MEPX
Chapter 2 of 10All chapters
  1. 1The age of revolutions
  2. 2Industrial society
  3. 3Empire and nationalism
  4. 4The First World War
  5. 5Between the wars
  6. 6The Second World War
  7. 7Building a new order
  8. 8The Cold War
  9. 9Decolonisation and civil rights
  10. 10Since 1991

Chapter 2 of 10

Industrial society

Factories and cities.

The transformation

Steam, coal and mechanised production raised output enormously while moving populations into cities that were unprepared for them.

  • Sanitation reform followed cholera epidemics, not planning.
  • Trade unions and factory laws emerged from conditions in the new industries.

Uneven spread

Industrialisation reached Britain first, then continental Europe, the United States and Japan, while much of the world was reorganised as supplier of raw materials.