Industrialism While political revolutions swept through Europe and the Americas, an economic revolution shook the world. It resulted in what is known as industrialism, a system based on the use of machines rather than on animal and human power.

Where did industrialism begin? Industrialism started in Great Britain during the 1700s. Within the next 200 years, it spread to other parts of the world. The system changed life so much that historians call these changes the Industrial Revolution.

Seeds for Industry Sweeping changes in farming, known as the Agricultural Revolution, helped industry to take root in England, or Great Britain. The Agricultural Revolution started in the 1700s with the enclosure movement. This movement began when Parliament allowed large landowners to fence off common lands. In the past, landowners had rented small strips of land to farming families.

Enclosure Movement Through enclosure, landowners could combine the strips of land. Landowners often did one of two things. Some planted large areas of land with a single crop that produced bigger profits. Others turned land into pastures to graze sheep. They sold the wool to make textiles, or woven cloth.

Other changes in farming contributed to the Agricultural Revolution included… Knowledge of crop rotation, or rotating crops on three fields instead of two. The rotation kept soil fertile and more crops could be grown. Invention of a seed drill by Jethro Tull. The drill allowed farmers to plant rows of seeds rather than scattering them over the fields. Breeding of stronger horses for farm work and fatter sheep and cattle for meat.

Capital and Labor 1 These changes in farming created conditions favorable to industry—the use of raw materials to manufacture, or create, goods. Landowners now had more capital, or money, to invest. This increased the capital already earned by colonial merchants through trade. Many landowners and merchants invested their own money in manufacturing or other businesses.

Capital and Labor 2 The enclosure movement forced many peasants off their land. Thousands of farmers moved to cities to find work. This increase in the number of people living in the city created a larger labor supply, or number of available workers, for businesses. Improved methods of farming and breeding produced more food, which helped people live longer, healthier lives. Britain’s population grew, causing the labor supply to grow even more.

Natural Resources and Markets 1 (Why Britain?) In addition to capital and labor, Great Britain was rich in natural resources. It possessed rivers that flowed year-round. These rivers powered the earliest machines. They also provided a transportation network that connected inland areas to coastal harbors.

Natural Resources and Markets 2 (Why Britain?) Britain also had huge supplies of coal and iron. In the years ahead, coal would replace wood as a source of fuel for running machines. Iron would be used to build machines and to make steel. Finally, Britain had the markets in which to sell manufactured goods. It had a huge empire and the ships to sail to ports around the world. With a growing population, it also had a big home market.

Rise of the Factory System A series of inventions was the last ingredient for industrialism to occur. These inventions encouraged the switch from handmade to machine-made goods.

Machines Machines first showed up in the production of textiles. In the past, workers produced cloth under what is known as the cottage industry, or domestic industry. Merchants went from cottage to cottage, bringing sheep wool to workers. Using hand-powered spinning wheels and looms, the workers spun and wove the wool into cloth in their own homes. Merchants returned later and picked up the finished textiles to sell.

Rise of the Factory System 2 Because this method of production proved too slow, inventors developed ways to spin faster and to run machines with waterpower. Textile merchants now build factories near rivers and streams. This trend was the beginning of the factory system: a method of production that brought machines and workers together in one place.

Coal-Powered Machines With the invention of coal- powered machines, factories could be built anywhere. Whole towns grew up around factories. This sparked the growth of urbanization, or the movement of people from rural areas to cities. Britain was the first country to become urbanized, meaning more people lived in cities than on farms.

Spread of Industrialism 1 At first Britain tried to guard its industrial secrets. Parliament passed laws banning the export of machines and the movement of skilled workers to other countries. The laws failed. Skilled British workers saw the opportunity to make more money elsewhere. They left Britain and took their industrial skills with them. By the 1800s, Great Britain had given up efforts to create a monopoly, or total control, of industry. British investors saw a chance to earn even more money by funding industries elsewhere. They set up factories and built railroads in other parts of the world.

Spread of Industry 2 In the mid-1800s, one British leader called Great Britain ‘the workshop of the world.” Britain, however, had stiff competition from new industrial powers such as in the United States and Germany. Another competitor emerged in Asia in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Japan had its own Industrial Revolution. It industrialized everything from textiles to shipbuilding. The government and industrialists, know as zaibatsu, adopted a new slogan: “rich country, strong army.”

Industry in the United States, Germany, and Japan. Nation ArrivalEarly Developments United States Samuel Slater slips out of Britain in He carries spinning know-how to Rhode Island. In 1814, Francis Cabot Lowell opens a textile mill in Waltham, Massachusetts. The factory system spreads through New England. The North industrializes. The rural South increasingly relies on the sale of cotton to mills in New England and Great Britain. Germany Germans begin buying British machines in the early 1800s. In 1839, Germany uses British capital to build its first railroad. German coal, iron, and textile industries emerge in the mid-1800s. By 1870, Germany ranks with Britain and the U.S. as the world’s three most industrialized nations. Japan Commodore Matthew Perry arrives in Japan in 1853 with a fleet of new steam-powered warships, exposing Japan to the power of industry. In the late 1800s, Meiji leaders push Japan to industrialize. Japan builds its first railroad in Japan takes partial control of Korean trade in Agricultural production increases 228 percent between 1873 and By 1914, Japan has become one of the world’s leading industrial powers. It had increased trade by 100 percent in 50 years.

Impact of Industrialism 1 Growth of Cities: –From 1800to 1850, European cities grew dramatically, especially in England and Belgium. Cities became the home of industry, whit belching smokestacks poking above the skyline. They announced the arrival of coal-powered factories and steel- making plants. Rise of Industrial Capitalism: –The Industrial Revolution gave birth to industrial capitalism. The system was based on the industrial production of goods. The capital, or money, earned this was created a new industrial middle class. Its members built the factories and machines, bought the raw materials to produce goods, and found markets to sell them in. It operated on the basis of free enterprise. Under free enterprise, individuals or private businesses, not the government, control production.

Impact of Industrialism 2 New methods of organizing business: As production increased, industrial leaders found new ways to manage their growing businesses. Many formed partnerships. A partnership involves two or more entrepreneurs—people who invest money to earn a profit. They can raise more capital and take on more business than a single owner. Industrialists also form corporations--- organizations owned by stockholders who buy shares in a company. Shares increase or decrease in value depending on the corporation’s profits. Rise of an industrial working class: More factories meant a need for more industrial workers. People worked for wages, or set rate per hour or day. They labored up to 16 hours a day, six days a week. Men, women, and children toiled in dirty, dangerous, and unsafe conditions. Even so, people continued to flock to factories despite the horrible working conditions. Workers earned more money in the factories than on farms.

Factory working conditions…

More factory working conditions…

Impact of Industrialism 3 Rise of Trade Unions: Workers knew they could not fight factory owners on their own. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, they began to form trade unions. A trade union is an association of workers with the same skill who unite to improve wages, benefits, working conditions, and worker rights. Unions use strikes, or the refusal to work, in order to force factory owners to talk with them. Great Britain passed the first worker-protection laws— laws that limit working hours, set fairer wages, and make work places safer. The battle to unionize in industrialized nations, however, continued into the mid-1900s.

Impact of Industrialism 4 Development of Socialism: Harsh working conditions and the slow progress by unions caused some people to question capitalism. Factory workers enjoyed little benefit from labor. While factory owners lived like nobles, factory workers barely lived at all. –This situation gave rise to a new idea called socialism. Socialist believed that society– represented in the form of government– should own and control the means of production such as factories, land, capital, and raw materials. They felt competition in business hurt society more than it helped it.