Section 1
Dawn of the Industrial Age

Setting the Scene
For thousands of years following the rise of civilization, most people lived and worked in small farming villages. However, a chain of events set in motion in the mid-1700s changed that way of life for all time. Today, we call this period of change the Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution started in Britain.
In contrast with most political revolutions, it was neither sudden nor swift. Instead, it was a long, slow, uneven process in which production shifted from simple hand tools to complex machines. New sources of power replaced human and animal power. In the 250 years since it began, the Industrial Revolution has spread from Britain to the rest of Europe, to North
America, and around the globe.

I. A Turning Point in History
In 1750, most people worked the land, lived in simple cottages, made their own clothes and grew their own food

I. A Turning Point in History
The rural way of life began to disappear and by the 1850s, many country villages had grown into industrial towns and cities

I. A Turning Point in History
During the 1800’s, a series of interrelated causes resulted in the Industrial Revolution

II. A New Agricultural Revolution
Oddly enough, the Industrial Revolution was made possible in part by a change in the farming fields of Western Europe. The first agricultural revolution took place some 11,000 years ago, when people learned to farm and domesticate animals. About 300 years ago, a second agricultural revolution took place. It greatly improved the quality and quantity of farm products.

A. Improved Methods of Farming
The Dutch built dikes to reclaim land from the sea and British farmers practiced crop rotation
The Dutch build a dike around an area to be drained of water. The water was then pumped into a series of drainage canals by windmills

A. Improved Methods of Farming
Jethro Tull invented the seed drill that planted seeds in rows
Tull's most original contribution was the seed drill. Tull's seed drill made sowing more economical and yielded greater amount of crops. In the past, farmers would scatter their seed by hand which was wasteful because many failed to take root. The seed drill allowed farmers to sow seeds in well-spaced rows at specific depths.

B. Enclosure Movement
Rich landowners practiced enclosure, taking over and fencing off communal land

B. Enclosure Movement
Farm output rose but many farmers were put out of work and migrated to cities, forming a large labor force for industry

III. The Population Explosion
The population boom of the 1700s was due more to declining death rates than to rising birthrates

IV. New Technology
A third factor that helped trigger the Industrial
Revolution was the development of new technology
Spinning Jenny
Four of the major inventions of the
19th century: the lightning steam press, the electric telegraph, the locomotive, and the steamboat

A. An Energy Revolution
One new power source was coal that was used to power the steam engine, built in
1712 by Thomas Newcomen

A. An Energy Revolution
Improvements were made by James Watt, and the steam engine became a key power source of the Industrial Revolution

B. Improved Iron
In 1709, experiments by Abraham Darby led to higher quality and less expensive iron
Abraham Darby I (1678-1717) lays claim to the history behind a revolutionary process called 'coke-smelting'. The sulphur in most coal made the iron too brittle, but in 1709 Darby succeeded in smelting iron with coke.