Bizkayan industrial workers ‘life conditions at the end of the XIXth century. A study through morbidity-mortality

Abstract

The social consequences of the first phase of the Bizkayan industrialization is deeply studied in this article examining workers' living conditions and mortality through life expectancy. An explanation of the social disruption produced in the last third of XIXth century within day labourer collective, mainly immigrants settled in the metropolitan industrial belt of Bilbao, is undertaken. Based on specific causes of death -increasing exposure of the population to risk factors and decreasing physiological resistance- the author attempts to research into the indirect factors related to living conditions (housing, healthiness, sanitary infrastructure or nutritional status).