Fiche de révision : Industrial Revolution Social and Labor Dynamics

📋 Course Outline

1. Industrial social classes
2. Working conditions in factories
3. Urban growth and housing
4. Bourgeoisie lifestyle and wealth
5. Class conflict and early unions
6. Labor reforms and worker rights

📖 1. Industrial social classes

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Working class : The working class are unskilled or semi-skilled workers employed in factories.
• Bourgeoise : The bourgeoisie is the capitalist class linked to owning capital, businesses, or industry.
• Proletariat : The proletariat is the collective name for the industrial working class, concentrated in factories.
• Poverty : Poverty is a lack of sufficient resources, shown in overcrowding and poor living standards.

📝 Essential Points

• Two new industrial social classes were the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
• The bourgeoisie are also called capitalists or industrialists in the material.
• The proletariat performed mechanical tasks and were often poorly paid.
• Factories concentrated proletariat workers rather than spreading them across rural areas.

💡 Memory Hook

Bourgeoisie owns; proletariat works in factories.

📖 2. Working conditions in factories

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Industrial prisons : Industrial prisons is a label used for harsh factory conditions where work limits health and life chances.
• Child labour : Child labour is the use of children for work instead of keeping them in education.
• Ventilation : Ventilation is the exchange of air in workplaces, often lacking in factories.

📝 Essential Points

• Handloom weavers aged 25–30 could weave two cloth pieces per week, each 24 meters long.
• Power-loom weavers aged 15–20 attending four looms could weave eighteen cloth pieces per week.
• Work days lasted 14+ hours in many factory settings.
• Factory conditions were often too cold or too hot and had little or no ventilation.
• Dangerous work created a high risk of accidents.
• Child labour was present alongside long hours and poor conditions.

💡 Memory Hook

14+ hours + little air + danger = “industrial prisons”.

📖 3. Urban growth and housing

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Urban : Urban describes life in towns or cities, especially as industrialization accelerated population growth.
• Slums : Slums are poor, overcrowded city areas with health risks.
• Sanitation : Sanitation is the system for removing dirty water and waste products to protect public health.

📝 Essential Points

• Urbanisation in the material is described as rapid growth leading to overcrowding.
• Factory towns outside major capitals often grew quickly and were not planned.
• Housing lacked proper sanitation in many places, increasing health problems.
• The material states London had 2.3 million inhabitants in 1850 and was overcrowded.
• Berlin is given as an example of working-class homes around 1900.
• London’s metropolitan railway started in 1853 and opened with steam locomotives in 1863.

💡 Memory Hook

Fast city growth without planning → overcrowding + poor sanitation.

📖 4. Bourgeoisie lifestyle and wealth

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Private property : Private property is ownership held by individuals, treated as a core value by the bourgeoisie.
• Individual initiative : Individual initiative is the expectation that individuals should act and pursue opportunities independently.
• Capital and income from securities : Income from securities and farms represents how bourgeois wealth could be generated beyond factory wages.

📝 Essential Points

• The bourgeoisie shared values including private property and individual initiative.
• In 1847 Barbier-Dufour received 35,000 francs a year from annuities tied to securities and farms.
• In 1847 he spent 33,475.90 francs and saved 1,524.10 francs.
• His budget shows furnishings as a major item, stated as 41.4% of income.
• Servants were expensive, with a valet at 600 francs per year, a chambermaid at 350, and a cook at 400.
• After a high furnishing cost in 1847, expenditures fell to 6,940 francs in 1848 and 2,170 francs in 1849.

💡 Memory Hook

Bourgeois budgets: big spending on furniture + costly servants.

📖 5. Class conflict and early unions

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Class conflict : Class conflict is tension between property-owning groups and poor working classes during industrial growth.
• Labour/trade union : A labour or trade union is an organized association of workers in a profession formed to protect rights and interests.
• Collective bargaining : Collective bargaining is group negotiation by workers rather than individual bargaining alone.

📝 Essential Points

• The Canut revolts are used to illustrate an internal struggle between property-owning and poor working classes.
• The source frames workers as a serious problem for society, with tensions in manufacturing cities.
• Workers threaten the bourgeoisie, described as temptation to attack the property-owning class.
• Before unions, the material defines trade unions as organized associations of workers.
• After unions, workers elected leaders to bargain on their behalf.
• Tools to gain rights included strikes-refusing to work.

💡 Memory Hook

Union = collective bargaining + elected leaders + strike pressure.

📖 6. Labor reforms and worker rights

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Minimum wage : A minimum wage is the lowest legally allowed pay meant to protect workers’ earnings.
• Health and safety codes : Health and safety codes are workplace rules intended to reduce illness and accidents.
• Legalization of unions : Legalization of unions is the legal recognition that allows unions to operate officially.

📝 Essential Points

• The material links labor reform to introducing legal protection for workers.
• Reforms included limited hours for women.
• The material states attention later turned to equal pay for equal work.
• An eventual end to child labor is tied to growing school attendance requirements.
• Health and safety codes, minimum wage, and legalization of unions are listed as reforms.
• Minimum wage and union legalization are presented as direct improvements to worker rights.

💡 Memory Hook

Reform package: hours + pay + child protection + safety + minimum wage + legal unions.

📅 Key Dates

📊 Synthesis Tables

Bourgeoisie vs Proletariat

⚠️ Common Pitfalls & Confusions

1. Mixing up bourgeoisie with proletariat leads to confusing owners of industry with industrial workers who are poorly paid.
2. Using “slums” to describe any crowded city area is wrong because the material defines slums as poor and overcrowded neighborhoods.
3. Thinking ventilation is irrelevant ignores that the factory section states little or no ventilation.
4. Confusing trade unions with collective bargaining is a mistake because collective bargaining is the later group negotiation method.
5. Assuming reforms stop at hours alone is wrong because the material lists pay, child labor, safety codes, and union legalization.
6. Treating “industrial prisons” as a literal place instead of a label for harsh factory conditions will distort interpretation.

✅ Exam Checklist

1. Identify the two new social classes that emerged: bourgeoisie and proletariat.
2. Define working class and connect it to unskilled or semi-skilled factory employment.
3. Explain the difference between bourgeoisie (capitalists) and proletariat (industrial working class).
4. Use the material’s descriptions of proletariat work: mechanical tasks, factory concentration, and poor pay.
5. Recall one key quantitative contrast between handloom and power-loom weavers from the provided examples.
6. State the reported length of factory work days (14+ hours) from the material.
7. Describe typical factory conditions by including cold/heat and little or no ventilation.
8. Describe how urbanisation affected housing using the material’s terms for overcrowding and lack of planning.
9. Define slums and connect them to poor, overcrowded city neighborhoods.
10. Define sanitation and state why it matters for health in the material.
11. Summarize bourgeoisie lifestyle using the material’s core values and budget emphasis on furnishings and servants.
12. Recall the bourgeoisie income and spending figures for Barbier-Dufour in 1847 and what changed by 1849.
13. Explain class conflict as presented through the Canut revolts and the struggle between property-owning and poor working classes.
14. Define labour/trade union and describe collective bargaining using elected leaders and negotiation as described.