THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Began in Great Britain in the late 1700s – Changes in technology led to the switch from human and animal power to machines doing the work

Contributing Factors Increase in the food supply – This was due mainly to the Agricultural Revolution, where new inventions and better livestock breeding methods led to more food being produced with less amounts of labor – Poor farmers now moved to the cities looking for jobs Population grew and created a large workforce Had a ready supply of money (capital) to invest in industrial machines and factories – Capital = money available for investment – Entrepreneur = a person interested in finding new business opportunities and new ways of making profits

Lots of natural resources: coal, iron ore Large supply of materials and markets from colonies – Huge empire and the largest and most powerful navy in the world Great Britain was politically stable Factors of production – Capital, Entrepreneur, Land, Labor

Changes in Textile Production Textile = cloth-making, mostly from wool or cotton Two-step process – Spinners made cotton thread from raw cotton – Weavers wove the thread into cloth on looms Cottage Industry – Prior to the Industrial Revolution, work such as textile production was done by individuals in their rural homes – Merchants would drop off the raw materials and then come back later for the finished product

Series of Technological Advances – “flying shuttle” was invented by John Kay, and made weaving faster, doubled the speed at which a weaver could do his job – Spinning jenny created by James Hargreaves which produced thread faster – Water-powered loom invented by Edmund Cartwright – These new machines were becoming too big to be put into a cottage and Richard Arkwright built the first factory with 200 workers to house his water frame More efficient to bring workers to the new machines and have them work in factories near rivers

Finally James Watt improved the steam engine, which used steam to drive machinery – Coal was used to heat water to produce steam – Factories no longer had to be located near water Many factories were now built in cities and near roads and ports – Other uses for the steam engine Robert Fulton developed the steamship Steam engines also used to power locomotives Imported more and more raw cotton and cotton cloth became Britain’s most valuable product

Coal and Iron Industries The success of the steam engine increased the need for coal and led to an expansion in coal production – Steam engines required immense amounts of fuel to heat water – By 1800 Britain produced 80% of Europe’s coal – New processes using coal led to the iron industry Henry Cort developed a process called puddling – coal used to burn away impurities in crude iron – High quality iron used to build new machines and transportation – Produced more iron than the rest of the world combined

Railroads Important to the success of the Industrial Revolution – More efficient means of transporting goods and resources – Less expensive transportation led to lower-priced goods – Entrepreneurs could reinvest profits into new equipment – ongoing economic growth Created new jobs – both on the trains themselves, building the railroads, and rest stops

Spread of Industrialization First to be industrialized in continental Europe was Belgium – Belgium was followed later by France and Germany – Their gov’ts were active in encouraging the development of industrialization The United States also began to industrialize after a young mill worker from Great Britain named Samuel Slater migrated to the U.S. and built the first factory in Rhode Island

Working in Factories The factory created a new labor system – Factory owners wanted to use their new machines constantly Workers forced to work in shifts – Had to create a system of work discipline Factory work was divided into several separate parts and each worker was assigned one task that was easy to learn – Even children could easily learn it Factory work was dangerous – No safety protection from the massive machines, no worker’s compensation

Long work hours – from 12 to 16 hours a day, six days a week, only lunch break (no other breaks) Bad conditions, no minimum wage, no job security, noisy, and poor sanitation – If you don’t like it, there are many people who will take your place since they need the money

Factory Towns Whole towns grew up around the factories – Families lived in shoddy, crowded buildings with cramped quarters Some neighborhoods in Manchester had only two toilets for every 250 people – Lots of pollution – soot filled the air from burning coal, the smoke also contained other poisonous chemicals Destroyed lungs and nature Factory towns were highly unsanitary, disease spread rapidly, and many died – Six out of every ten children died before the age of 5

Social Impact Growth of cities – People moved from farms to cities for jobs – Pitiful living conditions – cholera, tuberculosis Two new social classes – growth of the middle class – Industrial middle class = people who own the factories – Industrial working class = people who work in the factories Most of the workers were women and children – They were cheaper to pay then men – Factory work seen as “women’s work”

Process of Mass Production In the U.S., one change that occurred to the factory system was the development of mass production – Mass production = the system of manufacturing large numbers of identical items – Elements of mass production include interchangeable parts and the assembly line Interchangeable parts = identical machine-made parts Assembly line = the product moves from worker to worker, as each one performs a step in the manufacturing process With this new division of labor system, workers can make many items quickly at a more affordable cost

Responses to the Industrial Revolution Weavers and other cottage industry workers were being put out of work thanks to the new machines – In the early 1800s, a group called the Luddites began to break into factories to destroy the machines – They blamed the machines for their problems They burned factories and smashed machines, but overall they were not successful Socialism – The horrible working conditions created by the Industrial Revolution led to a movement known as socialism

– Socialists, such as Robert Owen, believed that for the good of all, society or the gov’t should own property and control industry Socialists believed in the equality of all people and wanted to get rid of economic cooperation Owen built a mill complex in New Lanark, Scotland, where he clothed and fed his workers and they enjoyed good working conditions along with free education for their children – Another socialist was Karl Marx, who viewed Owen as a “utopian” socialist Karl Marx and Communism – Communism = a system of social organization in which all property is held in common

Hated capitalism and against private property – Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848 He believed that all of world history was a “history of class struggles” The bourgeoisie (middle class) owned all the means of production and oppressed the proletariat (working class) – The bourgeoisie were getting richer and the proletariat poorer Marx believed that the proletariat would rise up and overthrow the bourgeoisie in a violent revolution This would lead ultimately to a classless society in which gov’t would no longer be needed and capitalism would collapse

Labor Unions – People formed unions to try to gain better working conditions, less hours, and higher pay Labor union = organizations representing workers’ interests – Unions were illegal at first, but eventually gained acceptance – Britain was the first to recognize unions – Unions won the right to strike in the 1870s A strike is where members of a union refuse to work in order to pressure an employer into meeting their demands – Unions will make considerable progress in making the living and working conditions better

In 1832 the British Parliament produced the Sadler Report – It described the abuses in factories and coal mines Parliament also passed laws that limited work hours for adults and children – Factory Act of 1833 – children had to be older than nine to be able to work in factories