The Industrial Revolution
WHAP/Napp
Cues: / Notes:I. The Industrial Revolution
A. Began independently in Western Europe, and specifically in Great Britain
B. A great acceleration in the rate of technological innovation
C. Led to an enormously increased output of goods and services
D. New sources of energy – coal-fired steam engines and later petroleum-fueled engines – transformed production
E. Lying behind increased productivity was not a single invention – spinning jenny, power loom, steam engine, cotton gin – but a “culture of innovation”
F. Yet until 1750 or even 1800, Europeans held no technological advantage over China, India, or the Islamic world
G. But great breakthrough was the steam engine, which provided an inanimate and almost limitless source of poweràcould be used to drive any machine
H. Began with textile industry but spread to iron and steel production, railroads and steamships, food processing, construction, chemicals, etc.
I. Spread beyond Britain to continental Western Europe, and in the second half of the century to the United States, Russia, and Japan
II. Why Europe?
A. Between 1750 and 1100 C.E., Islamic world generated major advances in shipbuilding, textile production, chemical technologies, water mills, etc.
B. India had long been the world center of cotton textile production, the first place to turn sugarcane juice into crystallized sugar
C. And the Chinese clearly were the world leader in technological innovation between 700 and 1400 C.E.
D. And rapid spread of industrialization suggests that Europe had no unique or inherent capacity for industrialization
E. Perhaps Europe’s small and highly competitive states encouraged a spirit of inventiveness to ensure a competitive advantage
F. European monarchs’ desperate need for revenue in absence of effective tax-collecting bureaucracy pushed royals into alliance with merchants
G. States granted charters and monopolies to private trading companies, and governments founded scientific societies to promote innovation
H. Also widespread contact with culturally different peoples was yet another factor that generated change and innovation
III. Why Britain?
A. Most highly commercialized of Europe’s larger countries
B. Landlords had long ago “enclosed” much agricultural land, pushing out the small farmers and producing for the market
C. Agricultural innovationsàincreased output, low prices, freed up labor
Summaries:
Cues: / D. Crop rotation, selective breeding of animals, lighter plows, higher-yielding seedsàAgricultural Revolution in Britain
E. Policy of religious toleration, formally established in 1688, welcomed people with technical skills regardless of their faith
F. Government favored men of business with tariffs to keep out cheap Indian textiles, with laws that made it easy to form companies and to forbid workers’ unions, with that they served to protect the interests of inventors
G. Checks on royal authority – trial by jury and the growing authority of parliament – provided for a freer arena for private enterprise
H. Britain had a ready supply of coal and iron ore, often located close to each other and within easy reach of major industrial centers
I. Country’s island location protected it from kind of invasions that so many continental Europeans states experienced during the French Revolution
J. Railroads crisscrossed Britain and eventually much of Europe
IV. Social Changes
A. Initially an enormously painful change, full of social conflict and insecurity
B. Eventually, it led to higher standard of living and greater civic participation
C. Aristocrats suffered little in material terms but declined as a class
D. As urban wealth became more important, landed aristocrats had to make way for the up-and-coming businessmen, manufacturers, and bankers
E. Those who benefited most from industrialization were merchants of what became known as the “middle classes”
F. Politically, merchants were liberals, favoring constitutional government, private property, free trade, and social reform within limits
G. Their agitation resulted in Reform Bill of 1823, which broadened the right to vote to many men of the middle class, but not to middle-class women
H. Women in middle-class families were increasingly cast as homemakers, wives, and mothersàcreating a refuge from the cutthroat capitalist world
I. But the overwhelming majority of Britain’s nineteenth-century population àworkersàsuffered the most and benefited the least
J. Chief among new conditions was the rapid urbanization of British society
K. Cities were vastly overcrowded with wholly inadequate sanitation, periodic epidemics, row houses, few public services, and inadequate water supplies
L. Long hours, low wages, and child labor were nothing new for the poor, but the routine and monotony of work were unwelcome conditions of labor
M. Trade unions were legalized in 1824 and many workers joined and Socialist ideas also began to spread among the laboring classes
N. Robert Owen (1771-1858), a wealthy British cotton textile manufacturer, urged the creation of small industrial communities, cooperatively run
O. Karl Marx (1818—1883)-class struggle between bourgeoisie and proletariat àCapitalism flawed, doomed to collapse amid a working-class revolution
P. Labour Party, established in the 1890s, it advocated a reformist program
Q. Improving material conditionsàmoderated working classes
R. Wages rose under pressure from unions à More political rights gained
S. Contrary to Marx, capitalism demonstrated capacity for reform
Summaries:
Questions:
· In what respects did the roots of the Industrial Revolution lie within Europe? In what ways did that transformation have global roots?
