Notes Part III

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Social Impact of the Industrial Revolution

• The industrial revolution brought about many changes to the social life.
• Changes in the lifestyle of people were becoming more apparent.

Population Growth

• Population growths became more dramatic in the nineteenth centuries and there were also more accurate ways to keep track of this population growth
• Britain took its first census in 1801 and created a system of tracking births, deaths and other demographical changes .
• The population explosion manifested itself quickly.
• However, the population wasn’t increasing from birthrate surges, but was rather induced by the drop in the death rate. People had a greater longevity.
• The death rate declined as people were healthier, there were not any widespread epidemics, famine, or war-related deaths. There was also a greater food supply.
• People now adopted a lifestyle that included involvement in manufacturing.
• However, parts of France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, and Ireland began to see effects of overpopulation.

THE GREAT HUNGER

• Ireland wasn’t a favorable place. The Catholic peasant population rented land from absentee landlords that only wished to collect rent.
• However, the population continued to grow as potatoes were able to keep the Irish fed.
• The potato crop was stricken by a fungus that blackened the potatoes. This led to a great famine. Over 1 million people died from the starvation and disease.
• Many Irish began to flee to the United States or Britain. There were waves of immigration in the United States. Soon the rural dwellers chose to move to the towns and cities as a solution to their poverty.

The Growth of Cities

• Cities and towns began to grow in the nineteenth century.
• Cities traditionally were places of courts, government, military offices, churches, and markets.
• Now cities were more regarded as places where manufacturing and industry took place.

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• The steam engine offered mobility to the entrepreneurs who chose to locate themselves in urban centers, where transportation was easy to come by. Unemployed people also flocked to the city to find jobs.
• Britain’s only major city in 1800 was London with a pop. of 1 mil. Fifty years later that same London had over 2 mil. people and this added to the other little cities showed that more than 50 percent of people lived in cities.

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• The continental countries also experienced population growth though it was not as extreme.

URBAN LIVING CONDITIONS IN THE EARLY INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

• The living conditions in the city were rather atrocious.
• City authorities either did not care about the problems or were not able to possess the skills in order to tackle the problems.
• The middle class residents would separate themselves out and live on the outskirts of town or in suburbs
• The inner ring of the city supported artisans and the lower middle class.
• The center supported the industrial workers living in small, tight row houses.

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• The people that actually got a chance to live in a row house were lucky. The less fortunate lived in cellars that were 12 by 15 feet squares in the ground without adequate ventilation.
• The streets were used as sewers and open drains.
• The cities smelled of human waste.
• Alum made bread look whiter so it could be sold at a higher prices.
• Beer and milk were watered down and red lead was used as pepper substitute, despite that it was poison.
• The Poor Law Commissioners investigated the conditions and were alarmed at how the poor were living, demoralized.

URBAN REFORMERS

• One of the most eloquent reformers was James Kay Shuttleworth who described the conditions as volcanic elements that could destroy society.
• Some observers decided that workers should decide their fate.
• Edwin Chadwick became obsessed with eliminating poverty.
• As secretary of the Poor Law Commission, he initiated searches for detailed facts about the living conditions of the poor.

DEEPEST APOLOGIES, I HAVE SOPH CHEM, SPANISH, and AP COMPUTER SCIENCE HW THAT I MUST FINISH. QUIZ ON WEDNESDAY, I’LL GET THESE DONE TUESDAY EVENING.