Industrial Revolution and Nationalism



The Industrial Revolution

Part 1 – What was the Industrial Revolution?

➢ The Industrial Revolution (approx. 1750-1850)—a life-changing period when goods changed from being made by hand to being made by machines in factories.

➢ Background Information

o Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain

o Until the late 1700’s, nearly all goods were made by hand. People made what they needed or they bought it from a craftsman for a very high price.

▪ Development of the cottage industry – due to a lack of jobs in farming, families would produce an item in their home or workshop (ex> spinning wool into thread for cloth).

o Most people in 1750 are living on farms and raising their own crops like wheat.

➢ Why did the Industrial Revolution Start in Great Britain?

1. Urbanization – movement of people from rural areas to the city

a. Farmers moving from rural areas due to land enclosure – 18th century movement to fence in open fields to combine many small fields into larger ones that could be farmed more efficiently; land becomes private

b. People began to move to cities where they could get jobs in factories – a shortened term for “manufactories” or places where items were made by hand; A building or group of buildings in which goods are manufactured

i. Factories replaced the cottage industry as people began to work in factories outside the home during the I.R.

2. Geography – England is an island nation and avoided destruction from wars on mainland Europe

3. Fertile Farm Land – England had fertile fields resulting in more food production for the population

4. Growing Population – In 1750, there were 140 million people in Europe, by 1850, there were 266 million people! Better food, more resistance to diseases, lack of major wars, and decline in death rates helped population of Europe to grow

5. Wealth – England has wealth coming in as a result of the new machines, new methods of production = wealth means people can buy more products

6. Coal and Iron Deposits – England had these two natural resources in abundance that were vital to build new machines and run factories

7. Creativity – England had many inventive people and the government did not interfere with inventions being produced

a. Entrepreneurs – men who developed businesses and sold their inventions; use their own personal wealth to create inventions

b. Patents – special rights that a government gives an inventor for a period of time so that no one else can copy or sell his/her invention – gives inventor time to recover cost of invention – in exchange, the inventor provides the government with all information about invention

➢ Industrial Revolution Begins in Textile Industry

o Weavers had long worked by hand on looms. New inventions such as John Kay’s “flying shuttle” which weaved thread into cloth faster, and James Hargreaves’ “Spinning Jenny” which made thread faster, in the early to mid 18th century together increased production of cloth making it faster and cheaper to produce.

▪ Newly invented machines move faster than people = more products in less time

• Textiles—cloth products; the first machines of the Industrial Revolution were invented to speed up production on textiles.

▪ Textile production became simpler with the development of mechanical looms that children could run and that could make as much fabric as 15 weavers working by hand at their looms.

➢ Machinery Replaces People

o Machines cause some workers to face unemployment – out of work; modern definition – persons who do not have a job but have been actively looking for work in the prior 4 weeks and are available for work

o Machines were able to produce more goods at lower prices than ever before!

o Agricultural machinery improved = food grown in large quantities by fewer people

o Machines needed power - the energy need to make machines work

▪ England was running low on wood because trees had already been used – started using coal to fuel new machinery

▪ Coal mines filled up with spring water- had inefficient pumps to get water out that were run by steam engines

▪ James Watt – began working on these inefficient steam engines – by the 1780s he was building steam engines to power all types of machinery in the Industrial Revolution, not just pumps for water

▪ Steam power literally changes the world – didn’t need human or animal power – could put these engines in ships which would allow them to move against currents and steam engines could produce products at alarmingly fast rates

➢ The Factory System

o During the Industrial Revolution, factories sprung up all around England and became centers of production

o Men, women, and children worked 12 to 16 hours a day, six days a week running machines, working in coal mines, etc.

▪ Children as young as 7 worked these hours and were only paid 1/6 of what a grown man was paid

o Each factory worker had a specific job which was performed over and over all day – this was division of labor – the idea that many people doing different jobs to create one product speeds the process up and makes the final produce cheaper (ex> making a pencil)

▪ Before the Industrial Revolution, one gunsmith might make 2-3 guns a year; a factory could make 100,000 guns in a year!

o Average wages for working class and middle class raised – resulted in a better quality of life – socio-economic wellbeing – people could afford new products

o Factories were often very dirty, unhealthy, and poorly ventilated – coal mines were dangerous due to cave-ins and explosions

o Factory system brought about new inventions in machinery, transportation, and communication.

➢ Limiting Industrialization

o Great Britain purposely limited growth of industry in places like India

o India had been a producer of cotton cloth made by hand throughout the 18th century

o During the first half of the 19th century, the British controlled India’s economy through the British East India Company

o British shipped machine made cotton cloth to India which made Indian workers lose their jobs because machine made cloth was cheaper to produce than handmade cloth

o British only wanted India to ship them their raw materials (An unprocessed natural product used in manufacture) to Britain and keep buying British goods

o Britain halted India’s potential for industrial growth in the early 19th century

➢ Industrial Revolution Comes to America

o The British government didn’t want the machinery or knowledge of production to leave Britain

so they tried not to let people leave the country with this work experience

o In 1789, Samuel Slater disguises himself and immigrates to America to start his own cotton mill in

Rhode Island

▪ New England mills spun thread and wove cotton that came from the American South

▪ By 1830, women and children made up 2/3 of cotton industry’s labor force

▪ Nearly 80% of laborers in textile and shoe factories in New England were women and they

came from rural areas

➢ Major Effects of Industrial Revolution

o Europe’s economy shifted from agriculture to manufacturing

o Resulted in creation of an industrial middle class and an industrial working class

o By mid 19th century, Great Britain was first industrial nation and richest nation

o I.R. spread to other European countries and America over the course of several decades

o Environmental Concerns – air pollution (smog) and water pollution (sewage)

o Rapid Urbanization led to overcrowding and unsanitary living conditions

Works Cited

Human Odyssey Textbook.

World Studies Textbook.

World History Textbook.

Definition of Factory from



Definition of Unemployment from



Definition of Raw Materials from



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