The impact of the Industrial Revolution on British society and economy
There is no doubt that the Industrial Revolution plays a central role in the modern British history. The structure of British society has forever changed by the impact and consequences of Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution is often stated as the increase of the number of factories, the exercise of steam power in a wide range of area and the mass-production produced by new technology in the course of 1750 to 1850 (Lane, 1978: 72). Engles (1986: 37) argued that the Industrial Revolution’s mainly development were the invention of the steam engine and the cotton industry. As the improvement of technology, the steam engine could produce more power with less
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People often lived and worked in family unit, presenting everything by their own hand. Porter (1999) points out that around 75% British lived in the village, and most people ensure their life by farming. As a result of the Industrial Revolution, this situation no longer continued. The new law required that all owner’s of gazing grounds must afford the expense for fence, which lead to many farmers go bankrupt, at the meantime, many hand weavers unemployed because the new machines capability of produce big amount outputs (Stearns, 1998). Consequently, it forced many people find jobs in new factories, and moved to cities where the factory located (Porter, 1999). It is also important to state that although they worked for long hours, they only get paid little money. As they could not afford the higher living expenses in big cities, they had to move into the slum house. It is necessary to point out that over 12,000 people lived in 1,400 houses, nearly one family shared per room (included about nine people at average) (Engles, 1968: 62). This lead to several distress like air pollution, typhoid and cholera to threaten people’s lives (Stearns, 1998). Dean (1983: 104) also describes that the living conditions were fearful, in the course of early year of Industrial Revolution, over half of children aged under five years old dead because of the infectious
The Industrial Revolution was a period of transition which took place in the late 18thcentury, England. This transition included the change in lifestyle, agricultural production, manufacturing, mining, transportation and technology. It had profound effects within the society and economy changing the structure of British society we know today.
The Industrial Revolution in Britain in the late 1700s and early 1800s was one of the greatest contributions to improvement in the lives of people all around the world. It made the world an easier place to live in and helped to better living and work conditions. Many argue about what were the most important contributions to the success of the Industrial Revolution and most can be easily argued to show that they were very important but Britain’s resources were crucial to the success of the revolution while its supply of labor was a close secondary option to being one of the more important reasons for the revolution taking
In the middle of the 18th century, there were many major European colonial powers; Spain, Portugal, the Dutch Republic, France and of course, Great Britain . A century later, by about the middle of the 19th century, the British Empire was unrivalled, stretching all around the world and having become a great trading and conquering empire. During this period, the “industrial revolution” was credited to have occurred; in this essay we will explore what the meaning of “industrial revolution” is or how it can be interpreted and how the events could have possibly accelerated Britain’s output, trade and commerce and ultimately led to the Britain’s
The industrial revolution in Great Britain marked the ending of an era in the country’s rich history. Once one of the most powerful nation on earth, there were now dark days imminent. Massive job loss, loss of economic power, and reconstructed social dynamics rode in on the heels of the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution was a time of change in several major aspects.
Before Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas in 1492, the main known land was known as Afroeurasia. Civilization has come a long way since the beginning of human existence. What has been done in the past has affected our lives in more ways then we can count. Everything that happened before 1492 such as farming, written language, inventions and philosophy had a huge impact on everything that led up to 1492 when Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas.
