5.3 - The social Question

• History
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 2

5.3 - The social Question

Living and working in poverty

• Especially in cities a lot of misery.
  
• Workers were horribly exploited and lived in poor conditions
• More and more people spoke about this in public, like journalists and doctors

-> the discussion about the social question

The discussion about the social question

Do you think the social question is typical for the 19th century industrial revolution?

0

Do you think the social question is typical for the 19th century industrial revolution?

yes

no

Social laws

• Since the Middle Ages, the church gave help to the poor people. 
• The discussions about the social question created the idea that the government should also do something for poor citizens.
  
• Social laws could provide support and protection for the socially weak.
  
• In 1874, het kinderwetje van Van Houten was passed by the Eerste en Tweede Kamer.
  
• This banned child labour for children under the age of twelve.
• End of all child labour -> 1901: Compulsory Education Act 

Liberaal kamerlid Samuel van Houten.

How does this cartoon relate to the social question?

The manufacturer:

'Last month you had five full days off to give birth, now you have to leave for another day to put the child under the ground, where is my business going now?'

Work in pairs:

What two other reasons, besides the social laws, can you find in the text (5.3), which provided better conditions for workers?

Workers in Action

• Some workers themselves took action against the poor conditions.
  
• They set up unions to support each other and enforce better working conditions.
  
• Trade unions organized strikes and entered into talks with employers.
  
• Socialists believed that there should be more equality and less difference between rich and poor.
  
• Radical socialists (Marxists) wanted a revolution to ensure that the means of production came into the hands of the state, so that there was no longer a difference between the propertyless and the property-owning class.
  
• Later, moderate socialists wanted to bring about change through political parties in the government and social laws.

Karl Marx

5.3 - the Social Question

Exercises 1 to 8

Recap of this lesson

Which movie do you want to watch?

Robin Hood

1917

47 ronin

Percy Jackson and the lightning thief