CLASA a XII-a

MATEMATICA INFORMATICA INTENSIV ENGLEZA

LUCRARE

DE

ATESTAT

Profesor coordonator,

Elev,

Table of contents
1.Argument......................................................................3
1

2. The beginning .4
3. Population and lifestyle...4
4.Significant changes.....6
4.1.Iron and Coal..6
4.1.1.The coal industry....6
4.1.2.The new iron industry.6
4.2.Steam...6
4.3.The textile industry....7
4.4.Factory conditions..7
4.5.Roads and canals8
4.6.The railway age...8
4.7.Agricultural revolution..8
5.Social effects of industrialization...9
6. Bibliography..14

1. Argument
The Industrial Revolution was an extremely significant period for the entire humanity, from
1750 to 1850 where changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and
technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times. It
began in the United Kingdom, then subsequently spread throughout Western Europe, North
America, Japan, and eventually the rest of the world.
A defining characteristic of the Industrial Revolution is that it marks a major turning point in
history, almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. Most notably, average
income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. In the two centuries
following 1800, the world's average per capita income increased over tenfold, while the world's
population increased over sixfold.
In addition, the application of steam power to the industrial processes of printing supported a
massive expansion of newspaper and popular book publishing, which reinforced rising literacy
and demands for mass political participation, the growth of modern industry from the late 18th
century onward led to massive urbanization and the rise of new great cities,

the life

expectancy of children increased dramatically, in this period, The Feminism appears, and the
world begin to thrive.
By choosing this theme, I tried to point out the benefit of The Industrial Revolution on Great
Britain, how it radically changed the world and our todays lives. I will let the following pages
describe my choice.

2. The beginning
The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain because social, political and legal conditions
were particularly favorable to change. Britain was in quite a unique position. At that time, it was
the only country in the world that had all the right ingredients in place for industrial growth to
take off. Firstly and most importantly, there was a rising population. Between 1750 and 1850, the
population of Britain had more than doubled. This created a demand for goods, which in turn
stimulated growth and provided a labour force. Population growth was not unique to Britain at
that time, but it was the country in the best position to meet its demands. Britain had ready access
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to all the raw materials it required, such as wood for charcoal, coal, iron ore, wool, and cotton
.Britain was also at war with France; this in itself created an extra demand for goods, but it also
taught Britain to be self-sufficient. Cut off from the rest of Europe by Napoleon, Britain had to
look for other trade routes. Its citizens also had to learn how to manufacture many of the goods
they needed themselves, as they could no longer purchase them from their neighbours, thereby
forcing the introduction and development of new ideas. Britain also had the people to exploit
these resources through their innovative new industrialists. Many were non-conformists, isolated
from the rest of society and unable to enter fields like politics, so they chose to shine through
business and industry. The British Government at the time was purposefully laissez-faire towards
business, allowing it to develop by itself, making Britain arguably freer to develop than most
countries, enabling the new industrialists to prosper. Agrarian Revolution Change and
development is continious in the history of any nation .In some conditions development Is so
slow that the pattern of society barely seems to change in the course of centuries.At other times
Circumstances combine to alter social and economic life so rapidly that the change can be noted
in the Life of an individual. After centuries of comparatively slow development in Britain, from
the middle of The 18th century, became involved in a series of rapid agrarian and industrial
changes which both to Contemporaries and to after generations appeared revolutionary. The
opening of the USA guaranteed plentiful cotton as a new and cheap material. The various
inventions like the spinning jenny, the steam engine or the water powered wheels were very
important for the industrial revolution. Technological inventions made it easier to start a mass
production of iron or cotton cloth. These components led Britain to the Industrial revolution.The
factors which brought about the greatest changes in the existing system were the adoption of new
Farming techniques, machines and methods, the enclosure of open fields and the growing
population.

3.Population and lifestyle

The Industrial Revolution was one of the most dramatic changes in English society. These changes
affected lifestyle, working conditions and government. As a consequence of the Industrial Revolution,
Britain became one of the most important trading nations in the world and developed from a rather rural
nation into a powerful, modernized and comparatively wealthy country.

