Industrial Revolution

• The Industrial Revolution refers to the greatly increased output of machine-made goods that began in England
during the 18th century and subsequently spread to other countries in the world.

• In essence, it was an economic transformation during which the old system of organization of work got
replaced by a new one.

• This new economic system was characterized by:

• Transitions from hand production methods to machine.

• The development of machine tools.

• Improved efficiency of water power, the increasing use of steam power.

• The rise of factory system under which the center of production shifted from home to the factory.

• The workers, for the first time now, travelled from home to the work sites on a daily basis.

They for the first time aggregated in such large numbers under a shed working on machines.

• However the roots of the industrial revolution lie in the importance which is ascribed to rational thought and
respect accorded to reason over faith.

• This change in the orientation of man from divine to earthly, from other worldly to this worldly which took
place in Renaissance period preceding the industrial revolution is perhaps the pro-genitor of the industrial
revolution.

• Therefore a study of industrial revolution cannot be complete without the appreciation of Renaissance period.

• Further the achievements of the industrial revolution is not simply limited to the progress in the scientific
thought and technological achievements rather the simple philosophy of rational thought which induced a
technological revolution also made its impact on the understanding of the other disciplines like politics,
economy, sociology and philosophy which in turn facilitated the usage of new scientific innovations in
spheres of rational policies of countries like England and the Netherlands.

Causes of Industrial Revolution:

• England's Advantageous Geographical Location:

• England, being part of the British Isles, is separated from mainland Europe, which insulated it from various
political turmoil’s taking place in Medieval Europe, giving it a considerable degree of Peace.
• Further, in England the movement of goods between markets was helped by a good network of rivers, and an
indented coastline with sheltered bays.

• Until the spread of railways, transport by waterways was cheaper and faster than by land.

• As early as 1724, English rivers provided some 1,160 miles of navigable water, and except for mountainous
areas, most places in the country were within 15 miles of a river.

• Since all the navigable sections of England rivers flow into the sea, cargo on river vessel was easily transferred
to coastal ships called coasters.

• Abundance of Natural Resources:

• England had coal and Iron ore reserves, which acted as staple materials for mechanization, were plentifully
available, as were other minerals-lead, copper and tin that were used in industry.

• Notably, England possessed excellent coking coal and high grade iron ore basins.

• These basins were also close to ports, there were five coastal coal fields which could deliver their product
straight to the ships.

• Since the coal fields were near to the coasts, shipbuilding increased, as did ship trade.

• Precedence of Agricultural Revolution:

• England had been through a major economic change, later described as the 'agricultural revolution'.

• This was the process by which bigger landlords had bought up small farms near their own properties and
enclosed the village common lands, thus creating very large estates and increasing food production.

• This forced landless farmers, and those who had lived by grazing animals on the common lands, to search for
jobs elsewhere.

• Most of them went to nearby towns and started working in factories.

New inventions and Political Stability:

• This was a period of several new inventions which promised to revolutionized production such as Power-
Loom, sewing machine, steam machine, steam engine, blast furnace and locomotive.
• Further, Britain's political stability gave the country a tremendous advantage over its neighbors.
• Though Britain took part in many wars during the 1700s none of these struggles occurred on British soil.
• Furthermore, their military and political successes gave the British a positive attitude.
• Parliament also passes laws that protected businesses and helped expansion.
• Growth of the Capital in England:

• The centre of the country's financial system was the bank of England ( founded in 1694).

• By 1784, there were more than a 100 provincial Banks in England, and during the next

16 years their numbers trebled.

• By the 1800s, there were more than 600 banks in the provinces and over 100 banks in London alone.

• The financial requirements to establish and maintain big industrial enterprises were met by these banks.

• Colonial Possessions of England:

By the mid of 18th century, England had acquired a plenty of colonies around the world which were the source of
raw materials for its factories and the native population could be used as laborers in factories.

• Further, these colonies also served as markets for the goods produced out of the English factories thereby
multiplying the profits of the English Entrepreneurs and the tax coffers of the British government.

• Other countries had some of these advantages. However, Britain had all the factors of production.

• These were the resources (i.e. land, labor, and capital) needed to produce goods and services that the
industrial revolution required.

Process of Industrial Revolution:

• Textile Sector:

• The textile industry was transformed by the industrial revolution in particular.

