HUMANITY AND NATURE: THE PERIOD OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Human beings and their reaction and response to world events has changed and evolved throughout history. The time period of the Industrial Revolution was no exception. Humans´ responses to the consequences of the Industrial Revolution accurately depicted humanity and the stage of its evolution at that particular point in history. Humanity spoke out against the injustices they encountered as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Eventually, social theories emerged, that clearly depicted the power of the people to lead the world in the direction they desired. The Industrial Revolution was also a time of evolution in regards to the relationship of humanity with nature. Humanity proved that it no longer needed to depend on nature for its survival.
Before the first Industrial Revolution, Englands economy was based on its cottage industry. The cottage industry consisted of workers purchasing raw materials from merchants and using these materials to produce goods at their own home. The problem with this system was that productivity was extremely low, which made costs higher. This caused an increase in the productsí prices, so goods became exclusive to wealthy citizens.
By the 1750ís the Industrial Revolution had begun. The Industrial Revolution was directly related to the rise of the factory system.(1) The incentive to invest in factories came from the fact that they were extremely efficient, so there was a great potential for increased profit. Men, women, and children were employed to keep the machines running and the factory system was established to provide the greatest efficiency of material and labor, at the lest expensive cost.(2) Factories provided the oppo...
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...ch Engels, "The Communist Manifesto" in Perry M. Rogers Third
Edition, Aspects of Western Civilization: Problesm and Sources in History (Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997), 149.
16. Pope Leo XIII, "Rerum Novarum (1891)" in Perry M. Rogers Third Edition, Aspects of
Western Civilization: Probles and Sources in History (Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall, 1997), 158.
Additional Source
- Reeve, Robin. The Industrial Revolution 1750 - 1850. London: University of London
Press LTD, 1971.
This book is a great source for the study of humans and nature during the period of the Industrial Revolution. In this book the social impact of the Industrial Revolution is approached through an analysis of the labour force in 1851 and then leads into an assessment of family life and living standards during this controversial period.
In the nineteenth century, various inventions like the steam engine stimulated demand for products, thus introducing factories and workshops to manufacture those commodities. The popularization of Manchester initiated assorted reactions towards the industrialization of the cities surrounding Great Britain. While the industrial revolution ensued, numerous concerns occurred which all contemplated the affects of factories and industries engaged by the working division of society. As industry began to evolve for the operational lower classes, the positive, negative, and mutual reactions are denoted by various speakers whom were among the diverse social classes of society.
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”.
A factory system has four main characteristics; mechanized equipment, workers under one roof, division of labor, and supervision of employees.3 The technological advances of cotton jennies, water frames, and steam power quickly grew too large to fit into households leading to factories replacing the once domestic system.3 Once factories were in place, people in rural areas who were unable to find work took jobs in the factories. The Industrial Revolution in Britain was successful because of the investment of machinery, use of supervision, and improvement of quality control. 4The factory system allowed for materials and goods to be made faster and at a reduced cost. Pre-Industrial Revolution, work hours were erratic and long periods of inactivity were the norm. In the agriculture business, laborers worked in conjunction with the harvest schedule. With factories, a steady production schedule was mandatory to keep...
The factory system was the key to the industrial revolution. The factory system was a combination of Humans and new technology. New technology was arriving every day. The greatest invention during this time was the steam engine. The creation of the steam engine was credited to James Watt. There had been other steam engines before James Watt’s but none of them were efficient. Watt’s engine was the first efficient engine that could be used in a factory. The steam engine had the strength of ten thousand men.(Pollard) This was not the only invention that helped the factory system evolve. Textiles were a major product of the Industrial Revolution. Production was slow at first in the factory. In 1764, a British inventor named James Hargraves invented the “Spinning Jenny.” This lowered production time which enabled the factory to produce more per day. In 1773, John Kay, an English inventor, created the “flying shuttle” which lowered the production time even more.(Encarta) If production had not been speed up, the Industrial Revolution would have not had that big of effect as it did in North America.
Hooker, Richard. A. “The Industrial Revolution.” Posted June 6, 2014. 1999. The 'Secondary' of the 'Se Washington State University. 3 Feb. 2004 < http://www.wsu.edu:8080/dee/ENLIGHT/INDUSTRY.HTM >.
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.
The Industrial revolution was a turning point for the earth and humans, every aspect of human’s life and life styles were changed dramatically. It’s due to the revolution that we ca have so many types of clothing and we can easily talk to people in different countries. There has also become an increased wealth in the western world.
The Industrial Revolution in England marked rapid social and economic changes. Cottage Industries, originally infusing the economy and producing an income for the rural communities became all but obsolete with the introduction of purpose powered machinery using primarily water and steam. Once a primarily agrarian society, England saw an explosive population growth in its manufacturing towns and cities. An increased production of and demand for manufactured goods saw standards of living rise. A burgeoning middle and existing wealthy class reaped the benefits.
During this era, the economy that relied on agriculture turned into one that was fuelled by machine manufacturing. This process led the people working on farms to the urban factories. The industrial revolution changed the process of how goods were manufactured. Prior to the revolution, goods were hand-made from people’s homes. This all changed in the 1700’s when products were made from machines in large factories.
The Industrial Revolution refers to the greatly increased output of machine-made goods that began in England in the mid 1700s. Before the Industrial Revolution, people made items by hand. Soon machines did the jobs that people didn’t want to do. This is a more efficient way of making goods. During the industrial revolution, political, economic, and social forces led to a period of upheaval for the French during the eighteenth century.
The revolution of the 18th and 19th century saw an immense transformation in science, technology and our economy, hence, the transformation from a Neolithic economy to an industrial economy. The revolution impacted on the social-economic in terms of the industrial research and development. Before the revolution labour was manly manual force however, the first revolution saw the materlisation of machines. For examples, the introduction of steam engines provided powered energy used in replacement of manual labour, therefore ...
The industrial Revolution began in England in the 1700’s. The First Industrial Revolution contributed to the rise of capitalism in that it led to investing in factories, increased production and higher demands for raw materials, led to worldwide trade, new innovations and inventions. Changes in transportation, agriculture, and communication were considered the largest contributions to capitalism (Arellano, n.d). The new inventions led to building more factories for people to work. The wealthy people brought and managed the factories. The workers received a wage for their work. The addition of the machines used in the factories helped create the Capitalism economic system by creating the wage format for the people that worked in the factories (Walker,
Why was Britain was the first country to first to industrialize was because it had one of the four following Coal and Iron, Cottage Industry, Textile Inventions and food surplus. In the industrial age coal and iron was very important to the workers. Iron was steel and coal was used for steamed power machinery in textile factories and the locomotives.The Cottage Industry is an industry made up of people working from their own houses and using their own equipment. Products or services made from a home based business instead of in a factory setting. Many people operate their own cottage industries by making and marketing crafts, weaving,crochet and knitting are among the craft work found in cottage industries, In the Industrial era, most people
The Industrial Revolution was a time of immense changes that occurred in the manufacturing process, transportation means, and economy of the agriculture, textile, and metal industries in England, turning it into “the workshop of the world”
Horn, Jeff, Leonard N. Rosenband, and Merritt Roe Smith. Reconceptualizing the Industrial Revolution. Dibner Institute Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2010.