The effect of the first section of the Industrial Revolution on the natural and built

environment

Effects on the natural environment

 New energy resources→mineral fuels exploited
 Establishment of enterprises, factories on huge lands, near central cities→accumulated
profit on a small area
 Agricultural revolution:
 increase of production→enough food supply for the population→agrarian labour force
liberated, better living conditions→also they’re a big market
 start: 16.c. England: enclosure, intensive animal breeding, capital economy, cotters
used as wage labourers on huge landholdings, rotation of crops→more varied nutrition
 ratio of agrarian population: 60% around 1800, 22% around 1850 (transformed to
workers in cities)
 mostly in England more and more ports and channels were built
 usage of natural resources still, like wind power, wood, coal, man power, animal power
 occupation of India by England→market for English goods, raw material source,
but:destruction of local traditional textile industry
 on colonies, e.g. Caribbean-Islands, Latin-America: cotton plantations served by slaves
(new weaving machines→higher demand for wool), lower price of cotton goods affected
other textile branches
 higher demand of energy: need for a source that is independent from weather, can be used
anywhere and supplies the increasing demand: steam power (already used in mining) :
James Watt 1769
 usage of iron grew: instead of flammable wooden machines→iron machines; metallurgy
developed
 need for machine tools: areas rich in raw materials became the biggest industrial areas;
exploitation of existing mines, researches for new ones
 tranportation: steam ship (Fulton, 1808) later steam locomotive; railway system:
connected previously unreachable areas to trading, more profit but destruction of the
landscape, air pollution
 designed construction of infrastructure

Effects on the built environment

 power-driven devices
 usage of artificial materials
 factories: equipped with machines→hands were „free”
 Bank of England 1694
 Greatest effect on industries that served fundamental livelihood goods, e.g. textile industry
(low investment, moderate profit, few restrictions)
 Communication: electric telegraph by Morse (~1800), distances shortened, the Earth
shrunk
 Press arose: photography and production line decreased the costs of reproduction (first:
London Times)
 Population growth:
 European phenomenon
  Increasing birth rate
 Increase of life expectancy
 Decrease of infant mortality rate←vaccinations, better sanitation
 Agriculture supplied more and more people, more healthy nutrition, hygene improved,
cheaper cotton (more clothes/person), vaccinations were invented (first against pox)
 Migration: 2 routes:
 agrarian population to cities
 voluntary or agressive ( national or religious conflict) emigration to North-
America, hope of:
• better living conditions
• higher wages
• gold rush: quick enrichment
 criminals were deported to Australia

 Cities:
 No city walls
 Population boom in the cities, the ratio of urban population increased steeply:
„urbanisation”
 Population growth happened together with the transformation of the society
 Quarters separated by function:
 Business section: alive only at daytime
 The rich lived in downtown palaces on avenues or in the green area, drainage
system, street-lighting
 Industrial area: in the suburbs, nearby:
 Workers’ area: warrens (bérkaszárnya), penury, crowded, tiny flats, epidemics,
high infant mortality rate, industrial accidents, low life expectancy

 Life of the workers:

 Migration of work force to the cities is a very important factor of industrial
development
 High concentration of workers in textile, machine and mining industry
 Profit-orientated relationship of bourgeois – worker , lack of defence of rights of the
workers
 Women and children also worked (in mines→small tunnels), there wages were far less
than that of men’s
 long, intensive, monotonous work, 12-14 hours/day, bad hygene
 no insurances, the disabled and old were taken by the miserable workhouses
 low wages to cut down on costs of production→workers were not able to save up for
 jobs mainly didn’t require skills→if one was dissatisfied→could be replaced any time;
 they couldn’t rise to a higher social class
 effect on their souls: gloomy city, thousands of people→loneliness, seceded from the
village, where everyone knew the other, where a friend always helped in
trouble→feeling of defencelessness
 prostitution, alcoholism, delinquiency rose
 material inequality grew high
 resistance against the system: first disorganized, small strikes
 machine breakers: machines took the livelihood of them – Luddites
  armed uprisings: 1834 Lyon, 1844 Silesia against textile industry
 trade unions were formed: with uniform aims allowances could be gained; first they
were banned; but in England (1824-25) restricted rights were given to the workers
 Chartist movement: 1830s, wanted to give political rights to those who didn’t have:
 Universal suffrage
 Secret ballot
 Eligibility to everyone
 Salary for the members of the Parliament
 They wrote petitions, but the Parliament rejected them
 Solution: Factory acts 1840s: concerned working hours and age limit, 10-hour
workday

 Transformation of social classes

 Ancien regime: 3 classes existed: (those who are in the same economic-social state,
have common interests and have similar cultural characteristics)
 Landlords – ruling class
 middle class: merchants, intellectuals, officials, industrialists
 peasants, wage labourers
 from the Industrial Revolution on:
 ratio of peasantry decreased, their only aim was land seizure
 landlords stayed in position, but they were challenged by the middle class
 new social class: enterpreneurs with capital or bourgeois: (capitalism became
dominant)
• mainly protestant, because diligent work was thought to be the gift of God
• the profit was totally re-endorsed
• had to face harsh competition
 new class: workers’ layer
• became the widest social class
• they were divided by skills
• the only common in them was that they sold their labour force for daily or
monthly wage
 Effect on education:
 Before the 19.c.:
• only aristocrats could go to school, tutors taught them
• The knowledge of writing and reading was thought to be detrimental to
workers
• Stringiness (inaskodás) meant the only way of getting skills
• Higher education was only open for aristocrats, priests, officials
 After the revolution:
• Schools were opened for different occupations, e.g. Polytechnical School for
engineers
• elementary education was provided for the whole population, laws from the
beginning of the century, but only checked and kept in the second half of the
19.c.

Conclusion:
 positive side: England became the economic and political world power
 the revolution did destruct and construct the environment
 living conditions were higher than in the 18.c., but misery was also characteristic to the
cities, and chiefly the workers

Tipp: olvasd el a honlapon lévő közép töris tételt is!