The Industrial Revolution

2. The Industrial Revolution • The Industrial Revolution is the name given to the enormous changes that took place with technology, farming, mining, manufacturing, and transportation from 1750 through the middle of the 19th Century. • These changes had a massive impact on people’s economic, social and cultural lives.

3. The Industrial Revolution

4. The Industrial Revolution • The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain during the 1750s. • It later spread to Western Europe, North America, and around the world. • The main thing that happened during the Industrial Revolution was that machines were developed that could do many of the jobs and tasks that had previously been done by people (or in some cases, animals, such as horses).

5. The Industrial Revolution • Before the Industrial Revolution, societies were largely rural and people made things at home. • Industrialization meant that more and more people lived in cities, and goods were mass produced in purpose-built factories.

6. The Industrial Revolution • The Industrial Revolution brought about much better economic conditions for people, but the poor and working classes often suffered with grim jobs and terrible living conditions. • There are still some countries in Africa and Asia that are not as industrialize as many Western nations. • These countries are sometimes referred to as underdeveloped countries.

7. The Industrial Revolution • Britain was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution during the mid 1700s for three main reasons. • 1) Britain had lots of coal and iron ore, which was needed to power and make the machines that were required by industrialization. • 2) it helped that Britain was politically stable. • 3) Britain was a major colonial power at the time, with the colonies providing both the raw materials for manufacturing and the marketplaces for the manufactured goods to be sold after they had been made.

8. The Industrial Revolution • The Industrial Revolution was the most important thing to happen in human history since the time when animals and plants were domesticated. • Before the Industrial Revolution happened, each generation of people produced a roughly similar amount of products to their predecessors and overall economic wealth was fairly stagnant. • After industrialization, production began to grow quickly and it generally continued to grow each year.

9. The Agricultural Revolution • Industrial Revolution was made possible in part by a change in the farming fields of Western Europe. • The Dutch led the way in this new agricultural revolution. • They built dikes to reclaim land from the sea. • They combined smaller fields into larger ones to make better use of the land and used fertilizer from livestock to renew the soil.

10. The Agricultural Revolution • In the 1700s, British farmers expanded on Dutch agricultural experiments • Lord Charles Townshend urged farmers to grow turnips, which restored exhausted soil • JethroTull invented a new mechanical device, the seed drill, to aid farmers.

11. The Agricultural Revolution • Rich landowners pushed ahead with enclosure. • Enclosure is the process of taking over and consolidating land formerly shared by peasant farmers. • By the 1700s, they wanted to create larger fields that could be cultivated more efficiently. • As millions of acres were enclosed, farm output rose and so did profits.

12. The Agricultural Revolution • The agricultural revolution contributed to a rapid growth of population. • Britain’s population soared from about 5 million in 1700 to almost 9 million in 1800 • The population of Europe as a whole shot up from roughly 120 million to about 180 million during the same period

13. Why did this population increase occur? • The agricultural revolution reduced the risk of death from famine because it created a surplus of food. • Since people ate better, they were healthier. • Better hygiene and sanitation, along with improved medical care, further slowed deaths from disease.

14. New Technology Becomes Key • Another factor that helped trigger the Industrial Revolution was the development of new technology. • Aided by new sources of energy and new materials, these new technologies enabled business owners to change the ways work was done.

15. An Energy Revolution • During the 1700s, people began to harness new sources of energy. • One vital power source was coal, used to develop the steam engine.

16. The Industrial Revolution • The steam engine was one of the most important inventions of the Industrial Revolution. • The first practical steam engine was a machine made to pump water out of mines by the English inventor, Thomas Newcomen in 1712. • The steam engine design was later improved upon by the Scotsman, James Watt. • Watt’s engine would become a key power source of the Industrial Revolution • As well as powering the machines used in factories and mines, steam engines were also used in ships and locomotives, which improved transportation dramatically.

17. The Industrial Revolution • The Industrial Revolution effectively created a new economic system, known as “capitalism”. • Although the overall effects of industrialization were positive, there were many bad sides too, including all the pollution and waste that was created as a side effect by the machines.

18. Growth of the Textile Industry • The production of textiles was one of the things that was totally transformed by the Industrial Revolution. • Before industrialization, people generally made clothes at home. • This was called putting out system or cottage industry. • Merchants would often give the clothes makers the raw materials and essential equipment, and then collect and sell the finished products for them.

19. Inventions Speed Production • John Kay’s flying shuttle enabled weavers to work so fast that they soon outpaced spinners. • James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny in 1764, which spun many threads at the same time. • In 1769, Richard Arkwright patented the water frame, which was a spinning machine that could be powered by water.

20. Inventions Speed Production • In America faster spinning and weaving machines presented a challenge—how to produce enough cotton to keep up with England. • Raw cotton grown in the South had to be cleaned of dirt and seeds by hand, a time-consuming task. • Eli Whitney invented a machine called the cotton gin that separated the seeds from the raw cotton at a fast rate in 1793. • Cotton production increased exponentially.

21. Growth of the Textile Industry • Industrialization meant that machines took over most of the work, with humans becoming less and less involved. • Those that did work had to go to a factory each day, where their time and effort was closely monitored for efficiency. • In effect, production increased, but not everyone’s lives got better.

22. Karl Marx and Socialism • Thought workers were being taken advantage of by the factory owners • Work long hours for little pay under terrible conditions • The capitalists or factory owners were getting richer while the workers got poorer • Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto encouraging workers to unite, take over the factories and establish a classes society where all would be equal.