Transcript 2nd Industrial Rev.Chapter 9 Section 2

The Industrial Revolution
City Life
Medicine and Population
• Due to the declining death rate, the population of
Europe more than doubled between 1800 and
1900. This was partially due to medical
advances and better sanitation.
• Since the 1600s, scientists had speculated that
certain microbes, or microscopic organisms
might cause infectious diseases. Most scientists
laughed at the germ theory, but in 1870, Louis
Pasteur proved the theory conclusively. He
went on to develop vaccines against rabies and
anthrax. He also developed the process of
pasteurization, a way of killing disease-carrying
microbes in milk.
• In the 1880s, Dr. Robert Koch identified the
bacteria that caused tuberculosis, a disease that
killed about 30 million people during the 1880s.
However, a cure was not discovered for another
50 years.
• By 1914, scientists had discovered that diseases
such as malaria and yellow fever were carried
by mosquitoes.
• As people began to understand how germs
caused disease, they began to bathe and
change their clothes more often. Better
sanitation caused the death rate to drop even
more.
• With the invention of anesthetics in the 1840s,
doctors were able to experiment with operations
that had never before been possible.
• Hospitals were still very dangerous places. Often,
patients who survived operations died a few days later
from infections caused by dirty instruments and
operating rooms.
• Middle and upper class patients often insisted on
treatment at home, but the poor had no choice.
• Florence Nightingale was a nursing pioneer. She said,
“The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should
do the sick no harm.” As an army nurse, she insisted on
better hygiene in field hospitals. As a civilian, she
introduced sanitary measures in British hospitals, and
founded the first nursing school.
• Joseph Lister was an English surgeon who discovered
that antiseptics prevented infection. He insisted that
surgeons wash their hands before operations and
sterilize their instruments.
• Eventually, deaths from infection began to decrease.
The Life of the Cities
• Growing wealth and industrialization altered the
layout of cities, as city planners began to create
new squares and boulevards. The city of Paris
began a program of urban renewal, or rebuilding
the poor areas of the city, in the 1850s. The
tangled medieval streets full of tenement houses
were destroyed and replaced with wide
boulevards and splendid public buildings. The
project put people to work, decreasing unrest
among the poor.
• Eventually, the rich moved to the outskirts of
cities, while the poor lived in the center, near the
factories. Trolleys made it possible to live in one
part of the city and work in another.
• Paved streets and street lights made cities safer.
Cities organized police forces and increased fire
protection.
• Sewage systems helped to cut death rates, as
they reduced the spread of cholera and
tuberculosis.
• By 1900, architects were using steel to construct
massive buildings. The Eiffel Tower became the
symbol of Paris. Skyscrapers began to reshape
the skylines of modern cities, and middle class
families began to live in multistory apartment
buildings rather than single family homes.
• Despite the improvements to city life,
urban life was still quite harsh for the poor.
Most lived in small, cramped row houses
or tenements.
• In the worst tenements, entire families
lived in one room. Unemployment or
illness caused a loss in wages that could
ruin a family. Alcoholism and crime were
major problems.
• Despite the drawbacks, the cities attracted
millions of people. They were exciting
places to live or visit. Music halls, opera
houses, theaters, museums, libraries, and
sports events drew citizens of all classes.
Working-Class Struggles
• Workers tried to improve the harsh conditions of
industrial life. They protested low wages, long
hours, unsafe conditions, and the threat of
unemployment. At first, business owners and
governments tried to stop protests by banning
labor unions and strikes, but by the mid-century,
workers were making progress.
• Workers formed mutual-aid societies, or selfhelp groups to aid sick or injured workers. Men
and women joined socialist parties or labor
unions.
• By the late 1800s, most Western countries had granted
all men the right to vote. Workers also had the right to
organize unions in many nations.
• Labor unions provided the necessary pressure to get
governments to pass laws to regulate working
conditions. Over time, child labor was banned, and
women were no longer allowed to work in mines.
• Laws regarding long working hours were also passed.
By 1909, British coal-miners only had to work an 8-hour
day. This set a standard for many other fields.
• Overall, reform efforts did cause the standard of living for
workers to rise. The standard of living measures the
quality and availability of necessities and comforts in a
society. Families ate more varied diets, lived in better
homes, and wore mass-produced clothing. Advances in
medicine improved health. Eventually, some workers
were able to move to the suburbs.