Industrial revolution

What was Luddism? What were there demands?

Luddites were 19th-century English textile workers (or self-employed weavers who feared the end of their trade) who protested against newly developed labor economizing technologies, primarily between 1811 and 1816.

The reasons why it began are:

•  Post Industrial Revolution in England, land became a necessity for establishing factories. This led to the Enclosure Movement where land from peasant class was taken and consolidated to establish factories. The people who were traditionally dependent on agriculture for their livelihood now began to seek work in industries. It also led to mass scale urbanization where there people lived in abject poverty and squalor. This led to dissatisfaction amongst the worker class 
• Industrial Revolution was based on the principle of enhancing productivity and the era led to invention of several machines such as introduction of machines in the cotton industry etc which threw several workers out of work. 
• These workers also did not enjoy basic rights such as right to vote, minimum wage, good working condition, safety at workplace which enhanced dissatisfaction amongst them. When they went to strike, force was used against them. This led to feelings of desperation amongst the workers and they started destroying powerlooms in Lancashire which they believed had affected their livelihood. There was also resistance to the introduction of machines in the woolen knitting industry, destruction of shearing frames by croppers etc. 

Luddism thus came into being. Luddism was not just a backward looking assault on machines. Its participants demanded

• a minimum wage,
• control over labour of women and children, 
• work for those who had lost their jobs because of machines, 
• right to form trade union so that they could legally present their demands. 

Historians today agree that Luddism was not just a movement against machines but was married to the larger goal of improvement in the lives of workers.