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Hi I’m John Green and this is Crash Course
European History.
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So we’re going to turn our attention now
to the Industrial Revolution, one of the most
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significant developments in human history.
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Like, imagine with me that it’s 1820.
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I got this idea from the economist Robert
Gordon by the way.
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You live in, say, England.
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You probably work in agriculture.
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When you walk to town, you’re either pulling
your own cart, or if you’re lucky you have
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a horse.
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You have no running water or electricity.
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When you wash your few items of clothing,
you do so by hand.
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You cook over a fire.
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You think of time not primarily in minutes
and hours, but mostly in relationship to solar
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cycles--how close it is to night, or to morning,
or to midwinter.
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And in all these respects, your life in 1820
is basically identical to the lives of people
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in 1720, or 1520, or for that matter 1220.
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That’s not to say life hasn’t changed
in those hundreds of years--as we’ve explored
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in this series, lots has changed--but as Gregory
Clark observed, in terms of standard of living,
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Europeans in 1800 basically led lives similar
to those of Neandrathals.
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Now imagine that you close your eyes in 1820
and wake up in 1920.
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By now, most people in England do not work
in agriculture.
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They may work in shops, or transportation,
or mining, oe workshops, or in factories.
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They measure time in minutes.
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Cars exist.
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Some people have radios, which transmitted
information through thin air.
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A few people even have refrigerators, which
dramatically decrease food spoilage and the
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risk of foodborne illness.
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Occasionally you might even see an airplane
flying in the sky.
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Oh, and also, your country has just emerged
from an astonishingly deadly war fought with
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highly lethal weapons such as chlorine gas,
weapons that people of 1820 could not possibly
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have imagined.
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Welcome to the Industrial Revolution.
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[Intro]
In this series, we’ve already talked about
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revolutions in agriculture that increased
European productivity and revolutions in trade
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that increasingly distributed goods among
people in towns and cities instead of having
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each individual family produce everything
it needed.
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And these forces combined to help create more
division of labor: like, farmers could focus
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on farming, and textile workers could focus
on textile creation, which was more efficient
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than having each family do every kind of work.
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So let’s begin in the eighteenth century,
when European industrial production is said
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to have begun.
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Europe’s population was growing after centuries
of non-stop wars, plagues, and the worst of
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the little ice age.
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Meanwhile, products such as coffee, tea, and
chocolate made with heated water killed bacteria,
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while products from abroad expanded and varied
the pool of nutrients, with corn and potatoes,
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for instance, generally more calorie-dense
per acre than wheat.
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In short, lives were getting longer and populations
rising.
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This meant that on average people had a little
more time to learn, tinker, and experiment.
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Many different artisans invented small improvements
to existing mechanical devices.
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Perhaps most famously, John Kay’s flying
shuttle increased the pace and productivity
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of weaving.
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Weavers then needed a greater amount of thread.
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So tinkerers made that happen by producing
inventions such as the spinning jenny, created
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around 1764 by craftsman James Hargreaves.
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The spinning jenny was a machine used by individual
women working at home.
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And it allowed a person, using just the power
of their hand, to spin not one bobbin of thread,
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but up to 120 at once.
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In England, Ellen Hacking and her husband
John were among those devising carding machines
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to straighten cotton and wool fibers for spinning.
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And at about the same time, Richard Arkwright
and his partners invented the water frame,
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another kind of spinning machine that used
water power.
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And when spinning machines could be linked
to a central power source such as water, many
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could be placed in a single building.
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So, the world’s first factories arose in
part from the pressure to increase production
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of English cloth for global and domestic markets.
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Did the center of the world just open?
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Is one of my Polo shirts in there?
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This cost like $41.
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Twice a year I go to a Polo outlet in Southern
Indiana and just buy as many of these things
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as they’ll sell to me.
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And look, I’m not here to advertise Polo
shirts, but this thing is incredibly comfortable,
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and also, it’s like dyed a specific color.
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Everything about this was completely unimaginable
in the early nineteenth century.
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In fact, you know what?
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It’s so soft to the touch, I think I’m
going to put it on.
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Is that weird.
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Oh yeah!
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I feel like I’m the bad guy in an 80s movie.
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How do I look, Stan?
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Oh, Stan says I look like Steve Bannon.
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OK.
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Thus ends that experiment, now back to the
show.
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Let’s talk about porcelain.
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Another tinkerer was the alchemist Johann
Friedrich Böttger who promised the king of
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Saxony that he could figure out how to make
porcelain.
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Porcelain was such an obsession that wealthy
people collected it and even those with far
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less would try to buy a piece or two—a cup
or plate—as we see in many Dutch, French,
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and other paintings.
