A new time

Driven by the steam engine, Europe underwent an industrial revolution in the nineteenth century. England was at the forefront, but in the end, the whole world would be involved in an informal world empire, in which economies and countries became increasingly dependent on each other. The society also changed drastically as a result of urbanization and migration.

A choice of two evils
The British House of Commons William James also found it very bad that children were sent to the factory at the age of six and there were working days of sometimes as many as sixteen hours. But it was a choice of two evils, he told the opponents of child labor.

Children go or work, or die of hunger

"The children either go to work or die of hunger. If the manufacturer is forced to stop his machines for a certain number of hours each time, he will often not be able to carry out the orders he receives and as a result, the client will have to move abroad. The result will be that you drive the English capitalist to countries where there are no restrictions on the use of labor and capital. "

Limiting child labor
James spoke in 1832 during a debate about a proposal by the socially-motivated parliamentarian Michael Sadler to restrict child labor. It was the prelude to a parliamentary inquiry into child labor in the English textile industry. The outcome of this confronted many for the first time with the downsides of the industrial revolution, as did a similar investigation into the working conditions in the mines.

There was a law that forbade manufacturers from working for more than ten hours

Yet the idea that only a completely free market could ensure that everyone would ultimately share deeply rooted in the blessings of the industrial revolution. A ban on child labor proved unfeasible. There was, however, a law that forbade manufacturers from working for more than ten hours.

The lead of England
The fact that this discussion already took place in 1832 underlined England's lead as an industrial country on the rest of Europe, with the exception of Belgium. As a result, British politicians also had to deal with the other side of industrialization, problems with which the continent was only fully confronted in the second half of the nineteenth century.

British politicians had to deal with the other side of industrialization

In the Netherlands, from 1886 to 1887, a parliamentary inquiry into 'the situation in factories and workshops' would be held more than half a century after the British investigation. Since 1874, children under the age of twelve were no longer allowed to work in factories, but the compliance with that prohibition did not end up much at first.

Industrialization instead of industrial revolution
Industrialization was a gradual process, also in England, and in that sense the term 'industrial revolution' is misleading. Initiation of a factory production was already in place for the invention of the steam engine, but it is indisputable that this technique was the main force behind the accelerated pace of industrialization in the last decades of the eighteenth century.

Industrialization was a gradual process and therefore the term 'revolution' is misleading

Coal production in England increased from an estimated less than 3 million tonnes around 1700 to 10 million tonnes at the end of the century. Around 1850, England produced as much cotton as all other European countries combined. It was not until the second half of the nineteenth century that industrialization in the rest of Europe got off to a good start and could be spoken of more revolutionary.

Revolutions in 1848
England largely thanked its lead to the fact that it was the only European power outside the Napoleonic Wars, which not only killed millions of people but also caused great economic damage. Initially, attempts were made to restore the old order.

What unified the uprisings was their simultaneity and a shared faith

This restoration was a definitive part of the revolutions of 1848, even though the insurgents only achieved temporary success. The revolutionaries formed a motley collection of liberal intellectuals, nationalists, artisans, and workers. There was hardly any elaborated political program. What unified the uprisings was their simultaneity and a shared belief in social progress.

But even though the expelled rulers, with the exception of France, we're back in power almost everywhere within a year, the clock could not be completely reversed. The real winner of 1848 was the bourgeoisie denounced by Karl Marx. This rising class did indeed reject absolutism but was no less afraid of the power of the people. Substantially the dissatisfaction remained, but for the moment the political peace had returned.

Improved means of transport
It was no coincidence that precisely the period from roughly 1850 to 1900 marked the worldwide breakthrough of industrial capitalism and thus of European hegemony. That did not mean that now factories were growing everywhere. In large parts of the world, there was hardly any industrialization until the beginning of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, the countries on the periphery would also be included in the new economic world order, either as an outlet or as a supplier of raw materials for industry and food for the rapidly growing urban population in Europe and the United States.

The expansion was possible thanks to two major innovations: the steam train and the steamship

The expansion was possible thanks to two major technological innovations: the steam train and the steamship. Even more than smoking factory chimneys, railways became the most visible symbol of the industrial revolution.

The expansion of the rail network
The length of the European railway network increased from 1200 kilometers in 1830 to 65,000 kilometers in 1860. Distances that used to be days could now be bridged in a few hours. The steamship made the transport of goods by sea both more reliable and faster, with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 considerably shortening the distance from Europe to the Far East.

