Rapid Industrialization and its Challenges, 1870-1914 743

Technological advances helped propel the Second Industrial Revolution,
which beginning in the 1850s and 1860s swept across much of northern,
western, and central Europe, as well as the United States, and some of
southern and eastern Europe. New manufacturing processes spurred the
emergence of the chemical, electrical, and the steel industries. “Big busi­
ness” took shape as larger companies controlled a greater share of markets.
Technological advances and mechanized factory production transformed
the way millions of people worked and lived. Electric lights turned night
into day in cities and towns. A permanent working class that had broken its
ties with the countryside developed. However, rural areas were also chang­
ing as agricultural productivity increased. Large, productive farms whose
lands were enriched by chemical fertilizers and cultivated with mecha­
nized equipment encouraged more efficient regional agricultural special­
ization. Improvements in agriculture were less apparent in the Russian
Empire, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, although in Hungary, where the
great magnates and other nobles still owned much of the land, the use of
agricultural machinery, the rotation of crops, and product specialization
also brought greater yields.
Declining mortality rates led to an increase in Europe’s population.
Longer life expectancy followed better nutrition—a more varied diet with
greater caloric consumption—as well as improved sanitation and purer
water supplies. Living conditions gradually improved for most people. Wages
continued to rise. Mass education elevated rates of literacy. The middle
class expanded in size and complexity. An expansion in white-collar jobs—
including positions as clerks, tram ticket collectors, and schoolteachers,
among many others—offered peasants and workers chances for social
mobility, particularly in Western Europe.

An elegant London department store, late nineteenth century.