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Industrial Revolution

explanatory Essay
853 words
853 words
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The Industrial revolution began in the early 1800s. The industrial revolution could not have happened if the agricultural revolution had not preceded it. During the Agricultural Revolution several inventions that reduced the need for man power were invented. Two of those inventions were the Jethro Tull seeding drill and the cotton gin. The seeding drill planted seeds in rows which made the crops easier to manage and harvest. The cotton gin was invented in 1793 by Eli Whitney, it took the seeds out of the cotton. The cotton gin made it so that the work that previously needed to be done by fifty men could now be done by one. An idea of the agricultural revolution was crop rotation. Crop rotation was switching the crops into different fields each year which allowed farmers to produce 25 % more crops and more food means more population up. During the agricultural revolution population went up and less people were needed to work on the farms. There were a lot of people that needed jobs but there were not a lot of jobs for people on farms so the people turned to the cities. The time when people went into the cities looking for jobs which caused the populations of the cities to at least double was called urbanization. During urbanization the city of Manchester in the United kingdom grew from 50,000 people to 500,00 people, this rapid increase of population took place during an extremely short period of time. The United Kingdom became the place where the industrial revolution was born. It happened here because the UK had land, labor, and wealth. Factories arose first in the UK and then all over Europe. Since there were factories everywhere, there were plenty of jobs for the people. Even though the factories did provide jobs for the people they were not good jobs. People started working as young as the age of six. The average work day was 14-16 hours, and that’s a lot of working hours, especially for a young child. Inside the factories the conditions were absolutely dreadful. The air was full of dust and other things that made it practically unbreathable, the machines were dangerous and often took a persons limbs or injured them in other ways. Because the work days were so long and the workers were practically on their feet the entire day people became deformed and had problems with their legs. Despite all the hard labor and dangers of the work place the workers were still paid next to nothing. Eventually working conditions did improve. One of the things that helped improve conditions were unions. Unions were when all of the workers got together

In this essay, the author

  • Explains that the industrial revolution began in the early 1800s. during the agricultural revolution several inventions that reduced the need for man power wereinvented.
  • Explains that the cotton gin was invented in 1793 by eliwhitney, which took the seeds out of cotton. crop rotation was switching the crops into different fields each year.
  • Explains that during the agricultural revolution population went up and less people were needed to work on the farms, so the people turned to the cities looking for jobs.
  • Explains how the city of manchester grew from 50,000 people to 500,00 people during an extremely short period. the united kingdom became the place where the industrial revolution was born.
  • Explains that even though the factories provided jobs for the people, they were not good jobs. the average work day was 14-16 hours.
  • Explains that the work days were long and people were deformed and had problems with their legs. despite all the hard labor and dangers, the workers were paid next to nothing.
  • Explains that unions and legislative reforms helped improve working conditions because they regulated and limited several things like how old you had to be before you could work.
  • Explains that the government made sure that factories were safe for people to work in so that people did not get hurt by machines so often. horace mann made public education free.
  • Describes the positive effects of all these factories. people began to dress better than they had before and owned more possessions because the machines were able to make things that they wanted inlarger quantities.
  • Explains that laissez faire translates to "let do" and free trade was allowed. adam smith's ideas became the basis for capitalism.
  • Explains capitalism was an economic system in which money was invested in business ventures with the goal of making a profit. the laissez faire economists believed that government controls would ruin the economy.
  • Explains marx's view that owners were the "haves" because they had money, while workers were not. marx saw history as a class warfare and an overflow of the working class.
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