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Two things you see a lot in European paintings
of the affluent or those who aspired to affluence:
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porcelain and pineapples, which were also
quite rare and expensive and difficult to
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produce domestically.
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Porcelain was also practical, because Europeans
did not know other ways to make heat resistant
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dishware for their hot drinks.
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So Böttger was virtually imprisoned until
around 1708 when he figured out how to make
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porcelain, although not as beautifully as
the Chinese or Japanese did.
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What we’re trying to get at here is that
while people love a great story of an inventor
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and their invention, the Industrial Revolution
was the story of lots and lots of people working
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together, making a series of incremental improvements,
rather than, like, geniuses from on high creating
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amazing things.
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The real genius of humans is collaboration,
and also spying.
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Like for instance, Industrial spies helped
with every development because other regions
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were far more advanced than Europe in manufacturing,
for instance, color fast dyes and heat-resistant
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dishware, fine weaving and spinning, or even
metallurgy.
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Arkwright, for example, mostly copied designs
from imported textiles.
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And it was those cotton textiles that caught
the imagination of consumers and filled pockets,
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first of the people who imported textiles
from India and China, and then of the daring
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manufacturers who were successful at copying
the lightweight, and colorful, and washable
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cotton clothing.
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But industrial production of cotton was really
risky—the rate of business failure during
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the Industrial Revolution was over 50 percent.
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Because of that, experimenting manufacturers
worked to keep labor costs as low as they
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could.
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One way was to use unpaid orphans from government,
religious or charitable institutions as labour.
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At a time when people didn’t know a lot
about steam powered machinery and its dangers,
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industrial accidents happened all the time,
and children were often the victims.
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Children worked incredibly long hours and
deaths were common.
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Little Mary Richards was caught up in a machine
and six- and seven- year old orphans working
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alongside her witnessed the quote “bones
of her arms, legs, thighs, etc successively
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snap... her head appeared dashed to pieces...
her blood thrown about like water from a twirled
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mop.”2
Now I know that’s very graphic, but I think
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it’s important to understand the extent
of industrial oppression, including the industrial
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oppression of children.
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Workers lost arms, eyes, breasts, and fingers
or were otherwise disfigured.
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Production and profits came first to avoid
financial ruin.
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And industry had other repercussions.
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It initially increased the demand for slaves
even more.
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Slaves produced food for workers who had left
farms for factories.
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Slaves also produced tropical crops such as
sugar, and tobacco, and coffee that boosted
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the energy of many types of workers.
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And slaves provided the palm and other tropical
oils to keep machinery running as well as
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the raw materials for industry, especially
cotton.
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It’s important to understand that industry
thrived due to slave labor and inexpensive
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child labor, and also through the labor of
women, who were paid less than men.
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Over time, more and more people began working
in industrialized settings, or in economic
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sectors that supported industry due in part
to the development of the steam engine.
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In 1776, English inventor James Watt launched
a steam engine that improved earlier models.
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Now as far back as Roman Egypt and then Ottoman
Egypt and China, people had known about steam
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engines, But Watt’s engine was more efficient,
which made it useful in replacing animal and
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water power, not just in mines but also powering
textile factories, and then other machinery.
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For millennia, almost all human power came
from our muscles.
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Then we harnessed some animal power, and eventually
some wind and water power.
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But steam power completely revolutionized
how much work could be done on behalf of humans,
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and also of course changed transportation
when it was attached to covered and uncovered
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wagons and ships to make trains and steamships
and eventually automobiles.
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And the train created another kind of demand:
as urbanization soared around railway hubs,
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small and grand train stations were built
along with all the other buildings to house
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the railway’s primary and secondary employees.
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By secondary employees I mean, it wasn’t
just station-masters, ticket-sellers, and
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conductors, there was a need for shopkeepers,
and pharmacists, and construction workers,
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and teachers, and doctors, and and drivers
of coaches, not to mention sanitation workers,
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police, and urban administrators.
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Industrialization had a snowball effect and
it wasn’t gonna be turned back.
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And all this mean that everyday life also
transformed.
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Two classes became prominent alongside the
aristocracy and peasants in the social structure:
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the bourgeoisie and proletariat or working
class.
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The bourgeoisie initially referred to people
who lived in towns and cities or burgs/bourgs.
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But the term came to refer to those who owned
factories, banks, transportation networks,
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and large tracts of land for raising livestock
and crops.
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The proletariat comprise the many factory
and other workers who lacked tools or land
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to support themselves but instead rather labored
for factory owners and others who had the
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means to produce.
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In between were the rising professional groups,
called the middle class in Europe: the doctors,
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lawyers, teachers, and others with special
skills that serviced society as a whole.
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We will see this configuration change over
the next two centuries and watch tensions
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unfold among these groups, and at times boil
over.
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Women also experienced a transformation of
everyday life.
