Industrial Revolution

Determining Factors IR began in Great Britain in about 1750

because of TRADE, CHANGES IN AGRICULTURE, INVENTIONS/TECHNOLOGY and POLITICAL STABILITY

These factors gave GB an edge which they used to colonize foreign territory and to create greater wealth

Description

The IR changed they way people ate, worked and lived as they moved to cities (urbanization)

Child labor, apartment slums, wages, working conditions, disease all became societal issues.

New middle class created, not land based

Agriculture

Need to have an Ag Rev and a surplus of food to have an IR

Britain began rotating crops= more variety and fields not left empty

More crops meant lower prices and more animal feed which brought down the price of meat

More efficient farmers meant you needed fewer farmers, so more people went to the cities to work in factories

Enclosure movement also meant fewer farmers but larger farms

Advent of canned food and milk chocolate radically changed what and how people ate

Trade Britain was largest importer and

exporter in Europe Colonial empire meant GB got products

from abroad and created demand for GB’s products = $$$$

GB had strong navy to protect ships http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/

empire_seapower/launch_ani_trafalgar.shtml

Technology and inventions

New technology being used Jethro Tull’s seed machine James Watt’s steam engine Iron industry increased demand for coal, which

GB had water powered mills and looms meant factories

on rivers=pollution Spinning Jenny and flying shuttle meant

cheaper fabric and clothes, which increased demand for cotton

Spinning Jenny

http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/Users/Allen/unpublished/jenny5-dp.pdf

Watt’s Steam Engine 1765

Epitaph of James Watt at Westminster Abbey

Not to perpetuate aName, which must endure while thePeaceful arts flourish, but to shew

That mankind have learned toKnow those who best deserve

Their gratitude.The King, His ministers

And many of the Nobles and Commons of the Realm, Raise this monument to

JAMES WATTWho, directing the force an original Genius early exercised

in philosophic research for the improvement of The Steam Engine,

England the resources of this Country, Increased the power of Man, and the use to an eminent place among the most illustrious followers of science and the real benefactors

of the World,

Flying shuttle

One person could work much fasterYou didn’t need to pass the thread back and forth by handFoot lever would pass the thread

Women and girls go to work

girl crawling in coal mineWomen match makers

http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/tuttle.labor.child.britain

Children and youth also comprised a relatively large proportion of the work forces in coal and metal mines in Britain. In 1842, the proportion of the work forces that were children and youth in coal and metal mines ranged from 19 to 40%. A larger proportion of the work forces of coal mines used child labor underground while more children were found on the surface of metal mines "dressing the ores" (a process of separating the ore from the dirt and rock). By 1842 one-third of the underground work force of coal mines was under the age of 18 and one-fourth of the work force of metal mines were children and youth (1842[380]XV). In 1851 children and youth (under 20) comprised 30% of the total population of coal miners in Great Britain. After the Mining Act of 1842 was passed which prohibited girls and women from working in mines, fewer children worked in mines.

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Results

All the changes affected one another Textile advances meant cheaper clothing, but a

greater demand for cotton from the US and colonies=slaves

Moving to cities meant a new class of poor people and a new class of wealthy, family changes, women & children work

Art, music and literature reflected these changes

Interesting websites

http://mrbrennanswebsite.com/Study_Guides/Unit%203%20Study%20Guide.pdf

http://www.learnhistory.org.uk/cpp/1750gal.htm

http://www.derbyshireuk.net/derwent_valley_mills.html

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REVhistoryIR2.htm