The Great Industrial Revolution: Achievements and Challenges (table)

The Great Industrial Revolution, the achievements and problems of which will be considered in the article, began in England (mid-18th century) and gradually embraced the entire world civilization. It led to the mechanization of production, economic growth and the creation of a modern industrial society. The topic is considered in the course of the history of the eighth grade and will be useful to both students and parents.

Basic concept

A detailed definition of the concept can be seen in the picture above. It was first applied by an economist from France Adolf Blanqui in 1830. The theory was developed by Marxists and Arnold Toynbee (English historian). The industrial revolution is not an evolutionary process associated with the emergence of new machines on the basis of scientific and technical discoveries (some already existed at the beginning of the 18th century), but a massive transition to a new organization of labor - machine production in large factories, replacing the manual labor of manufactories.

Other definitions of this phenomenon are found in books, including the industrial revolution. It is applicable to the initial stage of the revolution, during which they are distinguished by three:

• Industrial revolution: the emergence of a new industry - mechanical engineering and the creation of a steam engine (from the middle of the 18th century to the first half of the 19th century).
• Organization of in-line production through the use of chemicals and electricity (from the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century). For the first time, David Landis singled out the stage.
• Use in the production of information and communication technologies (from the end of the 20th century to the present). In science, there is no consensus on the third stage.

Industrial revolution (industrial revolution): basic prerequisites

For the organization of factory production, a number of conditions are necessary, the main of which are:

• The presence of labor - people deprived of property.
• The ability to sell goods (sales markets).
• The existence of rich people with cash savings.

First of all, these conditions were formed in England, where after the revolution of the 17th century the bourgeoisie came to power. The seizure of land from the peasants and the ruin of artisans in intense competition with manufactories created a huge army of the destitute, in need of income. The resettlement of former farmers in the cities led to a weakening subsistence economy. If the villagers themselves made clothes and utensils, the townspeople were forced to buy them. Goods were also exported abroad, since sheep breeding was well developed in the country. In the hands of the bourgeoisie accumulated profits from the slave trade, the robbery of colonies and the export of wealth from India. The industrial revolution (the transition from manual labor to machine) has become a reality thanks to a number of serious inventions.

Spinning

The industrial revolution first affected the cotton industry, the most developed in the country. The stages of its mechanization can be seen in the table below.

Edmund Cartwright improved the loom (1785), for the weavers could no longer process as much yarn as was produced in the factories of England. A 40-fold increase in productivity is the best confirmation that the industrial revolution has begun. Achievements and challenges (table) will be presented in the article. They are associated with the need arising for the invention of a special motor force, independent of the proximity of water.

Steam engine

The search for a new source of energy was important not only in weaving, but also in mining, where labor was especially hard. Already in 1711, Thomas Newcomen attempted to create a steam pump with a piston and cylinder, into which water was injected. This was the first serious attempt to use steam. The author of an advanced steam engine in 1763 was James Watt. In 1784, the first double-acting steam engine used in a spinning mill was patented. The introduction of patents made it possible to protect the copyright of inventors, which contributed to their motivation for new achievements. Without this step, an industrial revolution was hardly possible.

Achievements and problems (the table is presented in the picture below) show that the steam engine contributed to the industrial revolution in the development of transport. The appearance of the first steam locomotives on smooth rails is associated with the name of George Stephenson (1814), who personally operated in 1825 the train of 33 wagons on the first ever railway for citizens. Its 30 km route connected Stockton and Darlington. By the middle of the century, all of England was surrounded by a network of railways. A little earlier, American Robert Fulton, who worked in France, tested the first steamboat (1803).

Advances in Engineering

In the table above, one should highlight the achievement without which the industrial revolution would not be possible - the transition from manufactory to factory. This is an invention of a lathe, which makes it possible to cut nuts and screws. The mechanic from England, Henry Maudsley, made a breakthrough in the development of industry, in fact creating a new industry - mechanical engineering (1798–1800). In order to provide machine tools for factory workers, machines producing other machines must be created. Soon planing and milling machines appeared (1817, 1818). Mechanical engineering contributed to the development of metallurgy and coal mining, which allowed England to flood other countries with cheap manufactured goods. For this, she received the name "workshop of the world."