At the beginning of the 18 th century, about 6 million people lived in Britain and Wales. There were
just
three cities (urban areas), which were important in those days due to their size: London (about 500 000
inhabitants), Bristol and Norwich (slightly more than 20 000). Most people earned a living by working in
agriculture, using long established farming methods, or by manufacturing goods at their homes in small
quantities. (so-called domestic system). Typical goods that were produced in the domestic system were
cloth and clothes by spinning and weaving. Most people lived in small villages and bought goods at
thelocal market.
As a result of the rapidly increasing population of Britain in the late 18 th and early 19 th century, this
established system could no longer be maintained. In 100 years, the population of Britain and Wales
virtually tripled from 6 million people in 1750 to more than 18 million in 1850. This change in population
was due to two reasons: an increasing birth rate and a simultaneous decrease in the number of deaths for a
variety of reasons: plagues had been eliminated by improvements on the medical sector, the use of
vaccinations against several diseases such as smallpox, as well as better personal cleanliness. New clothes
made of cotton, which could easily be washed and were therefore more hygienic, replaced more and more
the traditional woollen clothes. The diet of ordinary people improved, as food became cheaper after the
agricultural revolution.
More young people survived as a consequence of the fallen death rate and improved living conditions to
have children themselves. Couples married at a younger age and had more children than before. This led
to an increase in new born children. Children also had a better nutrition, as diet generally improved. The
latter was a reason for the decline in the child mortality rate.
The reforms on the agricultural sector, as well as more food being imported from abroad, prevented the
British from a famine,industrial changes in the course of the Industrial Revolution prevented general
poverty of a whole nation.
In 1851, more than 500 000 people lived in urban areas. As the towns grew rapidly as a consequence of
urbanization (people needed to live close to their working place), this development resulted in slums and
bad living conditions for the people.
Although cleanliness improved a lot when people became aware that there is a connection between
personal cleanliness and health, living conditions in industrial towns were poor for a lack of proper
sewage systems and fresh water supplies.
The new towns were nearly unplanned, as the main goal of the authorities was to build as many homes as
possible in a short period of time. The majority of the houses was cheaply built and offered little comfort
to the inhabitants. Some industrialists and factory owners even built their own blocks, in which they
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accommodated their workers.

Yet, until the beginning of the 19 th century, government refused to intervene and do projects to improve
living conditions in those new industrial towns. This governmental inactivity was called the laissez-faire
(fr. Let them do) policy. Conditions such as these were degrading to the people and soon criminality and
social

discontent arose.

Diseases and infections spread at an unknown speed due to the fact that many people lived in the same
area and because of the little regard for hygiene among the people.
Later in the mid-1800s, government began to take some measures to improve living conditions in
industrial towns. As more and more people and politicians
became aware of the poor living conditions in industrial towns, they formed the Central Board of Health,
a governmental organization, which tried to observe and improve living conditions of the poor people.
However, people of the upper class, who financed this project with their taxes, were concerned that this
reform would be too expensive.
The growing population of Britain and Wales was one major cause of industrialization, as it provided
workers for industry as well as consumers buying the bigger quantity of manufactured goods. Especially
people who were better off (e.g. factory owners) earned a lot of money, which they could now spend on
manufactured goods.

