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Did Pre­World War I European States Overall Benefited from Trade Unionism or Were They Damaged by It?

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Did Pre­World War I European States Overall Benefited from Trade Unionism or Were They Damaged by It?
Antonio Silvio Gottardello

Did Pre­World War I European States Overall Benefited from Trade Unionism or were they Damaged by it?
In the modern era (1789­2013) Trade unionism has played a determinant role in History, not only influencing the economic aspect of millions of lives but also the social and political aspects. Although its influence is undeniable, their advantages and damages that they cause to the states and their people are not completely clear. In order to rightly weight its accomplishments and defeats, its history must be studied, the causes that led to their creation and the obstacles that unionists had to face understood. By focusing on the period of time in which the unions were created and rose to their maximum influence yet (1870­1914) we can better understand their impact on modern states. In pre­world war I european states, it is possible to define a trend that shows that the states and government that utterly suppressed the unions and the workers them ceased to exist or had to face revolutions that changed the countries forever, while those who legalized and let them develop and prospered. In conclusion unions were the united voice of workers and repressing them forever wouldn’t have been possible for any industrialized nation, especially one that tried to grow industrially as all 19th through the early 20th century European states were.

Due to the agrarian and industrial revolution that occurred in the late 1700s and the early 1800s, the population of Europe increased dramatically resulting in countryside people moving to the cities in order to find a better occupation1. This caused a major urbanization2 within Europe. This inner migration triggered an unsustainable growth rate of all the major european cities and resulted in overcrowding. More families lived in small
1

Denis Richards, An illustrated history of modern europe 1789­1984: 7th edition: Longman Publishing Book: 27.06.1986: New York Press: p.194. 2 The process by which

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