The railways became the most visible symbol of the industrial revolution

With the greatly improved means of transport, not only goods but also people were transported. The second half of the nineteenth century saw an unprecedented migration of people. Already in the first half of the nineteenth century, an estimated 1.5 million people from Europe went to try their luck in the United States, a number that multiplied to more than 9 million in the second half of the century.

Urbanization
In total, more than 32 million Europeans would leave their homes until around 1930. By far most of the new residents of the US came from Ireland, England, and Germany in the beginning, followed by substantial contingents from Scandinavia and Italy.

Urbanization was one of the 'products' of industrialization

Europe has also moved from one country to another and from the countryside to the city. Farmers from the German countryside became construction workers in the rapidly growing Berlin; girls from the French province became maidservants with prominent families in Paris. Although the first factories often rose in the countryside, in the vicinity of coal and iron mines, urbanization was one of the most striking 'products' of industrialization.

The other world
In 1600, it was estimated that less than 10 percent of the world's population lived in cities; two centuries later, that was still no more than 12 percent; in 1900 already 20 percent. London already had more than 1 million inhabitants in 1800; in 1850 this had more than doubled and in 1900 more than sixfold to 6.5 million. Berlin grew to 1.8 million in the same period from 172,000 inhabitants; New York from a modest 60,000 inhabitants in 1800 to 3,4 million in 1900. Elsewhere in the world new trade centers arose such as Alexandria, Calcutta, Shanghai and Buenos Aires.

For migrants from the countryside, the city was like a different world

The significance of the urbanization extended beyond the growing number of people living in a city, as industrialization meant more than building factories. For the millions of migrants from the countryside, whether they stayed in their own country or crossed the ocean, the acquaintance with the big city was a confrontation with another world.

The city stood for a new way of producing and consuming, but also for a new way of living together, in which the norms and values ​of the countryside no longer applied. Soon, therefore, warnings sounded for the moribund character of the city with its crime, prostitution, and poverty. But the city was also the place where newspapers appeared, where ideas were exchanged and like-minded people organized in all kinds of interest groups, associations, and political parties - for many authorities a no less great source of concern.

Optimism
In spite of the visible dark sides of the industrial revolution, a sense of optimism prevailed, the idea of ​​entering a new era. In the agricultural society, prosperity had always been heavily dependent on the weather and the seasons. A crop failure could disrupt an entire society.

Nature was henceforth subjected to the will of man

With the steam engine, followed later in the nineteenth century by the introduction of electricity as a power source, the roles seemed to be reversed. Nature was henceforth subjected to the will of man. The growth of the economy as a result of the application of the new techniques also gave air to governments who felt the hot breath of all kinds of revolutionaries in the neck.

A world to her own image
Exemplary for industrial utopianism were the words of the Dutch economist JL de Bruyn Kops, founder of the magazine The Economist, who in 1863 compared railways and factory chimneys with the cathedrals from the Middle Ages. 'We control the material and complete the scripture: Be mighty and fulfill the earth.' The purpose of extracting raw materials from nature in order to make useful products there was to 'make those treasures more accessible to all, and so our industrial architecture is a true-democratic and real-Christian characteristic of the nineteenth century'.

The bourgeoisie 'creates a world in its own image'

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels thought of something else when they wrote in the Communist Manifesto in 1848: "The need for new markets for their products constantly drives the bourgeoisie around the globe. Everywhere she has to settle, build everywhere, make connections everywhere. ' All countries are whether they want it or not to "go into civilization" and forced to adapt to the demands of the bourgeoisie if they do not want to perish. In other words, they argued, the bourgeoisie "creates a world in its own image."

Faltering economic growth
As early as the 1970s, the seemingly unstoppable growth of the world economy started to falter. A large part of the steel production had gone to the construction of railways, but inevitably the moment was approaching that the pace of that construction was decreasing. As it was inevitable that speculators found out that not every railroad yielded a profit. In the United States, in particular, companies went bankrupt as quickly as they were founded.

As the economies became intertwined, the crisis of the one also became the crisis of the other

Capitalism turned out to know its own cycles. If the effects of crop failures were generally limited to a certain region or country, as the economies of the various countries became more interwoven, the crisis of the one soon became the crisis of the other.

In the time of the Dutch East India Company, it could take months for reports from distant trading posts to reach Amsterdam; after the first telegraph cable had been laid over the bottom of the Atlantic in 1866, news from New York had reached London within a few minutes.

Protecting markets
Before the nineteenth century, trade was based on the idea that prosperity was finite. Got one more, then less was left for the other. The policy had therefore been focused on foreclosure of markets and monopoly formation. This so-called mercantilism made a place in the nineteenth century for the belief in free trade as the most important condition for prosperity. England became the main promoter of this policy.

