Thoughts and Reflections on: Dynasty and Destiny from Crash Course question

Ben Howson
World History 2 per.3
01/23/15

Many ideas that are fundamental to modern industry were employed by the American Automobile industry. Both the assembly line, and inter changeable parts were employed by the American Automobile industry. Evan though Ford did get the idea from meat packing plants, it is some what different, because they are assembling not deconstructing, and also they are using it for cars not meat, but other than that they are pretty similar. The inter changeable parts was also an idea of Ford, but he got inspired by the idea of the inter changeable gun parts. Also health benefits came from the American Automotive industry, as well as increased wages.    

Labor and labor unions ensured the safety, fare pay, and health benefits of the workers during the rise of the Automobile industry. They would really just make sure that they are ok, not hurt, sick, and getting fare pay. This became really important, and really came out of the rise of the Automobile industry, because this is when the automotive industry really started to grow and people basically needed insurance if they became injured when working and more stuff like that. 

The American automotive industry went under many changes between 1910 and today.
Today there are many more companies in which are making cars, and the car has become a huge part of our every day life. The actual car has not had many changes, but it has just been modernized over the course of 1910 to now. The automotive industry itself has grown substantially, and is producing cars faster than ever. But again not much has changed, we still use the assembly line, stations, and now robots in many cases, but over all it is the size and the amount of production in which has done. The biggest difference is the technology in which we use to make these cars.

Ford Model T assembly line 

Modern day car assembly line

Thoughts and Reflections on: Hard Time-Charles Dickens

Ben Howson
World History 2 per. 3
01/22/15

How do Engel's observations in his piece Conditions of the Working Class support what Dickens writes about in Hard Times?

First off, both Engel's writes about the atmosphere of London, and how it is just hideous. He talks about how the air is polluted with carbonic acid gas due to horrible ventilation. Charles Dickens talks about this very subject in his book. He writes about the never ending smoke trailing out of the thousands of chimneys, and the ashes from the fires floating around the city. Engel's observations of the atmosphere of true London in Conditions of the Working Class supported what Dickens said about Coketown in Hard Times. Engels then goes on to talk about the health of the people in London and the conditions in which they lived. He talks about how the people that lived in the city, that their lungs would fail to bring in enough oxygen, so people would often have mental or physical problems. He talks about how just living in a city in itself is injurious to health let alone living in one with an abnormal atmosphere. He then starts talking about how these people would have to live in tiny quarters among closely built lanes. Due to everything being so close together, this would pollute the city more, because the gases had no where to escape to, instead it would just hang around further poisoning the atmosphere. Dickens also talks about the small living areas in which all these people would have to live in. He then talks about how people would often become sick often, or even die at a young age due to the pollution in the air, and working around the machinery. Engel's observations of the health of London in Conditions of the Working Class supported what Dickens had to say about about Coketown in Hard Times. Engel's later talks about the treatment of the working class as being "revolting". He talks about how the working class was severely underpaid, and that they were treated as dirt. There lives didn't matter to the businessmen, and they didn't get really any pay. He says that they would have been better of dead. Dickens says very similar things in his book. He talks about how the gap between the two were huge, and that the working class would often have lots of kids to bring in more income. He also goes on to talk about that the value of their lives was really nothing in the eyes of the businessmen, and that they were basically just slowly killing them selfs each day by going to work. Engel's observations of the treatment of the working class in London in Conditions of the Working Class supports what Dickens has to say in about the treatment of people in Coketown in Hard Times. 

Friedrich Engels 

Charles Dickens

                    

History Tea Project: Ben, Kyle, and Ryan

link to video

Script:

Ryan- Hi and welcome to “Leaf Juice”, I am your host Ryan Otto, and Today we have a very special guest Sir. Rupert Wallis Fittleworth the 3rd, who is going to talk about the history of tea. So please give him a warm welcome.

Ben- Thank you so much for having me.

Ryan- Could you just give us an overview of Britain’s relationship with China?

Ben- Of course. So China and Britain were really never the best of friends, Britain was really just using China to make money. China was always a very isolated country, so they were reluctant to allow trade with other nations such as Britain. But after the first Opium War Britain made China sign a treaty allowing for more extensive trade.

Ryan- You mentioned the Opium War and how it affected trade and China. Would you mind expounding upon this idea?

Ben- Certainly. In 1839 the Chinese government issued a ban on Opium which the British objected to. In order to preserve its lucrative trade arrangements with China, Britain resorted to military action. Their superior technology such as the musket resulted in a decisive victory, and Britain forced China to sign a treaty allowing for more extensive trade. This ensured that England had a steady supply of tea before it moved production to India.

Ryan- Why did Britain want to shift production of their tea?     

