The second industrial revolution.

University Degree Historical and Philosophical studies

Introduction

The First Industrial Revolution, as called in the narrower sense the revolution of coal and iron, started in Britain in the manufacture of textiles in the middle of seventeenth century. It implied the gradual extension of the use of machines, the employment of men, women, and children in factories, a fairly steady change from a population mainly of agriculture workers to a population mainly engaged in making things in factories and distributing them when they were made. By the mid nineteenth-century, Britain became the world's industrial leader--the "workshop of the world."

After the age of coal and iron (the first industrial revolution), there came the following age of steel and electricity, of oil and chemicals. The second industrial revolution began around the last decade of the nineteenth century. It was far more deeply scientific, far less depended on the “inventions” of “practical” men with little if any basic scientific training. It was also far quicker in its impact, far more prodigious in its results and far more revolutionary in its effects on people’s lives and outlook.

The second industrial revolution was a new thing in human experience and it went on corresponded with the economic, social and political consequences it produced.

Economical issues on Productivity and technology

The second industrial revolution witnessed the growth in some industries of huge economic of scale and throughput and was a new kind of industrialization, a "revolution" affected in large part by the partnership of science and technology. New material, new sources of power, and the application of scientific knowledge to industry increased rapidly the productivity. For example, steel was almost a semiprecious material with a world production of eighty thousand tons, but by the year 1900 the production had reached 28 million tons.

Electricity was a major new form of energy that proved to be of great value since it could be easily converted into other forms of energy, such as heat, lights, and motion, and moved relatively effortlessly through space by means of transmitting wires. In the 1870s, the first commercially practical generators of electrical current were developed. By 1881, Britain had its first public power station. By 1910, hydroelectric power stations and coal-fired steam-generating plants enabled entire districts to be tied into a single power distribution system that provided a common source of power for homes, shops, and industrial enterprises.

Agriculture was also influenced by the new chemical and physiological knowledge. New methods of food preservation made possible bulk conservation of foodstuffs and the provision of cheap and stable supplies to the growing world population.

Social

Except the consequences on the productivity and the whole pattern of everyday life, the second industrial revolution also brought out the social issues.

Working class

Working class played an important role during the first industrial revolution, and its changes came out naturally in the late 19th through the second industrial revolution.

The number of working class grew up tremendously.

In 1880 electricity was commercially employed ...

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Social

Except the consequences on the productivity and the whole pattern of everyday life, the second industrial revolution also brought out the social issues.

Working class

Working class played an important role during the first industrial revolution, and its changes came out naturally in the late 19th through the second industrial revolution.

The number of working class grew up tremendously.

In 1880 electricity was commercially employed only in telegraphy, and in 1882 the total number of persons employed in the industry was too small to be separately enumerated. In 1895 there were 15,000 people engaged in the industry, and the number at the present time is estimated at 50,000. . .

The working class was being gathered into big factories and the factories concentrated in industrial towns and urban areas.

In Germany the great Krupps steel undertaking, which had employed only 122 men in 1846, had 16,000 on its pay-roll in 1872 and by 1913 was employing a total of almost 70,000.

Democracy

In the years between 1870 and 1914, there was an ever more marked conflict between the bourgeois class and working class since the industrial factors are involved. The conditions of the workers were not good. As the numbers of the workers in the big cities grew, the strength of them is getting stronger to request better working and living condition. In fact, the huge amount of working class had to have a huge demand of food and other living material, which gave great pressures on agriculture that had to have enough supply to meet the demand. This means, the large scale import of cheap foodstuffs and living materials from overseas accelerated the improvement in the development of transportation and refrigerator. The legal limitation of the hours of labor became one of the most important demands in man movement for the betterment of the conditions of the working class: it had been a major item, for instance, in the revolution of the French workers in 1848 and in the growing international working-class movement and strikes of the 1880s. Furthermore, the definition of Communism was introduced by Marx and Engels, which gave the idea of the welfare of the working class first in France in 1871. And it didn’t take so long time for people to witness the birth of a communist country.

