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The Industrial Revolution began in 18th century England, transforming work through machine-made goods and leading to significant agricultural advancements. Factors such as Britain's natural resources, economic strength, and political stability facilitated this industrial growth. Innovations in transportation, including railroads and steam engines, further revolutionized industry and society, creating new jobs and altering living conditions.

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History notes

The Industrial Revolution began in 18th century England, transforming work through machine-made goods and leading to significant agricultural advancements. Factors such as Britain's natural resources, economic strength, and political stability facilitated this industrial growth. Innovations in transportation, including railroads and steam engines, further revolutionized industry and society, creating new jobs and altering living conditions.

Uploaded by

notmads133
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The beginnings of industrialization

Setting the stage


-​ In the United States, France, and Latin America, political revolutions
brought in new governments.
-​ A different type of revolution now trans- formed the - way people did
work.
-​ The Industrial Revolution refers to the greatly increased output of
machine-made goods that began in England during the 18th century.
-​ Before the Industrial Revolution, people wove textiles by hand.
-​ The Industrial Revolution started in England and soon spread to
Continental Europe and North America.
The Industrial Revolution begins
By 1700, small farms covered England’s landscape. Wealthy landowners,
however,
bought up much of the land that village farmers had once worked.
Beginning in the
early 1700s, large landowners dramatically improved farming methods.
These agricul-
tural changes amounted to an agricultural revolution. They eventually
paved the way
for the Industrial Revolution.

Agricultural revolution
-​ The Agricultural Revolution After buying up the land of village
farmers, wealthy landowners enclosed their land with fences or
hedges.
-​ First, landowners experimented with new agricul- tural methods.
-​ Second, large landowners forced small farmers to become tenant
farmers or to give up farming and move to the cities.
-​ The seed drill allowed farmers to sow seeds in well-spaced rows at
specific depths.

Crop rotation
Crop rotation was a significant development in scientific farming,
improving on older methods like the medieval three-field system. Livestock
breeders also improved their methods, such as Robert Bakewell's mutton
output and lamb weight. These improvements led to an agricultural
revolution, as food supplies increased and living conditions improved,
boosting demand for goods. As farmers lost land to enclosed farms, many
became factory workers.
Britain's advantages
-​ Britain's Advantages Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in
England?
-​ In addition to a large population of workers, the small island country
had extensive natural resources.
-​ And industrialization—the process of developing machine
production of goods—required such resources.
-​ These natural resources included 1) water power and coal to fuel the
new machines; 2) iron ore to construct machines, tools, and buildings;
3) rivers for inland transportation; 4) harbors from which its
merchant ships set sail.

Economic strength and political stability


-​ Economic Strength and Political Stability In addition to its natural
resources, Britain had an expanding economy to support
industrialization.
-​ Britain's highly developed banking system also contributed to the
country's industrialization.
-​ Growing overseas trade, economic prosperity, and a climate of
progress contributed to the increased demand for goods.
-​ Britain's political stability gave the country a tremendous advantage
over its neighbors.
-​ Though Britain took part in many wars during the 1700s, none of
these struggles occurred on British soil.
-​ Furthermore, their military and political successes gave the British a
posi- tive attitude.
-​ Parliament also passed laws that protected business and helped
expansion.
-​ Other countries had some of these advantages.
-​ However, Britain had all the factors of production.
-​ These were the resources needed to produce goods and services
that the Industrial Revolution required.
-​ They included land, labor, and capital (or wealth).

Inventions Spur Technological Advances


In an explosion of creativity, inventions now revolutionized industry.
Britain’s textile
industry clothed the world in wool, linen, and cotton. This industry was the
first to be
transformed. Cloth merchants boosted their profits by speeding up the
process by
which spinners and weavers made cloth.
Major inventions in the textile industry
-​ England’s cotton came from plantations in the
-​ American South in the 1790s. Removing seeds from the raw cotton by
hand was hard work.
-​ In 1793, anAmerican inventor named Eli Whitney invented machine to
speed the chore.
-​ His cotton gin multiplied the amount of cotton that could be cleaned
.
-​ American Cotton production skyrocketed from 1.5 million pounds in
1790 to 85 million pounds in 1810.

