Introduction to the
Industrial Revolution
An Overview
1700 - 1900
Slide 1
Shift from the Agrarian World
• In England – majority of people were
farmers in rural areas
• Agricultural Revolution – New
farming methods invented
• Enclosure movement had large land
owners buying and then fencing public
land
Subsistence Living!
Slide 2
Shift from the Small Farm
World
• Wealthy landowners started buying
land. Farmers pushed off the land
• Jethro Tull – horse drawn seed drill efficient
• More food produced = population
increase
• In 1700 there were about 100 million
people in Europe, by 1800 the
population had grown to 190 million.
Slide 3
Enclosures
Slide 4
Jethro Tull: Science Guy or
British rock band?
Slide 5
Textile Industry Takes Off
• Domestic system (cottage industry)
had dominated the early 1700s;
merchants dropped off raw materials at
people’s homes, picked up finished
products later
• Work completed by entire family
Slide 6
The Family Institution
• How many people are in your family?
• What is the average expectancy for
females and males living today?
• Boys: Are you going to do what your
father does when you grow up?
• Girls: Are you going to be housewives
or have a career?
Slide 7
Slide 8
Family Life: Before
Industrialization
• Living conditions were hard for most
people
– Life revolved around the success of the
crops.
– Most people were malnourished and
susceptible to diseases.
– Frequent diseases and epidemics kept the
population relatively stable.
– Life expectancy was about 30-35 years.
– Marriage and child bearing occurred during
the teenage period.
Slide 9
Textile Industry Takes Off
• Series of inventions
modernize textile
manufacturing,
including:
• 1733 - Flying
Shuttle (John Kay)
– Used to weave
cloth
The Spinning Jenny
Slide 10
Textile Industry Takes Off
• 1760 – Spinning
Jenny (James
Hargreaves) –
Allowed for
multiple threads to
be woven together
• 1769 – Water
Frame (Richard
Arkwright) – Used
water to power the
spinning frame
The Spinning Jenny
Slide 11
Textile Industry Takes Off
• 1785 – Water
Loom (Edmund
Cartwright) – First
machine that could
weave cloth
• 1793 – Cotton Gin
(Eli Whitney) –
Machine that
separated cotton
seeds from the
cotton
Plans for the Cotton Gin
Slide 12
Young Girl Working in Textile Factory
As industrialization spread, factories employed children as young as 5 or
6 to work 12 hour days.
Slide 13
Textile Industry Takes Off
• These
advancements
resulted in the
movement of work
from the home to
the factory
Plans for the Cotton Gin
Slide 14
Look Around Us, What Changed?
• The Industrial Revolution
• Definition
– the shift from making goods
by hand to making them by
machine
• The Industrial Revolution
creates great wealth but also
great social and economic
inequality, prompting a backlash
of political, social, and economic
reforms.
Slide 15
Why Britain Industrializes
First
• Land (raw material, natural resources)
• Labor (skilled and unskilled labor force,
management)
• Capital (money for investments)
• Entrepreneurs (People with an vision
and the ability to make it happen)
Slide 16
Land
• 1715-1850
• Natural resources
large amounts of
coal and iron
• a large river system
for water power
and many natural
harbors for easy
trade
• Colonies – raw
materials
Slide 17
Labor
• An increase in
population created a
surplus of workers
• Enclosed farms pushed
farmers off the land and
into the cities
• Unskilled laborers were
needed to run the
machines
• Middle management
positions (factory
managers, accountants,
equipment managers)
Slide 18
Capital
• A strong, stable
government allowed a
strong, stable economy
to develop which
resulted in extra
money to invest
• Banks gave loans to
invest in new machinery
and to expand
operations
Slide 19
Entrepreneurs
• People with a vision
who sees a need the
public will respond
to
• People with skills
and knowledge to
gather the needed
raw material, recruit
and organize
workers, and
arrange for capital
and investments
Slide 20
Changes Brought by the
Industrial Revolution
• Invention of the steam engine in 1763 by
James Watt shifts labor from humans and
animals to machines
• Inventions continue to make life,
manufacturing, and farming easier and better
• Continuous reinvestment of profits fuel even
greater growth
• Inventions in one area often led to
inventions in others
• Transportation and communication systems
are greatly enhanced
Slide 21
Changes Brought by the
Industrial Revolution
• Cities begin to dominate the western world
• Creates a new social order with the rise of an
influential middle class
• Poor working conditions for lower classes
eventually lead to new social and political
movements
• Need for markets and resources force
Europeans to take over foreign lands
(imperialism)
Slide 22