Cooperation Between Citizens at The Beginning of Industrialization

No matter where a person lives, conflicts will inform what is important to the citizens, while cooperation or the lack of cooperation will tell how the country will progress. Wherever there are two people, groups, or countries debating a subject there is always room for disagreement. This is important to the process of fixing a conflict. One example of this can be seen in the 19th and early 20th century in Great Britain. During this time many economic, social, and political issues came up.

What was found was if people are unwilling to cooperate then more issues will get stirred up and the problems get bigger and can lead to fighting. When there was a willingness to compromise, positive changes were allowed to occur. Conflict and cooperation among citizens during the beginning of Industrialization caused Great Britain to experience a lot of economic, social, and political changes in the 19th and early 20th centuries as working-class citizenship changed and expanded.

The economy of Great Britain was forever changed with the introduction of Industrialization.

There was less dependence on agricultural work and now there were more machines to get work done faster. During this time, “Production shifted from simple hand tools to complex machines, and sources of energy shifted from human and animal power to steam and, later, electricity.” (Ellis, 496) Industrialization provided more job opportunities for potential workers. As more people were working, their way of life changed because they were getting more money. This allowed some citizens to afford things that they were not necessarily used to such as different places to live, having larger families with more children, and the ability to buy manufactured goods.

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While these new opportunities changed Great Britain’s economy, not all of the change was beneficial. “Some individuals became very wealthy, but some lived in horrible conditions. A class of prosperous industrialists, ship owners and merchants dominated, accumulating great wealth, but at the same time the working classes had to live with minimum comforts in overcrowded environments.” (Manolopoulou, 3) As the gap in wealth increased throughout Great Britain, it caused conflict between citizens of different classes.

The 19th century was a time of rapid change not only in Great Britain’s economy but also in the social lives of its citizens. In 1807, Great Britain made the decision to abolish slavery. However, this was not widely followed throughout the country so it was decided to follow it up in 1833 when “Parliament passed a law banning slavery in all British colonies.” (Ellis, 565) With no more slaves to do free work, Great Britain was forced to look to new places to find workers. The promise of better wages and lifestyle caused large groups of people to move to larger cities in search of new jobs. This fact mixed with, the beginning of Industrialization, led to the need for women and children to become a larger part of the workforce. The new working arrangements did cause the working class to expand and led to some major life improvements for a great number of citizens.

Rather than spending all their time in rural farm towns, people were moving to the city and were able to spend more time exploring what they enjoyed doing for fun. But the cost of these improvements often came at the expense of workplace safety and long hours on the job. “Children were sent to work in factories, where they were exploited and ill-treated; women experienced substantial changes in their lifestyle as they took jobs in domestic service and the textile industries, leaving the agricultural workforce and spending less time in the family home.” (Manolopoulou, 3) Unsafe conditions were not all that was upsetting workers. Despite the fact that the middle class was growing, the wealth gap among the wealthy and poor citizens was getting larger. Something needed to be done to ease the tensions between the workers and the wealthy owners of businesses. However, in reality the workers, especially the women and children, did not have many rights and they really needed support from the government to help them.

The government, however, was not very willing to help them, because they were mostly under the control of one branch of the parliament. “The House of Lords were hereditary nobles and high-ranking clergy in the Church of England. They had the right to veto any bill passed by the House of Commons.” The House of Commons was the part of parliament that was made up of the middle class. When they tried to pass bills to make things better for the middle and working classes they were often rejected. As can be expected, this led to major issues between the government and the citizens. Things began to change in 1832 when the Great Reform Act was passed. This allowed more representation to large cities and also granted the right to vote to more men. The government then continued to show their understanding of people in the society wanting change by forming groups to improve conditions throughout British society.

The Boer War proved to give the Government some insight into the lives of their more poor citizens. “During the Boer War the medical condition of the working-class recruits was a cause of grave concern and more attempts were made to improve the nation’s health.” (Tonge) After a more Liberal parliament was elected in the early 20th century there were a number of improvements made to improve the quality of life for the working class. “A basic social welfare service had been created which greatly improved the conditions for poorer people in British society. To pay for this social reform the Liberals increased the taxes on the rich.” (Tonge) The House of Lords was not happy about the changes that were occurring. “These reforms were resisted by the Conservative-dominated House of Lords. The crisis caused by their rejection of the 1909 budget led to the Parliament Act that ended the veto of the House of Lords.” (Tonge) This was a major change in the British government and a big win for the working classes.

As could be seen in Great Britain, clashes between differing groups helped them to realize the concerns among citizens. As times were changing, conflict was often a big part of people’s lives in the 1800s to the early 1900s. Even when things like Industrialization were established, the idea was that it was going to make things more prosperous for everyone. But sometimes when people try something to help others they don’t end up helping as planned. Things might be beneficial compared to their situation beforehand but it wasn’t necessarily better. In this case, when industrialization was created it helped people to create a different lifestyle for themselves, however, for many poor working-class people they were unable to attain this goal due to the bad conditions they lived and worked in. The Boer Wars and increasing pressure from the working classes led to more positive social and political reform. Work still needed to be done, but many steps had been taken to try and improve life for all citizens of Great Britain.