• Before mechanization and factories, textiles were made mainly in people's homes (giving rise to the term
cottage industry).

• As East India Company's political control on parts of India was established, it began to import raw cotton
from India which could be spun and woven into cloth in England.

• In the 1700s, a series of innovations led to ever increasing productivity, while requiring less human energy.

• For example the spinning jenny was a machine made by James Hargreaves in 1765 on which a single person
could spin several thread of yawn simultaneously.

• This provided weavers with yarn at a faster rate that they could weave into fabric.

• The mule was the nickname for a machine invented in 1779 by Samuel Crompton that allowed the spinning of
Strong and fine yarn.
• The cycle of invention in cotton textile industry that sought to maintain a balance between the tasks of
spinning and weaving concluded with invention of the power loom by Edmund Cartwright in 1787.

• This was easy to work; stopped automatically a thread broke and could be used to weave any kind of material.

• All these big heavy machines would need to be bought under one large roof called the factories which
completely revolutionized the textile industry.

• Steam Power:

• The steam power was integral to the process of large scale industrialization.

• Steam power pressure at high temperatures that enabled the use of a broad range of machinery.

• This meant that the steam power was the only source of energy that was reliable and inexpensive enough to
manufacture machines itself.

• In 1712, Englishman Thomas Newcomen developed the first practical steam engine which was used primarily
to pump water out of the mines.

• By the 1770s Scottish inventor James Watt had improved on Newcomen's work, and the steam engine went on
to the power machinery, locomotives and ships during the Industrial Revolution.

• Iron and Steel Production:

• Developments in the Iron industry also played a central role in the industrial revolution.

• As the demand for new machinery increased in other sectors, it led to a revolution in the process of Iron and
steel production in England.

• In the 18th century, Englishman Abraham Darby discovered a cheaper, easier method to produce cast Iron,
using a coke-fueled (as opposed to charcoal fired) furnace.

• In the 1850s British engineer Henery Bessemer developed the first inexpensive process for mass producing
steel.

• Both iron and steel become essential materials, used to make everything from appliances, tools and machines, to
ships, buildings, and infrastructure.

• The British Iron production Quadrupled between 1800 and 1830 and its product was the cheapest in the
Europe.

• By 1848, Britain was smelting more iron than the rest of the world together.
• Transport and Communication:

• The system of Transport and communication underwent a significant transformation during the industrial
revolution.

• The steam engine sparked innovative methods in transportation.

• Railways were not new in Pre-Industrial Britain.

• There were over 1000 railways by 1800, most of them connected to an iron pit or a coal mine with a canal
or river.

• But all of these railways were drawn by horses.

• The first steam locomotive to be used in railways was modified by George Stephenson in 1814.

• The invention of steam powered railways took the whole process of industrial revolution to another level.

• The ultimate triumph of the industrial revolution, railroads moved people, raw materials, and finished goods
rapidly around England.

• This brought people to new industrial cities, causing a large influx of labour and gradually increased trade
within England, Europe and the World.

• Additionally around 1820, Scottish engineer John McAdam developed a new process for road construction.

• His technique, which became known as macadam, resulted in roads that were smoother, more durable and less
muddy.

The railroad network was complemented by Canal network building.

• Communication became easier during Industrial revolution with such inventions as telegraph and reforms
in the postal services carried out in 1840s by the British government.

Industrial Revolution beyond England:

• The process of industrial revolution which started in England spread towards the rest of Europe and America in
early 19th century.

• France, Germany, Belgium started employing various new machines in order to boost production levels.

• The end of the Napolenic wars in 1815 allowed France to focus on industrial development.
• Similarly, Germany, after its unification under Bismark, started developing rapidly and emerged as a rival to
British dominance.

• Italy and Russia too started developing industrially though not on a steady pace.

• Beyond Europe, the United States of America started developing industrially after its independence from
Britain, although it was only after 1870 that it acquired a rapid pace.

• By the early 20th century, the U.S.A. had become the world's leading industrial nation.

• Japan was the first Asian country to undergo the process of industrial revolution in the late

19th century.

• It is important to stress the fact that all these countries had developed an atmosphere conducive for the
process of industrial revolution which existed in England like political independence, availability of raw
material, labor and capital among others.

Impact of Industrial Revolution:

• Though Industrial Revolution is seen as an offshoot of the Renaissance movement, while the Renaissance movement
was more ideological, it was the industrial revolution which helped express the spirit of the Renaissance movement in
its true form and propagate it across the world in multifarious forms.