   

Ben- Part of it was just that Britain wanted an independent source of tea. The other part was that the East India Company had lost its monopoly on China in 1834. The company knew that whoever managed to grow tea outside of China would have a huge market. With this in mind, the East India Company began to search for places in which they could cultivate tea of their own. They eventually found land in which they could cultivate on in Assam, India. As it turned out the Himalayas actually contained better conditions, such as climate and soil, in which created better tasting tea.

Ryan- What impact did this shift have on China?

Ben- Given the high number of tea farmers in China, it dealt a huge blow to China's already unstable economy. Just to provide some perspective on the issue, China sold Britain 31 tons of tea in 1859. In forty years, that figure fell to 7 thousand.

Ryan- how was Britain able to grow tea in India in the first place? Wasn't China very secretive about the process?

Ben- Yes, they were. The East India Company sent Robert Fortune to collect samples of tea and learn the processes behind it.

Ryan- Alright, looks like that's all the time we have for today. Let's all give a big hand to Sir Rupert Wallis Fittleworth III.

Thoughts and Reflections on: The Conditions of the Working Class in England

Ben Howson
World History 2 per.3
1/6/15


How does Engels feel about the urban life of the poor?
Engels described the urban life of the poor as, "revolting". He thought that it was just completely disgusting, and that no person should have to live in those situations. They would cram as many families as they could into one tiny house, to save space and money. Because due to this every thing was very dirty, which created huge diseases, and massive amounts of pollution. Engels just really over all hated the situations in which these people had to live in, and thought that it was completely wrong.

How does Engels feel a family life should be run and how does the industrial working class model conflict with his feelings?
Engels was very traditional and thought that the women should not leave the house to go and work for the companies. He believed that they should stay home, cook, take care of the children, and over all, just to be the house keeper in a way. Engels thought that it should only be the man in which left the house to go and work, making the money for the family. He thought that the man should be the boss of the house, the superior person in the family. But the women at the time did go and work for companies, brining in an income, as well as the man of the house. They also would just leave the children at the house while they both went out to work, and Engels really didn't like this.  

What conflict has industrialization caused in English society?
The role of the family members changed in the English society due to industrialization. For instance Women would no longer stay at home to take care of the house, the men would work, which meant that the children would have to be independent, and the eldest of the family would normally take the role of the mother. Also tons of people lost their jobs in the English society due to industrialization, because the new technology would replace them. The machines were faster more accrete, and they didn't have to play them. So industrialization has caused many conflicts in the English society.

Thoughts and Reflections on: We Make More and Live Better questions and answers

Ben Howson
World History 2 per.3
1/5/15

What does the title of this chapter mean?
The title of the chapter means that in making new product and coming up with new ideas, you can change the state of the wold, and bring your self and others out of poverty. It can also mean that in inventing things, such as the type of stuff people invented in the revolution, you can make life better, easier, and really change the world.

What were the social consequences of the new industrialism for the working classes?
Farming was no longer a huge thing that most people did. Many famers left their farms to move to cities and work in factories, making their job a profession. Working in factories had a higher pay, and was really a serious thing. People would work 5 or more days a week, and specialized in something. But the work that they did was very hard, and complex. People had to make sacrifices for their new life, they had to leave everything behind to go and work, because they needed the money. So this became a huge social change.

What factors led to the industrial revolution in Britten?
Basically Britten was growing, and they needed more efficient resources, to help stabilize the growth of the country. Before coal they were using wood, and that was just not cutting it, it was heavy, expensive, and really insufficient. So people went looking for a replacement for it, and they found it right underneath them, coal. It was cheaper, lighter, and way more sufficient, and they had tons of it. But then they needed to make it faster, and solve some of the problems that it created, and they needed to do it fast, because it was such a high demand. So this was really the start of the Industrial Revolution, and it was all because of coal. From then on, people were constantly thinking of ways to revolutionize this, making it better and better, and so they did, and continued to do so.  

What importance demographic, political, and social changes accompanied the first industrial revolution?
So during the first Industrial Revolution, the demographics changed, to to people moving in to the cities, factories being built, houses going up, and really just becoming industrial and urban. There was no longer lots of country sides, and instead concrete and stone buildings. During this time, their were political changes, the wealthy people now relied on them for energy, and human rights rose, laws changed, and people were now able to talk to one another about their ideas, and this really changed everything. Also social changes came up, women no longer had the stereo type of staying at home doing house chores with the kids. Many women went out and worked for these factories, getting pay along with their husbands. This also made the gap between the rich and the poor smaller, because they were making more money. Kids would also work, but this later changed when it became a profession to work in these factories, and you had to have education and specialize in the assembly of things. so those are some of the major things that changed during the first Industrial Revolution.