2. Questions to Ponder Why do we define this historical period as revolutionary? How did life change as the result of invention? What were the consequences of the Industrial Revolution? How were people’s lives affected by the Industrial Revolution?
3. What is the Industrial Revolution? The Industrialization refers to a process that transformed agrarian and handicraft-centered economies into economies distinguished by industry and machine manufacture. 2 Part division of the Industrial Revolution To 1860 (Primarily Great Britain) 1860 through World War I (rest of the West)
4. The Spread of Industrialization Industrialization and the technological, organizational, and social transformations that accompanied it might have originated in parts of the world where abundant craft skills, agricultural production, and investment capital could support the process. For awhile, industrialization took place only in Great Britain. Industrialization in Western Europe By the mid-19th century, industrialization had spread to France, Germany, and Belgium. The French revolution and the Napoleonic wars helped set the stage by abolishing internal trade barriers and dismantling guilds that discouraged technological innovation and restricted the movement of laborers. Industrialization in North America Like Western Europe, industrialization had spread to the region by the mid-19th century. The United States possessed abundant land and natural resources, but few laborers and little money to invest in business enterprises. Both labor and investment capital came largely from Europe. Migrants crossed the Atlantic to seek opportunities to invest in businesses that made use of American natural resources.
5. Industrial Capitalism Mass Production With refined manufacturing processes, factories could mass-produce standardized articles Big Business Continuing the development of capitalist business organization Entrepreneurs formed private businesses in hope of profiting from market-oriented production and trade. The Corporation The most common form of business organization in industrial societies. Monopolies, Trusts, and Cartels To protect their investments, some big businesses sought to not only outperform their competitors in the capitalist marketplace, but to eliminate competition. Trusts and cartels shared a common goal: to control the supply of a product and hence its price in the marketplace. Some monopolists sought to control industries through vertical organization, by which they would dominate all facets of a single industry.
6. The Socialist Challenge Socialists were among the most vocal and influential critics of early industrial society. They worked to alleviate the social and economic problems generated by capitalism and industrialization. Early socialists sought to expand the Enlightenment understanding of equality: understanding equality to have an economic as well as political, legal, and social dimension, and they looked to the future establishment of a just and equitable society. They had different views on the best way to establish and maintain an ideal socialist society.