• Industrial Revolution in Britain not only impacted British society but led to several path breaking changes across the
worlds like:

• The rise of the nation states by increased consolidation on ethnic and linguistic lines,

• Intensification of the zeal for colonization,

• increased competition for profits and territories across the world among these colonial powers,

• Rise of the people's consciousness manifested in various forms on the basis of different ideologies,

• Decline of feudal society and the advent of the equalitarian paradigm,

• increased awareness among women for their rights,

• Rise of the trade unions, emergence of the concepts of democracy and liberalism to name a few of them.

Economic Effects:

• The industrial revolution led to an exponential growth in the number of factories and industrial installations by
incorporating the latest inventions resulting in increased production.

• Increased production was channelized to various markets across the world which led to a jump in the quantum of
trade volumes across the world, which started yielding huge profits towards the industrialized nations.

• Now the prices of various factory made products started falling due to increased competition.
• To survive in the competitive environment the factories need to be fed continuously with large quantities of cheap
raw material which led to increased exploitation of natural resources sourced both from within the country and from
abroad (colonies).

• Increased wealth generation led to the development of more and more cities and development of transportation and
communication systems across the length and breadth of the nation.

• This was followed by the influx of rural population to these cities in search of jobs and better living.

• Development of trade activities had to be necessarily supported by an improved and efficient banking system which
in turn was sustained by the huge profits which the trading exercise generated.

Collapse of the Urban Infrastructure:

• With the influx of laborers to the cities from the countryside the population of the cities grew by leaps and bounds, so
that between 1800 and 1850, the number of

European cities boasting more than 100,000 inhabitants rose.

• With such enormous growth of population within such a short span of time the urban infrastructure collapsed as the
cities were not planned to accommodate such huge hordes of population.

• There were no plans, no sanitary codes, and no building codes controlling the growth of English cities.

• They lacked adequate housings, education, and police protection for the people who poured in from the countryside
seeking jobs.

• Most of the unpaved streets had no drains and collected heaps of garbage.

• Workers lived in dark, dirty shelters, whole families crowded into one bedroom-which led to epidemics.

• Cholera epidemics regularly swept through the slums of Great Britain's industrial cities.

• In 1842, a British Government study showed an average life span to be 17 years for working class people in one large
city, compared with 38 years of nearby rural area.

Emergence of new classes:

• Though poverty gripped Britain's working classes, the industrial revolution created enormous amount of money in
the country.

• Most of this wealth lined the pockets of factory owners, shippers, and merchants.

• These wealthy people made up a growing middle class-a social class of skilled workers, professionals, business
peoples, and wealthy farmers.

• The new middle class transformed the social structure of Great Britain.

• In the past, land owners and aristocrats occupied the top position in Britain society.
• Now some factory owners, merchants, and investment bankers grew wealthier than the landowners and aristocrats.

• Furthermore, gradually a large number middle class- neither rich nor poor- emerged.

• This group included an upper middle class of government employees, doctors, lawyers, and managers of factories,
mines and shops.

• A lower middle class consisted of factory overseers and such skilled workers as toolmakers, mechanical drafters, and
painters.

• These people enjoyed a comfortable standard of living.

Exploitation of the Labor Class:

• Factory owners wanted to increase their production by operating their STUDY IU machines for as many hours a day as
possible.

• As a result, the average worker spent 14 hours a day at the job, 6 days a week.

• Instead of changing with the seasons, the work was the same week after week, year after year.

• Workers had to keep up with the machines. Industries also posed new dangers at work.

• Factories were seldom well lit or clean. Machines often injured workers.

• The most dangerous conditions of all were found in the coal mines.

• Frequent accidents, damp conditions, and the constant breathing of coal dust made the average miner's life span ten
year shorter than that of other workers work in the factories, with long, unbroken hours of the same kind of work,
under strict discipline and sharp forms of punishments, was completely different.

• The earning of women and children were necessary to supplement men's meagre wages.

• As the use of machinery spread and fewer workers were needed, industrialist preferred to employ women and
children who would be less agitated about their poor working conditions and work for lower wages than men.

• Children were often employed in textile factories because they were small enough to move between tightly packed
machinery.

