Industrial Revolution in
England
1
Britain: Birthplace of the Industrial
Revolution
•
Before the arrival of the Industrial Revolution, most people
resided in small, rural communities where their daily
existences revolved around farming. Life for the average
person was difficult, as incomes were lean, and food
shortage and disease were common. People produced the
bulk of their own food, clothing, furniture and tools. Most
manufacturing was done in homes or small, rural shops,
using hand tools or simple machines.
•
A number of factors contributed to Britain’s role as the
birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. For one, it had great
deposits of coal and iron, which proved essential for
industrialization. Additionally, Britain was a politically
stable society, as well as the world’s leading colonial power,
which meant its colonies could serve as a source for raw
materials, as well as a marketplace for manufactured goods.
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Innovation and Industrialization
•
The textile industry, in particular, was transformed
by industrialization. Before mechanization and
factories, textiles were made mainly in people’s
homes, with merchants often providing the raw
materials and basic equipment, and then picking
up the finished product. Workers set their own
schedules under this system, which proved difficult
for merchants to regulate and resulted in numerous
inefficiencies. In the 1700's, a series of innovations
led to ever-increasing productivity, while requiring
less human energy. For example, around 1764,
Englishman James Hargreaves (1722-1778)
invented the spinning engine, a machine that
enabled an individual to produce multiple spools of
threads simultaneously. By the time of Hargreaves’
death, there were over 20,000 spinning engines in
use across Britain. The spinning engine was
improved upon by British inventor Samuel
Compton’s (1753-1827) spinning mule, as well as
later machines. Another key innovation in textiles,
the power loom, which mechanized the process of
weaving cloth, was developed in the 1780s by
English inventor Edmund Cartwright (1743-1823).
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•
Developments in the iron industry also played a central role
in the Industrial Revolution. In the early 18th century,
Englishman Abraham Darby (1678-1717) discovered a
cheaper, easier method to produce cast iron, using a cokefueled furnace. In the 1850s, British engineer Henry
Bessemer (1813-1898) developed the first inexpensive
process for mass-producing steel. Both iron and steel
became essential materials, used to make everything from
appliances, tools and machines, to ships, buildings and
infrastructure.
•
The steam engine was also integral to industrialization. In
1712, Englishman Thomas Newcomen (1664-1729)
developed the first practical steam engine (which was used
primarily to pump water out of mines). By the 1770s,
Scottish inventor James Watt (1736-1819) had improved on
Newcomen’s work, and the steam engine went on to power
machinery, locomotives and ships during the Industrial
Revolution.
4
Transportation and the Industrial Revolution
•
The transportation industry also underwent significant transformation during the
Industrial Revolution. Before the advent of the steam engine, raw materials and finished
goods were hauled and distributed via horse-drawn wagons, and by boats along canals
and rivers. In the early 1800s, American Robert Fulton (1765-1815) built the first
commercially successful steamboat, and by the mid-19th century, steamships were
carrying freight across the Atlantic.
•
As steam-powered ships were making their debut, the steam locomotive was also coming
into use. In the early 1800s, British engineer Richard Trevithick (1771-1833) constructed
the first railway steam locomotive. In 1830, England’s Liverpool and Manchester Railway
became the first to offer regular, timetabled passenger services. By 1850, Britain had more
than 6,000 miles of railroad track. Additionally, around 1820, Scottish engineer John
McAdam (1756-1836) developed a new process for road construction. His technique,
which became known as macadam, resulted in roads that were smoother, more durable
and less muddy.
5
Communication and Banking in the
Industrial Revolution
•
Communication became easier during the Industrial Revolution with
such inventions as the telegraph. In 1837, two Brits, William Cooke
(1806-1879) and Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875), patented the first
commercial electrical telegraph. By 1840, railways were a CookeWheatstone system, and in 1866, a telegraph cable was successfully
laid across the Atlantic.
•
The Industrial Revolution also saw the rise of banks and industrial
financiers, as well as a factory system dependent on owners and
managers. A stock exchange was established in London in the 1770s;
the New York Stock Exchange was founded in the early 1790s.
•
In 1776, Scottish social philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790), who is
regarded as the founder of modern economics, published “The Wealth
of Nations.” In it, Smith promoted an economic system based on free
enterprise, the private ownership of means of production, and lack of
government.