4. Significant changes:
The Industrial Revolution was a revolution which included the change of industrial methods of
productivity. Its most significant issue was the development of new inventions their fast
spreading. Moreover, it was a drastic transformation from work done by hand to work done by
machine and it also changed the system of production: from the domestic to the factory system.
4.1.Iron and Coal:
A major breakthrough in the use of coal occurred in 1709 at Coalbrookedale in the valley of the
Severn River. There English industrialist Abraham Darby successfully used coke high-carbon,
converted form of coal to produce iron from iron ore. Using coke eliminated the need for
charcoal, a more expensive, less efficient fuel. Metal makers thereafter discovered ways of using
coal and coke to speed the production of raw iron, bar iron, and other metals. These advances in
metalworking were an important part of industrialization. They enabled iron, which was
relatively inexpensive and abundant, to be used in many new ways, such as building heavy
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machinery. Iron was well suited for heavy machinery because of its strength and durability.
Because of these new developments iron came to be used in machinery for many industries.
4.1.1.The coal industry
Coal was the essential source of power for the Industrial Revolution. Coal was needed to heat the steam
engines, steamships, railways and also the increasing number of homes. There had to be serious technical
problems to be handled although there were large deposits of coal. Flooding became a major problem as
the coal mines got deeper. This problem was solved by using a steam- powered pumping- engine. Mines
were also prone to build- ups of poisonous and explosive gases. To solve that problem ventilation shafts
were dug. With the invention of the safety lamp in 1815 the problem of the methane gas and the workers
who had to work there by candle light was solved. A steam powered winding gear solved the problem of
transport from the deep to surface. The conditions in the mines were grim and also dangerous. It is
estimated that in the 1840 five out of thousand workers were killed accidentally.
4.1.2.The new iron industry
For centuries iron had been smelted by using charcoal. Charcoal is a kind of burnt wood. Because of the
growing wood shortage it was even more difficult to get charcoal. In 1709 Abraham Darby tried to melt
iron by using coke, which was produced from coal. This new invention was a breakthrough and very
important for the industrial revolution. It became clear, that is was more useful to produce factory
machines
out of iron instead of wood. Henry Cort devised the puddling process which made it possible to
manufacture purer iron in 1784. The new trend was to produce cheap iron. A new dramatic breakthrough
was the fist iron bridge across the River Seven constructed by Abraham Darby III in 1779. For that
Coalbrookdale pots and pans became world famous.

4.2.Steam :
If iron was the key metal of the Industrial Revolution, the steam engine was perhaps the most
important machine technology. Inventions and improvements in the use of steam for power began
prior to the 18th century, as they had with iron. As early as 1689, English engineer Thomas
Savery created a steam engine to pump water from mines. Thomas Newcomen, another English
engineer, developed an improved version by 1712. Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer
James Watt made the most significant improvements, allowing the steam engine to be used in
many industrial settings, not just in mining. Early mills had run successfully with water power,
but the advancement of using the steam engine meant that a factory could be located anywhere,
not just close to water. In 1775 Watt formed an engine-building and engineering partnership with
manufacturer Matthew Boulton. This partnership became one of the most important businesses of
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the Industrial Revolution. Boulton & Watt served as a kind of creative technical center for much
of the British economy. Soon important industrialists had installed this new rotary steam engine
the pioneers were Richard Arkwright, John Wilkinson and Josiah Wedgwood. Many factories
continued to use wind- and water power because of the high costs for installing steam- engines. A
steam machine cost in the eighteenth century about 60,000 pounds a great deal of money for this
times.
They solved technical problems and spread the solutions to other companies. Similar firms did
the same thing in other industries and were especially important in the machine tool industry.
This type of interaction between companies was important because it reduced the amount of
research time and expense that each business had to spend working with its own resources. The
technological advances of the Industrial Revolution happened more quickly because firms often
shared information, which they then could use to create new techniques or products. Like iron
production, steam engines found many uses in a variety of other industries, including steamboats
and railroads. Steam engines are another example of how some changes brought by
industrialization led to even more changes in other areas.
4.3.The textile industry
Even long before the Industrial Revolution took place, Britain had a long established textile industry. In
many parts of the country woollen cloth had been manufactured for centuries in the domestic system. The
family worked together spinning and weaving to produce cloth. During the eighteenth century there were
enormous changes in the textile industry. Along the woollen industry a new industry grew up, making
cotton cloth. The raw cotton from the colonies in India and North America were cheap an in plentiful
supply. This new industrial branch had advantages over the woollen one. The cotton was easier to wash
and therefore more hygienic and even more comfortable to wear and it was lighter. In the eighteen
century, there were a number of helpful inventions that made it possible to produce cotton cloth more
quickly than the woollen one.
Here is a number of these helpful inventions who led to a huge increase in the cotton production:

James Hargreaves invented a spinning jenny in 1764. This machine was able to spin up to
120
threads at the same time.

