The Industrial Revolution in Britain’s history is marked as the period of great development that led to the modern era of growth, improved living standards and technology. Moreover, this revolution was not just limited to Britain; it affected the rest of Europe and America in the same positive manner. Due to the Industrial Revolution’s success in many countries, it is now commonly cited as the surest way for a country to develop. In economics, goals of a developed country are high production of goods, high Gross Domestic Product (GDP), low unemployment and sustained growth; during an Industrial Revolution all these are achieved. However, despite the main goal of IR to improve living standards for the population, the actual success when weighed against the social cost is debatable. It is accepted that IR improved the living standards of many; it created a new class, which Marx called the “bourgeoisie”, who had control over wealth, decisions and helped improve the lives of many others. However, many historians view this new class as “rapacious landlords and conscienceless capitalist[s]” [9] who exploited the working class for their own benefit. For a majority of “the working class… ‘Industrial Revolution’ … must have appeared… as a gigantic and cruel experiment, which, insofar as it was affecting their house, their health, their subsistence and their pleasure, was proving a calamitous failure” [9]. Therefore, this group will be examined to determine more general effects of IR on the society. From the economic standpoint, IR did greatly improved the life of an average worker. In the era before, the production of goods depended on a few highly specialized workers creating goods in a small workshop. However, due to a small output, th... ... middle of paper ... ...onishing that her employer did not provide the necessary equipment to protect herself, even though her work was in a noisy environment. Moreover, despite being a weaver, she was forced to stand during her job, which could be done sitting, due to the circumstances controlled by her employer. However, Susan was not the only one subjected to this; Cobbett, in his political register, describes the awful condition general factory workers was faced with [10]. He writes that factories were "cramped", the temperature "hovered around eighty degrees" and workers were not allowed to take breaks. These working conditions would result in transfer of diseases, hyperthermia and possibly death by exhaustion. Hence, it is apparent that the workers did not have a good environment to work in, rather, the conditions adversely affected their health in both the short and the long run.
The Industrial Revolution was the social and economic changes that occurred when manufacturing shifted from people’s homes and shops to factories. It was a time of dramatic change, from hand tools and handmade items, to products which were mass produced by machines. Life generally improved, but the industrial revolution also proved harmful. Pollution increased, working conditions were harmful, and capitalists employed women and young children, making them work long and hard hours.
It began as a muddy pool, which was the meaning of the city’s original name: Liuerpul. Liverpool, located in England, was found by King John during 1207. It was known for being a port town, which was used to send soldiers and supplies to the Irish Sea during the conquering of Ireland by England. As years passed, King John divided the land and allowed people to establish houses and to start living. Later, they were given more freedom to start their own organizations. Over the next centuries, population grew and fell constantly because of poverty and famine. The economy wasn’t stable enough to give the city a proud name. It was not until the years between 1760 and 1850, when a big era hit the city of Liverpool, called Industrial Revolution. It became a success because of new technology that was invented to increase the population and secure its safety. Liverpool's industrialization became a success because new ideas and inventions affected the size of population and development of Liverpool.
New inventions came about to ease the production of goods that were being supplied. The creation of factories emerged by retailers who were struggling to meet the requirements of the masses surrounding them. The formation of power driven machinery was initiated in order to compete with others. These machines began to replace skilled craftspeople. Since this involved less people, labor costs were reduced, as well as the prices for the goods that were produced. Depending on the country’s needs, the machinery produced products by the thousands or even millions.
The Industrial Revolution was a time of great change and increased efficiency. No more would be goods be produced by sole means of farming and agriculture, but now by the use of machinery and factories. Technology was beginning to increase along with the food supply as well as the population. However, this increase in population would greatly impact the social aspect of that time. Urbanization was becoming much more widespread. Cities were becoming overwhelmingly crowded and there was an increase in disease as well as harsh child labor. Although child labor would be reduced somewhat due to unions, the Industrial Revolution still contained both it’s positive and negative results.
Advancements in agriculture, textile, transportation and economic growth became possible only because of the Industrial Revolution. Taking place in the United States between 18th and 19th century, times went from separating the cotton from its seed to using an automated cotton gin made by an American inventor Eli Whitney. This allowed for the lower class citizens to be able to have the important goods such as medication and clothing. Before the American Industrial Revolution, people were mostly farmers and life went by slowly and tedious work was required for simple tasks. But with inventions like the cotton gin, and the assembly line, mass production evolved. The United States had one of the fastest economic growths than any other country during this time. The Industrial Revolution developed the world and how it produced its goods. There were numerous inventions that made everyday tasks easier to perform by eliminating the tedious work that people performed by replacing it with a machine. The invention that fired up the Industrial Revolution was the steam engine, which was invented by James Watt in 1775. The steam engine made travel faster and more efficient, which is why it earned the name “Iron Horse”. The steam engine not only powered the trains, but it also powered the factories (The Industrial Revolution United State, page 27). This provided numerous factories and industries to transport their goods farther away and at a faster pace. The numerous inventions led to the radically increasing American economy. There would be more export of goods which would mean higher flow of money into the economy to boost the value of the American dollar. Mass production was cheap and it meant more goods can be produced, resulting in more pr...
