Editing Ruhr (section)

===Industrial revolution===
The development of the region into an urbanized industrial area started in the late 18th century with the [[Industrial Revolution|early industrialisation]] in the nearby [[Wupper]] Valley in the [[Bergisches Land]]. By around 1820, hundreds of water-powered mills were producing textiles, lumber, shingles and iron in automated processes here.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} In additional workshops in the hills, highly skilled workers manufactured knives, tools, weapons and harnesses, using water, coal and charcoal.

As the machines became bigger and moved from water power to steam power, locally mined coal and charcoal became expensive and there was not enough of it. The Bergische industry ordered more and more coal from the new [[coal mining]] area along the [[Ruhr (river)|Ruhr]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bild.de/BILD/regional/ruhrgebiet/aktuell/2009/03/02/geschichte-des-ruhrgebiets/fruehzeit-und-mittelalter-geburtsstunde-zweiter-artikelteil.html|title="Das Ruhrgebiet! Von der Steinzeit bis zur Kulturhauptsatdt 2010" part 2|author=Prof. Dr. Klaus Tenfelde|access-date=2001-11-20|archive-date=13 November 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091113073605/http://www.bild.de/BILD/regional/ruhrgebiet/aktuell/2009/03/02/geschichte-des-ruhrgebiets/fruehzeit-und-mittelalter-geburtsstunde-zweiter-artikelteil.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Impressive and expensive railways were constructed through the hilly Wupper region, to bring coal, and later steel, in from the Ruhr, and for outward transport of finished products.<ref>[[Friedrich Harkort]], "Die Eisenbahn von Minden nach Köln", Brune, Hagen 1833</ref>

[[File:Zeche Zollverein abends.jpg|thumb|[[Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex]] in [[Essen]], a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001]]
[[File:Dortmund Zollern IMGP0620.jpg|thumb|[[Zeche Zollern]] in [[Dortmund]]]]
[[File:Bottrop (DE), Tetraeder -- 2022 -- 0402X.jpg|thumb|[[Tetrahedron in Bottrop|Tetrahedron]] in Bottrop]]
By 1850, there were almost 300 coal mines in operation in the Ruhr area, in and around the central cities of Duisburg, Essen, Bochum and Dortmund. The coal was exported or processed in coking ovens into [[coke (fuel)|coke]], used in [[blast furnace]]s, producing iron and steel. In this period the name ''Ruhrgebiet'' became common. Before the coal deposits along the Ruhr were exhausted, the mining industry moved northward to the Emscher and finally to the Lippe, drilling ever deeper mines as it went. Locks built at [[Mülheim]] on the Ruhr led to the expansion of Mülheim as a port. With the construction of the Cologne-Minden railway in the late 19th century, several iron works were built within the borders of the present-day city of [[Oberhausen]].

Moreover, the [[urbanization]] also boosted the expansion of [[railroad]] connections. At the beginning of the 1880s, agricultural regions did not benefit from the newly built transport facilities as much as non-agricultural regions did. This in its turn increased inequality, and made [[anthropometric]] measurements, e.g. height, more dependent on [[wage]]s. In the long run, however, effects of the railroad proximity diminished.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Baten |first1=Jörg |title=Did the Railway Increase Inequality? A Micro-Regional Analysis of Heights in the Hinterland of the Booming Ruhr Area During the Late Nineteenth Century |journal=The Journal of European Economic History |date=Summer 2009 |volume=38 |issue=2}}</ref>

Consequently, the population climbed rapidly. Towns with only 2,000 to 5,000 people in the early 19th century grew in the following 100 years to over 100,000. Skilled mineworkers were recruited from other regions to the Ruhr's mines and steel mills and unskilled people started to move in. From 1860 onwards there was large-scale migration of Polish speakers from [[Silesia]], [[Pomerania]], [[East Prussia]] and [[Province of Posen|Posen]] to the Ruhr, who were known as ''[[Ruhrpolen]]'' since. The Poles were treated as second class citizens. In 1899 this led to a revolt in [[Herne, Germany|Herne]] of young Polish workers, who later established a Workers' Union. Skilled workers in the mines were often housed in "miners' colonies", built by the mining firms. By 1870, over 3 million people lived in the Ruhrgebiet and the new coal-mining district had become the largest industrial region of Europe.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bild.de/BILD/regional/ruhrgebiet/aktuell/2009/03/04/geschichte-des-ruhrgebiets/die-kohle-der-kaiser-und-die-kanonen-1.html |title="Das Ruhrgebiet! Von der Steinzeit bis zur Kulturhauptsatdt 2010" part 3 |author=Prof. Dr. Klaus Tenfelde |access-date=2001-11-20 |archive-date=23 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100123042828/http://www.bild.de/BILD/regional/ruhrgebiet/aktuell/2009/03/04/geschichte-des-ruhrgebiets/die-kohle-der-kaiser-und-die-kanonen-1.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

During World War I the Ruhrgebiet functioned as Germany's central weapon factory. At a big Essen company, F. Krupp A.G., the number of employees rose from 40,000 to 120,000 or more, in four years. They were partly women, partly forced labourers.{{Citation needed|date=January 2013}}