Student Question
What were the social consequences of industrialization in Britain?
Quick answer:
Industrialization in Britain led to significant social changes, including the rise of a new middle class of business owners and the growth of urban populations as people moved to cities for work. While the middle class gained wealth, the working class faced poor wages, hazardous conditions, and overcrowded living. Child labor was rampant until reforms were enacted. These conditions spurred demands for social welfare, labor rights, and political reforms, including the Reform Bill of 1832.
Industrialization in Britain, as in other European countries, facilitated the rise of the middle class. A new class emerged from wealthy owners of businesses, factories, and trade. Industrialization led to an increase in population and urbanization in which vast numbers of people relocated to urban centers to find employment. While the new middle class enjoyed wealth and economic advantages, members of the lower class were subject to dangerous working environments, low wages, and overcrowded living environments. Children, in particular, were exploited and made to work in factories before the onset of child labor laws. The circumstances of industrialization and urbanization caused the public to demand better social welfare, education, labor rights, and the abolition of the slave trade. This would later translate into political landmarks, including changing the electoral system through the Reform Bill of 1832, extending voting rights to non-landowners (women excluded).
What were the social consequences of the Industrial Revolution?
The Industrial Revolution represented a profound social transformation,...
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as European economies transitioned from agrarian societies (based in agriculture), toward more heavily urbanized societies with economies based around manufacturing.
When speaking about pre-industrial economies, one thing you should keep in mind is just how parochial life tended to be. The vast majority of people lived in rural communities, and would have rarely traveled any further than the next town or so over. The world was small. With industrialization, however, technology improved, and this included improvements in internal communications. For example, railroads tied industrialized nations together in ways that were not available in the pre-industrial world, allowing for easier movement across long distances. Industrialization, you might say, resulted in a compression of space.
Additionally, industrialization resulted in the emergence of the modern class structure as we know it today. Just consider, for example, the Estates System of Pre-Revolutionary France, divided as it was between the clergy, nobility, and the rest of the population. Technically, while this was a system of social stratification, it was not one founded strictly upon income or occupation.
Among the clergy were numbered both bishops and parish priests; among the nobility one might find magistrates, aristocrats and the officer corps of the army. This was a very different vision than the class structure as we understand it today. The modern class structure, divided into upper, middle, and lower (or working) class, ultimately emerged out of the economic transformations of industrial society.
Industrialization had other far-reaching effects as well. It impacted our modern sense of time (especially the idea of standardized time). By its very nature, industrialization is regimented. People worked in shifts, and this required a coordination of labor. In agrarian societies, work was dictated primarily be seasonal patterns, and their understanding of time was a largely informal one. The Industrial Revolution introduced a radically different relationship between human beings and time, one which continues into the present day.
Finally, you can talk about the rise of industrial cities and the living conditions (and working conditions) of the working class. Exploitation was built into industrialization, with workers facing long hours in poor working conditions for poor wages. Living conditions were bleak as well.
To conclude, there's actually a lot of ground you can cover with this kind of question. The Industrial Revolution represented a watershed in human history, with repercussions that continue even into the present day.