Urbanization/Improvements in health, infrastructure, and the working class (1 jan 1850 ano – 1 jan 1900 ano)

Descrição:

The Industrial Revolution worsened the overcrowding, pollution, and filth that plagued cities for centuries. In larger towns, the death rate exceeded the birth rate, and urban populations only maintained their numbers because of migration. Due to the lack of public transportation, people were packed almost as tightly as possible to live in close proximity to workplaces. During the industrial revolution, there was more incentive to build factories. They were built mainly near or in cities, which drew in people and rapidly worsened the overcrowded and unhealthy cities.

Britain experienced the worst of it. The number of people living in cities of 20,000 or more in England and Wales went from 1.5 million in 1801 to 15.6 million in 1891. Most of the country used as much land as possible; narrow houses and crowded apartments were designed to fit as many people as possible. Citizens lived in extremely unsanitary and unhealthy conditions. People often collected waste in pots and tossed them into the street, where it would be carried by rainwater to local rivers. It was also collected through latrines in cesspools. The invention of the flush toilet actually worsened the state of cesspools. More water accompanied the waste, and cesspools leaked and spilled sewage into waterways. Outbreaks of cholera swept the continent. Factories and engines significantly polluted air and sources of water. The crowdedness, absence of public transportation, and ignorance to basic hygiene encouraged the spread of infectious disease.

Around the middle 1800s, people began to be interested in reform and improvement. Edwin Chadwick was one of the commissioners charged with the administration to relief to paupers under the Poor Law of 1834. He found inspiration in Jeremy Bentham’s philosophy of utilitarianism that argued that public problems should be dealt with on a rational, scientific basis to advance the “greatest good for the greatest number.” Chadwick collected data on disease, which became the basis of Britain’s first public health law that created a national health board and gave cities broad authority build modern sanitation systems. Physician John Snow had doubts about miasmatic theory, which believed that inhaling odors caused disease. He identified putrid water as the cause of a cholera outbreak and called on urban authorities to take action.

Most scientists and government officials were hesitant to change. The “Great Stink” in 1858, when fumes from the Thames closed Parliament and threatened to shut down the city, exemplified the need for change. Between 1858 and 1865, the London Metropolitan Board of Works led by Joseph Bazalgette built a massive network of new sewers. Sewers now emptied sewage into irrigation fields and treatment plants. Engineers across Europe and North America followed Britain’s example. Governments, especially those in the U.S., France, and Germany, began to take responsibility for the health of citizens. By the 1860s and 70s, European cities were making real progress toward adequate water supplies and sewer systems.

Experts began to connect filth and the spread of disease but had little idea of how the process worked. French chemist Louis Pasteur developed germ theory. He used a microscope to monitor the fermentation process and avoid spoilage in brewers. He found that fermentation depended on the growth of living organisms, which could be mitigated through heating. This changed the scope of the spread of disease. In the 1870s, German doctor Robert Koch and his coworkers developed pure cultures of harmful bacteria and described their life cycles. For decades, researchers identified organisms responsible for different diseases. This led to the discoveries of vaccines. After Pasteur showed that the air was full of bacteria, English surgeon Joseph Lister connected aerial bacteria and wound infection. He developed chemical disinfectants. In the 1880s, German surgeons developed the practice of sterilizing everything that entered the operating room.

Improvements in public health often worked hand in hand with colonialism and missions. Europeans improved some health practices abroad. This era, called the bacterial revolution, saved millions of lives, especially after 1880.

Napoleon III believed that rebuilding much of Paris would provide employment, improve living conditions, and limit the outbreak of cholera epidemics (and show off the power of his empire). He hired Baron Georges Haussmann who completely transformed Paris by replacing the labyrinth of narrow, dark, overcrowded streets with free-flowing and organized neighborhoods. It demolished some of the worst slums and improved its sewers and aqueducts. This stimulated urban reform elsewhere.

Public transportation often came with urban planning. Europe adopted the American inventions of horse-drawn streetcars and later electric streetcars, which were far superior. Mass transit encouraged the development of better housing. Cities were still populated but they expanded and became less congested.

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