...British Economic History Supervision 4 ''Qualitative aspects of living standards, such as the disamenities of urban living, have become the decisive factors in evaluating whether the English working classes benefited from Industrial Revolution''. Introduction One of the most controversial issues of British Economic History is the living standards during the industrial revolution. ''Pessimists'' against ''optimists'' oppose their ideas about whether the standards of live during the industrial revolution improved,deteriorated or remained stable. On the one hand,optimists like Jeffrey G.Williamson, held the view that although some workers suffered from harsh working conditions and were working more days,the increase in real wages could offset these disamenities and as a whole,the majority of people lived from 1760 to 1850 benefited from the industrial revolution in terms of standards of life. On the other hand,pessimists like Charles H. Feinstein argued that the living standards of life deteriorated for the working class in early industrialisation. The main difference in the perception of judging the living standards between optimists and pessimists is the distinction between the importance of qualitative and quantitative factors that influenced the lives of workers during industrialisation. On the ''quantitative side'',optimists base the arguments on real wages,life expectancy and on the move to the cities away...
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...E-gel Alido, Paolo Capones, Bryan Villanueva, Marvin Marchadesh, Jervi Marcelo, Submitted to Prof: Hannosour M. Cali Title Chapter IV Fruition of Punishment and Penalty Corporal Punishment is derived from a Latin word meaning body. It meant physical punishment and in the past it was very common. In the past corporal punishment was by no means limited to children. It was used on adults as well. Flogging has been a common punishment since ancient times. Jesus was flogged before crucified. In England from the Middle Ages Whipping was a common punishment for minor crimes. In the 18th century whipping or flogging was a common punishment in the British Army and Navy. This punishment Meant beating a person across the backside with birch twigs. Once a common punishment in schools it could also be imposed by the courts for minor offences. Birching civilians was banned in Britain in 1948 (except in prisons where it was used until 1962). Meanwhile for thousands of years until the late 20th century teachers beat children. In the Ancient World the teachers were strict and often beat the pupils. In the Middle Ages Discipline was also severe. Boys were beaten with rods or birch twigs. Punishments in Tudor schools were still harsh. The teachers often had a stick with birch twigs attached to it. Boys were hit with birch twigs on their bare buttocks. Public humiliation is the dishonoring showcase of a person, usually an offender or a prisoner, especially in a public place. It was...
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...of transformation and developments in approximately each sphere. Although this period was a time of unprecedented changes, the fabric of society remained invariable throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. The British people at that time were traditionally puritan and straight-laced. They adhered to the codes of conduct and took care of their moral appearance. Despite the fact that the working class predominated quantitatively, the Victorian age was the time of the middle class prosperity. Significant part of the working class representatives struggled to meet some unspoken social demands to deserve the right to be called middle class. A family as a social unit was regarded a foundation stone of the Victorian society. Men and women played different social roles and fulfilled different functions as family members. There was no equality between sexes and social classes; and it could be traced in all spheres (education, availability of work and salary rank). In general, the Victorian Age is a period of striking social contrasts and significant socioeconomic changes. Sociopolitical Climate of the Victorian Age Victorian Parliament was more representative than the previous ones and considered demands of people more carefully. In 1832, before the introduction of Queen Victoria to the throne, a significant part of the expanding middle class has gained the right to vote due to the parliamentary reform. In this...
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...FOR HISTORICAL INTERPRETATIONS OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN BRITAIN Gerard M Koot History Department University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Allen, Robert C., The British Industrial Revolution in a Global Perspective, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Pp. viii, 331. Allen’s book is an excellent example of the persuasiveness of the new economic history. It is solidly rooted in statistical data and uses sophisticated methods of economic analysis but its analysis is presented in plain English. He argues that the first industrial revolution occurred in northwestern Europe because its high wages during the early modern period encouraged technological innovation. Although high wages were initially a consequence of the demographic disaster of the Black Death, they were reinforced during the early modern period by the economic success of the region around the North Sea, first, in European trade and manufacturing, especially in wresting the textile industry from the Italians, and then in world trade. According to Allen, the first industrial revolution took place in Britain instead of the Low Countries primarily because of Britain’s abundant and cheap coal resources, combined with the central government’s ability to use mercantilist policies and naval power to reap the greatest benefits from an expanding European and world trade. Once it had taken the lead from the Dutch, and defeated the French, Britain used its comparative advantage to consolidate its dominant position...
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...Beyond Consumerism: New Historical Perspectives on Consumption Author(s): Frank Trentmann Source: Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Jul., 2004), pp. 373-401 Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3180734 . Accessed: 21/03/2011 08:15 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sageltd. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Sage Publications, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access...
