Continuity and Change in the Industrial Age
Capital is, therefore, not a personal, it is a social power.
—Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto (1848)
Learning Objectives
- K: Explain the extent to which industrialization brought change from 1750 to 1900.
The Industrial Revolution, an era that began in the late 18th century, produced
economic, social, cultural, political, and environmental changes not seen since the first Agricultural Revolution, more than 10,000 years before. The Industrial Revolution changed how goods were produced, how people earned their living, and how businesses were structured. The Industrial Revolution also caused sweeping social changes.
An expansion of the middle class in industrial economies occurred. A working class, dependent on factory jobs, emerged. The role of women was transformed, as they made up a significant portion of the factory work force. Politically, the Enlightenment proved to be a long-lasting and influential intellectual movement that influenced events during the Industrial Revolution. The effects of the Industrial Revolution inspired the works of economic and political philosophers like Adam Smith and Karl Marx. The Industrial Revolution altered life locally as well as globally. Rivalries among nations, which had existed previously, continued into and throughout this era leading to political and economic conflict. Additionally, rigid social orders, based on economic or ethnic status, continued within industrial economies.
Sections
Economic Continuities and Changes
Social Continuities and Changes
Political Continuities and Changes
Reflect
REFLECT ON THE ESSENTIAL QUESTION
1. Continuity and Change Create a chart showing how life remained similar and life changed because of the Industrial Revolution in four regions of the world covered in Unit 1.
2. In one to three paragraphs, explain how the Industrial Revolution demonstrated both continuity and change.
