Urbanization

Katelyn Tassello Emily Smith Stephanie Chen

Urbanization had a profound effect on the daily lives of individuals who found themselves forced into the position of having to adjust from self-sustaining life on farms to depersonalized lives in bigger cities. In addition, these people also found themselves confronted with a newfound dependence on services that they had been used to providing for themselves. Sometimes-convenient plumbing and fresh water supplies-these services were not provided at all. Because of this sudden and overwhelming growth, and the resultant discontent to which it gave rise, urbanization also had an impact on the entire economic and governmental systems of the developing nations.

Before the industrial revolution took force in England, the overwhelming majority of the population lived in rural areas. throughout the 19th century the population would increase from 16% to 54%. Up until this time the government's response to civil services in cities was based on the laissez-faire concept of leaving people to their own devices. Because most citizens lived in agricultural areas such necessities as transportation, water and sanitation were not deemed necessary concerns for government interference. The sudden and overwhelming influx of the populace into a tight, centralized location forced the government to reconsider this method of governance, however. With the construction of factories, and housing for the laborers sent to work in those factories, cities were faced with newfound and critical needs to reorganize their policies on sewage, travel infrastructure and water supplies. Although the industrial revolution led to terrible working conditions for men, women and even children, and although it sparked the era of pollution and environmental and ecological exploitation, it was also one of the driving forces behind the development and modernization of public transportation, schooling, and health care.

As a result of people moving into a centralized location from all parts of the country, cultural distinctions that had evolved over centuries through geographical borders began to integrate. This created a need for a new collective identity. This human drive to associate and belong to a group was exploited by trade unions. The mechanization of industrial society had created a new stature of wage earners. Many were forced to become low-paid, overly worked factory laborers who discovered they were at the mercy of business interests. Whereas citizens in rural and agricultural areas were politically and geographically distanced from being significantly impacted by great social movements, migration into cities made citizens looking for a new identity much more open to radically progressive ideas. One impact of the industrial revolution on cities was the creation of a more distinct class divide which eventually resulted in socialist revolutions around the world.

The industrial revolution led to significant changes in all aspects of life, including a growth in cities that led to widespread changes in the social, economic and political lives of individuals. Another result of the industrial revolution was the social, economic and political imperatives of the nation's leaders to abandon their laissez faire attitudes in order to provide necessary services. The most ironic was to reveal that the distribution of wealth under the new capitalistic structure was patently unfair, giving rise to another revolution: the communist revolution.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/19463/the_industrial_revolution_and_urbanization_pg2.html?cat=37

The cities of London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, and New York grew dramatically. Cities grew so rapidly that city services could not keep up. Cities has a lack of sanitation and also has a lot of sewage, disease, crime, and poverty. To make it worse the heavy use of coal led to accumulations of dirt and grime in the cities.