The Industrial

Revolution
1780 - 1900
 Bell Ringer

• What do you think are the most important

advances made during your lifetime?

• Name something in this room that was not

made in a factory.
 Quote from Gandhi

“Industrialization is, I am afraid, going to be a

curse for mankind. . . God forbid that India should
ever take to industrialization after the manner of
the West. The economic imperialism of a single tiny
island kingdom (England) today [1928] keeping the
world in chains. If an entire nation of 300 million
took to similar economic exploitation, it would strip
the world bare like locusts. . . Industrialization on a
mass scale will necessarily lead to passive and
active exploitation of the villagers. . . The machine
produces much too fast.”
 Population Before I.R.

• Less than 10% live in cities

• Most lived in small towns or villages in the countryside
• Majority were farmers renting small plots of land
• Land was not fenced off (open) / common areas were left for
public / people farmed it or used it for lumber
 Production Before: Food

• Domestic System- Most necessities, such as clothing,

furniture, and tools, were made by hand on the farm or
in small shops in the towns and villages.
• Farmers grew just enough food to survive.
• Surpluses might be exchanged for goods made in towns
 A change in the system…

• The growing textile industry became

too large for people to use their homes
• Industrialists slowly moved people out
of their homes into factories by major
waterways
 Textiles Change First
• Inventions speed work
– John Kay—flying shuttle, doubles weaving speed
– James Hargreaves—spinning jenny, spin 8 threads at once
– Richard Arkwright—Water frame, water power
– Edmund Cartwright—Power loom
– Eli Whitney – Cotton Gin
 The “Water
Frame”

•Big
machines
means big
factories!

The Power Loom

 Industrial Revolution

Developments that changed rural societies

into city-centered, industrialized societies
 The Factory System

• An organized method of production that brought

workers & machines together under the control of
managers
• Factories continued to grow larger and depended
upon a stronger energy source= steam power
James Watt’s Steam Engine
“Enclosed” Lands Today
 Why Britain?

• Great natural resources

– Water & coal to fuel machines
– Iron ore
– Rivers & Harbors (transportation)
– Fertile Land
• Economic stability- strong banks, overseas trading
• Capital – people (Entrepreneurs) have more $ to invest
• Large labor supply – increase in population of workers
– Farming = more food = longer lives
• Political Stability – many wars but none on British soil, successful
 Travel: Before

• Little or no travel for the common person

• Few or poor roads
• No need to go far from home
• To travel 300 miles in England in 1745 took 14 days
• In 1830 it took 1.5 days
• Today about 5 hours
 Early Canals

Britain’s Earliest Transportation

American City Locations
Age of the Railroad
American City Locations
 Railroads

• Effects
– Connected ports to inland cities
– Cheap and fast transportation!
– New jobs!
An Early Steam Locomotive
Steam Tractor
 Steam Ship

Robert Fulton—Clermont, 1st steam boat

The Impact of the Railroad
Railroads on the Continent
Factory life during the
Industrial Revolution

Factories built next

to rivers for power
source.
 The Factory System
• People flocked to the cities for a better life.
• Plenty of jobs but unhealthy working conditions
• Child labor issues (Cheap $$$)
• Factory owners want to keep machines running
– 14 hours a day, 6 days a week
• Dangers
– Explosions
– No education
– Black lung (in mines)
• No government support if injured
• Air and water pollution
Workers on an assembly line
Child labor in a textile factory
..more child labor
Young Coal Miners
Child Labor in the Mines

Child
“hurriers”
Tenement Homes
Tenement Yard
Factory Workers at Home
Kitchen
The New Industrial City
Industrial Staffordshire
 Problems of Pollution

The Silent Highwayman - 1858

 Positive Effects

• Raised the standard of living

– Healthier diets
– Better housing (Eventually)
– Cheaper clothing
– Expanded Education (Eventually)
– Shorter Hours, Higher Wages (Eventually)
– Increased life expectancy (eventually)
• New jobs
• Technology Advancements
• Coal to heat homes
 A New Society

• Unions – Late 1800s

– Organized labor groups representing the interests of
workers in a specific industry
– Improve wages and working conditions of members
 Negative Effects
• Widened gap between industrialized and
non-industrialized countries
• Class tensions – created great wealth for the upper class
and more of a gap
• Imperialism – taking over other countries
• Dependence on nonrenewable resources
• Overcrowding, pollution, poor living conditions for the
lower classes, disease rampant
 Spread of Industry

• GB tried to keep innovations a secret

• Germany – new factories, 1st major railway, gov’t funding
• U.S. – combined British $ and machinery with American
mechanical skills
– Had natural resources and large labor supply (immigrants)
Industrialization By 1850
 Economic Systems
Capitalism: the factors of production are privately owned and money is
invested in business ventures to make a profit
-- United States
Utilitarianism: government should try to promote the greatest good for
the greatest number of people
-- United States
Socialism: the factors of production are owned by the public and operate for
the welfare of all
-- Canada
Communism: complete socialism / all means of production (land, mines,
factories, RR’s, businesses would be owned by the people.
Private property does not exist, and all goods and services are
shared equally.
-- Cuba / North Korea / China / former USSR
 Adam Smith

• Wrote “The Wealth of Nations”

– free economy / markets
– Basic idea of Capitalism
– Laissez-Faire: economic policy of letting owners of
industry and business set working
conditions without interference
- Government should not interfere!!!!
Three Laws of Economics
1. Law of self-interest = people work for their own good
2. Law of competition = forces people to make a better product
3. Law of supply and demand
 Karl Marx

• Introduced a radical type of socialism

called Marxism
• Wrote “The Communist Manifesto”
– Human societies have always been
divided into warring classes
• “haves” = bourgeoisie (employers)
• “have nots” = proletariat (workers)
– ** Workers will revolt, take over
factories, and distribute the wealth
evenly among the nation
– Eventually a classless society develops
and there would be no need for govt.
 Impact of Industrialization
• Rise of Global Inequality
– Industrialization widened the wealth gap between
industrialized and non-industrialized countries
– Industrialized countries required a steady supply of
raw materials from less-developed lands
– Britain, the United States, Russia, and Japan seized
overseas colonies for resources and markets
– ……..Imperialism begins!!!!