Economic growth was dispensed very unevenly. Eighty percent of the population was the working class and only for a minority of these workers there were new found freedoms (Foner, 2012, pp. 594). Technical skill was now a factor instead of who owned what (Foner, 2012, pp. 594). For the rest of the working class, their economic situations remained a constant burden on their shoulders. Working sixty hour weeks, industrial workers had no pensions, no compensation for any injuries that occurred, and the possibility at any time that they could become unemployed (Foner, 2012, pp. 595). Having new machinery, and new inventions being incorporated into everyday life, workers whose talent could not compete with these were losing their jobs such as hand weavers (Effects of The Industrial Revolution). The conditions that these laborers were working in were tough with very hazardous situations. For example, “the process of purifying iron…demanded that workers toiled amidst temperatures as high as 130 degrees in the coolest part of the ironworks” (Effects of The Industrial Revolution qtd. Rosen 155). Not having any compensation for any injuries and these hazardous situations was tragic. While a minority of the working class had fr...
The industrial revolution was marked by a shift of power. The power source before the revolution was human power. Human and animal muscle was the driving force behind all forms of production. At first, machinery saw an increase in manual labor in the form of railway production and canal excavations. Ultimately, the introduction of machinery resulted in a decline in subjugated men and instead man’s intellectual capacity was being utilized.
Life drastically changed during the industrial revolution. People were living in germ infested, crowded and very unhealthy conditions, much like the places where they work. Women and children worked in harsh conditions for almost whole days and only received little pay. The British Parliament stepped in and limited child labor. This sparked a revolt. People, especially wealthy capitalists, wanted the government to stay out of its issues, called the laissez-faire system5. Many people opposed the laissez-faire system, saying the capitalists would gain too much power and people would be mistreated. The laissez-faire system was disregarded after a few years.
The increasing amount of people left destitute and helpless regarding the hasty fundamental changes of the Industrial Revolution; which occurred economically, socially, and on the conditions of the workplace, affected the living standards of all, but did not occur obscure. Reform actions begun to take place; for even industrialists like Robert Owen were sincerely concerned of the direction industrialization was headed in. Endorsing with legislation, politicians together were able to ultimately relieve the working classes predicament, as well as regulating laws for child labor. Regardless of this, the expense of suffering paid by the previous working generations for this advancement in addition to our present contented standards of living was undeniably an awful one.
During the industrial revolution of England, by engaging in monotonous work, humans became disconnected with nature. By the nineteenth century, when William Wordsworth wrote the sonnet The world is too much with us, the process of industrialization had transformed a worker’s life, leaving no time or place to enjoy or take part in nature. In his Petrarchan sonnet, Wordsworth criticizes humans for losing their hearts to materialism and longs for a world where nature is divine.
At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, many hardships had to be overcome, causing great grief to most of the population. Faith was lost, patience was tried, and a blanket of oppression covered the people of Europe. When new inventions arose to facilitate the producing and mass-producing of goods that supplied the people of Europe, nearly everyone was forced to begin a new career within a factory. These are just some of the hardships that many loyal, hardworking citizens were faced with. The reverberations of these new inventions caused a dramatic plummet of the life expectancy of an average citizen to an alarming 15 years of age. Women and children were expected to work up to 16 hours a day and doing labor that could cause serious injury, like carrying extremely heavy loads. For their work, they were paid ridiculous wages, women around 5 shillings per week, and children about 1. One can easily recognize the negative aspects of such a dramatic event. However, if one "steps back" to view the revolution as a whole, he will notice that the positive aspects completely out-weigh the negative aspects.
Conditions of laborers and the role of women in society has been constantly evolving over the course of history. However, these two major groups experienced the most drastic alterations during the Industrial Revolution. Between the 19th and early 20th centuries, laborers diversified in age, while labor conditions declined. During this same time period, the role of women was reinvented as females searched for work and changed their role within the family.
The Industrial Revolution was a transformation from agrarian and handicraft-centered economies into economies distinguished by industry and machine manufacture (Bentley and Ziegler 652). It first began in Britain during the mid-eighteenth century and lasted through the nineteenth century (Bentley and Ziegler 652-653). Although the Industrial Revolution was a drastic and ongoing process, does not mean it was an unproblematic change. Many people during this time period experienced positive and negative effects throughout this development.
The question that remains is one that has to do with the general standard of living in societies that experience an industrial revolution. The answer to this question can be analyzed through many issues that have been brought up in history. Some issues involve employment conditions (work hours, number of workdays, wages, etc). One recent study has shown that 19th century workers in industrializing countries worked on average about 66 hours per week at least six days every week. All the while, there were no benefits at all to these workers, that we have today like paid vacations, health insurance, sick days, and pensions. Employers essentially controlled the terms of employment through their command. With regard to these poor work conditions,
There have been many changes in the Earth's climate. However, the carbon dioxide levels have been higher in the past one hundred years than the entire earth's history. With the rise of industrialization in third world countries and to keep up with the power demand in modern countries. Pollution is becoming a major problem, a plague of sorts. It's becoming more and more a part of our daily life. It is affecting the health of our planet and it needs to be stopped. People have begun to realize that what we're doing isn't healthy for us and the planet. But we're beginning to wonder, isn't it too late?