6
Quality of Life during
Industrialization
•
The Industrial Revolution brought about a greater volume and variety of factoryproduced goods and raised the standard of living for many people, particularly for the
middle and upper classes. However, life for the poor and working classes continued to
be filled with challenges. Wages for those who labored in factories were low and
working conditions could be dangerous and dull. Unskilled workers had little job
security and were easily replaceable. Children were part of the labor force and often
worked long hours and were used for such highly hazardous tasks as cleaning the
machinery. In the early 1860s, an estimated one-fifth of the workers in Britain’s
textile industry were younger than 15. Industrialization also meant that some
craftspeople were replaced by machines.
•
Additionally, urban, industrialized areas were unable to keep pace with the flow of
arriving workers from the countryside, resulting in inadequate, overcrowded housing
and polluted, unsanitary living conditions in which disease was rampant. Conditions
for Britain’s working-class began to gradually improve by the later part of the 19th
century, as the government instituted various labor reforms and workers gained the
right to form trade unions.
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Social Changes of
Industrialization
•
Before the Industrial Revolution
•
Agricultural work on farms and in homes predominated; cottage industry took place
in homes
•
Most people lived in rural areas
•
Single works or families produced and entire product
•
During and After the Industrial Revolution
•
Manufacturing predominated, with workers placed in factories; cottage industry
declined or disappeared
•
Workers migrated to work in city favorites, causing explosive growth, overcrowding,
and filthy conditions
•
Factories practiced division of labor. Each worker performed one task in the
production process. These tasks were often repetitive and boring.
•
Factory work required long hours under harsh working conditions.
•
Child labor occurred on a large scale. Women and children were usually paid lower
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wages.
Important People during the
Revolution
•
George Stephenson: first steam powered locomotive
•
Richard Arkwright: invented the water frame
•
Jethro Tull: invented the seed drill
•
Abraham Darby: used coal to melt iron from it's ore
•
Thomas Newcomen: invented steam engine that used coal
•
Lord Charles Townshend: urged farmers to grow turnips, which
restored exhausted soil
•
James Watt: improved Thomas Newcomen invention of the steam
engine
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•
John Kay: invented the flying shuttle
•
James Hargreaves: invented the spinning jenny
•
Robert Fulton: American who invented the steam boat using Watt's
steam engine
•
John Wesley: founder of the Methodist Church in the mid-1700's
•
Ned Ludd: mystical figure who supposedly destroyed machines in the
1780's
•
Robert Owen: helped lead the first national union in England and
advocated the use of children in factories
•
Karl Marx: wrote "The Communist Manifesto" put forward the idea of
scientific socialism based on scientific study of history
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•
John Stuart Mill: argued that actions are right if they promote
happiness and wrong if they cause pain
•
David Ricardo: agreed that the poor had too many children, and he
didn't believe that the working class could escape poverty
•
Thomas Malthus: predicted that the population would out place the
food supply, ad he urged families to have fewer children
•
Adam Smith: wrote "The Wealth of Nations", believed in Laissez-Faire,
and that free market would help everyone
•
William Cockerill: 1807 opened factories in Belgium to manufacture
spinning and weaving machines
•
Robert Fulton: inventor who powered his steamboat with one of James
Watt's engines
•
Henry Bessemer: 1856, British engineer who developed a process to
purify iron ore and producer steel
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•
Alfred Nobel: invented dynamite in 1866
•
Alessandro Volta: scientist who developed the first battery
•
Michael Faraday: created the first simple electric motor
•
Thomas Edison: American inventor who made the first lightbulb
•
Gottlieb Daimler: German who introduced the first four wheeled
automobile
•
Karl Benz: 1886, German who received a patent for the first
automobile with three wheels
•
Nikolaus Otto: German engineer, invented a gasoline internal
combustion engine
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•
Henry Ford: started making cars that went 25mph, and started using
assembly line to mass produce cars
•
The Wright Bothers: designed and flew the first airplane
•
Samuel F. B. Morse: invented the first telegraph, first line went from
Baltimore to Washington D. C
•
Alexander Graham Bell: inventor who patented the telephone
•
Guglielmo Marconi: invented the radio
•
Alfred Krupp: created monopoly with Germany by buying coal and iron
mines and shipping lines that fed steal business
•
John D Rockefeller: built standard oil company of Ohio
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•
Louis Pasteur: showed the link between microbes and disease,
developed vaccines against rabies/anthrax, and discovered
pasteurization
•
Georges Haussmann: destroyed many tangled medieval streets full of
tenement housing and put wide boulevards and splendid public
buildings up
•
Joseph Lister: surgeon that discovered how antiseptics prevented
infection, and insisted surgeons wash hands/sterilize instruments
before surgery
•
Florence Nightingale: worked to introduce sanitary measures in
British hospitals, and founded the world's first school of nursing
•
Robert Koch: identified the bacteria that caused tuberculosis
•
Elizabeth Stanton & Susan B. Anthony: organized movement for
women's rights
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Emily Davies: 1836, British reformer, campaigned for female
students to be allowed to take entrance exams for Cambridge
•
Charles Lyell: offered evidence that Earth is millions of years
old in "Principals of Geology"
•
John Dalton: English schoolteacher, early 1800's developed
modern atomic theory
•
Dmitri Mendeleev: organized the periodic table
•
Charles Darwin: published "On the Origin of Species", and
developed the theory of Natural Selection
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Spread of the Industrial
Revolution
United States:
•
At the time of the Revolutionary War, the American colonies were importing factorymade goods and luxury products from Great Britain. In 1790 Samuel Slater built the
first practical cotton spinning machines in the United States, and in 1793 Eli Whitney
patented the cotton gin. New England soon had a flourishing cotton textile industry.
