Industrial Revolution DBQ Essay

The 17th and 18th centuries marked a period of revolutions that would be perceived as one of the most successful human advancement eras known in modern history. Forty-thousand people were left dead in the streets of Paris in the early 1800s during the French Revolution, while almost thirty-five thousand people a year perished in factories as an outcome of the Industrial Revolution. During the French Revolution, low-income civilians took to the streets causing uprisings as government-controlled prices were shifted to higher, less affordable prices. However, the revolution did have successes as it helped the nation get rid of its monarchy and created civil laws that benefited the middle and lower classes. As the Industrial Revolution started,

During the French Revolution, just during the Reign of Terror alone, over sixteen thousand people were killed for presumably opposing the revolution. One could say that the French government is in the wrong by killing off their own civilians because they did not support the revolution and change in government. It is unfair that innocent French people were executed in a public square for the pleasure of the government knowing that they are extinguishing their opposition. Additionally, the British King’s finance minister terminated the setting of grain prices which generated a widespread famine across the nation as lower-income workers were going through the hardship of feeding their families. As a reaction to these price changes, some French peasants took it upon themselves and “decided to seize the grain and sell it at what they saw as a fair price.” It was also stated that “many of the poor saw the government’s action as an attempt to starve the lower classes and benefit the wealthy.” These are both key examples to help manifest the fact that the poor undoubtedly were affected by the fact that the government was treating them unfairly for the sole benefit of the higher, wealthy class. One could argue that the French government used the revolution as leverage to cover up that they wanted to somehow get rid of the “useless” lower class. The reason being, they starved the lower classes by making food prices unaffordable so that they would slowly start to die off due to famine or lack of nutrients. Likewise, the Industrial Revolution gave rise to the mistreatment of workers, including young children, in their factories and mills. During the revolution, workers in mills were often beaten and given cruel punishments if they did not obey the correct orders of their supervisors. In one