Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of boxes
- List of figures
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I Gradual revolution
- Part II Successful industrial transformation of the West
- Chapter 2 Knowledge and the entrepreneurial state
- Chapter 3 Agriculture, transportation, and communication
- Chapter 4 The organization of business and finance
- Chapter 5 Three versions of successful industrialization
- Chapter 6 The miracle of knowledge and the state: Scandinavia
- Chapter 7 Demographic revolution, transformation of life, and standard of living
- Chapter 8 The Europeanization of Europe
- Part III The peripheries: semi-success or failure of modern transformation
- References
- Index
Chapter 7 - Demographic revolution, transformation of life, and standard of living
from Part II - Successful industrial transformation of the West
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of boxes
- List of figures
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I Gradual revolution
- Part II Successful industrial transformation of the West
- Chapter 2 Knowledge and the entrepreneurial state
- Chapter 3 Agriculture, transportation, and communication
- Chapter 4 The organization of business and finance
- Chapter 5 Three versions of successful industrialization
- Chapter 6 The miracle of knowledge and the state: Scandinavia
- Chapter 7 Demographic revolution, transformation of life, and standard of living
- Chapter 8 The Europeanization of Europe
- Part III The peripheries: semi-success or failure of modern transformation
- References
- Index
Summary
The key players in the economic transformation in the nineteenth century, as always, were the people – illiterates and the highly educated, males and females, country folk and urbanites, peasants, workers, entrepreneurs, researchers, inventors, doctors, bankers, and government administrators. Demographic changes are themselves important factors in the complex history of the nineteenth century, for Europe's population, for the first time ever in human history, doubled, tripled, and quadrupled in a single century.
The effect of the demographic revolution, however, was not only a much larger European population, but also significantly lengthened life-spans, a healthier population, and decidedly more modern marriage customs, family structures, and even dietary habits. Residential patterns also changed, as a great part of the population moved to rapidly growing cities. The urban explosion had terribly negative side-effects in the first decades, but conditions then improved; the urban settlements were modernized, with better housing, running water, an electric infrastructure, and public transportation. Although industrialization and urbanization uprooted millions of people and led to social upheaval and deteriorating living conditions, the standard of living began to improve from the mid-nineteenth century on. Income differentials were high and even increased for a while. But practically the entire population ultimately enjoyed a higher standard of living around the turn of the twentieth century, and their lives were significantly transformed for the better.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- An Economic History of Nineteenth-Century EuropeDiversity and Industrialization, pp. 260 - 283Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012