Industrial Revolution

Factors that led to the Industrial revolution

1. Agricultural Revolution Enclosures movement
Two results
Landowners experimented with new agricultural methods.
Large landowners forced small farmers to become tenant farmers or to give up
farming and move to the cities.
2. The rise of towns and cities and the growth in trade stimulated the production of manufactured goods.
3. Life in the new towns and cities had created a desire for many new goods also. All these factors provided a
great stimulus to the production of manufactured goods.
4. desire to produce more goods at low cost to make higher profits led to the Industrial Revolution

Why Britain first.
1. Large migrant workers availability in the 18
th
century. (Enclosure movement. Disappearance of serfdom)
2. Availability of natural resources.
These natural resources included
a. Water power and coal to fuel the new machines;
b. Iron ore to construct machines, tools, and buildings;
c. Rivers for inland transportation;
d. Harbours from which its merchant ships set sail.
3. Economic Strength
a. Britain had an expanding economy to support industrialization (Overseas trade success).
b. Businesspeople invested in the manufacture of new inventions.
c. Britains highly developed banking system also contributed to the countrys industrialization.
d. People were encouraged by the availability of bank loans to invest in new machinery and expand
their operations.
e. Growing overseas trade, economic prosperity, and a climate of progress contributed to the
increased demand for goods.
4. Political Stability
a. Though Britain took part in many wars during the 1700s, none of these struggles occurred on British
soil. Furthermore, their military and political successes gave the British a positive attitude.
b. Revolution off the 17th century, a stable system of government had been established, which was no
longer under the domination of the feudal classes
5. England developed a large shipping industry and had no problem of transportation.
6. No other country enjoyed all these advantages at this period. Some suffered from lack of capital or natural
resources and some from an unfavourable political system. These factors made England a natural place for
the Industrial Revolution to begin.





The REVOLUTION in Sectors

Postal revolution
Improved transportation helped in carrying messages as well as people and goods. Rawland Hills idea of the
penny post
Business concerns took advantage of the penny-post in their buying and selling transactions far and near.




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Powerloom (Hargreaves ,
Arkwright, Crompton -
finer and cheaper thread)
Cotton Gin (Eli Whitney -
separate the seeds from
cotton)
Steam Engine (James Watt
in 1769 - rapid increase in
raw material transport 1
millon in 1750 to 250
million in 1840)
Blast Furnace (method of
turning low-grade iron into
steel, produce steel
cheaply - Rapid production
of machines)
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Railways - 1814, George
Stephenson developed
steam engine to haul coal
from mines. 1830, the first
railway train began to
carry passengers and
freight from Liverpool to
Manchester
Roads - Mc Adam devised
the method of making
pakka or macadamized
roads.
Canals - England began
connecting rivers and
lakes with canals (cheaper
transport)
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Farm Mechanization -in
fact had started before the
Industrial Revolution.
Mechanical drill for
seeding and the horse-
drawn cultivator to
replace the hoe. There
were also machines for
reaping and threshing.
Crop Rotation - manuring
and the practice of crop
rotation
Land Consolidation
Industrial Revolution in Other Countries

Industrial Revolution began to make
someheadway after 1815, after the defeat of
Napoleon and the end of 23 years of war.
Industrial growth occurred only after 1850,
when the central government constructed
railroads.
By 1850, was developing the iron industry
though she had to import both iron ore and
coal.
France
1865, occupied second place as a producer of
steel, but with England far ahead in the lead.
Economic isolation and scattered resources
hampered countrywide industrialization in the
early 1800s
pockets of industrialization appeared, as in the
coal-rich Ruhr Valley of west-central Germany.
Beginning around 1835,
Industrialdevelopment took an amazing leap
after 1870 when the German states were
finally welded into one nation.
Germany
Last of the big European powers to have an
industrial revolution.
rich in mineral resources but lacked capital
and free labour
freed the serfs in 1861, she obtained capital
from foreign countries and Russian industry
moved ahead
But it was only after Russias 1917 Revolution
that rapid industrial development started
Russia
USA introduced machines and started
factories before 1800 after gaining
independence from England
Samuel Slater had smuggled to the United
States the design of a spinning machine.
Railroad System developed in 1840.
By 1860 she had well established textile, steel,
and shoe industries.
The American industries grew very rapidly
after 1870.
USA
first country in Asia to industrialize
Traditionally, Japan produced mainly such
articles as silk, porcelain and toys
end of the 19th century, Japanese production
included steel, machinery, metal goods and
chemicals.
Japan
Belgium led Europe in adopting Britains new
technology. Belgium had rich deposits of iron
and coal as well as fine waterways for
transportation.
British skilled workers played a key role in
carrying industrialization to Belgium. A
Lancashire carpenter named William Cockerill
made his way to Belgium in 1799. He carried
secret plans for building spinning machinery.
Belgium
Worldwide Impact of Industrialization


