1 The Second Industrial Revolution (cont.) In the Second Industrial - PDF document

The Second Industrial Revolution In Western Europe, the introduction of electricity, chemicals, and petroleum triggered the Second Industrial Revolution, and a world economy began to develop. 1

The Second Industrial Revolution (cont.) • In the Second Industrial Revolution there was greater use of steel, chemicals, petroleum, and electricity. • Electricity was a new form of energy that gave way to many new inventions. • In the United States Thomas Edison created the light bulb, and homes, businesses, and factories used the affordable resource for convenience and productivity. The Second Industrial Revolution (cont.) • Alexander Graham Bell , inventor of the telephone, and radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi sparked a revolution in communications. • The internal-combustion engine revolutionized transportation with the automobile, while the airplane made its appearance as well. 2

The Second Industrial Revolution (cont.) • Prices for produced goods decreased as a result of lower production and transportation costs. The assembly line allowed for more efficient mass production of goods. The Second Industrial Revolution (cont.) • By 1900, a true world economy was occurring. Europe dominated this global economy by the beginning of the twentieth century. The Working Class Industrialization gave some a higher standard of living, but struggling workers turned to trade unions or socialism to improve their lives. 3

The Working Class (cont.) • The transition to an industrialized society was hard on the workers, who often worked dangerous jobs for poor wages and lived in crowded slums. • Some reformers of the capitalist society wanted a better environment for the working class. More radical reformers wanted to abolish capitalism in favor of socialism. • Many socialist ideas were based on the theory of the German Karl Marx . The Working Class (cont.) • The Communist Manifesto outlined Marx’s beliefs that industrial capitalism was to blame for the problems besetting society. • Marx believed that the proletariat would violently overthrow the bourgeoisie and establish a classless society, run by a dictatorship form of government . The Working Class (cont.) • In many European nations, working-class leaders formed socialist parties based on Marx’s ideas, but were divided on their goals. • Pure Marxists wanted revolution to defeat capitalism, while revisionists argued that political gains were the key to change. • To improve their conditions, workers organized into unions for better working conditions and used strikes as their bargaining tool. 4

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