Throughout the time period of the 1800s The Industrial Revolution was a time of immense transformation and radical change for Great Britain. The nation was literally the hub of the revolution, and was viewed upon as the nation that started it all. A lot of changes occurred during this time period. People stopped the usage of hand tools, and started using machinery to create various goods. The nation as a whole experienced many technological advances during this critical time. People found themselves relocating their families to larger urban areas in search of work in new industries. These positive changes improved life, but also negatively affected it as well. Pollution, such as carbon emission levels in the atmosphere, and sanitization in living quarters rose substantially. This caused a lot of problems for the general public, especially the workers who were working in the factories where the emissions were originating. As a result people encountered health problems that they had never experienced before. The pollution during the early industrialization period contributed to many cases of respiratory diseases among the people of the working class. Before the Industrial Revolution, England's economy was based on the profits of the cottage industry. The cottage industry was the industry that allowed workers to buy raw materials from merchants, and then take these raw materials back to their cottages, and produce the goods within their own homes. They would use their own manual labour to create the goods on their own time. Then they would take it to the markets to sell to various buyers for a profit. Some positive attributes that can be said about the cottage industry was that it was a very efficient practice, and a much clean... ... middle of paper ... ...hole. The wealthy prospered, but at the expense of others (namely, the working classes). It was not uncommon for many factory owners to value profit more so than they did on their worker’s safety and health. “Under the reign of of just laws, personal liberty and property have been secure; mercantile enterprise has been allowed to reap its reward; capital has accumulated in safety; the workman has "gone forth to his work and to his labour until the evening;" and, thus protected and favoured, the manufacturing prosperity of the country has struck its roots deep, and spread forth its branches to the ends of the earth.” Britain was without a doubt the leader in the industrial revolution. They were a nation that greatly prospered during this time. But we should never forget that they prospered off of the working class’ poor working conditions, and bad living standards.
English textile factories were very bad for the health of the working class families. As Dr. Ward stated, “Last summer I visited three cotton factories with Dr. Clough of Preston and Mr. Barker of Manchester, and we could not remain ten minutes in the factory without gasping for breath...¨ This shows that the conditions were so bad that they had trouble breathing because how bad the air was. Dr. Ward also says, ¨Cotton factories are highly unfavourable, both to the health and morals of those employed in them. They are really nurseries of disease and vice. These factories were very unsafe and you could get many diseases and injuries, especially if you were a kid as a lot were. The kids were in many accidents in the factories, as Dr. Ward states,
In Britain, industrialization changed the lives of workers in many ways. One way workers lives changed is being able to earn higher wages. They could make more money in factories than on farms. Wi...
In the Revolution factories had bad accidents. In factories, workers would often get hurt working. There were several cases of lung disease/ cancer. For example, in
During the nineteenth century, Manchester, England became an increasingly industrialized city, and its population rose considerably. Although the industrialization of Manchester was extremely successful for the modernization of society, Manchester’s growth also raised many problems in society. Many different problems arose due to the industrialization of Manchester; however the conditions of the industrialization were viewed differently by different people. Some people wrote and spoke positively of the effects of industrialization, mostly in reference to the improvement of working conditions, and medicine, others wrote about social issues emphasizing the degradation of civilization, some wrote about the health problems that accompanied the population growth and industrialization, including decreased length of life, and increased malnutrition. There were many different reactions to the effects that accompanied the growth of Manchester due to factors such as increased population density, and decreased air quality, most people wrote about the effects of Manchester’s growth negatively largely because of the decrease in quality of life, however there were some people who wrote positively of the changes, these were mostly people who would gain from saying good things about Manchester’s growth.
These advances making it much easier for newcomers to enter into markets due to the advantages previously mentioned it becomes at this point good to note that over the course of the time period roughly around the turn of the nineteenth century, the population in England grew by near one hundred percent (O’Rourke). This becomes very important when we consider the state of resources at the time in history was very cheap and very accessible due to new deposits of coal and new methods as previously mentioned of obtaining them; as well, labor was at hugely valuable despite that technological advances were replacing many. Therefore, because capital and resources were cheap and at the time the working class was one of the richest in the world it made
The period during which there was an increased output of machine-made goods, also known as the Industrial Revolution, played a critical role in reshaping Britain’s economy. The Industrial Revolution, stimulated by advancements that were made during the Agricultural Revolution, began in Great Britain for many reasons. In addition to Britain’s broad availability of natural resources, the count...
Gaskell, Peter. The Manufacturing Population of England: Its Moral, Social, and Physical Conditions, and the Changes which have Arisen from the use of Steam Machinery; with an Examination of Infant Labour. 1833. New York: Arno Press, 1972.
