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Example research essay topic: Friedrich Engels Industrial Revolution - 2,062 words

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Industrial Revolution The most influential, significant transformation of human culture since the agriculture was founded eight or ten thousand years ago, was the industrial revolution of eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe and America. The consequences of this revolution would change irreversibly human labor, consumption, family structure, social structure, and even the very soul and thoughts of the individual. This revolution involved more than technology; to be sure, there had been industrial "revolutions" throughout European history and non-European history. The industrial revolution was really dramatic in the way it changed peoples everyday lives. It changed the way people worked. Many were forced to leave farms to work in factories with the help of new machines that increased the amount of work that could be done.

The industrial revolutions immediate impact was greatest in Europe, but European countries used the natural resources of their colonies and African slave labor to increase Europe's wealth. These riches helped to pay for the building railways, factories and cities. European powers such as England, France, Spain, Portugal and Holland used military might to force weaker countries to open up their markets and lands to European companies. Out of all European countries Great Britain appeared to be the first to develop itself as the industrial nation and set the examples for others to follow. After the political revolution, the industrial revolution was inevitably going underway.

Such superiority of England was conditioned by several factors. First of all, profits from colonial trade and cottage industries provided a serious capital for investment. Second, Britain possessed flexible credit card system due to the useful central bank. Third, vast resources of oil iron and coal played its role in the trade. Among other important factors are such as the new transportation system and developing textile industry. The way entrepreneurs used technology is vividly illustrated in the textile production, which was the key industry at the beginning of industrialization.

Changes in one industry stimulated significant changes in other industries as well. Factory became a symbol of industrial revolution. As mentioned above, the main innovation made due to the industrialization was introduction of machine power to manufacture. The introduction of machines led to significant changes and led to absolutely new ways of working on factories, way of living (big cities started to emerge), transport system (cars, trains, and steam ships appeared), and in the family structure (family became a unity of consumption but not production). However, despite all the universally positive sides of the industrialization, there also were negative ones, as not everyone was satisfied with the innovations introduced into the production process.

Leeds Woolen Workers Petition of 1786, written by the workers in Leeds, which was the major center of wool production at that time, clearly illustrated the negative mood of the workers as for introduction of the machinery on their factories. The petition was written by several thousands of workers who worked in the wool industry and fully depended on the jobs they had, and was addressed to the Merchants, Clothiers and all such as wish well to the Staple Manufactory of this Nation. [ 1 ] As the petition mentions, after the introduction of Scribbling-Machines a great number of well-paid workers before became totally unneeded now, which means they did not have any means for the living any more and were not able to procure a maintenance for their families, and deprived them of the opportunity of bringing up their children to labour. [ 1 ] It was quite natural that workers did not want to lose their jobs, but it also was natural that machinery brought significant growth into the British economy, which could not be disregarded. Three years after the wool workers petition to the merchants appeared in the newspapers, the response to them was written. In 1971, document known as Letter from Leeds Cloth Merchants, 1971, was printed in the newspapers. The document defended the use of machines in manufacture. It was composed and signed by about sixty merchant manufacturers who were interested in the machinery introduction.

The first paragraph of the letter clearly describes all the benefits and advantages of machinery comparing to the human labor. The position of merchants was based on several factors, basically economical. At the time both documents workers petition and merchants letter were written, all efforts of the country were directed on reducing prices when exporting goods, which could be reached with an efficient organization of labor. Machinery became a perfect tool for achieving this goal. They were right in their own way. On the international trade arena Britain had numerous competitors that manufactured the same products having labor cost twice cheaper than in Britain.

Thus, the merchants declared, From these Premises, we the undersigned Merchants, think it a Duty we owe to ourselves, to the Town of Leeds, and to the Nation at large, to declare that we will protect and support the free Use of the proposed Improvements in Cloth-Dressing, by every legal Means in our Power; and if after all, contrary to our Expectations, the Introduction of Machinery should for a Time occasion a Scarcity of Work in the Cloth Dressing Trade, we have unanimously agreed to give a Preference to such Workmen as are now settled Inhabitants of this Parish, and who give no Opposition to the present Scheme. Both points of view have solid grounds and make considerable sense. It is for individual to decide what position is more reasonable. However, reasoning in economical scale, the introduction of machinery had a positive and inimitable effect, presenting a process that cannot be stopped once started. As the industrialization spread, more and more wealthy people emerged in the social structure. After Great Britain took the lead in the industrial development, other countries, including Belgium, France, some German states, and Northern USA, began to follow it.

Roughly after 1850 this process spread all over the Europe and far beyond. Andrew Carnegie, poor Scottish immigrant to the USA, is still considered to be one of the wealthiest persons ever lived and one of the pioneers of the industrialization process. He was an extremely successful businessman of the time. Carnegie made his wealth on the provision of iron and steel to the railways.