The slave trade or rather the triangular trade was a major trade between Britain, Africa, and West Indies and the Americas. Britain had traded manufactured goods to Africa, who then traded slaves to the plantations and they then traded produce goods like sugar and cotton. This trade played a significant role in the British history and economy. According to Eric Williams book, Capitalism and Slavery, the slave trade a played a key role in the funding of Britain’s industrial revolution, “The profits obtained provided one of the main streams of that accumulation of capital in England which financed the Industrial Revolution” (Williams 52). The profits that
The Effect of Industrial Revolution on Britain "An industrial revolution is the term generally applied to the complex of economic changes which are involved in the transformation of a pre-industrial, traditional type of economy, characterized by low productivity and normally stagnant growth rates, to a modern industrialized stage of economic development, in which output per head and standards of living are relatively high, and economic growth is normally sustained." CIPOLLA, C.M. (1975). This essay will critically examine a number of reasons for the take off of the industrial revolution in Britain. It will critically explain a number of social changes which took place within Britain due
The Industrial Revolution had a major impact on British society during the eighteenth century. the Industrial Revolution was in response to to a population explosion. Before the Industrial revolution, Britain had been an agricultural society with approximately eighty percent living and working on farms. By comparison, manufacturing, mining and trading employed a relatively small number. Towns and villages during the time were mainly small and mainly self-producing with the locals having little or no need to ever leave the town.There were many factors to contribute to the industrial revolution, including the agrarian revolution.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the Industrial Revolution in Europe had a significant influence on society. There were many changes in social classes and equality. The rise of the middle class had a momentous effect on the population of Europe and was a catalyst for many changes in the social makeup of the region. The influence of technology and electricity changed many aspects of social interaction and created a new class system. The migration of workers and the separation of the classes had political and social repercussions throughout Europe. Labor unions and political parties provided protection and a voice to many of the working class, and urbanization provided the stage for reformers to push for modernized
An era of new beginnings was created when industrialization swept through Great Britain starting in the 1760’s. This vast transition included a change in hand production to machine production, brand new chemical and iron production processes, an improvement in water power, major increases in the use of steam power, the development of machine tools, and the conversion towards coal as the major source of fuel. Not only was “he Industrial Revolution an evolving transformation in many sectors of the economy” (Atkins 1), but across the board, aspects of daily life were changed by the Industrial Revolution, and it led to not only economic prosperity, but radical social changes and increased political stratification.
The Industrial Revolution of Great Britain began in the 1780s while a French Revolution and American Revolution waged on. This Industrial Revolution transformed the economic and social life of Great Britain and after 1815 moved on to change continental Europe. The Industrial Revolution was one of great magnitude and change. Its impact was so great that only the Agricultural Revolution during the Neolithic times can be compared.
An Industrial Revolution is when a society goes from using tools or making products by hand, to using new sources of energy, such as coal, to power machines in factories. The consequences of the English Industrial Revolution greatly outweighed the benefits. Factories were dangerous and detrimental to the environment, workers were treated inhumanely, and living conditions were unbearable due to urbanization.
It is fair to say, that when we are talking on our cell phone in the car on the way to the mall to purchase a new outfit, it does not usually cross our mind about how we have the ability to be doing such things. We do not consider the fact that we have these means of transportation or communication. Even more so, we definitely do not think about what it would be like to have to special order an outfit after picking the material and being fitted for it, only to have to wait days to weeks before it was ready for us to pick up. Why don’t we think about this? Because we have never known life to be any other way. However, it wasn’t always this easy or convenient. People didn’t just wake up one morning to a revolutionized America. It was a slow, evolving process, one that occurred over more than 250 years and, in fact, it is still evolving today. The Industrial Revolution changed human life forever by changing the way goods were produced, increasing production, improving transportation and communication means, and changing the social classes and the way people lived their daily lives. Modern-day America is “modern” because of The Industrial Revolution ("Industrial Revolution").
Had it not been for the industrial revolution, I would doubt very much that we would enjoy the technology we have in the year 2000. The reason we have this technology is that between the years 1750 and 1914 a great change in the world 's history was made. People started to discover faster methods of producing goods, which increased their economy. These people were mainly British and French, but after a few years the French were distracted by their revolution, and the British continued to industrialize. However you must not think this industrialization had no effects on society because it did. So in this essay I am going to talk about the history of the industrial revolution, discuss why Britain led the way in the industrial revolution and also I am going to explain to you in detail the effects of industrialization on society.
Had it not been for the industrial revolution, I would doubt very much that we would enjoy the technology we have in the year 2000. The reason we have this technology is that between the years 1750 and 1914 a great change in the world 's history was made. People started to discover faster methods of producing goods, which increased their economy. These people were mainly British and French, but after a few years the French were distracted by their revolution, and the British continued to industrialize. However you must not think this industrialization had no effects on society because it did. So in this essay I am going to talk about the history of the industrial revolution, discuss why Britain led the way in the industrial revolution and also I am going to explain to you in detail the effects of industrialization on society.