“Social Classes Role in Bringing About Change During the Industrial Revolution"

The Industrial Revolution was period of rapid economic and social growth during the mid 18th and early 19th centuries. The new found power of coal and iron made for many new innovations in machinery. Not all of the Industrial Revolution’s changes were physical. A new ideology arose from the sweat of the working class: socialism. Socialism is a political theory advocating state or collective ownership of property and industry opposed to private ownership. To fully understand the relationship between the Industrial Revolution and socialism, one must first be comfortable with the Revolution and its changes, socialism itself, and the fine line of events linking the two together.

The upper class were the rich and with the advancement of new technology, became richer. Goods could be created and sold for a cheaper price in their factories. With the working class looking for work, were employed by the factory owners. The advantaged social class that had enjoyed wealth and success, had now achieved a new level of luxury.

Thus, it was believed that conflicting classes existed because individuals developed an appropriate sense of class-consciousness (Buckler 740). This consciousness is very obvious when looking at the mindset of the middle-class owners. They were primarily focused on production and gave little thought to the environment of their workers. As a result, most early factories contained extremely unpleasant work conditions. Mills and factories were dangerously loud, and they were sweltering hot in the summer while poorly heated in the winter. Work days consisted of endlessly long hours and holidays were rarely granted. Furthermore, no laws or unions stood protecting the early urban proletariat workers. Despite these horrid conditions, the proletariat workers were desperate for jobs and were entirely dependant on their employers. Also, because of class-consciousness, they came to accept their positions in society as grueling factory workers. On top of terrible work conditions, the Proletariats’ living conditions were less than satisfactory due to the rapid population increase in urban cities. Until the Industrial Revolution, most of the continent’s population was rural. However, by mid-nineteenth century, half of all Europeans lived in cities and worked in the new industrial factories instead of farms. This transformation of Europe from a rural to urbanized society depressed the living standards of workers to horrendous levels. In doing so, however, it

The Industrial revolution started in Britain around 1750 and by 1850 it will make Great Britain the wealthiest country in the world. The revolution also spread to other European countries and the New World. Both Germany and United States will surpass Britain in the next fifty years. What was the effect of The Industrial Revolution on the working class?

Employment was another improvement for the middle and working classes. For the middle class, they gained income and lost traces of radical socialism because they were drawn towards a more aristocratic lifestyle. As the progression of the Industrial Revolution occurred, the working class were being taken over by a variety of machines.

Despite the continuation of capitalism, the middle class successfully emerged as the dominating class in our society. As Lewis Corey states, “Workers were becoming capitalists, the capitalists becoming workers.” Industrial capitalism spawned a middle class, molded the exact same way that Marx predicted in his major work.

Capitalism refers to an economic system whereby ownership of as well as investment in the means of production is made by private corporations or individuals to whom wealth accrues since they own the means of production. Society morphed from the feudal system to a bourgeois one that did not eliminate class antagonisms (Marx and Engels para 8). Instead, “it has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones” (Marx and Engels para 9). At best, the capitalist society that emerged in place of the feudal system merely served to abridge class antagonism by erasing multiple hierarchical classes and replacing them with two classes, the proletariats and the bourgeoisie (Marx and Engels para 10). The bourgeoisie refers to the wealthy class who own the means of production and can, therefore, accumulate incremental wealth by subjecting the proletariat into endless labor. On their part, the proletariat does not own the means of production and are forced to sell their labor cheaply to earn a living, ultimately sustaining the capitalist machinery.

This shift created a middle class due to the fact that goods were being produced at a faster more efficient rate and being bought for a lower price, allowing people to have left over money that could be used on personal items rather than for survival. Creating the third class in an otherwise dual class system of rich and poor, formally the bourgeois and the proletariat. Another important effect the Industrial Revolution had on society was the formation of unions. In the beginning of the revolution employers would not provide safe working conditions or equal working wages. Women formed the first union requesting that they be paid the same amount as a man for the same amount of work. Other unions, not specified to women, fought for safer and more sanitary working conditions. For one of the first times in history employees had felt the power to stand up for themselves and demand things from their boss, in a reasonable fashion. This shows that due to the rapid technological advancements, society had to advance as well to properly function amongst the change. Advancement usually occurs as a direct result of another change because as one thing changes the other things that affects it or it is effect by needs to adapt as

Technological innovations replaced people with a specific skill with semiskilled or unskilled factory workers . This gave opportunities to Americas lower class that they didn’t have before. They had a chance to move upward from unskilled to skilled positions. While many of the middle and upper classes didn’t work many hours or do much physical work and his salary might have been upwards of 1600, skilled factory workers would only make about 600 at best and work long hours in difficult conditions. The middle class was a term introduced in the century dictionary in 1889. It reflected the new awareness that the American society had a hierarchy. Professionals were the backbone of the new middle class. Cahiers, clerks, government employees mostly

Europe relied heavily on the working class to support all the changes of the industrial revolution. The working class had an extreme influence on economic, political, and social structures. As the working class continued to grow, changes within politics were being reflected. With all the new changes, a new legislation and government policy was implemented. A variety of minority groups and immigrants made up the working class. Many of which resided in rural homes and were adapting to the modernizations of the city. As business owners tried to cut corners and labor costs to secure their profits, the working class became assertive. The working class rioted and held campaigns for better pay, shorter days, and better working conditions. The working

The effects that the Industrial Revolution had on the lower classes were one of a detrimental essence. The changes that occurred outnumbered the continuities. The reason that the changes outnumbered the continuities was because the Industrial Revolution had a very significant and profound effect on the lower classes. It significantly changed their entire lifestyle. The changes on the lower class would be best analyzed when placed into a set amount of categories.

Whereas, Marx describes revolutionary seizure of power by working class and disposing the ruling class for the sake of one equal society, as a consequence of wage gap. Marx claims that in his times, there actually were only two classes in society. One is the proletariat, “a class of laborers who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labor increases capital” (Marx, p.36).

I believe that the Industrial Revolution contribute to political inequality. The Industrial Revolution took place between the 18th and 19th centuries. Major technological breakthroughs like manufacturing, agriculture and trade changed the way we conducted things. The cotton gin, steam engine, and sewing machine were all in inventions that shaped entire economies and brought deep and lasting change to all classes of people. Thus the separation on social and political inequality happened. But Karl Marx believed in a communist society. There are no class distinctions and everybody works but an individual with a higher physically and intellectually superior get the recognition (Marx 1875, 231-233). Michael Bakunin seems to be in favor of revolutionary

Philosophers and politicians held opinions regarding what would happen to society as times began to change during the middle of the nineteenth century. The Second Industrial Revolution proved to be beneficial for society and introduced new technological advancements into the workplace, allowing for greater efficiency in factories. Society moved forward, progressing towards a new advanced industrial and technological era. However, the increased technological advancements and the effects of the Second Industrial Revolution also seemed to increase the gap between the different European classes. The working class found it harder to retain jobs since machines could accomplish tasks more efficiently, putting thousands of people out of work. Communist

Explain what is meant by the Bourgeoisie and Proletariat. How does this relate to inequality? Explain. (5 marks)