Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
and Coalbrookdale, easily accessible to Britain's coal and
iron ore fi elds.
When industrialization diffused from Great Britain
to the European mainland, the places most ready for
industrialization had undergone their own second agricul-
tural revolution, had surplus capital from mercantilism and
colonialism, and were located near coal fi elds (Fig. 9.17).
powered by coal, not only pumped water from mines for
coal mining but also powered the railroad and steamship.
The diffusion of the railroad gave cities that were not near
coal fi elds the chance to industrialize. The central parts of
cities like London, Paris, and Amsterdam retained their
preindustrial shape. But with the diffusion of the railroad,
railroad tracks knifed through long-stable neighborhoods.
Living conditions were dreadful for workers in cit-
ies, and working conditions were shocking. Children
worked 12-hour shifts in textile mills, typically six days
a week. In industrial cities, health conditions were worse
than they had been in medieval times; the air was polluted
and the water contaminated. The grimy, soot-covered cit-
ies of the British Midlands were appropriately deemed the
“black towns.” Few if any safety mechanisms protected
the laborers, and injuries were common.
In the mid-1800s, as Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
(writing in Germany, Belgium, and England) encouraged
The Chaotic Industrial City
With industrialization, cities became unregulated jum-
bles of activity. Factories engulfed private homes. Open
spaces became garbage dumps. Urban dwellers converted
elegant housing into overcrowded slums. Sanitation sys-
tems failed, and water supplies were inadequate and often
polluted. By the late 1800s, the Industrial Revolution had
changed transportation signifi cantly. The steam engine,
Figure 9.17
Industrialized Regions of Europe, 1914.
Adapted with permission from:
Geoffrey Barraclough, ed.,
The
Times Concise Atlas of World History,
5th ed., Hammond Incorporated, 1998.
