UPSC CSE 2022 - Most Important 100 Topics - World History

Table of Contents

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Industrial Revolution took place in Britain from 18^th C to mid-19^th Century.
Industrial Revolution means mass production of goods, through the invention of new factors of production – machines and techniques in textiles, iron making and other industries.
It brought about a social and economic transition in Britain from stable agriculture to commercial society, cottage industries to mechanised industries, rural to urban life.

FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS

Britain created favourable political conditions, which furthered the process of growth of the Industrial Revolution, including:
- Enactment of laws to remove trade barriersand create a common market helped the merchants.
- Capturing the foreign marketslargely with the progress achieved in transportation.
Policy of Mercantilism: Many European countries had followed this policy since the mid-Eighteenth century. According to this theory:
- Controlover industries and trade by the Government
- Limited governmental interference in trade
- This theory advocated that national strengthdepends on more exports and less imports.
- This theory assumed that the wealth of a nation depends onthe possession of gold and silver.

LAWS FOR TRADE SECRETS: In order to safeguard its interests, Britain enacted laws to prohibit technology transfer to other countries.
Britain brought about several reforms and inventions boosted agricultural production, including:
- ENCLOSURE ACTS: Britain passed 1000 such laws. It means consolidation of small landholdings to form large fields by taking over all the open or wastelands and community lands.
- Technological Innovations in agriculture for instance Jethro Tull’s Seed Planting Drill which helped in planting seeds at uniform intervals and depths without any wastage.
- These reforms and mechanization rendered many labourers landless, which led to the migration of people from agriculture to factories for jobs.
- These conditions created the availability of cheap and abundant labour to work in the factories

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION:

Location advantage i.e. a safe and secured island location with easy proximity to the sea.
Humid climate ideal for raising sheep (as we have already discussed outcompeted in textile industries)
Navigation channels: Being an island nation, Britain is surrounded by waterways like sea, rivers and canals, which facilitated to have the largest free trade area, without any barriers or tolls.
Discovery of trade routes led to the expansion of the market.
These advantages helped a favourable location for the Industrial Revolution

TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS:

Till the eighteenth century, Britain economy is characterised by cottage industriesand rural life. Government and Businessmen and venture capitalists financed R&D programs, which witnessed breakthroughs in many sectors.

Since, Eighteenth-century, innovations such as the spinning jenny, the flying shuttle, the water frame and the power loom made spinning yarn and thread and weaving cloth much easier. This led to more efficient and mechanised production of cloth fabrics.
Invention of the steam engine led to the efficient transport of goods like coal and other resources.

Developments achieved in coal mining such as tunnel ventilation, transportation of coal, use of gunpowder to blast away ridges and the use of safety lamps.
Development of wooden steam-powered ships, Iron built ships, the first steam locomotive engine provided a reliable system of transportation.
Faster ways of transport (rail and ships) and communications (telegraph and telephone) made government and business transactions possible instantly.
These effects of the Industrial Revolution were felt worldwide.
France after 1830, Germany after 1850 and the U.S. after the Civil War started industrialisation.
However, it had both a positive and negative impact on society.

POSITIVE IMPACT

Industrial Revolution brought significant changes in the quality of lifeand in production processes.

Economic:

It increased wealth, the production of goods, and improved the quality of living
Stimulated the movement of people towards cities which led to the growth of urban society and employment opportunities.

SOCIAL:

Access to cheaper goods, healthier diets, educationand improved housing.
Edward Jenner invented a vaccinefor smallpox and Louis Pasteur discovered bacteria.
Improved healthcare and education increased life span.

NEGATIVE IMPACT

Industrial Revolution caused competition for colonies among the European countries and rivalry, particularly between Britain and France. Later on Italy, Germany and other countries also competed for colonisation.
The imperialist expansions resulted in a struggle for supremacy and these led to two World Wars later.

ECONOMIC:

Exploitation of colonies and destruction of their traditional social, economic and political systems.
Industrialisation left a large number of people

SOCIAL:

Workers in coal mines suffered from many health complications like lung diseases with blasting technique.
long working hours on low wages,
Women and children were discriminated and were paid very low wages.
Bad working conditions like factories were poorly ventilated, dirty, noisy, dark and damp environment.

REFORM MOVEMENTS

These horrible working conditions in factories, injustice caused to workers and discrimination in wages resulted in social movements. Many laws were made to reform the working and living conditions.
In 1868, Trade Unions Congresswas established for collective bargaining and they employed “strike” as a weapon.
The Factory Act is extended to include all workplaces employing more than fifty workers.
In 1870, the Britain government passed Forster’s Education Act, whichenforced compulsory education for the first time.
In 1875, a law that prohibitedboys from climbing chimneys to clean them.
These imperialist expansions led to struggle for supremacy and the two world wars (World War I and World War II) about which you will read in detail in the forthcoming articles.

CONCLUSION

Industrial Revolution changed the methods of productionand transformed social and economic life in a great way. This played an integral role in laying the foundations for the modern society and became a harbinger for future inventions for the betterment of humankind.
However, it created new class divisionsthat led to economic and social inequalities. The adverse effects of Industrial Revolution later culminated into world wars.

CAPITALISM

Capitalism or capitalist economy is referred to as the economic system where the factors of production such as capital goods, labour, natural resources, and entrepreneurship are controlled and regulated by private businesses.
In a capitalist economy, the production of all the goods and services is dependent on the demand and supply in the market that is also known as a market economy.
The main characteristic of a capitalist economy is the motive of earning profit.
The capitalist economy is also characterised by the presence of free markets and lack of participation by the government in regulating the business.
The origin of capitalism can be traced back to 18th century England that was undergoing the industrial revolution at that time.
As there is no government intervention in this type of economy, it is also known as a free market economy.