In 1769 Richard Arkwright invented a water- frame spinning machine. This machine was
driven by water power, because of that it could be only used in factories. In 1775 Arkwright
in vented a carding machine which combed out the fibres of the cotton.
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Samuel Comptons spinning mule, invented in 1779 could produce finer stronger threads.
In 1785 Edward Cartwright invented a power loom it was similar to Richard Arkwrights
water frame spinning machine but it could be also powered by a steam engine or a water
wheel.
With these inventions it was easier and more economical to produce but cloth was not more produced in

peoples homes but in large factories. This fact signed the end of the domestic system of producing cloth
people now worked in the factories. The fonder of the factory system was Richard Arkwright. The first
water- powered cotton mill was built in 1771 at Cromford, Derbyshire. Encouraged by this a cotton
industry at Lancashire was built. Because of the closeness to the port of Liverpool it was easy to ship the
goods.
4.4.Factory conditions:
The introduction of the factory system led to enormous changes in peoples lives. The number of
children
workers were extremely high. By the year 1839 there were 192,887 under eighteen workers. Children and
adults had to work under extremely harsh and unfriendly conditions often for long hours normally for
about 14 hours per day because there were no laws which regulate the working times and conditions at
this time. There was a brutal factory discipline. The factory owners enforced strict rules and for those
people who did not follow them they levied fines. Workers could hardly improve their working conditions
because trade unions were weak or illegal.
The hygienic conditions in the factories were very poor, the ventilation was poor and especially the
cotton mills were often damp. During the Industrial Revolution the factory wages were better than those in
agriculture. Out of these factors a new social class developed, the industrial working class.
4.5.Roads and canals
The final developments were made in transport Between the period of 1760 and 1810 canals were built ,
macadamised roads and railways from 1825.The transport for raw materials and finished goods was a
serious problem for the industrialists. They had some improvements in the conditions of the roads James
Brindleys successful construction of a canal from the coal mines of Worsley to Manchester was a
successful breakthrough. There was created a Grand Cross scheme which linked the four great ports of
The UK named Liverpool, London, Bristol and Hull. This Grand Cross was finally completed in 1793.
They also tried to make more rivers navigable and constructed a quite good canal network.
These canals were ideal to transport bulky goods. The pottery industry flourished with the use of canals to
transport there fragile products.

The canal era was short it lasted only from 1760 to 1830, but it was very important to the industrial
growth. But Canals had also some disadvantages because they might freeze over in winter and they might
dry up in summer.
4.6. The railway age
The first steam locomotive was named Catch Me-Who-Can and was presented at London in 1808.
The potential of the steam - locomotive was realized in 1825. Robert and George Stephenson built a
railway between Liverpool and Manchester. This railway opened in 1830. This success encouraged Robert
Stephenson to invest in railway construction. The bulk of the network was finished by the 1860s. With this
enormous invention it was a lot easier to travel or to transport goods. In 1848 W.H. Smith started to send
London newspapers to Scotland. The Railway Act signed in 1844 guaranteed a priced travel for the
working class. The railways created a social revolution. The middle class began to move out of the town
centres into new suburbs. In summer they were able to visit new holiday resorts. Also fresh food could be
transported easily.
4.7.Agricultural revolution

As farming became more profitable in the eighteen century farmers began to invest in new
equipment. . New farming techniques consisted of improvements in crop rotation , soil
fertilization and selective Breeding allied with the development of new machinery. As farming
became more profitable in the eighteen century farmers began to invest in new equipment.The
wars with France boosted profits and investment in agriculture.
New machines such as the seeding drill invented in 1701 came on the market. The four year crop
rotation
was invented. This crop rotation said that on two fields turnips and clover were cultivated, which
could be
fed to the animals. Robert Bakewell began to improve the weight of the animals by selective
breeding.
This system allowed only the fittest and biggest animals to mate with each other. The price of
meat fell so
that more people could afford it. These changes in faring are often revered as the agricultural
revolution.
However this change in farming was vital for the industrial changes. Finally, all this meant that
agriculture was able to sustain the increased demand for food caused by the growth in population,
while itself reaping some of the rewards of The Industrial Revolution.
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5. Social effects of industrialization:

