The Urban Game

The year is 1700 and the nation is England The year is 1700 and the nation is England. The scene begins in a rural village.  Draw the following: A small compass a river across your paper connecting east to west. The river should be about an inch wide. a wooden bridge across the river 4 roads originating from each direction draw a cemetery near church From your prefabricated packet - add 3 small houses A church near the cemetery a store a pub a coal mine near one of the corners of the paper trees all over your board (just glue down the of the trunks)

Home life and work life were closely integrated as most work was done in nearby fields. Every member worked from sun-up to sun-down. The homes of villagers were small with inadequate light and ventilation. All members of the family slept in the same room and sometimes even shared living quarters with livestock. Life expectancy was slightly over 40 years of age. Most people married in their teens and had babies before they were 20. One baby out of three died before their first birthday, only half of them made it to 21. 

Nearly every English village had a coal mining operation. These mines employed a small number of village dwellers, especially in the winter when farming stopped. Over the next 100 years, a revolution as significant as the Neolithic Revolution will completely change life in your little village. Some historians believe this revolution is the most fundamental in human history.  We will experience some of the changes over the next 40 minutes.  This revolution would become known as the Industrial Revolution

Rules of the Activity You will listen to a story on the progression of society during the Industrial Revolution Your quaint rural village will transform into an urban ccity based on this story; this process occurred all over England. The story will be divided into different scenes; each scene will be read only once Listen carefully At the end of each scene, you will be given instructions on what you need to add (cut and paste) and/or draw to your village/city Divide up the cutting, gluing tasks and be sure to have someone take notes as to what is happening in each scene and to note the change over time

Add yourself 1 big home anywhere on the map you would like it to be. Round 1 - 1700 England's geography is unique in that no section of the country is more than 90 miles from the sea, and there are many navigable rivers that crisscross the countryside. An enterprising young capitalist group (your base group) decides to invest money in the construction of a canal. The profits are astounding! This new revolution in transportation reduced the prices of raw materials and reduced the costs of transportation dramatically. Coal could now be transported from the mines to the towns for half the price of horse and wagon transportation. Since you invested your money, you made a tidy profit Add yourself 1 big home anywhere on the map you would like it to be.

Round 2 - 1701 It is 1701. The people of your village need a bit more food and goods to meet the needs of the new inhabitants. Have no fear, a number of new mechanical inventions for farms are developed. One is called the seed drill. Also, farmers begin to experiment with new, more productive farming practices, like crop rotation, new fertilizers, and new livestock breeding techniques. Consequently, farm production is significantly increased. Add 4 more small houses

Round 3 - 1705 You may draw roads and 1 additional bridge. It is now 1705, workers are needed to work in a new factory. Machines have taken the place of people on the farms and the Enclosure Acts have forced people to move to your town. Add  3  small houses, 1  church , 1  pub, &  1  store.  You may draw roads and 1 additional bridge. 

Round 4 - 1720 It is now 1720. For a variety of reasons (soap, diet, sanitation, etc.…) there is a population explosion in England, and your little village. The cursed bubonic plague which for centuries caused havoc to your village has been virtually eliminated due to the disposal of sewage in the canal and in the ocean.  The population is growing back to pre-plague levels. Add 4 small houses.

Round 5 - 1768 on the river bank. It is being fueled by water power. It is now 1768. A man named Richard Arkwright invents a new machine that can spin and weave cloth a hundred times faster than could be done by hand in a farmhouse. He calls his new machine the Water Frame. Since the water frame was large, a special place was needed and, the first factory for producing cotton cloth was built. Add 1 factory that must be placed on the river bank. It is being fueled by water power. Add 4 small houses for workers.

Round 6 - 1769 We move now to 1769. A man named James Watt invents a new machine called the steam engine. It allows factories to be built away from the river. The main business in England is still textile manufacturing. Add 3 factories with smoke (draw smoke).  WHY? Draw smoke to the other pre- existing factory.  Add one big house since the bourgeoisie capitalist continue to get rich.

Round 6 con’t The profits from the first textile factory are enormous. New factories are built in your community. The early owners of these factories called themselves capitalists because they had the capital or money to purchase the raw material, the building, the water frame, and pay their workers a fixed wage and make a profit. These urban workers are become the working-class Proletariat. Add 2 new factories Add 4 small houses

Round 7- 1780 It is 1780. Unemployed workers from surrounding areas flood into your community looking for work. Although wages are low, the work is attractive to large families. Housing is in great demand and for the first time, a new kind of housing is constructed called tenements. Here, dozens of families reside under one roof. Add 3 Tenement. You may now undergo deforestation.

Round 8 - 1781 It is now 1781. More workers need to live, eat, shop, drink, and worship. Since workers work six days a week, the only day of rest was Sunday. In addition, boys were the only ones to be formally educated in the elite and middle class at this time. Add 1 store, 1 pub, and 1 church.  Also add 1 school for boys near the nice homes.

