Chapters 10 and 14
Basic Information
Began in England in mid-1700’s
 Spreads to other parts of Europe and
eventually to the United States by the
end of the 1800’s.
 Occurs in two major phases
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 First Industrial Revolution: advances in
agriculture, mechanization of textile industry,
steam power, etc.
 Second Industrial Revolution: advances in
steel, chemicals, electricity, etc.
Why England???
 Political stability following Glorious Revolution
 A tolerant society that allowed all groups to
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participate in the economy
Population Growth =labor force and consumers
Agricultural Revolution (cont. on next slide)
Thriving cottage industry (domestic system)
Enclosure Movement= individual initiative and
increased productivity
Strong economy due to banking and credit
institutions
A growing middle class that could invest in industry
Thriving overseas trade
Expertise with shipping and merchant activity
Availability of natural resources (coal and iron)
Agricultural Revolution
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Advances in agricultural technology helped
to provide a growing population as well as
new technologies that would increase
productivity
 Crop Rotation increased yields
 Growth of different food crops
 New machines to improve efficiency
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Higher population= larger work force
Mechanization of farm equipment cut back
on the need for labor, which forced people
to move to the cities in search of work
Textiles: the first major industry
Cottage Industries (domestic system)
used for centuries
 1700’s: new inventions to increase
productivity of textile industry
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 John Kay- flying shuttle
 James Hargreaves- spinning jenny
 Richard Arkwright- water frame
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Textile manufacturing began to move out
of the homes and into factories
Textiles: the first major industry
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Increased demand for cotton
 British interest in India grew
○ India was the world’s leading producer of
cotton in the early 1700’s
 “King Cotton” in the American South
○ Slavery expanded rapidly as southern states
attempted to meet the growing demand for
cotton
Steam: a new source of power
Originally, factories had to be located
near a river for power
 James Watt invented a steam engine
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Iron Production
Originally, the process of smelting iron
required hot ovens fueled by charcoal,
but deforestation in England led to a
shortage of charcoal
 Abraham Darby discovered a process
for using coal to smelt iron, which led to
increased iron production
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RailRoads
Increased iron production combined with
the steam engine led to a boom in the
railroad industry
 1830, the first passenger railroad was
opened in England
 Railroads helped to create a boom in the
economy
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 Created jobs, sped up transportation
A Second Industrial Revolution
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The late-1800’s ushered in advances in
steel, electricity, transportation and
communication
 Often known as the Second Industrial
Revolution
Steel
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In the late-1800’s, steel became the
metal of choice for construction of
buildings and ships
 Stronger and more durable than iron
1856: Henry Bessemer developed the
Bessemer Process for the manufacture
of steel
 William Siemens further improved the
process for manufacturing high-quality
steel
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Electricity
1879: Thomas Edison invented the
incandescent lamp (light bulb)
 1881: the first electric power station was
built in Great Britain
 Electricity transformed the lives of
people
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 Factories had more power and could run
after dark
 Nighttime activities became increasingly
available
Communication
1830: Telegraph invented by Samuel
Morse
 1876: Telephone invented by
Alexander Graham Bell
 Motion pictures began to be created in
the 1890’s
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Transportation
By the end of the 1800’s, Europe had
laid over 100,000 miles of RR track
 Steamships and steam locomotives
 Refrigerated cars aid in shipping of
perishable goods
 1885: internal combustion engine
 1903: Orville and Wilbur Wright
launched a successful flight in Kitty
Hawk, North Carolina
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Spread of Industrialization
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Belgium began to industrialize
 It too had plentiful coal and iron deposits
German states quickly industrialized
France lagged behind due to political
instability leading up to and during the
French Revolution
 Spain was slower to industrialize due to
less advanced transportation systems
 Russia also slow to industrialize due to lack
of a significant middle class and
underdeveloped transportation systems
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Impact of Industrialization
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Western Europe became extremely powerful in the
world, began to dominate for the first time in world
history
Urbanization
Poor conditions in cities
Family life changed as most members of the family
went outside of the home to work (including women
and children)
Child labor
Demand for government reform to aid workers and
improve conditions
Harm to the environment
 Deforestation, pollution, depletion of natural resources
(coal and iron deposits)