1. The industrial Revolution and the building of the British empire
WEEK 8

2. What was the Industrial Revolution?
A fundamental change in the way goods were produced: from human labor to machines
More efficient means of production
Higher levels of production
Changes to industrialized societies
What about the societies that did not industrialize?!?!

3. Why England? Favorable natural resources/raw materials (coal)
Capital for investing in the new means of production
Stable government
Colonies and markets for manufactured goods
Workers
Agricultural Revolution

4. The Farming revolution
when the British kings lost power to the expense of the aristocratic landholders.
The Enclosure Movement
Increased productivity
Innovation in farming machinery
Poor people in search of work

5. Key inventions in the Industrial Revolution
Production of iron, coal, cotton and wool.
New spinning and weaving machines
Steam engines
New modes of transport:
Ships: Wooden ships → Iron ships → Steel ships, Wind-powered sails → Steam-powered boilers
Canals
Trains
Automobiles (late 1800s)
Communication improved
Telegraph
Telephone
Radio (1920s)
Development of the banking system
Key inventions in the Industrial Revolution

6. The Steam engine
Built on earlier models of steam fired compression to propel pistons.
This innovation was efficient and stunningly powerful.

7. The power loom
to transform raw materials such as linen or cotton into threads)

8. The spinning Jenny
To transform threads into cloth

9. Negative impacts Low wages Difficult and unsafe working conditions
Appalling living conditions: overcrowded houses, poor sanitary conditions, disease (cholera, typhus), low life expectancy (just 29 years, in Liverpool in 1865) and high infant mortality rate.
Child labour exploitation

10. The benefits of the Industrial Revolution
Britain = the world’s leading economic and industrial power.
Its population quadrupled (6.5 million in 1750 to million in 1850)
Living standards improved
Death rates decreased
Regulation for the minimum employment age, wages and the length of the working week

11. Improvements in farming made food cheaper and more plentiful
Mass produced goods such as clothing and furniture became more affordable
Improved public transport allowed workers to live away from factories in the newly developed suburbs
Street lighting transformed city life, encouraging people to enjoy entertainment at theatres and in music halls at night.
From an agricultural society to an urban society
Emergence of a ‘middle class’
Shift in influence away from the traditional power-holders in England: from aristocratic rule to manufacturers

12. Results of the Industrial Revolution
Expansion of world trade
Factory system
Mass production of goods
Industrial capitalism
Increased standard of living
Unemployment
Economic Changes
Decline of landed aristocracy
Growth and expansion of democracy
Increased government involvement in society
Increased power of industrialized nations
Nationalism and imperialism stimulated
Rise to power of businesspeople
Political Changes
Development and growth of cities
Improved status and earning power of women
Increase in leisure time
Population increases
Problems – economic insecurity, increased deadliness of war, urban slums, etc.
Science and research stimulated
Social Changes

14. Growth of colonial empires
MERCANTILISM
Colonies = suppliers of raw materials
+ markets for manufactured goods
Navigation Acts

15. QUESTION : did trade stimulate the empire, or did the empire stimulate trade?
Commerce with the colonies
 Ship industry
Production of goods for colonial societies
Larger population in the colonies
Larger market for British exports

16. The Atlantic Slave Trade
Portugal : 4.6 million Britain : 2.6 Spain : 1.6 France : 1.2 The Netherlands : 0.5 The US : 0.3 Denmark : 0.05

18. Top destinations of African slaves

21. The Middle Passage

22. According to Equiano, "The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died."