Round 9 - 1782 Now, it's 1782. Workers work long, hard hours in the factories. The average work day begins at 6:00am and ends at 9:00 pm. There is only a 30 minute break for lunch. After work, exhausted, stressed out, workers stop at their favorite pub for refreshment and relaxation. Alcohol begins to be consumed in record amounts. Add 1 more pub. 

Round 10 - 1783 The year is now 1783. Workers are barely eking out a marginal existence. Still there are a few families whose lifestyle is comfortable if not luxurious. Factory owners, mine owners, entrepreneurs – the bourgeoisie capitalist grow wealthy. Nice houses are built and some are lavishly filled with expensive art. These new rich can now enjoy some refinements of the rich: food, servants, furniture, education, clothing, carriages, etc..  Add a big home

Round 11 - 1800 The year is 1800. A man named Henry Cort has just invented the puddling process that makes it possible to turn pig iron into wrought iron. Since coal is just below the surface in England, it becomes the primary fuel in the new iron industry. Consequently, your town is thrust into the "New Age of Heavy Industry". This is occurring all over England. Add 1 new coal mine and draw a new iron bridge to replace the old wooden one.  

Round 12 - 1815 In 1815 we see the coal industry flourish. There is a great demand for coal now: home-heating, fuel for steam engine, for the production of iron. Although in the 1700's coal miners were adults, now, the typical workers are children between the ages of 8 and 14. The work is dangerous and terribly unhealthy. Proletariat children become victims of black lung, explosions and accidents. Their growth is stunted as they spend most of their 14 hour day stooped over. They are malnourished and unable to exercise or eat properly. Draw 1 cemetery near a church.

Round 13 - 1829 The year is now 1829. The existing dirt roads cannot accommodate the heavy industrial traffic. The steam engine is used in the creation of the railroad. Draw 1 railroad line connecting your factory district to the outer coal mining region 

Round 14 - 1830 We move on to 1830. The working conditions in the factories continue to worsen. Working conditions in both of these areas were appalling. Many Proletariat workers contracted the deadly factory fever or white lung disease. Other workers were injured on the job in factory accidents. There were no protective railings around huge moving machines. Children, weakened from lack of sleep and food, often stumbled into machinery and were ripped to shreds.  Women with long hair that came undone often were caught in machinery. Regardless, if you were unable to work, you were fired. There was no health insurance. There was always a daily line of unemployed workers waiting to fill vacant jobs. Add two sick houses and draw another cemetery.

Rumors have begun… A member of Parliament, Michael Sadler has been made aware of abuses in factories directed towards children. He wants to get to the bottom of the story and determine if the complaints are fabricated or fact. He is in your town and as a group of urban planners with a capitalist mindset are unsure how his investigation will impact your industrial town. Consider the benefits and drawbacks of this.

Draw street lights, lining your business community streets. Round 15 - 1837 The years pass. It is now 1837. Using steam engines and iron, and soon steel, British manufacturers introduce power driven machinery in many industries. People used machinery to cut and finish lumber, to process foods, and make other machines. Some new inventions and innovations had important BI-products that turned into separate industries. Then someone discovered that the gases that coal released could be burned to give off light. During the 1830's, London and other large towns became the first to pipe in gas to burn street lights. Soon all around England, hundreds of towns used gas to light street lights and homes. Draw street lights, lining your business community streets. 

Add 1 museum, 1 theater, and 1 private school. Round 16 - 1842 It is 1842, There are some advantages for many of the urban dwellers. City life is quite different from country life. For the small, but growing middle class, a new cultural life is available. Museums, theaters, operas, restaurants, plays, concerts are made available. Before, only the wealthy elite would attend these events. Add 1 museum, 1 theater, and 1 private school. 

Round 17 - 1845 In 1845, there are no pollution limits or controls on factories and businesses. Windows, walls even trees are covered with layers of soot. The river that once flowed through the quiet village for hundreds of years is now unfit for drinking, bathing or laundry. A disease begins to take lives of people called Tuberculosis and it becomes and epidemic. Also, malignant tumors in people begin to grown in large numbers. Black lung is on the rise. The average life expectancy for the poor is now 30 years of age. Your city is overcrowded and shrouded in factory smoke.  The noise, the loss of privacy, loss of family unit, shatters the peace of the old ways. Suicide rates double, then triple. draw 1 more cemetery, 1 jail, and 1 more sick house all to accommodate the victims of urban life…. 

Exit Activity As the urban planning council of the city, identify and describe the most significant issue that you are faced with and provide a solution. What would you do differently if you had the chance to create this city again? Many of the problems that have emerged have to do with the quality of life of the proletariat workers. What can be done to improve their lives in your city?