Economy growth, a sudden increase in wealth and a capitalistic system led to a bigger gap
between rich and poor after the Industrial Revolution. On the one hand there were rich factory
owners in urban areas, farmers and landowners in the countryside who took advantage of the new
system, while others worked hard and earned little. The latter group included farmers who lost
their own land and now worked on larger farms for a rich landowner and factory workers, who
worked under poor conditions and earned just enough to be able to afford what they needed to
survive. The rich stated that this system was Gods will and mankind should not question
that.Until the beginning 1830s, only people of the upper class could gain political power and had the right
to
vote. However, things changed in 1834 with the Parliament Reform Act, which gave many middle-class
men the right to vote and to intervene in political decisions. Still, the lower-class wanted more political
rights and higher wages. Many better-off people were concerned that this discontent among the poor
would lead to envy and violence against them.
Critical minds also arose among the lower class people. Many revolutionists even published articles,
scripts and books in which they spread their social discontent. The workman is the source of all wealth
(...)yet, the labourer remains poor (...), while those who do not work are rich (...)! Two very prominent
examples of those radicalists were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels from Germany, who worked in
England and became aware of the social unfairness. They both were the founders of communism, which
arose as a consequence of their observation of British society. The main idea of communism, which was
the ideal way of ruling a country for many working-class people in those times, was that in all
industrialized countries the working class would re-order the social structure by overthrowing the
upper-class and thereby gain more importance, more rights, and have a say in political affairs.
At those times, women did not have the same rights as men had. If a woman had her own income, the
money automatically belonged to her husband. Women, who demanded greater equality, were criticized
by the society.
However, the position of women in society and the kind of work they did changed in the time of the
Industrial Revolution, although they still did not receive the same rights as men had. Factory owners
realized that certain jobs could be done by women (or even children) instead of men and that they could
be paid less in comparison to male employees. Some even stated that women are more easily induced to
undergo physical fatigue than men.
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So women started to work in factories and not just in domestic manufacturing in their homes. At times
of
high unemployment and bad economy, women were not seldom the sole wage earners.
Industrialization meant that for the first time in history a large number of women earned their own money
and could even afford a living on their own. So this revolution was the basis for equality and more social
and economical independence of women. At that time, women did not work hard for they wanted to
become independent, but out of the simple reason that their family needed the additional income to
survive.
Those, who were unable to work and thereby earn their living, such as the sick, the old and the
unemployed, had to seek assistance from the local parish. Poor people were given assistances according
tot he price of bread and the size of their family by the Speenhamland system. Unfortunately, this system
was quite expensive and people argued that it would induce the poor not to work but rely on assistances.
However, in reality factory owners started reducing the wages of their workers, relying on the fact that
they will gain assistances to uphold their lifestyle.
In 1834, the English parliament passed the Poor Law Amendment Act to reform the social system. With
this law, no longer the local parishes, but the central government was in charge of supporting the poor.
The Poor Law was strongly influenced by Edwin Chadwick, who wanted it to be as inexpensive for the
English society as possible. One principle of the new social system was the introduction of workhouses.
(in northern regions also called Bastilles) In order to receive any assistance, poor people had to leave their
homes to enter a workhouse. There they were forced to work for up to 12 hours a day under bad
conditions, virtually having no freedom at all. Working conditions in a workhouse should be that bad that
people would rather want to work in a factory among the poorest labourers outside.
Lower-class people were angered by this new law. Their discontent led to the formation of early trade
unions and several protest movements, such as the Chartists.
The middle- and upper-class believed that poor people were responsible for their fate themselves. Poor
people should rather search for the roots of their poverty than ask the government for help. For those
people, being poor was even seen as a disgrace.
As mentioned before, industrialization lead to a so-called split society. Some (only a small group of
people though) got very rich, the majority yet experienced poverty. This was caused by machines
replacing people in factories, which made work easier and more efficient. As a consequence, fewer
workers were needed to produce the same amount of goods, which led to a constantly rising
unemployment rate.
The working-class was discontent about their situation. The first outbreak of revolutionary turmoil was
in
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the course of the Napoleonic Wars, when harvest was poor and unemployment at a high level.
Unemployed skilled workers, who had lost their jobs started to form groups, broke into factories (most of
them broke into textile factories) and destroyed the new machines, as they were the cause of their misery.
One of these groups was called Luddites, named after the founder Ned Ludd. After several attacks in a
short period of time, the government then finally arrested 17 Luddites when they were just attacking a
mill. Some of them were hanged later, others sent to Australia.
In 1819, a peaceful demonstration of working-class men at St. Peters Field in Manchester was broken up
by the English cavalry. This action caused eleven casualties and hundreds of injured people. This event
was called the Peterloo Massacre.
After this incident, the English government introduced a new set of laws called the Six Acts.
With the Great Reform Act, the British political system was updated and made more equitable. In 1831,
only about 2% of the total population had the right to vote. Government acted friendly towards the needs
and the solicitations of landowning people. Middle-class men, who wanted to become a member of
parliament, had to invest their money, which they had earned from their industries, in land. The number of
representatives in parliament was still old fashioned in those days. Big industrial towns, like Sheffield and
Manchester had no representatives, as the majority of MPs represented the South of the land, where as a
consequence of the Industrial revolution nearly nobody lived (urbanization). . Another bad point about the
Industrial Revolution is that the living conditions also got worse after 1750. As many peoples jobs moved
into the towns and cities the people also ended up moving house with their jobs. The houses were built
very closely together in narrow streets. Lots of them were terraced houses. The houses were built very
closely together. Most of the houses didnt have a water supply. Some people went down to the nearest
river to collect their water, although this wasnt sufficient for drinking or washing. In some towns the water
was turned on for a certain amount of time each day, in Liverpool it was turned on for four hours. The
poor had to tap for it. Another bad thing was that there were no proper refuse collections. Rubbish was
thrown into the middle of the narrow streets along with sewage and all sorts of refuse. Some of the sewage
in towns such as London went down gutters into the rivers, along with dead bodies of animals and humans
which were also thrown in. This sounds bad enough but the place where this sort of thing was thrown was
very close to where people collected their water for washing and drinking.

