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http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/Users/Allen/unpublished/jenny5-dp.pdf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