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In the preceding centuries, they had generally
worked on farms or in workshops alongside
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their artisan husbands or on their own as
hatmakers, and seamstresses, and weavers,
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and spinners.
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During the early days of industrialization,
women who had been spinning or weaving at
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home often switched to factories.
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And they did many other kinds of work; for
example, eighteen-year-old Ann Eggly with
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her younger sister worked twelve-hour days
in the coal mines pushing carriages filled
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with 800 pounds of coal (which was then used
to make steam power).
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She had done this kind of work since she was
seven.
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I don’t know if you know any seven year
olds, but they should not be working in coal
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mines.
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Now you’ll recall that the French and American
revolutions, with their emphasis on motherhood
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and laws stripping women of their property,
led to women being discouraged from work.
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But many continued to do so even when their
wages belonged to their husbands.
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Factories also created (and still create)
outwork done by women at home: polishing knives
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or painting porcelain buttons for example.
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But, ideology simultaneously shifted to say
that women were to be “angels in the household,”
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providing comfort from the horrors of industrial
life, a cultural norm that discouraged work
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outside the home.
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In the meantime, the classes became aware
of their individual identities.
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The French had outlawed guilds during the
revolution.
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Industrial and other workers formed their
own clubs to protect their interests.
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They created singing, gymnastic, and sports
clubs--this is why early English football
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teams had names like Royal Engineers AFC and
Civil Service FC.
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These groups often had a lively cafe culture,
where they discussed politics and read newspapers,
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often allowed to their comrades because each
cafe usually only had one newspaper.
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Manufacturers and wealthy individuals in cities
likewise formed groups based on their common
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class position; they founded chambers of commerce
to protect their financial interests and museums
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to show off their city’s achievements and
good taste.
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Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.
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1.
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Initially, the rise of factories saw those
left out of industrial work life,
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2.
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such as artisans and small farmers,
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3.
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protest by breaking machinery or threatening
to do so.
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4.
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The “Swing riots” in Britain are one example
of what has been called “primitive” rebellion.
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5.
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Instead of dealing with change by organizing
to benefit from and shape the change,
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6.
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so-called primitive rebels went about breaking
things.
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7.
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Wreckers of machinery were called Luddites
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8. (as they still are today)
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9. because menacing notes found alongside
sabotage were often signed Ned Ludd.
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10.
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Ludd was an inspirational figure -- a weaver
who allegedly smashed a textile machine in
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the 18th century.
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11.
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But gradually, workers inside the factories
formed mutual aid societies
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12. and eventually unions that negotiated
for better terms with owners.
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And when negotiations failed,
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13.
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they went on strike as a group instead of
wrecking the machines with which they earned
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their living.
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14.
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All in all, industrialization wreaked havoc
on people’s lives even as it provided many
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with livelihoods.
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15.
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Towns grew astronomically: like textile center
Manchester England went from 20,000 people
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in the 1750s to 400,000 a century later.
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16.
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Conditions in Manchester were abominable,
including the development of slums, and the
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spread of disease.
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17.
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They came to lack fresh and safe supplies
of water.
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18.
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Garbage and sewage, not to mention animal
excrement, filled muddy streets,
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19.
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creating, in the words of one commentator,
“a universal atmosphere of filth and stink.”[1]
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20. and Conditions in other industrial cities
hardly differed.
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Thanks Thought Bubble.
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So, Industrialization spread from England
and the low countries where it began thanks
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to the capital raised by worldwide trade,
and because that trade made possible successful
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imitation of foreign products.
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But industrialization then spread.
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It traveled the continent through the 19th
century, although industrialization was less
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dense in eastern Europe.
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There, many peasants continued to live hand-to-mouth,
but as we’ve seen, so did the poor in industrial
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cities.
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So was the Industrial Revolution a revolution?
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Well, if a revolution is an event full of
impact on people’s lives, it certainly was.
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But often historians look at revolutions as,
like, ending, which the Industrial Revolution
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really hasn’t.
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Unlike the comparatively brief English Revolution
or American Revolution, many see the Industrial
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Revolution as continuing to make dramatic
changes in our way of life today.
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Today, we expect technologies to change dramatically
in our lifetimes.
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We expect to use different tools to communicate
and work than our parents used.
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But that expectation is only a couple hundred
years old.
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It makes you wonder.
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If you closed your eyes in 2020, and woke
up in 2120, how weird is the world gonna be.
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Ugh.
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Thinking about that is stressing me out.Next
time, we’ll look further at the cultural
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and political aspects of industrialization.
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I’ll see you then.
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Thanks for watching.
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________________
[1] Quoted in Lynn Hunt et al., The Making
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of the West: Peoples and Cultures, 6th ed.
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(Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2019) 21.