The Industrial Revolution was a fundamental change in the production of goods that altered the life of the working class. Similar to most other historical turning points, it had skeptics, or people that doubted the change, and fanatics, people who saw the value in the change being made. The Industrial Revolution and the period that followed shortly after highlight these varying opinions, as people were more conflicted than ever about the costs of industrialization. While industrialization started in England as an attempt to capitalize on the good fortune they had struck, it quickly developed into a widespread phenomenon that made the production of goods more exact and controlled by higher level people. Many industries, such as the cotton and textile businesses, were previously run through organizations called “cottage industries”.
During the Victorian England period people were slowly changing their ways of life. People were slowly adjusting from agriculture to industry. Although it benefitted mostly the middle class and higher, it devastated the working class. In the eighteenth century, factory workers had unequal rights. Men and women were forced to work from twelve to fifteen hours every single day. With this schedule, the workers were unable to get fully rested for the next day and continued to decrease their health. According to James, of Primary Facts, said, “In cotton mills, dust from the yarn covered the workers and got in their throats. In order to make sure that the cotton was kept strong, factory owners kept their mills warm and damp. This meant that the workers often suffered with lung and chest infections.” Not only did it tire them out to the point of exhaustion, but it also increased their potential for infections. From his quote, it showed how the owners did not care for their employees’ health and can replace them in no time. Workers were expected to work quickly and delicately, but if they failed to do so some sort of consequence will happen to them. As time passed by, factories continued to prosper, the number of goods increased. This led to advancement of technology and made their ma...
...the poor were supposed to be upgraded by industrial innovations; but, on the other hand, company waste and inadequate working conditions, exploitation, took a severe toll on the very people this revolution was supposed to help. The mass presence of disease was due to the degradation of society. Poor conditions of various institutions, a side effect of the revolution, presented a dangerous risk of exposure for lower, working class families. Tuberculosis and typhus fever were painful, contagious, and long-lasting epidemics that killed people of all classes. Naturally, the lower classes suffered the most. The upper classes reaped the financial benefits from this new urban society, while the working classes were subjected to filthy, disease-ridden atmosphere. The impoverished have always been the disadvantaged, but in 19th century England, they paid with their lives.
O'Brien, Patrick, and Roland Quinault, eds. The Industrial Revolution and British Society. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993. Print.
The Industrial Revolution was a time of great change in the world and changed the way many products were manufactured. Originating in England and Great Britain, its effects spread across the globe and influenced the way people lived and worked and lead to the modern world known today. While it did not always have positive effects, through imperialism, Britain’s Industrial Revolution brought about technological innovations that transformed the world and its economies.
From the late 18th century to the mid 19th century, the economy in England was transformed from an agricultural to a manufacturing –based economy. In 1801, agriculture provided employment for 36% of the British population. By 1851, only 10% of the British population was employed in agriculture, while over 40% was employed in industry (Hopkins, 36). As a direct result of this transformation, a surplus of jobs were created and displaced farming families moved in to fill them. Factory and Mine owners exploited the situation by offering families a means to make more money, by putting their children to work. Industry profited from this arrangement by saving money, since child labor was more “cost effective”. According to one historian, Clark Nardinelli, “in 1835 56,000 children under the age of thirteen were working in textile factories alone. By 1874, the number of child laborers in the market hit its peak with over 122,000 children between the ages of 10 and thirteen working in textile factories (4).”
The Industrial Revolution of the 18th century changed Europe forever. At the front of this change was Great Britain, which used some natural advantages and tremendous thinking and innovation to become the leader of the Industrial Revolution.
For example, more industrialization meant more factories, and more factories led to more pollution. The waste produced by factories was expelled into the water as well as into the air, as described by Professor Michael Faraday (Document 1). Faraday was greatly affected by the contamination of the air and water that he observed because never before had anyone seen such filth in nature. In addition, Document 6 portrays the filth of the city from the factories. This filth was a curse to all people because they became more prone to disease due to the increase in contaminants in the air and the decrease of air quality. Furthermore, the Industrial Revolution also decreased the living standards of workers (OI: “Urbanization”). Poor families were forced to live in small tenements because they could not afford to live an extravagant life. These tenements lacked in many ways, including space and sanitation. Due to the packed conditions, diseases spread rapidly. Overall, the housing of the working class was unpleasant and many fell ill to diseases because the risk of developing a disease in a cramped environment was higher. In Document 2, it is evident that the tenements were not an ideal living space. Document 6 portrays that factories were ideally designed for the machines and not for the workers, and as a result the working conditions were also harsh. Working shifts were beyond the control of the workers and the job was not necessarily stable because workers could be fired at any time for any reason (OI: “Working Conditions”). Moreover, the working environment was cramped and caused many problems to arise, such as the death of workers. The working class suffered greatly from the consequences of the Industrial Revolution. However, they also experienced many improvements in life such as the decrease in