Industrialization in the 1800's - Essay Example

The 18th century was a time of dramatic economic and social change. Along with the economy, family dynamics and people’s health were impacted. Thistransformation brought factories with initially dangerous working conditions which exploited the lower class. Despite the harmful aspects of industrialization, the factories capacity for mass production of goods ultimately lowered prices. Manufactured goods were then more accessible to the lower class. Though the Industrial Revolution inflicted hardships on people, altering their way of life and even endangering their health, the people of industrialized countries eventually found increased quality of life through affordable access to products around them. The initial parts of industrialization were negative for those who worked in the up and coming factories. The working conditions were dangerous for everyone, especially newfound nimble-fingered workers, children and women. This was the start of child labor; in addition women had to work outside of home, and after a long shift at the factory were still expected at home to take care of the children, cook, and clean the house. The traditional idea of women staying home and taking care of the house changed, because they needed to go out and be part of life outside of family. This changed the social idea of women staying home and taking care of their children. Although some families were able to maintain traditional family roles, most people during this period could not successfully sustain a family if only the men were working outside of home. Along with this, family dynamics changed all around; the things people had valued in family went through a great change. Prior to industrialization, families would always work together. The women and daughters would be in the house cooking and cleaning and the boys would learn to follow their fathers in work. Farmers, for example, would spend all their time together because the family would be home all day and spend a lot of time together. Later in life, sons would take over the family land and raise their families there, keeping the family name on the land. With industrialization, everyone in the house would leave for the day, going to work in factories. During that time, working together as a family was valued, so with everyone leaving home every day and going to work in different and dangerous factories, this changed the idea of a family. As a result of the change in families, societal values were changed and people now worked for money instead of for family. Since England’s huge discovery of the use of coal to create heat, laws were enacted to stop outsiders from figuring out how they devised their new inventions, such as the steam engine and factory machinery. They also had their relationship with the Americas to keep a constant flow of raw materials and they could then sell back the finished products, on their steam engine boats; the cost for trade went down as the cost of moving boats went down. It took about 50 years for the rest of Europe to catch up with England in the race to industrialize. The raw materials for the rest of Europe came from colonies in the Caribbean. The Americas were also a popular outlet once the population became too large. However, for unindustrialized countries, the impact of industrialization brought down their economy greatly. For example, gun barrell diplomacy forced China to open its borders for anyone to come in. China had very closed off borders and anyone coming for trade would have to stay on their boat until they left; no outsiders were allowed anywhere near the main land. Around 1839, the Chinese government asked England to stop importing Opium into China. Which resulted in the Opium War. English military pressed and was met with little to no resistance due to their industrial advancement. China’s borders were then opened to just about anyone because of the gun barrell diplomacy. By refusing industrialization, the Chinese government greatly hurt their economy. Industrialized countries gave themselves all access to China’s materials and the upper hand in all their trades. With a decrease in government power, Chinese people were living now with a lower quality of life because they had refused to industrialize with Europe. It became increasingly hard to control the massive population, which lead to an uprising in the Chinese people, weakening their country even more. These events demonstrate how unindustrialized countries went through decreased quality of life during the time of industrialization. For countries which were industrialized, the new access to materials was important for many reasons. For one, with all the injuries happening in the factories, it was important that the medical supply costs were now going down and became more accessible to all people. These workers were risking a lot to work in factories, more specifically women and children, since they were used because they are small and can reach into tiny spaces of fast moving machinery. So if they were to lose a finger or even a hand, their access to medical supplies was important. Another way industrialization benefitted the lower class in Europe was that it helped people understand the importance in material goods. In all of history, luxury was made out to be bad by Christianity. But industrialization was already uprooting many things people valued and with luxury came increased quality of life within raising standards of living. It was important for people, especially in this complete reform of society, to be able to see beautiful things. For example, some people would work all day with sewing machines, and they could then come home and see beautiful carpets and bedding, clothing with stronger seams, and drapes that reached from the ceiling to the floor. Seeing these things would give them happiness for their luxury would have been something they worked for directly. Also when they have nice things they’ll be likely to want more and then will work harder to make more money. People were likely fall even farther into the cycle of capitalism, which helps to bring up the power of the government. As laborers continue to work harder they reach for higher goals. This raised quality of life for all people in industrialized countries because the lower class had worked towards mass production and their country became more powerful as they gained money from exporting goods. Industrialized countries had increased quality of life for everyone. The relationship between industrialized governments and it’s people became relative; as the people worked/wanted more, the government became stronger. The people were now more inclined to work with their government rather than view them as weak and push back against them. For unindustrialized countries, in general, the people saw how weak the government was compared to everyone else. Those people were more likely to revolt and in many cases did, which would make the government weaker and therefore force them further into submission to the world powers. Since the industrialized powers became more powerful with this, people and government would have increased quality of life. Read More