The population rose very

quickly. Between 1801 and 1841 the population doubled from 10.5 million to 21 million. Industrial towns
grew even more quickly. Manchesters population rose from 75,000 to 450,000. Many towns grew so fast
that living conditions become worse. Some families lived in the cellars of houses. Some families managed
to fit about 9 people in one tiny cellar, and also a couple of pigs! The 1840 Report on the Health of Towns
recorded 39,000 people living in 8,000 one-room cellars under houses. These statistics show that living
conditions were very poor in the cities in the 1840s. Of course not everybody lived in city slums with
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overcrowded conditions and poor waste disposal, although the country cottages were often cold and damp.
Many children that were born died before they grew up. Cholera was the new killer disease at the time. It
came into Sunderland from abroad and was spread through the water supply. There were epidemics in
1832, 1838, 1848 and 1854. Thousands died from it. Seven thousand died of cholera in September 1849 in
London alone! There were also many more infectious diseases including typhoid, spread by lice and
tuberculosis, carried by bacteria in the air. There were no vaccinations or cures to these new diseases, so
nothing could be done but to let the children and other sufferers die. There was a lot of poverty and quite a
few homeless people.
Before the Industrial Revolution most families stayed at home for most of the day working, some even
spent their leisure time at home. During the Industrial Revolution, mainly in the late 19th century, there
was a growth in new entertainment. This was partly because of the working people who were beginning to
get more time off work. Another reason why so many people began to travel away from their home towns
and cities was because of the excellent railway network, with its cheap fares. This was ideal for travelling
easily and quickly all around the country. It became common for factory workers to be given the Saturday
afternoon off and in 1871 Bank Holidays were introduced. Many people visited their local pub and drank
heavily. Others discovered new forms of entertainment including day excursions, football matches, music
halls and circuses. Another very popular form of entertainment was the music halls. All of the major cities
had one, Birmingham and Liverpool had six each and London had 50. A variety of shows were on
including singers, comedians, magicians and acrobats. Another place that the whole family would enjoy
visiting was the circus. People could see amazing acts and things that they had never seen before. Some
famous circuses toured the whole of the country including the Barnum and Baileys circus. All of these
changes to entertainment that happened in the Industrial Revolution were good ones because they gave
people something to do in their spare time. They let people explore places that theyd never been before,
enjoy themselves with their family and friends and see unusual performances and shows, instead of
staying in their own town and not going out, apart from to their local pub. Also in the cities and towns a
lot of public facilities were built for the people including shops, libraries, public baths, music halls and
schools.
In the late 1830s, there was an enormous pressure on the government by the British population,
especially
by those, who lived in one of the industrial towns. There were even some demonstrations (the biggest was
a riot in Bristol), causing more than 20 deaths altogether, until things finally changed.
The Great Reform Act was passed one year after the riot in Bristol, namely in 1832. With this act,
representation in parliament was only given to big towns, no longer to small boroughs. Still, most of the
people, except for the middle class which got the right to vote with this act, were excluded from this right.
14

