The History Of The Industrial City

As workers moved to cities to work in factories, and progress in medical and sanitation practices improved, urban crowding became a huge issue. Additionally, where industry was taking over production in markets that had previously been dominated by small business owners, these skilled workers, weavers and the like, were now being forced to take jobs working for capitalist ventures-- often working in the industry coinciding with their master skill, but

Industrialization and urbanization that happened in America after the civil war, is a good manifestation that the country was moving along the right path. After the war, progress in terms of investments, industrialization and urbanization was inevitable. After the civil war in America, people from the south who had been displaced and the people who were free could now move to the west to work in the cattle drives, fight the Indians and also begin a new life as farmers. Social Darwinism philosophy was adopted, and everyone believed that the poor had the right to be rich. The paper will focus on the right path that the country followed in the feudalism period between 1865 and 1914 when the country became a feudal society based on the capital and not on the land.

The early 19th century in America saw the rise of industry and a booming economy, however, with industry came businessmen who saw an opportunity for power and profit. Even with help from the government, it would be a long time before the American people saw an improvement in the condition of the laborers and the regulation of corporations. Fast forward to the 21st century; two hundred years have passed and people are still struggling at the hands of a corporation-run economy. Throughout history, American laborers have been at the mercy of an industry controlled by a small few that did not have the best interest of the people in mind.

The Industrial Revolution was a revolution in every sense of the word, as it altered almost every aspect of live in the nineteenth century including technology, government, communication, environment and eventually society as a whole.1 Although industrialisation created many positives for modern society, for people in Britain up to the end of the nineteenth century it had many significantly negative consequences. With the long term advances made for society came the then current development of overcrowding cities abundant with pollution, health problems and poor living conditions for the working class. These poor conditions continued into the work place with young children exploited as workers as young as the age of four or five.2 There were consequences of the Industrial Revolution for people outside of the core of Britain. India, being the periphery in the model were exploited for their raw materials which were exported to Britain.

During the early 18th century Britain, Britain was in the middle of Industrialization. Factory workers were also paid low wages and had to endure harsh workers conditions. Accidents were common since machinery was very new at this point and were not safe. The factory workers during this time were forced to put up with being exploited because the owners of the factories and the workers themselves knew that there would always be someone else willing to take their job if they quit. To these factory workers, low wages was better than having no income at all. Factory wokers in Britain during the early 18th century were paid low wages such as how cotton textile workers were also paid low wages during the mechanization of the cotton industy in Japan and

The factory system in the United States began to grow before the American Revolution with shops that made wares to order (Clark 14). In the mid seventeen hundreds, farmers and plantation owners would give raw materials like cotton or wool to other families to turn into things like thread and yarn for a share of the profits. This was called the “domestic system” (Sands 4). With this, private capitalism, or the idea that you get to keep what you earn, developed and reinforced the want of cheap labor.

April 8, 2012 was the Sunday that Easter was celebrated that year. This date will also be forever remembered as the day that Lieutenant Robert Neary and Firefighter Daniel Sweeney lost their lives at the Thomas Buck Hosiery Factory fire in Philadelphia, PA. Since William Penn first founded the city of Philadelphia in 1682, it has been an evolving and growing city, from a 17th century colonial city to the capital of the United States during the American Revolution. The industrial revolution of the 19th century transformed the green fields of lower Kensington, a section of Philadelphia, to a mixture of homes and mills by 1875.

The Industrial Revolution set people away from farms and small villages and moved them to cities and towns because of the job opportunities that arose in the cities. The Industrial Revolution not only helped people move along in the late 1700s and early 1800s but also it has made the people what they are today. During the Industrial Revolution, the movement from an agrarian society to an industrial one reshaped the roles of families, widen the gap between classes, and led to the developments in communication, transportation, and other scientific fields that completely changed humanity.

For example, the workers earned more money than they did in other places. The book says, “The pay reflected her proficiency, she was making almost 2.50 a week above her 1.75 board.”(86) Two dollars and fifty cents was a lot of money back then. This money, workers earn from factories could help children and people from poor families support their families and to give them a chance to improve their lives. However, even if wages were better in factories than other places, workers would have to pay another way, with endangerment to their lives and sometimes even with tier lives. Many workers would be hurt and die because of these working environment. Which is the price they will have to pay for higher wages. To add on, as stated in this essay previously the girls aren’t making as much as they should. In Lyddie, workers complain their wages have went lower a lot. Even if factories offer a lot more money than other places the workers aren’t really earning their true wages not to add on the bad working environment that harm the workers health. A petition has to be signed to protect workers’ rights.