•
The manufacture of iron developed more slowly because of the lack of soft coal. A
process for using anthracite coal, which was plentiful, was introduced about 1830.
Later both iron ore and soft coal were found in western Pennsylvania. The great
expanse of American farmland encouraged the mechanization of agriculture. Invention
of a successful reaper by Cyrus McCormick in 1834 was followed by the development
of other types of farm machinery.
•
As the nation expanded, the almost unlimited supply of raw materials and the
constantly increasing number of customers brought a rapid growth of industry. The
steamboat, which came into general use about 1817, provided transportation on
inland waterways. A railway system was built up after the introduction of steam
locomotives in the 1830's.
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Spread of the Industrial
Revolution
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•
France
•
By the start of the French Revolution in 1789, France had begun to
adopt some of the new English manufacturing methods. The political
confusion of the next several decades, however, held back industrial
development. Hand labor continued to be dominant until the middle of
the 19th century, when a revival of commerce brought a gradual
changeover to mechanical production. After formation of the Third
Republic, 1870–71, France entered its modern industrial era.
•
Germany
•
Mechanization of German industry was delayed by the disunity of the
German states. Until the middle of the 19th century progress was
retarded by internal tariff barriers, inadequate transportation, and lack
of colonial markets and money for investments. Only in Prussia was
there a move toward establishment of heavy industry. After unification
under the Prussians in 1871, Germany launched a program of
industrial and commercial expansion that made it a world leader by the
early 20th century.
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•
Other Countries
•
The first Asian nation to become industrialized was Japan. After restoration of
imperial power in 1868, Emperor Mutsuhito sent Japanese scholars to study Western
industry. Quickly and methodically Japan became a highly efficient industrial nation.
•
China and India largely retained their ancient primitive systems of agriculture and
handicraft until after World War II. The governments of these countries then began
the slow process of teaching the peasants modern agricultural and industrial
methods.
•
Russia under the czars was also a peasant society. After the Russian Revolution in
1917, the Communist leaders moved first to gain control of agriculture and
production. In 1928 the First Five Year Plan went into effect. Its aim was to transform
the nation from an agricultural to an industrial one. Under a continuing series of fiveyear plans, the Soviet Union became second only to the United States as an industrial
power.
•
Industrialization in Latin America came largely in the 20th century, due in many
cases to foreign investments. Unstable governments and lack of effective social
legislation, however, hindered progress in many countries.
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Events during the Industrial
Revolution
•
Reform Bill of 1832: Change in property requirement
extended voting rights to well-to-do men in the middle class
and gave industrial cities representation in Parliament
•
Reform Bill of 1867: Gave vote to working-class men
•
Reform Bill of 1884: Increased number of voters by giving
suffrage to rural workers
•
Women's Social and Political Union: Emmeline Pankhurst
organized for women's rights
•
Factory Act of 1833: Forbade employment of children under
age 9. And ages 9 to 13 could only work up to 9 hrs a day
while 13-18 could only work up to 12
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•
Education act of 1870: Gave local government power to set
up elementary schools
•
Luddites: Feared group of masked workers named after
leader
•
Labor unions: Organizations designed to represent workers'
interests and called strikes
•
1872: Secret Ballot started being used in this year
•
Bessemer process: A way to manufacture steel quickly and
cheaply by blasting hot air through melted iron to quickly
remove impurities.
