- During the 19 th century, Europe experienced unprecedented demographic growth:between 1800 and 1900, the European population doubled, rising from 200 million to 400 million inhabitants. Agriculture is modernized, the use of fallow land (land that is not cultivated for a while to allow the restoration of soil fertility) is decreasing, the state structure is strengthening.
- A mental change took place from the 13 th century:the discoveries of Christopher Columbus (the first in 1492) mark the will of Europeans to organize the world, just as individualism promotes progress.
- Thus, the “industrial revolution” is not a sudden event but is at the crossroads of multiple factors over a long period.
19th century
Characters
Karl Marx
Friedrich Engles
Procedure
The first industrial revolution relied primarily on iron, cotton and steam (first half of the 19 th century-1860s). The factory appeared, first in England, thanks to the industrialization of cotton imported from the colonies. Spinning and weaving then became mechanized in England, before becoming widespread in Europe. The factories function thanks to the use of steam engines, invented by James Watt. Science and technology then maintain close links. Finally, the arrival of the locomotive in 1815 and the development of the railways went hand in hand with progress in the metallurgical sector, and made it possible to structure a traffic network and therefore to increase the density of exchanges.
The second industrial revolution is based on oil, electricity and the internal combustion engine (term used for the combustion engine). Inventions disrupted daily life:fertilizer (development of synthetic chemistry), bicycles, telephones, etc. Iron is replaced by steel, the quality of the products is increased, the railways are for example more resistant.
Economic growth (increase in production) continued strongly throughout the 19th th century, but not smoothly. From 1840 to 1860, it was rapid, so much so that an optimistic belief accompanied it:Europeans believed that economic growth was accompanied by moral progress. But in 1873, the crash of the Vienna stock exchange began the beginning of the "great depression", prices fell, as did production. From 1895, growth resumed, the second industrial revolution opened up new markets.
Consequences
- Europe is unevenly endowed with the productive apparatus (all production capacities, such as raw materials):it is concentrated in England, in the north and east of France as far as the Ruhr (region from Germany). The rest of the continent is almost devoid of them, apart from a few regions.
- The industrialization of society, and the new suffering it creates, leads to the appearance of new ideologies such as Marxism with the Manifesto of the Communist Party by Marx and Engels published in 1848. The labor movement also took shape, with the appearance of trade unions (the General Confederation of Labor – CGT – was created in 1895).