Nineteenth-century industrial cities

Abstract

Nineteenth century, called the age of steam and electricity, transformed not only the European society, but also the landscape, especially in the cities. Workshops were put in the shade by huge industrial plants. Aristocratic palaces paled in comparison with luxury and modern residences of factory-owners. The old structure of the society (which was divided before into the patricians, the common people and the plebs) was replaced by a new division to bourgeoisie – owners of manufactories, factories, warehouses (usually not from the nobility), petite bourgeoisie (lower middle class)– craftsmen, owners of small workshops, shopkeepers, etc.; intelligentsia –people living with mental work called also white-collar workers (clerks, doctors, lawyers, journalists); and proletariat – the workers. At the same time, the gap between the richest layers of the entrepreneurs, who lived in splendour residences and spent their time on sophisticated entertainment, and the broad masses of workers employed by them, who lived in poverty, started to increase. These contrasts triggered social conflicts and gave birth to extreme ideologies such as communism. It is much easier to understand these complex processes while looking at the portraits of nineteenth-century industrial cities and the everyday life of their populations.