European Workers Dbq Essay

The Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century changed the European working lifestyles from agrarian to urban. This change of lifestyle happened very quickly, and left thousands of lower class working citizens in poverty. Throughout the nineteenth century several different arguments were made on how to improve the lives of European workers. Arguments made to improve the lives of European workers include: having a stronger government, giving more rights to the working class, turning towards a socialistic government, or simply maintaining the status quo. Documents 3, 7, and 9 claim that having a more involved government will improve living conditions for workers. In Document 3, Saint-Amand Bazard claims that the laissez-faire type government

Document 4 shows a petition made by the London Workingmen’s Association in an attempt to, “enact that every person producing proof of his being 21 years of age shall be entitled to have his name registered as a voter.” In 1838, the time that this petition was created, it was mainly nobles and upper class citizens who had the right to vote, so it makes sense that the working men of Europe wish for male suffrage because then they have the ability to elect people whom they believe will better improve their lives. Document 5 introduces a woman activist, Flora Tristan, who wants universal working rights for all citizens in the, “universal union of working men and women.” Document 8 introduces another woman activist, Pauline Roland, who claims that, “as soon as a woman comes of age, she has the right to arrange her life as she wishes.” Women have historically been undermined in the working society through such laws as the Factory Law or the Mines Act, which left women without work or having less hours. It makes sense that women such as Tristan or Roland would want universal working rights because it makes women less dependent on man, which they believe will improve their

Document 1 introduces Thomas Malthus, an economist who claims that the populations of Europe are growing at too quick of a rate to maintain. Malthus believes that regulating the populations of Europe will improve the livelihoods of citizens. Malthus explains, “poverty has little or no relation to forms of government, or the unequal division of property; and as the rich do not in reality possess the power of finding employment and maintenance for all the poor.” It makes sense that Malthus’ claim should go against the three other groups ideas of changing the government or the rights of the people because he is simply maintaining his belief that regulating population will improve livelihood. In Document 2, David Ricardo claims that, “wages should be left to the fair and free competition of the market.” It makes sense for Ricardo to support capitalism because in his theory, the iron law of wages, he claims that in order to sustain life, wages will always be at the subsistence level, so no changing of the government or rights will do anything to change the livelihood of the working class. Document 10 shows John Stuart Mill’s take on government, “The present system is not, as many Socialists believe, hurrying us into a state of general indigence and slavery from which only Socialism can save us.” Though many groups argued that changes must be made in order to improve the