Urban Life During the Second Industrial Revolution
The trend towards densely populated urban centers begun in 1800's continued into the 1900's. Man's development of urban centers was a major step away from what seemed to be nature's way of living: on farms and sparsely placed homesteads. Industrial production required hundreds of thousands of workers and, especially in the second industrial revolution, scientists. The urban centers that emerged during this period, such as Paris, London, and Berlin, were quickly changing the ratios of population from rural to urban Berlin's population, for example, went from 66% rural in 1871 to almost 66% urban before the first World War (see "The Second Industrial Revolution").
With the influx of people to urban centers came the increasingly obvious problem of city layouts. The crowded streets which were, in some cases, the same paths as had been "naturally selected" by wandering cows in the past were barely passing for the streets of a quarter million commuters. In 1853, Napoleon III named Georges Haussmann "prefect of the Seine," and put him in charge of redeveloping Paris' woefully inadequate infrastructure (Kagan, The Western Heritage Vol. II, pp. 564-565). This was the first and biggest example of city planning to fulfill industrial needs that existed in Western Europe. Paris' narrow alleys and apparently random placement of intersections were transformed into wide streets and curving turnabouts that freed up congestion and aided in public transportation for the scientists and workers of the time. Man was no longer dependent on the natural layout of cities; form was beginning to follow function. Suburbs, for example, were springing up around major cities. This housing arrangem...
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...tion from their peers (Kagan, p. 564).
So the natural layout of large urban centers eventually gave way to a structured, logically designed cities near the turn of the century. With the help of industrial products such as steel and concrete, new forms were being used to maximize utility in crowded urban areas. Sanitation reform was underway to combat the natural forces of disease and other health hazards, and science was beginning to find the origins of disease and decay. All these developments show mankind taking a less natural approach to society, and bending nature to its will.
Other Sources:
Kagan, Ozment, & Turner. The Western Heritage Vol. II. Prentice Hall, 1996
Pacey, Arnold. Technology in World Civilization. MIT Press, 1991
Kranzberg, Arnold and Carroll W. Pursell Jr. Technology in Western Civilization. Oxford University Press, 1967
Jackson J. Spielvogel, Western Civilization: Volume I: To 1715, 8th Edition, (Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2012), 301.
While the growth of the urban population led to new technological and industrial developments, it also produced penury, congestion, pollution, fatal disease, and tremendous fires. One of the most important problems that arose from this growth, however, was the absence of a legitimate urban government. Political, or urban, machines filled this void, and through patronage and graft secured votes from as many people as possible for their respective parties4. Immigrants were usually the easiest targets because they frequently did not speak much English, but more im...
Jackson J. Spielvogel, Western Civilization: Volume I: To 1715, 8th Edition, (Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2012), 90.
Stearns, Harold E. Civilization in the United States. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Company, 1922.
3. Jackson J. Spielvogel. Western Civilization Third Edition, A Brief History volume 1: to 1715. 2005 Belmont CA. Wadsworth Publishing
The Second Industrial Revolution took place between 1870 and 1914, beginning as Ulysses S. Grant entered the presidential office and coming to a close in Woodrow Wilson’s first term. While the (first) Industrial Revolution in America is often considered as one of the most fruitful and dense in innovations in history, the following decades brought innumerable technological advancements, improving the many recently created materials and machines. Scientists made great progress in developing steel, the use of internal combustion engines skyrocketed, networks to transmit electricity were produced for the first time, and the introduction of interchangeable parts revolutionized the system of mass production. During these years, advancements were
Hollar, Sherman. Pioneers of the Industrial Age: Breakthroughs in Technology. New York: Britannica Educational Pub. in Association with Rosen Educational Services, 2013. Web.
American towns industrialized all throughout the nineteenth century, irresistible ailments developed as a genuine danger. The presentation of new workers and the development of vast urban zones permitted already confined sicknesses to spread rapidly and contaminate larger populations. As industrialization occurred, towns developed into cities, and people relocated to them. The expanded interest for shoddy lodging by urban vagrants prompted ineffectively assembled homes that poorly accommodated individual cleanliness. Outside laborers in the nineteenth century frequently lived in cramped dwellings that consistently lacked fundamental comforts, for example, running water, ventilation, and toilets. These conditions were perfect for the spread
...Population explosion, agricultural changes, and the increasing demand for more workers led to urbanization, or the migration of people to cities. The enclosure movement played an important role in urbanization because when the rich landowners would take over the farmers' land, the farmers would be kicked off their own land. Some farmers had to leave because they couldn't keep up with the competition from the landowners. These jobless farmers then migrated to the cities because they could get jobs because of the growing demand for workers. New sources of energy, such as the coal-powered steam engine, helped entrepreneurs change the way their work was done and helped power the Industrial Revolution. Also, declining death rates due to the agricultural revolution decreased famines and led to a population explosion. Thus, large numbers of people migrated to cities.
Wolf, Peter M. Eugene Hénard and the beginning of urbanism in Paris 1900-1914. New York: P.M.W., 1968. 29-33.
factories instead of at home. With factories being built in the cities, people started to leave the
Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization. 8th ed. Vol. 1. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.
Haussmann separated the city by making it into a geometric grid, with the majority of his "Grands Boulevards" running east to west and north to south. This plan brought a new symmetry to Paris, which it desperately needed. The narrow, winding streets that Paris was kn...
At the height of the Second Empire, Paris was one of the leading centres of capitalist culture in Europe during the mid-nineteenth century, made possible by the city’s reconstruction. The modernisation of Paris initiated an unprecedented method of urban planning under Baron Haussmann. It is this concept of modernisation that people immediately think of in terms of Paris and modernity. This focus on Haussmannisation, however, obscures the fact that Paris was already changing before Haussmann, as was evident in the arcades that sprung up during the 1820s and 30s. Plans of renovating the city were already being thought of in order to manage problems of overcrowding, diseases, social upheavals and infrastructure collapse. However, these plans were never realised; it was the small business owners—or the petit bourgeoisie—who saw to the creation of the arcades that drove the changes made within the urban landscape of pre-Haussmann Paris.
Urbanization in developed countries in the West differs between the periods of before and after the Industrial Revolution. Before the revolution, the pre-capitalism cities were the center for government power and commercial activities. They emphasized communal living. However, together with the appearance of the Industrial Revolution and capitalism, cities experienced sudden increase of population. And, that increase caused socioeconomic change that the importance of communal living diminished and relationships became capitalistic. The traditional relationship between people changed to impersonal and instrumental social relationship.