Industrial Revolution as massive numbers of workers entered the industrial factory system. The middle class exited on a spectrum between the lower end (consisting of small shopkeepers) and the higher end (consisting of capitalists who owned companies),
All were united by several desires and beliefs—an open expanding economy was ideal, prosperity was the loftiest ambition, competition was beneficial, and the success of a society relied upon the success of the individuals composing it. This middle class worked extremely hard for these goals and flourished in Europe and America, suspended between poverty and prosperity.
2) This period marked a crucial change in the
nature of families: that from a unit of production to a unit of consumption. During the 1800’s urban families tended to have large families with women producing kids after marriage about every two years until 40.
Child mortality rates remained high (sometimes as devastating as 50%) and any children worked and earned wages. While men often socialized most women stayed almost exclusively within the domestic sphere—rearing children and maintaining the home.
Only in poor families or when men lost their jobs did women work.
3) Urbanization, the movement of people from rural to urban areas, a process that occurred very quickly during the industrial revolution. New crops transported from the
Americas that were fast-growing and nutritious led to agricultural surpluses in Europe.
Since there was more food than the population demanded many people began to leave farmlands to work in cities. This movement was huge and rapid; in Britain the number of people living in cities changed from 17% to 71% from 1801 to 1891. The combination of migration and high-birth rates resulted in population explosions in cities in Europe,
Japan, and the U.S.A. These cities became worldwide hubs of commerce, trade, and
industry.