That was the reason why the Great Reform Act was not a big success. Working-class people had the
feeling of unfair treatment and these emotions contributed to the popularity of the Chartist movement a
few years later.
Since the beginning of the 19

th

century, government had banned trade unions (by the Combination

Acts),
which are organizations that protect and maintain the rights of the working-class. Those unions also
defend workers against unfair treatment by their employers and often demand for better wages, what a
single person could never do without taking the risk of being fired. Trade unions could do so, as
employers feared that if they did not react to the demands of trade unions, great strikes would be the
consequence.
In 1824 however, the mentioned law was abolished by the government and soon after this action,
several
smaller trade unions were formed. At the beginning they hardly ever took successful strike-actions, until
the first bigger trade union, the Grand National Consolidated Tades Union was formed by the mill owner
Robert Owen in 1834. Only a few weeks after it was founded, more than half a million people had joined.
Regarding this impressive number and the short period of time, the GNCTU was too big and too powerful
to be defeated by employers or the government.
Although it was legal to form trade unions, government feared the newly found GNCTU. They looked
for a way to crush this union and in the end they prosecuted members of trade unions for it was illegal to
take unlawful oaths (which every trade unionist had to in order to join this association).
As a consequence of several trails and sentences against trade union members of the GNCTU, this
alliance started to break up during the following years. Internal disagreements and a lack of money for
further
projects also caused the rather quick decline of trade unions at the end of the 1830s. People realized that
they had to find another way out of their misery instead of just forming trade unions.
Chartism was one reaction of working-class people, who were highly disappointed by the Reform Act and
the brutal Poor Law, in order to improve their situation. After the failure of the GNCTU, people joined the
Chartist group, which was the first working-class men association to demand for political power and the
right for working-class people to represent their society in parliament.
The Chartist program contained the following major issues:

Everybody, older than 21 should have the right to vote and voting should be secret
MPs should earn money for fulfilling their duty
MPs should come from all social levels and no social class should have a higher percentage of

MPsin government. The House of Common should really represent the poor peoples demands.
One should be able to become an MP, even if the person does not have any property (land)
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The Chartists presented two huge petitions to parliament in 1839 and in 1842, which both were rejected.
Following their slogan peacefully if we may, forcibly if we must, some Chartists reacted with violence
after the first parliamentary rejection. The massive turmoil that followed in Newport and South Wales
caused far more than 20 deaths.
Chartism is considered to be one big step towards democracy in the 19 th century. But like trade unions,
this movement lost its momentum after some years.
It was in April 1848 when the Chartists wanted to hold their biggest demonstration, which actually
turned
out to be very unsuccessful in the end. Instead of the estimated 500 000 people, just 20 000 Chartists took
part and only 2 instead of 6 million signatures for the third petition, which they wanted to present to
parliament, had been collected. After this failure, the Chartist group continually broke apart until it was
finally dissolved.
However, all those movements had an effect on the working conditions of people. During the 19

th

century, no laws were passed to regulate working hours, as this would interfere with the liberty of
employers and workers to negotiate about working hours and wages. Still, people felt that women and
children should be protected by law. Three major acts were passed in 1833, 1844 and 1847. The fist two
regulated that no children under the age of nine should be allowed to work and that children younger than
13 must not work more than 6.5 hours per day, while women were not allowed to work more than 12
hours. The third act, called the Ten-Hours-Act finally limited the working hours of women and young
people to 10 hours per day. With this act, it became also illegal to employ children and women for
working in mines. To be able to check the age of children and young people, registration of births was
made compulsory in 1836.
Not everybody appreciated these new restrictions. Women lost income, factory owners claimed that this
would make then unable to compete with foreign factories.

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6.Bibliography :
1.

www.wikipedia.com

2.

www.studentie.ro

3.

www.pausenhof.com

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