Topic 6.3 Notes – Second Wave Industrialization and Its Effects

What the Second Industrial Revolution Was

This phase built on the first Industrial Revolution’s factories, coal, steam, and railroads. The change came in the leading sectors. Steel, chemicals, electricity, petroleum, and heavy engineering drove growth.

• Continuity stayed strong. Europe still relied on the factory system, capitalist investment, urbanization, and machine production.
• Change came in scale and complexity. Firms grew larger, machinery became more specialized, goods became standardized, and science, banks, and governments got pulled much more directly into industry.
• By 1914, mechanization and factories dominated industrial Europe, though southern and eastern Europe remained less industrialized.

Manchester and Essen show the shift clearly.

• Manchester, England = the classic earlier industrial city, built around textiles, steam power, and factory labor.
• Krupp family at Essen, Germany = second-wave heavy industry, especially steel and armaments, with huge concentrated plants and close ties to the state.

The Essen works make that second-wave scale easy to picture.

Krupp works at Essen

The New Industries and Technologies

Second-wave industry matters because each new sector boosted several others at once.

Steel and heavy industry

The Bessemer process made steel cheaper and faster to produce. That mattered because steel was used for railroads, bridges, ships, machinery, construction, and weapons. One innovation had a multiplier effect across the whole economy.

Chemicals and applied science

The chemical industry produced synthetic dyes, fertilizers, explosives, soaps, and medicines. This was one of the best examples of science driving industry.

• Firms hired trained chemists and built laboratories.
• Technical education became economically valuable.
• Germany led here.
• The Haber-Bosch process made industrial ammonia possible, which meant more fertilizer and more explosives.

Electricity and internal combustion

Electricity gave factories flexible power, lit streets and homes, and created utility companies. The internal combustion engine made the automobile possible and later supported the airplane.

Mass production and the mature factory

Mass production meant specialized machinery, interchangeable parts, standardized goods, and a sharper division of labor. It lowered unit costs, but it also required huge markets and managerial hierarchies because one owner could no longer oversee everything.

How Transportation and Communication Integrated Economies

These technologies tied local markets into national and global ones. Europe’s dense rail lines and steamship routes help show how industrial economies became more connected by the late nineteenth century.

European railways and steamship routes before World War I

• Railroads moved raw materials, workers, food, and finished goods. They integrated national economies, encouraged regional specialization, and increased urbanization.
• Steamships lowered overseas shipping costs and expanded global trade.
• Refrigerated rail cars and ice boxes improved food preservation and distribution.
• Streetcars or trolley cars expanded cities.
• Bicycles increased personal mobility and became a leisure product.
• Telegraph, telephones, and radio sped up communication. On tests, remember that pre-1914 radio mattered mainly for wireless signaling, not mass broadcasting.
• The internal combustion engine and airplane added new transport possibilities, even though airplanes were still limited before 1914.

New industries grew out of these systems, including electricity and utilities, the automobile, leisure travel, and professional and leisure sport.

Consumer Society and Changes in Daily Life

Industrialization increased both supply and demand. People had more access to ready-made clothing, processed foods, and labor-saving devices like sewing machines and ice boxes.

Mass marketing pushed consumption further:

• Advertising linked products to status and convenience.
• Department stores turned shopping into leisure. Le Bon Marché is the classic example.
• Catalogs let people order standardized goods from far away.
• Brand names and packaging encouraged repeat buying.

Tourism, excursion travel, seaside resorts, and spectator sports all grew. Quality of life improved for many through better food supply and distribution, and industrialization plus commercialized agriculture helped population growth, longer life expectancy, and lower infant mortality. Those gains were uneven. Pollution, overcrowding, and class inequality remained.

Economic Volatility, State Action, and German Industrial Power

Industrial capitalism did not grow smoothly. The 1873 crisis and the Long Depression showed how overproduction, falling prices, and recession could destabilize the system.

Firms tried to control markets through:

• Monopolies
• Cartels
• Horizontal combination = controlling firms in the same stage of production
• Vertical integration = controlling several stages from raw materials to sales
• Joint-stock companies, limited liability, and professional managers

Banks became crucial, especially German universal banks, which financed large industry.

Governments moved away from pure laissez-faire. They used tariffs, infrastructure spending, contracts, and support for corporations.

Prussia and Germany are the key political example:

• Zollverein created a larger internal market.
• The state invested in a transportation network.
• Industry adopted improved manufacturing methods.
• Friedrich List’s National System argued for protective tariffs and state-supported development.

Prussian industrial strength helped it lead German unification. After 1871, Germany industrialized rapidly under government sponsorship and became Britain’s main industrial challenger.