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Although industrialization began in Europe in the late eighteenth century, it was not until the close of the Napoleonic era that the full impact of the Industrial Revolution became apparent. By 1850, industrialization had permeated Europe from Britain to eastern Europe. The process created many new uncertainties and fears for all classes. The nature of the factory system coupled with the ever-expanding railroad networks nurtured a wholly new social existence. The middle classes were not only major contributors to the industrial revolution, they were also its prime beneficiaries. Rapid urbanization outstripped any planning that might have alleviated its damaging effects. Despite the obvious abuses illustrated in countless volumes of social criticism, the process continued unabated. The European labor force was drawn to urban factories by need and curiosity. The factory system cheapened the labor value of workers and artisans alike through the process of proletarianization. Changes in work methods began to affect the traditional family structure, altering the position of children and ushering in more sharply defined gender roles for labor. The classical economists, taking their lead from Adam Smith’s work, sought to explain the phenomena of industrialization in terms of natural, and therefore unalterable, processes. By the middle of the century, concepts of liberalism, socialism, and nationalism were being widely discussed among intellectuals and students. The growing middle classes of Europe were achieving a social and political status undreamed of a half-century earlier. Utopian socialists called for varying degrees of governmental intervention or encouraged the establishment of separate communal-like societies. In Marx’s lifetime, his ideas of proletarian triumph, a classless society, and a better future competed with many other socialist theories of the mid-nineteenth century. By 1848, new demands had been made on behalf of both the middle and working classes, and a series of revolutions swept the continent in that year. The revolutions of 1848 were a culmination of the ideas associated with the French Revolution and developments in European life since the settlement at Vienna in 1815. The revolutions of 1848 demonstrated to both liberals and conservatives that serious economic, social, and political problems must be resolved. At the same time, it became clear that the conservative order still had a great deal of strength left. Effective responses to many of Europe's problems would commence only in the second half of the century. After reading this chapter you should understand:
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