Carnegie made millions of dollars during his successful business career. The beliefs that made him leave the business world to become a philanthropist are outlined in a famous essay he wrote in 1889 called "The Gospel of Wealth. " In this essay, he wrote that wealthy men should live without extravagance, provide moderately for their families, and consider the rest of their wealth as extra money that they should distribute to promote the welfare and happiness of other people. "The Gospel of Wealth" was read all over the world and Carnegie's intentions were praised. Very wealthy people of that period lived lavishly and spent huge amounts of money on their own personal needs and wishes, but Andrew Carnegie was not one of them. In his lifetime he gave away more than $ 350 million or almost 90 percent of his fortune for what he considered to be the improvement of all mankind. Carnegie believed, that of leaving wealth at death for public uses, it may be said that this is only a means for the disposal of wealth, provided a man is content to wait until he is dead before it becomes of much good in the world... The cases are not few in which the real object sought by the testator is not attained, nor are they few in which his real wishes are thwarted... [ 3 ] Britain was definitely an industrial country, and many industrial cities proved this fact to be true.

However, of all flourishing cities of England, Manchester was leading the way. Up until now, Manchester is considered to be the first really industrial city for a number of reasons. First, Manchester had an ideal geographical location. It's damp climate created an ideal atmosphere for cotton manufacture, which differed from the drier climate of the eastern English cloth manufacture centers. Located near the large Atlantic port in the town of Liverpool, the people of Manchester were allowed access to greater world trade relations. In addition, the city was surrounded by on of the earliest railroad tracks as well as canals allowing transport of products to other areas of England.

Specifically, Manchester was located near power sources such as waterpower and coal. Industrial leaders of Manchester proved to be ambitious with their go-ahead style of industrial development. Such approach was decisive in the industrial growth, but it also created numerous social problems that could hardly be avoided. Before the industrial revolution, Manchester's population constituted about 6, 000 people.

Following the population surge, by 1844 Manchester became the home of more than 400, 000 citizens. Working conditions of the industrial Manchester are well depicted by Friedrich Engels, son of a German manufacturer, working as his agent at a Manchester factory. Houses and buildings in the laboring district were known to be dirty, old, and tumble-down, as Friedrich Engels described. Of the irregular cramming together of dwellings in ways which defy all rational plan, of the tangle in which they are crowded literally one upon the other, it is impossible to convey an idea. [ 4 ] Homes rarely had stone or wooden floors or windows and doors that could fill the openings.

A horrible stench was released from these homes due to their filth. Families living in these houses often times were forced to sleep together in one room because of the overcrowding. Smoke from cotton mills enveloped the brick buildings of Manchester. In order to support the rate of industrial growth and keep the labor costs low, alternative skilled labor was needed for the industries. For many years children, some as young as four years old, were used as cola mines workers, spending the whole day crawling on all fours, pulling coal carts. The same was with young women who were involved into the coal mining industry.

There are numerous documented sources describing the conditions that women were involved in. The Parliamentary Papers document Women Miners In the English Coal Pits, issued in 1842, is one of the documents mentioned. According to the testimony of one of the women the conditions they had to work in where really inhuman and seem outrageous as for nowadays: I was married at 23, and went into a colliery when I was married. I used to weave when about 12 years old; can neither read nor write. I work for Andrew Knowles, of Little Bolton (Lancs), and make sometimes 7 s a week, sometimes not so much. I am a drawer, and work from 6 in the morning to 6 at night.

Stop about an hour at noon to eat my dinner; have bread and butter for dinner; I get no drink. I have two children, but they are too young to work There are six women and about six boys and girls in the pit I work in; it is very hard work for a woman. The pit is very wet where I work, and the water comes over our clog-tops always, and I have seen it up to my thighs; it rains in at the roof terribly. My clothes are wet through almost all day long. I never was ill in my life, but when I was lying in. [ 5 ]. From all of the ills of the Industrial Revolution period sprang very positive reforms, which made life better for all.

Wages increased; goods could be produced in greater quantities. This in turn, lowered the prices of these goods. Thanks to these measures, the standard of living improved for many. It can be summarized that in the period from 1750 to 1910 the lives of people had gone through a complete metamorphosis, from a farmer to a slum dweller working fourteen hours a day for next to nothing, to a citizen who was capable of earning a decent living, receiving an education and an assurance that there would be some hope for his old age and a better life for his children. Bibliography: Leeds Woolen Workers Petition of 1786, web Letter from Leeds Cloth Merchants, 1971, web Andrew Carnegie: The Gospel of Wealth, 1889, web Friedrich Engels: Industrial Manchester, 1844 web Parliamentary Papers: 1842, VoL XVI, pp. 24, 196. Women Miners in the English Coal Pits.

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Research essay sample on Friedrich Engels Industrial Revolution

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