· What was distinctive about Britain that may help to explain its status as the breakthrough point of the Industrial Revolution?
· How did the Industrial Revolution transform British society?
· How did Britain's middle classes change during the nineteenth century?
· How did Karl Marx understand the Industrial Revolution? In what ways did his ideas have an impact in the industrializing world of the nineteenth century?
1. The Industrial Revolution is generally considered to have begun in(A) France
(B) Germany
(C) England
(D) Belgium
(E) The United States
2. The widespread application of what device played the largest part in beginning the Industrial Revolution?
(A) The electric turbine
(B) The water wheel
(C) The internal-combustion engine
(D) The windmill
(E) The steam engine
3. The Enclosure Acts affected the Industrial Revolution by
(A) Driving peasants off their land and thereby creating the workforce needed for factories and mines
(B) Bankrupting wealthy landowners, convincing them to turn to manufacturing
(C) Increasing the land under cultivation, destroying trees, increasing reliance on coal for fuel
(D) Educating peasants and turning them into skilled workers
(E) Setting more land aside for new factories and mines / 4. What was the first major trade to be fully power-driven and industrialized?
(A) The canning of food
(B) The textile industry
(C) The production of rubber
(D) The manufacture of glass
(E) The leatherworking trade
5. What effect did nineteenth-century industrialization have on Europe’s aristocratic class?
(A) Industrialization made the aristocratic class more powerful.
(B) Industrialization had very little effect on the aristocratic class.
(C) Industrialization gradually weakened the power and prestige of the aristocratic class.
(D) Industrialization suddenly weakened the power and prestige of the aristocratic class.
(E) Industrialization had no effect at all on the aristocratic class.
6. The Bessemer process allowed the cost-effective and reliable production of
(A) Steel
(B) Fine cotton
(C) Rubber
(D) Aluminum
(E) Concrete
Excerpt from yale.edu
The era known as the Industrial Revolution was a period in which fundamental changes occurred in agriculture, textile and metal manufacture, transportation, economic policies and the social structure in England. This period is appropriately labeled “revolution,” for it thoroughly destroyed the old manner of doing things; yet the term is simultaneously inappropriate, for it connotes abrupt change. The changes that occurred during this period (1760-1850), in fact, occurred gradually. The year 1760 is generally accepted as the “eve” of the Industrial Revolution. In reality, this eve began more than two centuries before this date. The late 18th century and the early l9th century brought to fruition the ideas and discoveries of those who had long passed on, such as, Galileo, Bacon, Descartes and others.
Advances in agricultural techniques and practices resulted in an increased supply of food and raw materials, changes in industrial organization and new technology resulted in increased production, efficiency and profits, and the increase in commerce, foreign and domestic, were all conditions which promoted the advent of the Industrial Revolution. Many of these conditions were so closely interrelated that increased activity in one spurred an increase in activity in another…
Agriculture occupied a prominent position in the English way of life of this period. Not only was its importance rooted in the subsistence of the population, but agriculture was an indispensable source of raw materials for the textile industry. Wool and cotton production for the manufacture of cloth increased in each successive year, as did the yield of food crops. The improved yield of the agricultural sector can be attributed to the enclosure movement and to improved techniques and practices developed during this period. A common practice in early agriculture was to allow the land to lie fallow after it had been exhausted through cultivation. Later it was discovered that the cultivation of clover and other legumes would help to restore the fertility of the soil. The improved yields also increased the amount of food available to sustain livestock through the winter. This increased the size of herds for meat on the table and allowed farmers to begin with larger herds in the spring than they had previously.
Other advances in agriculture included the use of sturdier farm implements fashioned from metal. Up until this period most farming implements were made entirely out of wood. We do not find much technical innovation beyond the slight improvements made on existing implements. We do find increased energy being placed into the breeding of livestock, control of insects, improved irrigation and farming methods, developing new crops and the use of horsepower in the fields to replace oxen as a source of power.
These changes which have occurred in agriculture made it possible to feed all of the people that were attracted to the industrial centers as factory workers. By providing enough food to sustain an adequate work force, England was preparing the way for expansion of the economy and industry…In 18th century England, the enclosure of common village fields into individual landholdings, or the division of unproductive land into private property was the first significant change to occur. This concentrated the ownership of the land into the hands of a few, and made it possible to institute improved farming techniques on a wider scale…
Thesis Statement: Change Over Time: Western Europe (476 C.E. – 1800s C.E.)
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