Industrial Revolution Dbq

During the Industrial Revolution, it was not only a time of change for the economy, but also for many towns and villages in England. What was once a respectably sized village in the late eighteenth century turned into the bustling city of Manchester during the nineteenth century. Although the revolution saw the country pushed forth into a new era of productivity, it spelled horror for the working class. Issues in Manchester were rampant, such as the deplorable living conditions, the working man being squashed beneath the iron heel of the businessmen, the decline of religion, and pollution of the once great country. This yielded several reactions from various sources, including that of scholars who smelled socialism on the rise, the creation

This would lead to the rise of men in several countries, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Eugene V. Debs, Che Guevara, and Mao Zedong to fight for the common man and bring down the capitalistic nature of many nations. One example of a lesser known “revolutionary” was Flora Tristen, a French woman who pleaded the case of socialism in her journals. In them, she describes how many citizens cannot identify with the factory workers if they have never been there, and how they lack even the most basic necessities (Doc 6). She also states how the influence of drink is high while food is low, which essentially turns them into emaciated savages who have to scrape their next meal off the sidewalk, and laments at how humans only take advantage of one another (Doc 6). Despite the fact that many people lost limbs or died prematurely due to the lack of public sanitation works and poor living conditions, the Industrial Revolution did have an upside. It was a time when inventors pushed the boundaries of the known world, and arguably developed some of the most influential technology of the time. Inventions like the steam engine and the water frame and