Urbanization as another important consequences of the second industrial revolution

The scientific, technological and industrial changes not only made the world come closer, but also turned the towns and cities bigger and urbanized. With the big amount of workers coming to cities and more emigrations, the population of Europe rose by no less than one hundred million between 1870 and 1900. In one hand, traditional small scale-family businesses and factories were in many cases too narrowly based to withstand and the times of depression caused by the crisis of over-production, nor had they always means to finance the installation of new, more complicated and more expensive machinery. Therefore, they were soon replaced by large factories since they were absolutely weak facing the different product markets. As a result, the family workers or, in an agricultural sense, the farmers became the labors in the big factories. On the other hand, the new industrial techniques “necessitated the creation of large-scale undertakings and the concentration of the population in vast urban agglomerations.” As more and more big factories settled and more consumption of the amount of labor force, by the end of 19th, the cities rapidly grew bigger and the emergence of the great metropolitan centers was world-wild.

Political Issues

Imperialism and the balance of power

The rapidity and extent of the industrialization increased the lead of the European powers and enhanced their strength, self-confidence. By about 1880, there was a profound disequilibrium and difference between Europe and most of the parts of the less-developed world.

… Technological progress as such did not cause imperialistic expansion directly, let alone automatically, but contributed as the impetus in other areas. Imperialism resulted, in a way, from the socio-political inability, within the political framework, to cope with the economic results of permanent technological innovations and their social consequences.

As the English economist J. A. Hobson have stressed in Imperialism:

“We must have markets for our growing manufactures; we must have new outlets for the investment of our surplus capital and for the energies of the adventurous surplus of our population: such expansion is a necessity of life to a nation with our great and growing powers of production. An ever larger share of our population is devoted to the manufactures and commerce of towns, and is thus dependent for life and work upon food and raw materials from foreign lands. In order to buy and pay for these things we must sell our goods abroad.

After 1870 this manufacturing and trading supremacy was greatly impaired: other nations, especially Germany, the United States, and Belgium, advanced with great rapidity, and while they have not crushed or even stayed the increase of our external trade, their competition made it more and more difficult to dispose of the full surplus of our manufactures at a profit.

It was this sudden demand for foreign markets for manufactures and for investments which was avowedly responsible for the adoption of Imperialism as a political policy.... They needed Imperialism because they desired to use the public resources of their country to find profitable employment for their capital which otherwise would be superfluous.... ”

In short, the economic motive of the Imperialism was the need of raw materials, secure markets, or investment opportunities, which means industry was confronted with compelling reasons for seeking new markets, finance for securing safer and more profitable outlets for capital abroad and so on. At the same time, new Imperialism had become a world-wild movement, in which all the industrialized nations were involved.

Germany and the new power balance

However, Germany, with her “World Policy” ensured it a leading place in the global constellation which now appeared to be taking the place of the old European balance of power. The rise of Germany as an industrial giant is a distinguishing feature of the "second" Industrial Revolution. Profiting from British experience, Germany rose to the challenge in the later nineteenth century and set her own distinctive marks on industrial leadership.

Conclusion

The second industrial revolution that had started in Europe was a world revolution, and it couldn’t be checked or restrained in no sphere, technological, social, or political. The consequences of the second industrial revolution are as well focused on these issues or even more on the contemporary arts, literature, human activities and cultures. However, except the effect of European Civilization, all the results are connected and could influence each other as a whole.

Bibliography:

The Tools of Empire--Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century: Daniel R. Headrick, new york 1981

An Introduction To Contemporary History: Geoffrey Barraclough

The Nineteenth Century 1815-1914: John C. Cairns, edited by, university of Toronto 1965

An International History-Europe Since 1870—The New Balance of Power, Social Change and Social Reform: Jool James

Science and the 'Second' Industrial Revolution:http://www.horuspublications.com/guide/sl103.html.

Imperialism: Hans-Ulrich Wehler, berlin and cologne,1970

The Second Industrial Revolution--Germany:http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob49.html.

An Introduction To Contemporary History: Geoffrey Barraclough

Science and the 'Second' Industrial Revolution: http://www.horuspublications.com/guide/sl103.html.

The Second Industrial Revolution--Germany: http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob49.html.

An Introduction To Contemporary History: Geoffrey Barraclough

Imperialism: Hans-Ulrich Wehler, berlin and cologne,1970

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2nd of May 2012

This essay is basic and lacks structure and argument. It contains some useful content but it is not ordered well enough to make a persuasive argument, and would need rewriting. The basic content is sound and shows the student has made an effort to understand the topic. 3 stars.

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