Industrial Revolution
Britain Leads the Way
Chapter 5, Section 2
Focus Question
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What key factors allowed Britain to lead the
way in the Industrial Revolution?
Why did Britain become the First Country to
Industrialize?
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Plentiful natural resources
Ports/natural harbors to ship goods
worldwide
Rivers (water for power)
Canals (transport trade)
Britain surrounded by sea
Abundant coal supplies
Supplies of iron to build machines
British Workforce
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Skilled mechanics and ready workforce
Population explosion led to high demand for goods
Available money
Overseas trade contributed to prosperous British economy
British Workforce
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Plenty capital (money) to loan and invest in new factories,
mines, railroads, and enterprises (a business organization)
Stable government and political system in Britain that supported
economic growth
Strong navy to protect British trade, her empire, and overseas
trade
New entrepreneurs (assume financial risks of starting new
business) emerged
Interactive Geography Map
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Textile Industry
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Industrial Revolution began in British
textile (cloth) industry
British merchants developed a cotton
cloth industry called the putting-out
system
In the putting-out system, the raw
cotton was given to peasant families
Families spun the cotton into thread in
their cottages and then wove the
thread into home-made cloth
But production was really s-l-o-w under
the putting-out system
Making Cloth By Hand Was TimeConsuming and Slow
New Inventions were
Needed to Speed Cloth
Production
New Inventions
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Faster inventions increased speed of cloth production
Flying Shuttle (John Kay)
Spinning Jenny – 1764 - (James Hargreaves)
Water Frame – 1769 – Richard Arkwright – spinning machine
powered by water
Cotton Gin – Eli Whitney – 1793 – separate seeds from raw
cotton at fast rate – cotton production increased
Cotton Gin
Factories
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The new machines destroyed the putting out system
The machines were too large to operate in a cottage setting
Manufacturers built factories along rivers/streams to use water
as power source
Cloth spinners/weavers operated the machines in factories
Workers manufactured more products using machines than by
hand – the speed of cloth manufacturing increased
Transportation Problems
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More goods were being produced
But transportation methods were slow and
expensive
A horse and cart could only carry so many
goods from one destination to another
The time to get the goods from the factory to
the target destination was too long
Transportation Revolution
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Need to develop faster and cheaper means to transport
machine-produced products
Turnpikes, canals, bridges, and harbors were constructed
Canals cut the shipping time and thus the price of coal
Development of steam locomotive caused shipping by canal to
diminish – railroads could now travel where a canal was not
located
Steam Locomotive
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Steam powered locomotive – pioneered by George Stephenson
Products could be shipped quickly and cheaply over land
First major rail line – Liverpool to Manchester – opened in 1830
Railroad construction boomed in Britain and Europe
Chain Reaction: Effects of Industrial
Revolution
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Machines produced goods faster than by hand
Prices fell
Lower prices made goods more affordable to more people
More consumers demanded the cheaper goods
Factories produced more goods and hired more workers to
meet the demand
New wave of economic and social changes occurred – some
were good changes – some were bad changes
Powerpoint Questions
1. What is the name of the cloth industry where families
manufactured the cloth in their cottages?
2. Who invented the cotton gin? What year?
3. The world’s first major rail line stretched from ___ to ___.
4. An entrepreneur is a type of (circle one)
a. scientist
b. inventor
c. business person
d. personal secretary
Powerpoint Questions
5. The first area to go through major industrialization
was ______.
a. banking
b. railroads
c. coal mining
d. textile production
6. Which was a geographic advantage for England in
the Industrial Revolution?
a. coastal mountains
b. moderate climate
c. natural harbors
d. year-round agriculture
Powerpoint Questions
7. The two essential natural resources for
industrialization were
a. coal and iron.
b. gold and silver.
c. water and trees. d. steel and oil.
Powerpoint Questions
8. Where were the earliest textile factories located in England?
a. near the harbors
b. on farms
c. in the middle of large cities
d. on the banks of rivers
9. England benefitted from an excellent transportation system that allowed
goods to be transported to and from factories. These included -a. carts, trains, and airplanes
b. trains, rivers, and canals
c. ships, cars, and trains
d. horses, trains, and turnpikes