British prosperity became increasingly dependent on the export of industrial products

British prosperity became increasingly dependent on the export of industrial products and the import of raw materials for the same industry. A population that was growing rapidly by industrialization also had to be fed. Access to foreign markets became a cornerstone of foreign policy, where violence was not avoided at an early stage. It led to increasing tensions between England and countries that tried to protect their markets from what they considered unfair competition.

When the Kingdom of Naples refused to reduce its import tariffs in 1840, Lord Palmerston sent a naval squadron into the Bay of Naples to make the government think differently. A further step went to the British government in China, when that country wanted to put an end to the import of opium from British India in the 1830s.

The Opium War
The concerns of the Chinese government were not only the addictive effect of the opium but also the export of silver with which the drug was paid. The destruction of a stock of opium in the port of Canton was sufficient reason for London to equip a punitive expedition, with the Opium War (1839-1842) as a result. Not much later, the already weakened Chinese empire was forced to allow England and other Western countries to establish so-called concessions in a series of coastal cities.

There was an informal world empire in which there was dependence on European industry

Even before large parts of Asia and Africa were effectively colonized, an informal empire emerged in which there was increasing dependence on the European industrialized countries, England leading the way. The gap that arose in this way was almost impossible to close, as long as local authorities were prevented from protecting their own industry, which is often still based on traditional methods.

In 1895, only 15 percent of industrial world production came from countries outside Europe and the United States. In addition, the transport (railways and shipping) and banking in other countries were mostly in European hands, so that almost all profits from the trade abroad disappeared.

End of English sole rule
Nevertheless, England's sovereignty came to an end. Thanks to the railways, a huge home market was rapidly emerging in the United States, which gave an important boost to the national industry. What was formerly imported from England, they made themselves. In Europe, England increasingly faced competition from other countries.

England increasingly had to deal with competition from other countries

Germany, in particular, began a fast rise at the end of the nineteenth century, building a strong position in new sectors such as the chemical and electrotechnical industries, which formed the basis for the so-called Second Industrial Revolution. In 1840, Great Britain still accounted for 45 percent of global industrial production. In 1880 this was still 30 percent, but the share of the United States was almost as large at that time.

The gap between rich and poor
The British monopoly gave way to competition between equivalent industrial powers. From now on, economic growth had to be fought. Governments realized that they could not stay aloof and were more concerned about the conditions for economic growth, such as good infrastructure, education, and urban planning.

Marx believed that the revolution of 1848 would be followed by a proletarian revolution

In the social field, the pressure increased to at least address the worst excesses of capitalism. The growth of the economy, and thus of wages and employment, had so far had a dampening effect on social unrest, but also an increasingly widening gap between rich and poor. Marx believed that the bourgeois revolution of 1848 would be followed inevitably by a proletarian revolution.

It would not come that far. However, the proletariat increasingly demanded its place through trade unions and its own political parties. The International Workers' Association, known as the First National, which was founded in 1864, was not long-lived by mutual division, but at a national level, the labor factor would become an undeniable opponent of capital.

Why England?
Several factors have caused England to industrialize rather than countries on the European continent. England had overtaken the Netherlands in the eighteenth century as the most important trading nation. The country had a relatively open society and enjoyed a fairly large degree of political stability since the end of the seventeenth century. The rapidly growing population created a large market and the availability of cheap labor. In the proximity of stocks of coal, iron ore and hydropower, this created a favorable climate for innovations.

Improvements in agriculture had made food cheaper

Improvements in agriculture had made food cheaper, which meant people had more money to buy other products, such as clothing. Because the traditional home industry could not keep up with demand, the company was looking early on for ways to increase cotton production.

This led in the second half of the eighteenth century to the invention of the spinning machine and mechanized, hydro-powered looms. Clothing became a lot cheaper, causing sales to increase further. The efficiency improvement in agriculture had made many workers superfluous there, which in part flowed through to the growing textile industry.

England benefited
Around 1700, steam power was used to pump the groundwater out of coal mines, which made a scaling up of the coal production possible. In 1782 steam engines were used for the first time for the drive of spinning wheels and looms. The iron industry used steam power for the production of coke, as a substitute for charcoal, so that better quality iron could be made.

England had become the undisputed ruler of the world's oceans

The introduction of the steam train in 1825 made it possible to establish factories everywhere in principle. Products could now also be transported to ports more easily for export - and vice versa - for the factories. In that respect, England benefited not only from its favorable location but also from the fact that after the Napoleonic wars and the elimination of the Netherlands, France, and Spain, it became the undisputed ruler of the world's oceans.