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...HOW DID INDUSTRIALISATION AFFECT THE HEALTH OF THE BRITISH WORKERS? The Industrial Revolution is often referred to as a key period in the economic and social history of Britain. Industrialisation refers to the gradual change from traditional, agricultural methods to those involving some form of mechanised, factory based production. Britain was the first nation in the world to go through the process of becoming industrialised. The industrial Revolution is thought to have begun at some time in the 18th century, and continued to the 20th century. Historical evidence shows that, during this period, industrialisation transformed British society and the lives of British people. Social transformation did not happen suddenly,as though one Britain was a pre-industrial, agricultural society and next it was ‘indusrtialised’. There was a gradual change in methods of production and the location of people’s work that combined with other important social, political and economic developments-are linked to the developments of major health and social welfare problems. This essay is going to look at how industrialisation At the beginning of the 18th century, Britain was primarly an agricultural country with most people living in rural areas. The population of Britain was only 9 million, but was about to expand rapidly. The majority of workers and industries operated within domestic system. This involved people working in their own homes to produce goods, or components of goods, and also to...
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...industrial revolution, a period of transition and innovation, inevitably brought with it changes. Life for both rich and poor was changed forever. A way of life in Europe was passing away, when the lord of the manor, independent farmers, servants and workers that had previously lived independently in a vertically integrated society were replaced by a city based society of segregated social classes. The population grew rapidly, and people found work in the factories of cities. The industrial revolution began in Britain, which filled all the requirements for it to happen. As an aftermath of 1688 and the “Glorious Revolution”, British kings lost much of their power and influence to aristocratic landowners, who in turn sought to bring their own lands under greater control. This is known as the Enclosure Movement. This lead to two very important consequences; the land became more productive, which in turn lead to the agricultural revolution, and people who used to work the lands of the aristocratic landowners effectively became a poor, unemployed, new class of society in need of work. It was this class of poor that manned and worked in the factories that the industrial revolution brought along with it. They were ideal for the job, because they were in desperate need of work and would work for low wages. Although they were mostly unskilled labourers, it didn’t matter much since the jobs at factories required little skill from the workers. So, the factories...
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...By the second half of the nineteenth century Britain was a mature industrial society and was able to experience many of the benefits of the industrial revolution. Discuss. By the end of the nineteenth century, Britain experienced enormous industrial expansion, thereby creating an improvement in the lives of most of its people. The middle classes fare well by the opening of new opportunities in employment, residing, for the most part, in the new suburbs of the industrial cities and towns. They surrounded themselves with the clutter of possessions associated with a new consumer age. There were modest improvements in the working and living conditions of working class people, many of whom were drawn to the cities from rural areas in the hope of a better life. This essay will examine the conditions of life in late Victorian Britain in order to establish the extent of the benefits brought about by industrial transformation, insofar as they affected the lives of the different classes. In 1800, twenty five per cent of the population of England lived in the cities and towns. Within a period of eighty years this position was reversed. In 1850, the year of the Great Exhibition, which was a celebration of British industrial achievement, the ‘number of urban dwellers exceeded those who dwelt in the countryside’. The cities of Birmingham and Manchester more than doubled their populations between 1801 and 1831. The industrial revolution was synonymous with the cotton industry in...
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...Intro The Theory of Eugenics was a widely embraced during the early 20th century. Canada and Germany both have their roots tied to misapplication of Darwinism that emerged from Britain. The term Eugenics first appeared in England and was coined by Francis Galton in 1869. Galton and supporters of eugenics promoted Social Darwinism, which applied the concept of biological evolution to societies. This embraces the notion that human societies can evolve into “superior” forms. These Governments targeted marginalized groups and applied the principles of racial hygiene using forced sterilization, and genocide. Even though Canada and Germany used different over arching strategies, but their main objective was to determine who is fit to be apart of the nation. Similarities During the 1930’s eugenics benign form promoted healthy living and “social purity”. However in its tyrannical form, the program-sought ways to ensure “fit” members of society that portrayed undesirable elements were bred out of the population. In most countries where eugenics beliefs were enshrined in legislation, efforts were made to limit reproduction among “unfit” groups through public education, institutionalization and forced sterilization. While Nazi Germany, eugenics beliefs woven into nationalism led to the forced sterilization thousands. They created concentration camps for Jewish and the “Lebensborn” program in which young German women with classic Nordic features forced to mate with members of Hitler’s...
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...The Age of Revolution i789-1848 E R I C HOBSBAWM FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, AUGUST 1996 Copyright © 1962 by E. J. Hobsbawm All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in Great Britain in hardcover by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, in 1962. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hobsbawm, E.J. (EricJ.), 1917The Age of Revolution, 1789-1898 / Eric Hobsbawm.—1st Vintage Books ed. p. cm. Originally published: London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1962. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-679-77253-7 1. Europe—History—1789-1900. 2. Industrial revolution. I. Title. D299.H6 1996 940.2'7—dc20 96-7765 CIP VINTAGE BOOKS A Division of Random House, Inc. New York Random House Web address: http://www.randomhouse.com/ Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 CHAPTER MAPS 1 T H E W O R L D IN T H E 1780s Le dix-huittime stick doit lire mis au Panlhion.—Saint-Just1 i Europe in 1789 page 309 2 Europe in 1810 310 3 Europe in 1840 311 4 World Population in Large Cities: 1800-1850 31a 5 Western Culture 1815-1848: Opera 314 6 The States of Europe in 1836 316 7 Workshop of the World 317 8 Industrialization of Europe: 1850 318 9 Spread of French Law 320 I T H E first thing to observe about the world...
