Historical Analysis of The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was one of the most impactful eras in the history of the world. It changed the way we worked, lived, owned, and generally thought. With advent of economic philosophies like capitalism and communism, the way we worked and lived was written down and itemized, and western civilization was never the same. The concepts of jobs, urbanization, and credit might have allowed the world to progress into a veritable economical ecosystem, defining our modern definition of living, but they also came with an array of downsides and consequences that, in retrospect, painted the time period in which they arrived in an overall negative light. It is with these downsides considered that we must ask ourselves: overall, was The Industrial Revolution a negative or positive change in the way the world works? Through itemizing three key issues and/or breakthroughs that arose in this morally questionable time period, itemizing a progress, problem, and promise that arose from said issue and/or breakthrough, and supporting my reasoning through specific historical details, I hope to bring answers to this often debated issue.

First, is the issue of child labor. This came as a price to the expensive and risky machinery first developed at the time. Often to compensate for the expensive and often tricky to operate machinery, factory owners would hire cheap (or free) labor in the form of children. With the urbanization of areas such as London, many of the adults living in these newly urbanized cities would have jobs, usually either working more intense factory jobs or working with a craft they had mastered like blacksmithing, leaving the children unsupervised and uncared for. So, they’re parents put them to work in these newly made fact...

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... farmers, causing the unrest that was present during the dawn of urbanization. This also detached us from a rural sense of morality, which “The Whitechapel Murders” stand testament to. The steam engine also was a promise establishing a decreased reliance on imports and a newly blossoming economy that still puts England near the top of the world economically.

With child labor, urbanization, and the steam engine considered, it’s not hard to see the overall impact of The Industrial Revolution. While it led to a new reliance on consumerism, rampant pollution, child enslavement, and a loss of rural morality, it also propelled the world toward a new dawn of industry that defines modern life, and promised free enterprise for all those who seeked it. So in conclusion, while the industrial revolution had negative initial effects, it all paid off in spades in the long run.