Collective labor with the development of machine tool industry has become a necessity. A new type of employee has formed - performing only one operation and not able to produce the finished product from start to finish. There was a separation of intellectual forces from physical labor, which entailed the emergence of qualified specialists, who formed the basis of the middle class. The industrial revolution is not only a technical aspect, but also serious social consequences.

Social impact

The main result of the industrial revolution is the creation of an industrial society. It is characterized by:

• Personal freedom of citizens.
• Market relations.
• Commodity production.
• Technical modernization.
• The new structure of society (the predominance of urban residents, class stratification).
• Competition.

New technical capabilities appeared (transport, communication), which increased the quality of life of people. But in the pursuit of profit, the bourgeoisie was looking for ways to reduce the cost of labor, which led to the widespread use of labor of women and children. Society has split into two warring classes: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

Ruinous peasants and artisans could not get a job due to lack of jobs. They considered the culprits machines replacing their labor, so the movement against the machine tools gained scope. Workers smashed the equipment of factories, which marked the beginning of the class struggle against the exploiters. The growth of banks and the increase in capital imported into England at the beginning of the 19th century led to the low solvency of other countries, which caused a crisis of overproduction in 1825. These are the consequences that caused the industrial revolution.

Achievements and problems (table): results of the industrial revolution

The table about industrial revolutions (achievements and problems) will be incomplete without taking into account the foreign policy aspect. For much of the nineteenth century, the economic superiority of England was undeniable. She dominated the global trading market, which was developing rapidly. At the first stage, it was only France that competed thanks to the focused policy of Napoleon Bonaparte. The unevenness of the economic development of countries can be seen in the picture below.

The second stage of the revolution: the emergence of monopolies

Technical achievements of the second stage are presented above (see picture No. 4). Chief among them: the invention of new means of communication (telephone, radio, telegraph), an internal combustion engine, and a furnace for steelmaking. The emergence of new energy sources is associated with the discovery of oil fields. This allowed K. Benz to first create a car on a gasoline engine (1885). Chemistry came to the service of man, thanks to which durable synthetic materials began to be created.

For new industries (for the development of oil fields, for example), significant capital was required. The process of their concentration intensified through the merger of companies, as well as their merger with banks, whose role has increased significantly. Monopolies are emerging - powerful enterprises that control both production and marketing of products. They were born of industrial revolutions. Achievements and problems (the table will be presented below) are associated with the consequences of the emergence of monopoly capitalism. Types of monopolies are presented in the picture.

Consequences of the Second Stage of the Industrial Revolution

The uneven development of countries and the emergence of large corporations led to wars for the redivision of the world, the seizure of markets and new sources of raw materials. Between 1870 and 1955, twenty serious military conflicts occurred. A huge number of countries were involved in two world wars. The creation of international monopolies led to the economic division of the world under the domination of the financial oligarchy. Instead of exporting goods, large corporations began to export capital, creating production in countries with cheap labor. Monopolies dominate within countries, ruining and absorbing smaller enterprises.

But much of the positive is the industrial revolution. Achievements and problems (the table is presented in the last subtitle) of the second stage is the mastery of the results of scientific and technical discoveries, the creation of a developed infrastructure of society, adaptation to new living conditions. Monopoly capitalism is the most developed form of the capitalist mode of production, in which all the contradictions and problems of the bourgeois system are manifested most fully.

Results of the second stage

Industrial revolution: achievements and challenges (table)

The industrial revolution, the achievements and problems of which are presented in two tables (based on the results of the first and second stages), is the greatest achievement of civilization. The transition to factory production was accompanied by technological progress. However, the risk of military and environmental disasters requires that the development of modern technology and the use of new energy sources be controlled by humanistic public institutions.