Station 1: Causes of Industrial Revolution
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Agricultural Revolution -enclosure system that allowed for cultivation of larger fields, Jethro
Tull’s seed drill, crop rotation, new methods of breeding livestock – all lead to a population
increase, less labor-intensive, and land displacement of smaller farmers who move to cities and
begin working in factories
Development of iron-making industries
Increased use of refined coal
Textile Industry
o New inventions in the textile industry – flying shuttle, spinning jenny, spinning mule, water
frame – modernize the cotton and textile industry; quicker and cheaper production; demise
of cottage industries
o Cotton gin (Eli Whitney) – mechanized way to remove seeds from cotton; more labor could
be dedicated to field work than to seeding cotton; greater agricultural output results and
leads to growth of slavery in the United States
Steam Technology
o Steam engine as a source of power – James Watt
o Steamboat makes water transportation easier – Robert Fulton (American)
Factory system
o Factory system used for the housing of large machinery
Transportation technology
o Improvement of roads in England – turnpikes and tollgates for profit; macadam roads of
crushed rock that make transportation easier
Railroads
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Inexpensive way to transport materials and finished products; creation of new jobs; boost
to agriculture and fishing industries that could be transported to different areas; brought
rural people to cities to find work
Station 2: Politics and Economics of the Industrial Revolution
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New laws to reform industrialization
o Ended long hours for women and children
o Labor Act 1833: Children under 9 years old could not be hired to work.
Extension of suffrage (right to vote) to larger number of people
Establishment of European colonies in Africa and Asia to obtain sources of
raw materials and markets for the sale of manufactured goods
Spread of free enterprise, as well as responses to free enterprise through
socialist and communist philosophies
o As factory owners became wealthier, the gap between rich and poor
was widened. People began to argue for more equality and worker
rights.
Increase in commercial agriculture leads to mechanization of agricultural
production
o Small farmers began to move to the cities to work in the factories.
Division of labor in factories and routine work tasks
Creation of merchant class
Mass production of goods
Station 3: Social Changes resulting from the Industrial Revolution
Increase in population and life expectancy due to improvements in food
production and health care
 Long work hours, low wages, and dangerous working conditions for
industrial workers
 Class tensions between the upper/middle classes and the working classes
 Increase in child labor which later led to child labor reform laws
 Poor housing conditions for workers that result in poor sanitary conditions
and health epidemics
 Urbanization of industrial areas in Europe and the United States
 Destruction of factories and machinery by the Luddites in response to the
demise of cottage industries
 Beginnings of labor unions that result in better working and housing
conditions for workers
Role of children in Industrialization:
 Children take on the role of bread-winner for families
 Easier for them to find work due to their size (working in the coal pits) and
reduced wages paid to children.
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Station 4: Impact of the Industrial Revolution
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New inventions, products, and methods of work
Cheaper prices for manufactured goods
Competition for trade
Growth of national pride
Beginnings of imperialism so that raw materials could be obtained from colonies and
so that goods could be marketed to these colonies
Spread of industrialization from Great Britain to mainland Europe and the United
States and then to other parts of the world
Illness and death from poor working conditions in factories leads to shorter life span
Poor worker conditions – low wages, child labor, lack of solidarity without unions,
long work hours
Rapid urbanization as enclosure laws ruined smaller farmers who moved to cities for
work
Illness and death from overcrowding in cities as working population grew
Growth of free enterprise through laissez-faire economic policies
New artistic movements that reacted differently to industrialization: Romanticism
and Realism
Development of socialism and communism as a reaction to capitalism brought by
industrialization
Reforms for working, living, and political conditions including the extension of
universal manhood suffrage in some industrialized nation