Paper short abstract:

Between the 1830s and 1870s, complaints about industrial pollution increased significantly in Valenciennes, a city located in the mining region of the Nord department (France). The aim of this article is to show that the transition to the industrial era was fundamentally a conflictual process.

Paper long abstract:

In the 19th century, the city of Valenciennes, located in the mining region of the Nord department in France, was heavily industrialised. At the beginning of the century, its industrial activity was dominated by coal mining, and secondarily by textile production and brewing. From the 1830s onwards, industrialisation accelerated considerably in this town: sugar, potash and alcohol factories began to pop up in large numbers in Valenciennes. What arises from the sources is that the 1830s were a decade of socio-ecological transition: complaints against the “dangerous, unsanitary and harmful factories” increased significantly. The fumes produced by the plants, which were massively powered by steam engines, were blamed by local residents for spreading foul smells and suspected of causing disease and destroying vegetation. The contamination of water by residual matters (such as molasses from the sugar factories) was also a source of environmental and health concerns. To deal with these new problems, the political, economic and scientific authorities have encouraged manufacturers to build higher chimneys, in order to dilute the smoke in the atmosphere. Around 1850, these authorities proposed to generalise the use of "smoke-burning" devices, which were then made compulsory for steam engines by decree in 1865. However, these devices were not really effective, and in the years that followed, other socio-environmental conflicts erupted because of the polluting factories. In this paper, I would like to explain why the protests against environmental degradation ultimately failed to prevent an increase in industrial pollution.