“No place is free of the threat implied in such phrases as economic growth, job creation, natural resources, human capital, bringing in industry, even bringing in culture—as if every place is adequately identified as the environment and its people as readily replaceable parts of a machine. Devotion to any particular place now carries always the implication of heartbreak (Berry, 2007).” During the Civil War, government contracts were issued to factories in order to produce shoes, clothes, weapons, food, and other goods for the troops. Business owners wanted the money being offered by the government and knew how to get it. People were willing to give up life as they knew it in order to work in the factories and stores, despite the conditions

Urbanization in Great Britain was key to ushering in industrial capitalism to Great Britain, which brought an increased sum of money into the country. Urbanization was caused by the Enclosure movement and a decline of cottage industries. The Enclosure movement took away land from people that was once considered public land. Many people in rural areas needed land to make a living, and because they enclosed this land, many people had to move away from their cottage industries and move into urban areas to work at factories. Once there was an abundance of food and more population throughout Great Britain caused by the Agricultural Revolution, farmers began to move into cities to work in these factories. However, with more people working in

One major problem found with industrialization is the development of political machines. A political machine is a group that controls politics for financial gain. One major political machine was located in New York City in the Tammany Hall building led by Boss Tweed. William L. Riordan wrote about George Washington Plunkitt who worked under Boss Tweed. He would use insider knowledge to make a profit. Plunkitt would find out the city was going to build a jail, so he would buy the land for the jail at a low rate then sell it to the city at a high rate. This would create a profit to give back to Boss Tweed. Plunkitt would also help families that had their houses burnt down to get them to agree to anything he said. This allows for the political

America has been expanding and growing since its birth out of Great Britain. The Industrial Revolution has been an influence in the American life since it first in the 1700s. “Most families did not have enough to sell at the market- they had just enough for their own needs.” Up until the factories started booming and employment rates skyrocketed, people really couldn’t become wealthy and live a decent life. As the ways of farming grew the English at the time began to use up more and more land efficiently. “Unusable swamplands could be drained and used for crops.” That’s absolutely amazing that in this era they could turn swamps into areas to raise more crops so they can naturally make more money at the markets and become a bit wealthier. Farming is one of the most important lively hoods of mankind; no matter what argument anyone tries to make. If we didn’t have farming and agricultural production we wouldn’t have all the different sorts of food products we do, nor would they be as abundant. Life would be like it was before the Industrial Revolution came about and most of us would still be growing our own food and barely scraping by in life. With all this agricultural expansion of the time population in England start expanding drastically as well. Thanks to population growth people started to worry more about new inventions and producing stuff for us to make our day to day lives easier than we could have ever before. With all the technological advancements leading up to

Think about your life for one second: you communicate with people, travel, make purchases, and utilize those commodities. But have you ever wondered what made those things possible? After all, you go to the store to buy things you need. You drive a car to work and to visit your friends. If you need to talk to someone, you simply pick up your phone or computer. However, none of this would be possible without a means of communication, factories to manufacture the products you need, places to work, and ways to travel and transport goods. And what made these possible? The answer is the Industrial Revolution, which started in Europe around the year 1730. A revolution is a major change or turning point in something. The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was the quintessence of capitalistic ideals; it bred controversy that led to Karl Marx’s idea of communism as a massive grass roots reaction to the revolution’s social abuses. Firstly, the Industrial Revolution featured the construction of machines, systems and factories that allowed goods to be manufactured at a faster rate with a lower cost. The seed drill made it so there could be “a semi-automated, controlled distribution and plantation of wheat seed”(Jones 2013). Secondly, there was a great social and economic divide between the wealthy owners and the poor workers, which gave rise to the mass’s vulnerability to the advent of extreme socialism. Figures of authority severely oppressed their employees by giving them insufficient pay, a treacherous work environment, and even making some children work more than 12 hours per day (Cranny 150). Finally, far right capitalism created a brutal boom and bust cycle of economics that made, for the multitude at the bottom, a perpetual nightmare of poverty and death. People responded to this social situation by taking part in violent protests; oppression sires rebellion. The Industrial Revolution was the chassis of great imagination and progress of political, economic, and social force that still affects this world today.