Teacher | Student
Originally produced in: Polska
Also available in: en

Contents

  1. Extract from the memoirs of Ignacy Baliński titled Wspomnienia o Warszawie, published in Warsaw in 1987. [Text]
  2. Illustration presenting of woman’s walking costume and a woman’s ball dress from the 1880s ninete-enth century. [PNG Images]
  3. Map The railway network development in the Polish lands in the nine-teenth century. [PNG Image]

Curricular level

Class 2 junior high school history: Modern times, the nineteenth century. Demografic, economic and social conditions in the nineteenth century. Transformations in the culture in the nineteenth century (15 years). Polska

Abstract

Urbanization (Latin: urbanus – urban) it is the process expressed in urban development, in-crease in their number, widening urban areas and paticipation of the urban population in total population (or participation of population living according to urban pattern). Urbanization is closely bound up and inextricable with the changes of social and cultural and so-called diffusion of urban lifestyle. Cities from antiquity served the following functions: administrative, communications, defense, tourism and recreation, religious places of worship. The massive process of urban development has taken place only during the Industrial Revolution. The transformation from craft production to production based on the manufactories employing thousands of hands to work has provided a significant demand for labor resources, which primarily was coming from rural areas. In the nineteenth century urbanization on the continent occurred very intensely, the slowdown of this process took place only in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

In the nineteenth century in the history of European cities, changes were made related to the development of modern civilization and transformation of legal and political system. On the Polish territory, in very adverse conditions due to lack of their own country and political divi-sions resulting from the partition, modified in 1815 during Congress of Vienna, there were many changes. Most of the lands of the Republic annexed to Prussia, Austria and Russia were subordinated to legal systems and politics of the invaders. Only the Polish Kingdom achieved a high degree of autonomy, limited after the collapse of the November Uprising, and ultimate-ly after the fall of the January Uprising. In the second half of the nineteenth century the rapid concentration of population in cities was a typical phenomenon. The main drivers of change were: the development of industry, changes in communication (development of the railway), the development of modern technical infrastructure (in urban areas - communal facilities), new methods of construction. Former urban network underwent modifications, formed the new - mostly industrial - centers, developed and transformed the historical cities. For this pha-se of the development of large urban centers on Polish lands theconcentration of residential and industrial buildings, on a relatively small area was typical, leading to the deterioration of living conditions. Urban development and modern capitalism led to a fundamental reconstruc-tion of the social structure. This process and its consequences are manifested in the larger urban centers. Typical of industrial societies social groups - the bourgeoisie, the intelligentsia, middle class and working class had different size, depending on the partition, composition, economic power and social prestige. Cities in the Polish lands were characterized by their different religious and ethnic composition of the population. The largest - after the Poles - a group of urban population were Jews. In central and eastern Polish territories they represented a large part of the urban population (in Warsaw and Lodz about 30%, in smaller towns as much as 50%). The German population was the largest in the Prussian cities. In the remaining districts they have focused only in certain cities (in Łódź district, in the late nineteenth centu-ry, Germans accounted for around 20%). However, the Russians were less than 3% of the population of the Polish Kingdom.

Conceptual Objectives

  • The student will develop knowledge about the development of industry on the Polish territory in the second half of the nineteenth century.
  • The student will develop knowledge about the development of the railway network in the Polish lands in the second half of the nineteenth century.
  • The student will develop knowledge about the social transformations that have taken place in cities in the nineteenth century.
  • The student will know the conditions of urban life in the Polish lands in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Methodological Objectives and Skills

  • The student will be able to indicate on a map the cities acting as a major industrial centers on the Polish territory in the second half of the nineteenth century.
  • The student will be able to explain the reason for the uneven development of the railway network in the Polish lands in the second half of the nineteenth century.
  • The student will be able to characterize the differences in living standards (including fashion), and the way of earning money among the bourgeoisie, intelligentsia, petty bourgeoisie and workers.

Suggestion of Activities

In the second half of the nineteenth century on the Polish lands, with the process of industrialization the number of workers increased, and it led to the development of the socialist movement, which emerged in the two streams. Students are divided into two groups, will analyze the program of the International Socio – Revolutionary Party “Proletariat” from 1882 directed by Louis Waryński and the Polish Socialist Party program of 1892 known as “the Paris”. On the basis of these texts students will compare the scores of national struggle and uprisings made by the two parties, compare the fighting methods proposed in programs, compare the position with regard to enfranchisement and the presented vision of Poland.

Suggestion of Evaluation

Taking into account the individual criteria and methods for evaluating students’ work by each teacher, in the case of the proposed exercises, to be assessed primarily:

  • Ability to link knowledge resulting from the analysis of textual sources with knowledge of the industrial revolution, urban development and the development of a new social group in the nineteenth century a new social group - workers.
  • Ability to search for information on a specific topic.
  • Ability to make a statement and presentation of knowledge.

Further Information and Interdisciplinarity

http://www.buw.uw.edu.pl/wystawy/modameska/spis_tresci.html - men’s fashion in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, in journals from the collections of the Warsaw University Library.

http://buwcd.buw.uw.edu.pl/wystawa/index.html - women’s fashion in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, in journals from the collections of the Warsaw University Libra-ry.

http://www.kajani.pl/Ryciny.html - pictures of women’ s costumes from journals of 18th – 20 century.