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•
Socialism: A theory or system of social organization that
advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the
means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc. in
the community as a whole.
•
Capital: Wealth in the form of money or property owned by a
person or business and human resources of economic value
•
Urbanization: The social process whereby cities grow and
societies become more urban
•
Cottage industry: Small-scale industry that can be carried on
at home by family members using their own equipment
•
Profit motive: The force that encourages people and
organizations to improve their material well-being
22
How the Industrial Revolution
changed the nature of Capitalism
•
Prior to the industrial revolution, the economy operated in a
mercantilism type economy. This refers to system of trade for profit and
production of commodities by non-capitalist production methods. As
the industrial revolution took hold of the economy, the industrialist
replaced the merchant as dominant actors in the capitalist system and
lead to a major decline in traditional skills (hand crafts, journeymen,
etc).
•
It also lead to surplus from better modes of production. Industrial
capitalism is noted for the development of factory types of
manufacturing, leading to division of labor and global domination of the
capitalists mode of production.
•
Many will argue that the industrial revolution set the ground work for
major corporations taking a majority control of the factors of
production, permanently increasing distribution of wealth. It also
increased discrimination and unfair working conditions for merchants.
This in turn lead to the creation of unions.
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Urbanization During the
Industrial Revolution
•
Harmful to the Environment: To work in factories during the industrial revolution,
lots of migrants shifted to the cities. They began to live along with the natural citizens
of the city, leading to lots of air and water pollution, caused by the tremendous rise in
population.
•
Class Divide: During the industrial revolution, new social classes emerged due to
urbanization. The entrepreneurs as well as the business people gained enormous
wealth due to industrialization. This led to a class divide, where the workers in the
factories became the have-nots and the factory owners, with their huge wealth became
the haves.
•
Low Standard of Living: Because of the large-scale immigration during industrial
revolution, people who had shifted to the cities, found it very difficult to adjust in the
depersonalized city environment. Most of the people were used to staying and working
on their own farms, where basic necessities of life, such as water and food, were easily
accessible. In the cities, however, due to the unprecedented growth in population,
even something as simple as water needs of the people were not met, due to the
growing population. Urbanization put a lot of pressure on the economic as well as the
governmental systems, which could not handle this rise in population, thus,
inconveniencing the people in the process.
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Urbanization During
the Industrial
Revolution
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•
Change in Family Structure: Urbanization and industrialization caused a lot of
changes in the family structures as well. Men began to work in factories and their
wages were comparatively higher than those of women. Children were seen as a
source of low-cost labor. Due to industrialization, men received the status of a "breadwinner" of the family, while middle class women were encouraged to stay at home to
look after the children.
•
Catalyst for Socialist Revolution: Due to urbanization, people who followed
different cultures and traditions came together to live in the cities. With time, these
cultural values which defined these people, became to fade. The people started feeling
a need to associate themselves with something they could identify themselves with. It
was this need of people working in factories, which was taken advantage of by the
trade unions. Due to the industrialization, people were working in low paying, long
hours jobs, and their entire being was at the mercy of the factory owners.
Impersonalized city environment, combined with this dehumanizing working
atmosphere and the well apparent class divide, were all in a way responsible for the
socialist revolutions, all around the world.
•
Though urbanization during the industrial revolution had many ill effects on the lives
of the people who lived or shifted to cities during that period, yet it had many positive
outcomes too. It was due to this large-scale immigration of people to the cities that
forced the governments to device such policies, that would take care of the people.
Governments initiative to take interest in the development works, modernization of
the infrastructure opening of schools, providing proper sanitation, health and water
facilities, can be all attributed to the-large scale urbanization that took place during
the industrial revolution.
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How this influenced Imperialism
•
Imperialism is the policy of extending the rule
or authority of an empire or nation over foreign
countries, or of acquiring and holding colonies
and dependencies.
•
The Industrial Revolution influenced
imperialism because the western powers had
already been industrialized therefore giving
them better technology and giving them the
ability to easily overpower less advanced
eastern nations.
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SOURCES
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http://history.howstuffworks.com/europeanhistory/industrial-revolution4.htm
•
http://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution
•
http://quizlet.com/8850032/important-people-during-theindustrial-revolution-flash-cards/
•
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/urbanization-during-theindustrial-revolution.html
•
http://quizlet.com/1909171/what-i-need-to-know-for-theindustrial-revolution-flash-cards/
•
Glenco World History Modern Times Text Book
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