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Negative Effects Of The Industrial Revolution Essay

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The Industrial Revolution first began in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It started in Britain and then spread across Europe and to the United States. As a result of the Agricultural Revolution there was a surplus of food and goods to trade, this coupled with the fact that there was finally political stability in Europe, allowed time for man to take some leisure time and find ways to improve life. However, not all things that came out of the Industrial Revolution were good. When taking into account the harsh working conditions in factories and mines, the detrimental consequences on the environment, and the negative effects it had on the day to day family life, the Industrial Revolution had an overall negative impact on Europe. The factories and mines built during the Industrial Revolution, in no way took into account their workers and their safety. For example, each day workers would come in, sit down at their station, and begin the long twelve to fifteen hour shift of doing the exact same motion over and over again. On some days there would be no one to relieve them of their shift, so they were forced to stay for another twelve to fifteen hour shift totalling a staggering twenty four hour to thirty hour work day. Furthermore, out of fear that their employees would lose efficiency, factory owners would ban employees from talking to each other, would lock the doors to all rooms so that no one could leave unless granted permission, and created walls around the building so no one could leave. Because of this suffocating environment workers were forced to stay in, the dangerous equipment they handled, and the high temperatures of the room, sometimes up to 130 degrees, fires would easily break out and spread across the whole building and nobody could escape. Coal mines were no safer than the confinements of a factory. As the demand for coal increased mine owners were given no choice but to deepen their mines, increasing the risk of flooding and fires. The causes of deaths from coal mines were endless: fires, explosions, roof collapses, workers falling down shafts, wagons ramming into people, and drowning. Overall, the design of factory and mines during the Industrial Revolution placed production and

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