Improvements in transition
-​ Improvements in Transportation Progress in the textile industry
spurred other industrial improvements.
-​ The first such development, the steam engine, stemmed from the
search for a cheap, convenient source of power.
-​ The earliest steam engine was used in mining as early as 1705.
-​ But this early model gobbled great quantities of fuel, making it
expensive to run.
-​ James Watt, a mathematical instrument maker at the University of
Glasgow in Scotland, thought about the problem for two years.
-​ In 1765, Watt figured out a way to make the steam engine work faster
and more efficiently while burning less fuel.
-​ In 1774, Watt joined with a busi- nessman named Matthew Boulton.
-​ This entrepreneur (ahn•truh•pruh•NUR)—a person who organizes,
man- ages, and takes on the risks of a business—paid Watt a salary
and encouraged him to build better engines.

Water transportation
-​ Water Transportation Steam could also be used to propel boats.
-​ An American inventor named Robert Fulton ordered a steam engine
from Boulton and Watt.
-​ After its first successful trip in 1807, Fulton's steamboat, the Clermont,
ferried passengers up and down New York's Hudson River.
-​ In England, water transportation improved with the creation of a
network of canals, or human-made waterways.
-​ By the mid-1800s, 4,250 miles of inland channels slashed the cost of
transporting raw materials.
Road transport
-​ Road Transportation British roads improved, too, thanks largely to
the efforts of John McAdam, a Scottish engineer.
-​ Working in the early 1800s, McAdam equipped roadbeds with a layer
of large stones for drainage.
-​ On top, he placed a carefully smoothed layer of crushed rock.
-​ Even in rainy weather heavy wagons could travel over the new
"macadam" roads without sinking in mud.
-​ Private investors formed companies that built roads and then
operated them for profit.
-​ People called the new roads turnpikes because travelers had to stop
at tollgates (turnstiles or turnpikes) to pay a toll before traveling
farther.

Railway age begins


-​ The Railway Age Begins Steam-driven machinery propelled English
factories in the late 1700s.
-​ A steam engine on wheels—the railroad locomotive—drove English
industry after 1820.In 1804, an English engineer named Richard
Trevithick won a bet of several thousand dollars.
-​ He did this by hauling ten tons of iron over nearly ten miles of track
in a steam-driven locomotive.
-​ One of these early railroad engineers was George Stephenson.
-​ He had gained a solid reputation by building some 20 engines for
mine operators in northern England.
-​ In 1821, Stephenson began work on the world's first railroad line.
Liverpool Manchester railway
-​ The Liverpool-Manchester Railroad News of this success
quicklyspread throughout Britain.
-​ The entrepreneurs of northern Englandwanted a railroad line to
connect the port of Liverpool with theinland city of Manchester.
-​ The track was laid. In 1829 trials were heldto choose the best
locomotive for use on the new line.
-​ Five enginesentered the competition
-​ None could compare with theRocket,designed by Stephenson and
his son.
-​ Smoke poured from its tall
-​ smokestack and its two pistons pumped to and from as they drove
the front wheels.
-​ The Rocket hauler 13-ton load at an unheard-of speed hour.
-​ The Liverpool-ManchesterRailway opened officially in 1830.
Immediate success.
Railroads Revolutionize Life in Britain First, railroads spurred industrial
growth by giving manufacturers a cheap way to transport materials and
finished products.
-​ Second, the railroad boom created hundreds of thousands of new
jobs for both railroad workers and miners.
-​ Third, the railroads boosted England's agricultural and fishing
industries, which could transport their products to distant cities.
-​ Finally, by making travel easier, railroads encouraged country people
to take distant city jobs.
-​ Also, railroads lured city dwellers to resorts in the countryside.
-​ Like a locomotive racing across the country, the Industrial Revolution
brought rapid and unsettling changes to people's lives.

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