World History II Final Exam Review
Unit 4: The Industrial Revolution
Nel Siemsen
Agricultural Revolution
 Britain had extremely productive agriculture:
 Tenant/landlord relationship changed: peasants paid
commercial rents to landowners in a business relationship
 Enclosure Acts: Laws passed in England in the late 1700s to
1800s that converted public lands held in common into parcels
of land to be sold to private owners.
 As agricultural productivity increased, textile manufacture
increased
 Invention: Seed drill, 1701: Jethro Tull—increased agricultural
productivity
Textile Manufacture Revolution
 Textile industry increased British jobs, as they imported cotton from
India
 Inventions replaced people as fewer and fewer people were needed in
manufacture
 Inventions: Spinning jenny (1764), “water frame” (1769), “spinning
mule” (1779), power loom (1785), cotton gin (1793)
 Thomas Newcomen—used steam power to drive water pumps in
mine shafts (1712)
 James Watt and Matthew Boulton—developed steam engines
(1785)
 Textiles dominated British exports, as they increase quantity and
quality
 New technology displaced workers—caused Luddite Riots (18101820)—anti-mechanization people destroyed machines and
technology
Industrialization of Britain
 Coal was used to melt iron, rather than wood—more efficient
 Iron industry coincided with the inventions of the railroads,
 Steam engine
 Railroad track
 Locomotives
 Steamships
 New urban systems of gas supply and solid and liquid waste disposal
 Rocket: first reliable locomotive (1829) – 16mph
 Transatlantic steamships (1838): world steamship tonnage
increased more than 100x
Working Conditions
 Michael Thomas Sadler (1831): investigated the conditions of
child labor in cotton and linen factories
 Children began work at age 6, and worked 12-14 hr days, had
bad food, cramped, dirty, conditions
 Committee on the Conditions in Mines (1842)
 Investigations revealed children worked 14hrs
underground/day
 Sir Edwin Chadwick, investigator for Royal Commission on
the Poor Laws
 Urged further legislation to provide for sewage, drainage,
sanitation, and potable water
 Inspired Public Health Act of 1848 and a Board of Health
Gender Relationships
 Employment for wives moved away from home, into factories
 Family wage instituted – men were paid more than women on
the principle that they had to provide for an entire family
 Women brought back into the home
 Domesticity: women’s roles returned to a family-oriented
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lifestyle: caregivers and nurturers
Living standards rose: ventilation heating, lighting, indoor
plumbing, and running water
Family planning increased, as children attended free, mandatory
school in 1830s-1840s
Women jobs: teachers, nurses—fit defined roles
Women gained some political power through their husbands
Political Reactions: 1800-1914
 In Britain, government tried to restrict power of people:
 Peterloo Massacre (1819): peaceful protest against Corn Laws, for universal male
suffrage, and annual election of the House of Commons—government fired on.
 1832: Whig party forces through Reform Bill of 1832 (shifted seats from rural
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constituencies to urban) to prevent revolutions
Factory Act of 1833: forbade employment of children under age of 9 in textile mills
Poor Law (1834): provided adequate assistance to sustain life
Municipal Corporations Act (1835): Reformed elections and administrations in
large cities to better prepare them for industrialization
1842: employment of women and of children under age 10 forbidden
Ten Hour Act of 1847: limited working hours
The Chartists: presented a Charter to parliament for universal male suffrage
1918: Britain adopts universal male suffrage for men 21+
Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst formed violent suffragette organizations for women’s
suffrage
 1918: women over 30 gain voting rights
 1928: Representation of the People Act: women have equal voting rights to men
Labor Organization
 Combination Act of 1799, repealed in 1824: forbade workers from
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unionizing
Trade Union Act of 1871: workers gained the right to strike
London Dock strike (1889): working-class strength demonstrated,
closed down dock
Labour Party (1900): working-class party won parliament seats
Karl Marx: called for worker-led revolution
 Wealth comes from the proletariat (laborers)
 Marx called for graduated income tax, free education, abolition of child
factory labor, abolition of private property
 Perpetual class struggle: proletariat vs. bourgeoisie
 Revolution never occurred: unions won demands for higher pay, shorter
hours, and better working conditions, assimilated to new worker
organizations and accommodated demands, worker-favoring legislation
passed, Labour party took its place in Parliament