The Cultural Revolution Essay, Research Paper

The Cultural Revolution was a new world in the making. It contained many new reforms such as government, working conditions, medicine, education, and urban life. The Cultural Revolution was soon to become a different place.

The government during this time was unwanted and thought that freedom from government controls would mean a growing economy with material progress for all the people. Many people supported the laissez-faire, which was a policy allowing business to operate without government interference. Adam Smith stated in his book, the Wealth of Nations, that an economy works best when the natural forces of supply and demand operate without government interference. Later on in 1800 s people questioned laissez-faire and urged government to work for a better society. Some people began wanting the government more than others.

Working conditions seemed to get better as time went on. People advocated socialism, the belief that the means of production capital, land, raw materials, and factories should be owned and controlled by society, either directly or through government. This wealth could be distributed equally among all citizens. Robert Owen was among the first to establish a community where everyone was supposed to share equally in the benefits. Karl Marx was another to tell about the working conditions only he was horrified by what he saw and wrote a book about it. The most important aspect of the economic base was the division of society into classes. Well soon there became some conflict between the classes and Marx stated that class struggle was what pushed history forward.

In time of history diseases have killed more people than famines, natural disasters, and wars. In the 1800 s medical advances were brought to give people healthier and longer lives. There were many diseases in this timetha twhich not many people knew much about. Edward Jenner, an English doctor, came up with the idea of cowpox could never get smallpox. He proved his idea and as the first to give a vaccination. Later on another doctor, Pasteur, discovered bacteria, or germs, and proved they cause infectious diseases . Surgery was not very safe back then. People were held forcibly without having any pain medicine to help. Soon doctors found a chemical to put them to sleep without feeling the procedure. Still people died after surgery because of infection introduced during surgery.

By the late 1800 s, people were growing more interested in improving their lives by promoting education. They believed education would inprove their children s chances for a better life. School and colleges were also established to provide better training for teachers. In the 1800 s, some felt that womens roles as wives and homemakers did not require education. Others believed women required the same education opportunity as men. In 1837 Mary Lyon opened the first women s college, the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary now known as Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. Advances in education created a growing demand for accessible reading materials. Libraries were opened in many cities.

Urban Life means the spread of city life of the industrial countries. A country is urbanized when more people live in cities than in rural areas. As people moved to cities, they began to marry earlier. The children were able to increase a family s income by working in factories, and because of this, people were having more children, adding to the population. Houses were built close together in long rows, one against the other. The factories added to the unpleasant city environment. A British minor said in 1843, Sheffield is one of the dirtiest and most smokey towns I ever saw. The town is also very hilly, and the smoke ascends the streets, instead of leaving them One cannot be long in the town without experiencing the necessary inhalation of soot. Government saw that one of the most pressing problems was sanitiation. Ditches and open sewers carried waste from public toilets. By the late 1800 s, the germ theory and the newly invented iron pipe spurred city leaders to clean up their cities.

The Cultural Revolution contributed to the creation of a brand new world, unrecognizable with its good and bad attributes. Reforms in government, working conditions, medicine, education, and urban life all contributed to this seemingly massive new creation.