FEATURES OF CAPITALISM

PRIVATE PROPERTY: This is one of the most important characteristics of capitalism where private properties like factories, machines, and equipment can be owned by private individuals or companies.
FREEDOM OF ENTERPRISE: Under this system, every individual has the right to make their own economic decisions without any interference. This is applicable to both consumers and producers.
PROFIT MOTIVE: The motive of earning profit is one of the most important drivers of a capitalist economy. In this system, all the companies are looking to produce and sell their products to consumers to earn maximum profit.
PRICE MECHANISM: Under this system, the demand and supply in the market will determine the production level and correspondingly the price set for the products without any kind of involvement from the government.
CONSUMER SOVEREIGNTY: In this system, the market is controlled by the demands of the consumer. It regulates the level of production undertaken by the companies, and the consumer is free to decide which products to purchase.
FREE TRADE: In this system, the low tariff barriers exist that promote international trade.
GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE: In a capitalist economy, there is no government interference in the daily activities of the business. The customers and producers are free to make their own decisions regarding any product or service.
FLEXIBILITY IN LABOUR MARKETS:In capitalism, there is a flexibility in hiring and firing of the workforce.
FREEDOM OF OWNERSHIP: In this system, an individual can accumulate any amount of property and use it according to his will. After his death, the same property is passed on to the successors by the right of inheritance.

ADVANTAGES OF CAPITALIST ECONOMY

There is more efficiency in the capitalist economy as the products are produced according to the demand of the consumers.
There is less intervention from the government or bureaucratic interference.
There is better scope for innovation as companies look to obtain a major part of the market with their offerings.
It discourages any form of discrimination so that the trade can take place between two parties without any barriers.

DISADVANTAGES OF CAPITALIST ECONOMY

Capitalism leads to inequalities in income.
In capitalism, firms can get monopoly over workers and consumers.
A high profit-earning motive of a capitalist economy is to use resources in such a way that it leads to environmental problems by destroying the natural balance.

COMMUNISM

Communism is a political, economic, and philosophical ideology that aims to create a classless society based on equal rights for all, regardless of social class (labour or bourgeoisie), over the means of production.

This ideology advocates for the radical uprooting of the wealthy ruling class in order to establish a democratic free society with no class divisions and shared ownership of the means of production.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were two of the most prominent proponents of communism in the nineteenth century.
They went into great detail about the concept in the Communist Manifesto of 1848, which became the standard document for socialist movements throughout 19th century Europe and during the Industrial Revolution.

AIM OF COMMUNISM

The goal of communism, according to communist writers and thinkers, is to create a stateless, classless society.
This, according to communist thinkers, can happen if the people usurp the power of the bourgeoisie (the ruling class that owns the means of production)

TYPES OF COMMUNISM

MARXISM
MARXISM – LENINISM
MAOISM
LEFT COMMUNISM
ANARCHIST COMMUNISM
RELIGIOUS COMMUNISM

MARXISM

He believed that no economic class should have power over another, including wage workers, landowners, and so on.
Everyone should contribute what they can, and everyone should receive what they require, according to Marx.

MARXISM-LENINISM

Marxism-Leninism is a philosophical school of communism that emerged as the dominant trend among Communist parties in the 1920s.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the establishment of the Soviet Union, Leninism’s philosophy was built on and extended Marxism’s ideas, and it served as the theoretical foundation for Soviet Communism’s ideology.

MAOISM

Maoism is a branch of Communism that arose from the teachings of Chinese leader Mao Zedong (or Mao Tse-tung) (1893 – 1976) and was practised in the People’s Republic of China following the Chinese Revolution of 1949.
Maoism evolved from Stalin’s Marxism-Leninism, but introduced new ideas such as Social-Imperialism (Mao accused the Soviet Union of dominating and exploiting smaller countries in its sphere of influence to the point of organising their economies around Soviet, not domestic, needs), the Mass Line (a method of leadership that seeks to learn from the masses and immerse the political headship in the concerns of the people), and the Cultural Revolution (a period in which Mao accused the Soviet Union

CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMUNISM IN THEORY

Land property is abolished, and all land rents are applied to public purposes.
A high income tax that is progressive or graduated
Elimination of all inheritance rights
Confiscation of all immigrants’ and rebels’ property
Establishment of industrial armies and equal liability to labour for all (especially for agriculture)
The gradual eradication of the distinction between city and countryside
Free public school education for all children and the abolition of child factory labour
Credit centralised in the hands of the state
The government would be in charge of communication and transportation.
State factories and production instruments would cultivate wastelands and improve soil quality.

ADVANTAGES

Assists in the creation of a more equal society with strong social communities.
Prioritize social welfare over all else.
Supports universal free education and health care.
Communism has a centrally planned economy that can mobilise large amounts of economic resources, carry out massive projects, and generate industrial power quickly.
It is able to move so quickly because it prioritises the welfare of the entire population over individual self-interest in order to achieve critical social goals.
Societies can be completely transformed by communist command economies to conform to the planner’s vision. Stalinist Russia, Maoist China, and Castro’s Cuba are just a few examples.
Russia’s command economy built up military strength in order to defeat the Nazis, then quickly rebuilt the economy following WWII.

DISADVANTAGES

Diminishes humanity and the significance of human rights.
Philosophy does not explain how to run an economy properly.
Prices are set by the government, not by supply and demand.
Planners lose valuable information about what people want from these prices. They are unable to obtain current information about consumer needs, resulting in a surplus of some items and shortages of others/
As a result, citizens create a black market to trade the items that the planners do not provide, undermining trust in Marx’s pure communism.
People are losing faith in the government’s ability to provide “to each according to his needs.”
It has been used by the ruling party to establish dictatorship and oppression.