The Long 19th Century
1789-1914
Dual Revolutions
Hobsbawm analyzed the early 19th century, and
indeed the whole process of modernization
thereafter, using what he calls the twin
revolution thesis.
This thesis recognized the dual importance of
the French Revolution and the Industrial
Revolution as having given rise to modern
European history, and – through the
connections of colonialism and imperialism –
all of world history.
Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution
The great revolution of 1789–1848 was the
triumph
 not of liberty and equality in general, but of
the middle class or ‘bourgeois’ liberal society
 not of ‘industry’ as such, but of ‘capitalist
industry’;
 not of the ‘modern economy’ or of the
‘modern state’ but of the economies and
states in a particular region of the world
Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution
But it is not unreasonable to regard this dual
revolution – the rather more political
(French) and the industrial (British)
revolution – not so much as something
which belongs to the history of the two
countries which were its chief carriers and
symbols, but as the twin crater of a rather
larger regional volcano.”
Industrial Revolution
Evolution or Revolution?
1st Phase: 1740-1860
in Britain…
Why Britain?
 Lack
of war/conflict within Britain
 Vast market colonial system – excess capital
 Strong, sizeable Navy, merchant fleet
 Access to ports & Internal water trade routes
 Favorable government policies
 Private landownership – enclosure acts
 Mobile society – labor force
 Coal & iron resources
Spinning Jenny
Power Loom
Newcomen , then Watt
Steam Engine
Evolution…

Proto-industrialization to factory system


Worker/employer relations & imbalance in production
simple, common items (textiles)– mass production

Big profits, unlike France – luxury items
Automation: spinning jenny, power loom, steam
engine
 Internal Improvements: canals (Suez 1869),
steamboats (trans-Atlantic 1838), railroads
 “Agricultural Revolution” reaper thresher, steeltipped plow (canning, refrigeration)
 Rise of Corporations (easier to raise capital)

Manchester
Impact …
 Population
growth (poverty)
 Vertical to horizontal stratification of society
 New urban centers: Manchester
 Unsanitary,
 Laissez
overcrowded, polluted, Child labor
Faire ideology among most middle
class (unless favorable to business)
Impact on
Economics & Sociology
 David
Ricardo: Iron Law of Wages
 Thomas Malthus: Food supply &
population growth
 Herbert Spencer: Social Darwinism
Ricardo’s Iron Law of Wages
Charles Darwin, from his
autobiography. (1876)
"In October 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun
my systematic inquiry, I happened to read for
amusement Malthus On Population, and being well
prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which
everywhere goes on from long- continued observation of
the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that
under these circumstances favourable variations would
tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be
destroyed. The results of this would be the formation of a
new species. Here, then I had at last got a theory by
which to work".
Starting at 1750, 50 year intervals
Measure in Billions
Malthus, Essay on the Principle of
Population (1798)
In nature plants and animals produce far more
offspring than can survive, and that Man too is
capable of overproducing if left unchecked.
Concluded that unless family size was regulated,
man's misery of famine would become globally
epidemic and eventually consume Man.
Not popular among social reformers who believed
that with proper social structures, all ills of man
could be eradicated.
Social Darwinism
Reform?? The “Condition of
England” Question
Aristocracy: noblesse oblige
 Social Gospel/Christian Socialism
 Robert Owen: Utopian Communities
 Temperance Movements
 1st Phase reform: (Sadler Commission, 1832)

Factory Act of 1833
 Repeal of Combination Acts 1824

Jeremy Bentham’s Utilitarianism (late 18th C)
 Socialism: Karl Marx & Frederich Engels (1848)

Jeremy Bentham
It is the greatest good to the greatest
number of people which is the measure of
right and wrong.
It is vain to talk of the interest of the
community, without understanding what is
the interest of the individual.
Read more:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jeremy_ben
tham.html#ixzz1nsOBW07S
On the Continent?…
 Britain
had little competition until 2nd
phase
 Slow to change, picked up after 1860
 Napoleonic
wars
 Poor transport
 Fewer raw materials
 Internal tools/tariffs
 Investment ‘ungentlemanly’
 Required
more government involvement
Second Phase
mid 19th century , Technological Revolution
 rapid growth of railroads, steel, steamships,
electricity, chemicals, telecommunications
 End of British leadership

US, Germany leadership
 Japan, France, Low Countries


larger scale investment in more industries


beginnings of big corporations dominating industries, able to
invest more money in new technology
capital industries which produce goods for other industries,
not for consumers
Impact…
What do the documents tell us about the
impact industrialization had on …
The people and politics of Europe?
The World?