The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution marked an incredible period of change in the world.   The sudden explosion of new technologies turned Europe’s economy upside down.   New inventions such as steam power and the spinning jenny brought in a whole new level of production to the manufacturing world.   Where once tens of men might be needed for a job, now machines could replace them doing the same amount of work in half of the time.   Business owners could revel in the fact that with technology under them production skyrocketed allowing levels of profit never before possible.   For business owners the Industrial Revolution was truly a period of heightened possibilities.   However, as much as the Industrial Revolution favored the businesses’ owners, it equally ailed its workers.   Many of this era, found themselves within brutal situations.   They were left unable to provide either for themselves or their families.     This precarious new condition of the working class would become a philosophical driving force, creating a radically new Socialist ideology.
During the Industrial Revolution, two main classes emerged: the middle and working class.   Synonymous titles for the two classes would be the winners and the losers of the Industrial Revolution.   Technology brought power and riches to the middle classes, yet took away everything from the working class.   As more machines began appearing within factories in Europe, workers began to find they were becoming expendable.   Unable to compete with mass-producing machines, workers were left to take jobs operating them.   However, machines didn’t require many workers and there were definitely not as many machines as there were workers.   “Upon a moderate computation twelve men are thrown out of employ for every single machine used in scribbling.”(Harrison Rogers pg 206)   Thus, the demand for workers greatly decreased and along with it so did the working classes defense against the Proletariat.
Conditions for the newly unemployed...