Industrialization
Rise of Global
Inequality
Transformation
of Society (Rise
of miiddle class)
From Village to
City (Shift of
center of
economic life)
Industrial
Capitalism
Race for raw
material
(Imperialism)
The Philosophers of Industrialization
1. Laissez-faire Economics (Let us alone)
When the Industrial Revolution was gaining strength in England and the same was
generally true in other countries the growing belief was that governments should not
interfere with business and industry.
Protection for industrial workers could not have taken place without a change in the ideas
of the responsibilities of governments.
The famous economist Adam Smith voiced this idea in 1776 in a book called The Wealth of
Nations.
Businessman should be free to look after his own interests.
Only the unwritten law of supply and demand should determine the size of his profits.
The same unwritten law would determine the fate of the worker, whether he had a job,
what would be his working conditions and salary.
The Ideas of Malthus and Ricardo Economists Thomas Malthus and David Ricardo
supported Smiths basic ideas. Like Smith, they believed that natural laws governed
economic life. Their important ideas were the foundation of laissez-faire capitalism.
Capitalism is an economic system in which money is invested in business ventures with the
goal of making a profit. These ideas helped bring about the Industrial Revolution
Theory known as laissez-faire or let us alone, was then a kind of religion among capitalists.

2. Industrial Capitalism and Its Consequences
Capitalist Owners of the means of production
Workers - Who worked for wages.
It resulted in the concentration of economic power in a few hands.
The independent craftsman became rare. A small number of capitalists came to control the
lives of not only a large number of workers whom they employed but also, directly or
indirectly, the economic life of the entire society.
The concentration of economic power in a few hands resulted in shocking social
inequalities and created a wide gulf between capitalists and the rest of the population.
The Industrial Revolution produced a vast number of landless, tool less workers, who were
wholly dependent on an employer.
They had to accept whatever wage the employer offered, for there were usually more
workers than jobs.
Women and children were employed even in mines because they could be hired for less
money.
Often they had to work from 15 to 18 hours a day with no rest periods. If perchance they
fell asleep on duty, they might be beaten by a heartless overseer.
Working surroundings were unsafe and dirty.
Whole areas of the industrial cities where workers lived were crowded slums.
Accidents, disease and epidemics were common. A report on the slums of Manchester in
1837 mentions, among other things, that almost all inhabitants of many streets perished in
cholera.
No Social security, Child Labourers.
3. Rise of Socialism
Contrast to laissez-faire philosophy, which advised governments to leave business alone,
other theorists believed that governments should intervene.
Jeremy Bentham introduced the philosophy of utilitarianism.
John Stuart Mill, a philosopher and economist, led the utilitarian movement in the 1800s.
Socialists argued that the government should actively plan the economy rather than
depending on free-market capitalism to do the job.
They argued that government control of factories, mines, railroads, and other key industries
would abolish poverty and promote equality.
Public ownership, they believed, would help the workers, who were at the mercy of greedy
employers.

4. The Communist Manifesto
The writings of a German journalist named Karl Marx introduced the world to a radical type
of socialism called Marxism.
Marx and Friedrich Engels, outlined their ideas in a 23-page pamphlet called The Communist
Manifesto.
Society divided into two warring classes haves (bourgeoisie) and have nots.
According to Marx and Engels, the Industrial Revolution had enriched the wealthy and
impoverished the poor.
According to Marx the large proletariat would revolt, seize the factories and mills from the
capitalists, and produce what society needed. Workers, sharing in the profits, would bring
about economic equality for all people. The workers would control the government in a
dictatorship of the proletariat. After a period of cooperative living and education, the
state or government would wither away as a classless society developed. Marx called this
final phase pure communism.

