, railroads, and other key industries would abolish poverty and promote equality

Communist Manifesto-

  • Karl Marx – A German journalist introduced the world to a radical form of socialism called Marxism
  • Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels outlined their ideas in a 23-page pamphlet called the Communist Manifesto
    • Argues that human societies have always been divided into warring classes
      • The ‘haves’ (bourgeoisie – or employers) and the ‘have-nots’ (or workers called the proletariat)
      • While the wealthy controlled the means of producing goods, the poor performed the backbreaking labor under terrible conditions
  • Marx and Engels believed that the Industrial Revolution had enriched the wealthy and impoverished the poor
  • They believed that the workers would overthrow the owners

The Future According to Marx

  • Marx believed that the capitalist system would eventually destroy itself in the following way:
    • Factories would drive small artisans out of business à leaving a small amount of manufacturers to control all the wealth
    • The large proletariat would revolt, seize the factories and mills from the capitalists, and produce what society needed
    • Workers, sharing in the profit would bring about economic equality for all
    • Workers would control the government in a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’
    • Government would wither away and a classless society would develop
    • Marx called this final phase pure communism
  • Communism – as a form of complete socialism in which the means of production – all land, mines, factories, railroads, and businesses would be owned by the people,
    • private property would cease to exist
    • All goods and services would be shared equally
  • Results of the Communist Manifesto:
    • Widespread revolts throughout Europe – 1848-1849, European leaders were able to put each revolt down
    • 1900 Marxism inspired revolutionaries such as Russia Lenin and Stalin, China’s Mao Zedong, Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh, an Cuba’s Fidel Castro
  • Marx and Engels condemned the inequalities of early industrial economies
  • Marx and Engels were wrong about:
    • Believed that economic forces alone dominated society à time has shown that religion, nationalism, ethnic loyalties, and desire for democratic reforms may be as strong influences on history as economics
    • The gap between the rich and the poor in industrialized countries has not widened, mostly because of reforms

Unionization and Legislative Reforms

  • Factory workers faced long hours, dirty and dangerous working conditions, and the threat of being laid off
  • To press for reforms, workers joined together in voluntary associations called unions

The Union Movement

  • A union spoke for all the workers in a particular trade
  • Unions engaged in Collective – Bargaining – negotiations between workers and their employers
    • Bargained for better working conditions, and higher pay
    • If factory owners refused thses demands, union members could strike – or refuse to work
  • Skilled workers led the way in forming unions – special skills gave them bargaining powers
  • Earliest unions helped the lower middle class more than the poorest workers
  • Great Britain government denied workers the right to form unions
    • Unions were seen as a threat to social order and stability
    • Many factory workers joined unions anyway
    • After 1825 the British government unhappily allowed unions

Reform Laws

  • In Great Britain and in the United States new laws reformed some of the worst abuses of industrialization
  • Factory Act of 1833 – a new law that made it illegal to hire children under 9 years old
    • Children between 9-12 could not work more than 8 hours a day
    • Children between 13-17 could not work more than 12 hours a day
  • Mines Act of 1832 prevented women and children from working underground
  • The Ten Hours Act of 1847  limited the workday to ten hours for women and children who worked in factories

Other Reform Movements –

  • Many reform movements sprang up in response to the negative impact of industrialization
    • Reforms included improving the workplace and extending the rights to vote to working-class men, also the impulse towards reform along with the ideas of the French Revolution led to the ending of slavery and promoted new rights for women and children


Abolition of Slavery –

  • William Wilberforce – led the fight for abolition – the end of slavery and the slave trade in Great Britain
  • Britain abolished slavery in 1833
  • Abolitionists had mixed motives – some motives were moral because they thought slavery was wrong, others stemmed from an economic point of view because their labor was cheap

Women Fight for Change –

  • Factory work offered higher wages than work from home
  • On the other hand women factory workers only made 1/3 as much money as men
  • Women led many reform issues at work such as unsafe working conditions and equal pay rates
  • Abolitionist women began to wonder why their rights were being denied because of their gender
  • Women’s rights activists sprang up all over the place

Reform Spread to Many Areas of Life

  • Public education and prison reforms ranked high on the list
  • Free public schooling became available in the late 1800s in Europe
  • Prisons sought to reform prisoners to be useful after they left prison

 

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