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The Rise of Industry. How Did the Average European Live in 1750?. In 1750 …. Worked as farmers using handmade tools Lived in one-room cottages in or around small villages Made their own clothes G rew their own food Only variety in goods was through occasional trade in the village
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In 1750 … • Worked as farmers using handmade tools • Lived in one-room cottages in or around small villages • Made their own clothes • Grew their own food • Only variety in goods was through occasional trade in the village • Knew very little about the world outside their own village • All travel was by foot or cart
By 1850 … • Worked in factories using machinery • Lived in crowded multifamily apartment buildings in large towns or cities • Bought all of their clothes • Bought all of their food • Had a variety of options in what they could buy from stores • Knew a great deal about the outside world • were able to travel rapidly by train or steamship
Agricultural Revolution • New chemical fertilizers improved the quality of the soil and crop yield • The seed drill (a machine which planted seeds in even rows) was invented • Practiced new forms of crop rotation and discovered which crops replenish nutrients in the soil the fastest (if you’re curious, it’s turnips)
Agricultural Revolution • Small farms disappeared as they were bought up by wealthier landowners to create more efficient large farms • this increased farm output and profitability • it also left a lot of peasant farmers homeless and jobless; they were left with no choice but to move into the cities
Population Growth • More efficient farms → more food → more people • Population of England grew from 5 million in 1700 to 9 million in 1800 • Grew mostly from people living longer; no longer had to worry about starving to death or being weak from malnutrition
New Technologies • Began to burn coal to produce energy • Invention of steam powered engine, which would power ships and trains, by James Watt • Learned how to make higher quality metals, specifically iron
Transportation Improvements • Built new roads, canals, better bridges and harbors • Railroads invented around 1830; thousands of miles of tracks quickly laid • Began to replace sailing vessels with steamships
Industrial Revolution • Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in Britain? • Had lots of coal and iron deposits • Had lots of workers available to work in the mines and factories • Had the many mechanics and engineers necessary for developing new inventions • Had many people who had grown wealthy from overseas trade that were looking for investments • Had a stable government that supported economic growth
The Textile Industry • Textiles are cloth goods • Had been produced using the “putting-out” system since about 1600: • raw cotton was distributed to peasant families who spun it into thread and then wove the thread into cloth • the cloth was then sent into towns where skilled artisans finished and dyed the cloth, making it ready for use • this process was SLOW, produced INCONSISTENT quality, and was EXPENSIVE!
The Textile Industry • In the mid-1700s, inventors came up with a variety of machines to perform the spinning, weaving, finishing, and dying processes • this made the process of making cloth much faster and cheaper • the machines were large and heavy, however, and had to be housed in factories – rather than sending the work out to the workers, the workers now had to come to the work