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...The Industrial Revolution [pic] The Industrial Revolution may be defined as the application of power-driven machinery to manufacturing. It had its beginning in remote times, and is still continuing in some places. In the eighteenth century all of western Europe began to industrialize rapidly, but in England the process was most highly accelerated. England's head start may be attributed to the emergence of a number of simultaneous factors. Britain had burned up her magnificent oak forests in its fireplaces, but large deposits of coal were still available for industrial fuel. There was an abundant labor supply to mine coal and iron, and to man the factories. From the old commercial empire there remained a fleet, and England still possessed colonies to furnish raw materials and act as captive markets for manufactured goods. Tobacco merchants of Glasgow and tea merchants of London and Bristol had capital to invest and the technical know-how derived from the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. Last, but not least important, the insularity of England saved industrial development from being interrupted by war. Soon all western Europe was more or less industrialized, and the coming of electricity and cheap steel after 1850 further speeded the process. I. The Agricultural Revolution The English countryside was transformed between 1760 and 1830 as the open-field system of cultivation gave way to compact farms and enclosed fields. The rotation of nitrogen-fixing and...
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...Stephen Moore AC1101673 HS250 World Civilizations II Lesson 3: Assignment 3 15 August 2015 The American, French, and Haitian Revolutions: Causes and Consequences The world in the 18th century was in turmoil. Not so much politically as it was philosophically. For centuries the power of government had rested in inheritance and tradition. The king was king by birth and divine right. People were content to accept their lot. You took what life gave you and did the best you could with what you had, but all that was about to change. Starting around the turn of the 17th century, works by philosophers such as John Locke, Voltaire, David Hume, Emmanual Kant and others began making their way into the libraries of the common people. The ideas about government and its existence were starting to be questioned. The government, the philosophers preached, existed to serve the people, not the other way around. If and when a government fails to be of benefit to its people, then said subjects have the right to abolish the current government. It was this idea, along with the teachings of all men are created equal that would eventually lead to the revolutions that would dominate the end of the 18th century and on into the 19th century. Called the "shot heard around the world" by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his poem “Concord Hymn”, a bullet fired in Concord, Massachusetts in 1775 is credited by many as the official start of the American revolutionary war. In reality, though...
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...After the war that lasted for seven years, Britain emerged to be victorious. However, the victory was a painful cost; the England government, however, struggled after 1763 to constrain the American colonists some of the financial costs of the empire. The amendment in the British colonial policy strengthened an evolving perception of American political uniqueness and assisted in acceleration of the American Revolution. This adjustment in British approached fortifying a rising feeling of American political personality and accelerated the American Revolution. What started as an argument about economic policies later exposed conflicting differences between the Britain’s and Americans over cherished political standards. The following conflict between the Americans and the Britain’s brought forth another country. The New World sustained new thoughts regarding the way of...
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...which are: secularisation, changes in law, divorce had become cheaper and also changing attitudes in society especially with women as they had begun to receive more rights. By the times divorce had become a lot more socially acceptable. In the 19th Century divorce was extremely difficult to obtain, more so for women. Eventually in 1923 grounds were equalised for men and women, but this was followed by a sharp rise in the number of divorce petitions from women. Again in 1972, the grounds widened to ‘irretrievable breakdown’ which made divorce easier to obtain and produced a doubling of the divorce rate overnight. The introduction of legal aid for divorce cases in 1949 lowered the cost of divorce. With each change in the law divorce rates have risen. The new right are against the introduction of new laws which make marriage easier as it breaks up the idea of a traditional family which they support. It lead to a trend in single parent households. There were many laws which helped divorce become a lot cheaper and easier to obtain, the most significant law put in place in examining the reasons for changes in divorce rate is the law which was passed in 1971 which widened the grounds of divorce. The ‘divorce law reform act’ increased the divorce rates massively as now you were able to obtain divorce for ‘irretrievable breakdown’, this was a change to before when you could only obtain a divorce for desertion, adultery and abuse which were often very hard to find proof for this. Due...
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...(Nationalization of the Universal Company of the Suez Maritime Canal). The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, which in turn also provides access to the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. The Suez Canal greatly shortens the travel distance between Africa and Asia. This made it extremely important for the export of goods, especially oil. France and Britain had invested a lot in the Suez Canal Company and when Nasser had wanted to take over control, they saw it as a threat against them by the Egyptian Regime. Nasser knew fully well that nationalizing the Suez Canal would cause a mighty disruption in the oil industry as the Suez Canal was and is the only connection between Asian and Africa that ships could access. Nationalization of the canal affected most of the oil exporting countries in the area. However, his assumption that Egypt was impervious to attack from Britain, France and Israel however was completely amiss. The UK, France and Israel had an agreement to overtake control of the canal back and prevent Nasser from expanding his territory over Sudan. Nasser’s ploy of using the Suez Canal as a power play shows his dominance and leadership ability. Moreover he used the abrupt retraction of funding for the Aswan dam project by the UK and the US to get the public of Egypt to see the reasoning behind his actions and to turn the public against the West. He used his charisma and his eloquent speaking abilities to denounce the imperialist West in the eyes...
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