European Strike Wave
Europe 1865
Synopsis
The Industrial Revolution, which began in England in the late 1700s, spread eastward across the European continent and into Russia by the late 1800s. Throughout the nineteenth century, almost every European country industrialized to some degree, and new and old industries passed through various stages of mass production. Products such as clothing, commodities, and food were being mass produced, and urban areas experienced large population gains. According to the census of 1851, for the first time in any large country, one-half of the people in England lived in cities.
As the Industrial Revolution progressed, workers across Europe felt themselves ceding control of wages and working conditions to employers. In addition, semiskilled and unskilled workers who produced goods quickly were rapidly replacing the traditional craftsmen who, before the nineteenth century, had slowly and skillfully turned out individual articles. The working class was being redefined as industrialism increased its size. To combat the new power of industrial employers, employees turned to unions to engage in collective bargaining or, if that failed, to coordinate strikes and even violent protests. The Revolutions of 1848, which occurred throughout the Europeancontinent, voiced worker demands for political representation and freedom.
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