Feb 4

Matthew Snodgrass
How The Industrial Revolution Came About

Why Was the Industrial Revolution So Important To History? The Machine has changed the world
in the last 200 years. The lives of individuals and the fates of nations have been changes; production of
goods and the ways people earn their living changed too. The expansion of the world trade into areas
undreamed of before the 18th Century affected the entire world. All this was brought about by the
Industrial Revolution.
For thousands of years the basic methods of earning a living had been unchanged. A Greek of Pericles'
time or a Roman friend of Julius Caesar would have adjusted fairly easily to the Europe of the early
18th Century, for the fundamental methods of agriculture had not changed greatly in all these years. But
he would find the world of today a very different place to live and to work in. He would be amazed at
methods of mass production, the endless variety of products, the train, steamship and plane, the radio,
wireless, telephone, television, education and learning, science and medicine. All these, and more, were
brought about by the Industrial Revolution.

What Does the Term “Industrial Revolution” Mean? The Industrial Revolution is defined as a basic
change in the methods of producing goods, using power-driven machinery. It included the following:
1. The invention of machines to replace human labor.
2. The development of new forms of power-water, steam, electricity, oil and most recently, atomic
energy
3. Increased production and use of such minerals and metals as coal, iron, steel and aluminum.
4. Improved methods of transportation and communication.
5. Mass production of goods, with increase in number and kind.
6. The growth of factories.
7. The movement of people from farm to factory, from country to city.
8. The growth of capitalism, providing the financial capital for this industrial expansion
9. The rise of new classes: the bourgeoisie and the working class
10. Changes in production through machines and science.

Domestic System Factory System

Methods Used Simple hand tools
Where Produced At home
Type and ownership tools Simple tools owned by worker,
operated by hand
Output Small, limited to local market,
and made only when ordered
Work done by the worker Worker usually made entire
article
Hours of work As many as worker could,
whenever work was required
Dependence on employer Most workers were also small
farmers
Machine
In factory
Complex power-driven machines
owned by the capitalist
Large scale, for a world market,
and made in anticipation of
demand
Worker operated on an assembly
line, performing one operation
Regular hours on a daily basis
Completely dependent on
capitalist for income
Results of the Industrial Revolution
The jobs we work at, the food we eat, the education we receive, the leisure time activities we
enjoy, the form of government under which we live-all these have been influenced by the Industrial
Revolution. The most important changes were:

A. Economic Changes
1. Rise of the factory system
2. Growth of industrial capitalism.
3. Mass production of goods.
4. Increase in standards of living.
5. Unemployment problems.
6. Expansion of world trade.

B. Political Changes
1. Rise of businessmen to power.
2. Decline of landed aristocracy.
3. Growth of democracy.
4. Increased activities of government.
5. Stimulus to nationalism and imperialism.
6. Shift of power in world affairs to industrialized nation.

C. Social Changes
1. Increase in population
2. Development of cities.
3. Improved status of women.
4. Growth in leisure time.
5. Stimulation to science and research.
6. Creation of such problems as slums, economic insecurity, and the increased deadline of war.

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution Begins in England. Unlike other revolutions we have studied (the English
Revolution of the 17th Century and the French Revolution of the 18th Century), which are marked by
definite events and dates, the Industrial Revolution consisted of slow, gradual changes that are
noticeable in England. England was the home of the Industrial Revolution because it had many of the
necessary conditions:

1. Capital: English merchants had grown rich from the Commercial Revolution. They had the
money to invest in new machines and to build factories.
2. Markets: England had a large growing market for manufactured goods at home and in her
colonial empire in America and in Asia.
3. Raw materials: England had large and easily available quantities of important raw materials
such as iron (to build the new machines and coal (to power them). She could easily get cotton
from her colonies and other countries.
4. Manpower: England had an adequate supply of workers for the new factories. Serfdom and the
guilds began to decline early in that country, with the result that English workers were free to
move from farm to factor. Many peasants had lost their land after the Enclosure Acts and this
helped to increase the labor supply.
5. Merchant marine: England possessed the largest merchant fleet in the world. She could bring
raw materials from colonies and carry back the finished products.
6. Geography: Because of her island position, England had not been ruined by the 18th Century
wars. She had good harbors and ports' her climate suited the growing textile industry, which
needed dampness to prevent thread from becoming brittle. Her government was a stable one,
and no internal barriers stood in the way of trade within the country itself.