Capitalism and Colonization
The discovery of new lands and the establishment of colonies had resulted in unprecedented
expansion of trade and accumulation of wealth by merchants.
The trade included also the trade in human beings, that is, slave trade.
The colonization was accompanied by the plunder of the wealth of the people who were colonized.
For example, the treasures of the Inca and the Aztec civilizations were plundered by the Spaniards.
Mines in the newly conquered areas in the Americas were also exploited for precious metals like
gold and silver. Large numbers of native people were worked to death in these mines.
Use of slave labour in the plantations in the Americas. Colonization of Asia caused similar havoc and
devastation. During a few decades of Dutch rule, the population of a province of Java in Indonesia
was reduced to less than one-fourth of its former size.
The defeat of the Nawab of Bengal by the English in 1757 was followed by years of naked plunder
of the wealth of Bengal. According to estimates of the English government at that time, the English
Company and its officials received 6,000,000 pounds as gifts during the period of 1757-1766. The
plunder by the English contributed to a famine in 1769-70 in which about a quarter of the
population of Bengal perished. Thus a lot of wealth was accumulated in Europe for investment to
make more profit.
Political Effects and Reform movements
1. The Union Movement
Unions engaged in collective bargainingnegotiations between workers and their employers.
They bargained for better working conditions and higher pay.
If factory owners refused these demands, union members could strike, or refuse to work.
Skilled workers led the way in forming unions because their special skills gave them extra
bargaining power. Management would have trouble replacing such skilled workers as
carpenters, printers, and spinners. Thus the earliest unions helped the lower middle class
more than they helped the poorest workers.
For years, the British government denied workers the right to form unions. The government
saw unions as a threat to social order and stability. Indeed, the Combination Acts of 1799 and
1800 outlawed unions and strikes.
Parliament finally repealed the Combination Acts in 1824. After 1825.
By 1875, British trade unions had won the right to strike and picket peacefully.
United States, skilled workers had belonged to unions since the early 1800s. In 1886, several
unions joined together to form the organization.
2. Reform Laws
In both Great Britain and United States, new laws reformed some of the worst abuses of
industrialization.
In 1832, for example, Parliament set up a committee to investigate child labour.
As a result of this committees findings, Parliament passed the Factory Act of 1833. The new
law made it illegal to hire children under 9 years old. Children from the ages of 9 to 12 could
not work more than 8 hours a day. Young people from 13 to 17 could not work more than 12
hours. In 1842 the Mines Act prevented women and children from working underground.
In 1847, the Parliament passed a bill that helped working women as well as their children. The
Ten Hours Act of 1847 limited the workday to ten hours for women and children who worked
in factories.
United States also passed legislation to protect child workers. In 1904, a group of progressive
reformers organized the National Child Labour Committee to end child labour.
3. Other Reform Movements
Abolition of Slavery
o William Wilberforce led the fight for abolition to end of the slave trade and slavery in
the British Empire.
o Parliament passed a bill to end the slave trade in the British West Indies in 1807.
o Britain finally abolished slavery in its empire in 1833.
o British antislavery activists had mixed motives. Some were morally against slavery,
such as the abolitionist William Wilberforce.
o Others viewed slave labour as an economic threat. Furthermore, a new class of
industrialists developed who supported cheap labour rather than slave labour.
o United States the movement to fulfil the promise of the Declaration of Independence
by ending slavery grew in the early 1800s. The enslavement of African people finally
ended in the United States when the Union won the Civil War in 1865.
Women Fight for Change
o Industrial Revolution proved a mixed blessing for women. On the one hand, factory
work offered higher wages than work done at home. Women spinners in Manchester,
for example, earned much more money than women who stayed home to spin cotton
thread. On the other hand, women factory workers usually made only one-third as
much money as men.
o Women led reform movements to address this and other pressing social issues. During
the mid-1800s, for example, women formed unions in the trades where they
dominated.
o In the United States, college-educated women like Jane Addams ran settlement
houses. These community centres served the poor residents of slum neighbourhoods.
o Women activists around the world joined to found the International Council for
Women in 1888. Delegates and observers from 27 countries attended the councils
1899 meeting.











Summary of Industrial Revolution


Difference between Capitalism and Feudalism
Capitalism
Economy life under capitalism was fast
moving with the aim of producing more
and more goods for bigger markets so
that more profits could be made.
Feudalism
Economic life under feudalism was static as
goods were produced for local
consumption and there was no incentive to
produce more by employing better means
of producing goods for a bigger market.

Questions
Explain the meaning of the following terms: Industrial Revolution, capital, capitalism, socialism,
protective tariff, laissez faire.
Give examples to show that the Industrial Revolution with its demand for raw materials and
markets made nations more dependent on one another.
Describe the conditions which prevailed in industrial cities and factories as the Industrial Revolution
spread. How these conditions were slowly improved?
Make a Time Line showing the most important inventions from 1750 to 1870.
Write a paper of 250-400 words on the subject: The Industrial Revolution was a mixed blessing.
How did the growth of trade unions help to put on end to the idea of laissez faire?
Why does industrialization affect farming, transportation, communication, trade and how does it
result in the need for more education?
How does industrialization help in raising the level or the standard of living?
Study the weaknesses and disadvantages of producing goods and services under the capitalist
system of production. What are the advantages that a socialist system can have over a society
based on capitalism?
Would you say that industrialization was a natural step in mans progress? Why or why not?