Emergence of Trade Unions:

• Deeply frustrated by the inhumane conditions of work, by the 1800s working people became more active in politics.

• To press reforms, workers joined together in voluntary associations called unions.

• Unions engaged in collective bargaining- negotiations between workers and their employers.

• They bargained for better working conditions and higher pay.

• If factory owners refused these demands, union members could strike, or refuse to work.

• Skilled workers led the way in forming unions because their special skills gave them extra bargaining power.
• Management would have trouble replacing such skilled workers as carpenters, printers, and spinners.

• Thus, the earliest unions helped the lower middle class more then they helped the poorest workers.

• The trade union movement underwent slow, painful growth in both Great Britain and United States.

• British unions had shared goals of raising wages and improving working conditions.

• For years, the British Government denied workers the right to form Unions.

• The government saw unions as a threat to social order and stability as reflected from the Combination Acts of 1799
and 1800 outlawed unions and strikes.

• Bravely ignoring the threat of jail or job loss, factory workers joined unions anyway.

• Parliament finally repealed the combination acts in 1824.

• After 1825, the British government was compelled to accommodate unions.

• By 1875, British trade unions had won the right to strike and picket peacefully.

• They had also built up a membership of one million people.

• In the United States, skilled workers had belonged to unions since 1800s.

• In 1886 several unions joined together to form the organization that would become the American Federation of
Labor (AFL).

• A series of successful strikes won AFL members higher wages and shorter hours.

• Subsequently, several reform bills were introduced in the parliament to improve the conditions of the workers.

• In Both Great Britain and United States, new laws reformed some of the worst abuses of Industrialization.

• In 1832, for example, the English Parliament set up a committee to investigate child labor.

• As a result of this committee's findings, Parliament passed the Factory Act of 1833.

• The new law made it illegal to hire children under 9 years old.

• Children from the ages of 9 to 12 could not work more than 8 hours a day.

• Young people from 13 to 17 could not work more than 12 hours.

• In 1842 the mines act prevented women and children from working underground.

• In 1847, the Parliament passed a bill that helped working women as well as their children.

• The Ten Hours Act of 1847 limited the workday to 10 hours for women and children who worked in factories.

 Reformers in the United States also pass legislation to protect child workers.
Abolition of Slavery:

• Among the curses of the industrial revolution, slavery was the most inhumane and agonizing.

• William Wilberforce, a highly religious man, who was a member of British Parliament, passed a bill to end the slave
trade in the British west ideas in 1807.

• After he retired from parliament in 1825, Wilberforce continued his fight to free the slaves.

• Britain finally abolished slavery in its Empires in 1833.

• In the United States the movement to fulfil the promise of the Declaration of

Independence by ending slavery grew in the early 1800s.

• The enslavement of African people finally ended in United States when the Union won the Civil War in 1865.

• With the end of U.S. Civil War, enslavement persisted in the Americas only in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Brazil.

• In Puerto Rico, slavery was ended in 1873.

• Spain finally ended slavery in its Cuban colony in 1886.

• Not until 1888 did Brazil's huge enslaved population win freedom.

Women's Fight for Change:

• The industrial revolution proved a mixed blessing for women.

• On the one hand, factory work offered higher wages than work done at home.

• For instance, women spinners in Manchester earned more money than women who stayed home to spin cotton
thread.

• On the other hand, women factory workers usually made only one third as much money as men.

• Women led reform movements to address this and other passing social issues.

• During the mid-1800s, for example, women started forming trade unions in trades where they were in the majority
and started to bargain for their better wages and better working conditions.

• The first organized movement for British women's suffrage was the Langham

Place Circle of the 1850s, led by Barbara Bodichon and Bessie Rayner Parkes.

• They also campaigned for improved female rights in the law, employment, education, and marriage.

Other Reforms:

• Gradually, the reforms spread to other areas of life, in the United States and

Western Europe, reformers tried to correct the problems troubling the newly industrialized nations.

• Public education and prison reform ranked high on the reformer's lists.
• There were demands which favored free public education for all children.

• By the 1850s, many states were starting to establish a system of public schools.

• In Western Europe, free public schooling became available in the late 1800s.

• In 1831, French writer Alexis de Tocqueville had contrasted the brutal conditions in American prisons to the
"extended liberty" of American Society.

• Reformers took on the challenge of prison reform, emphasizing the goal of restoring prisoners to useful lives.

Rise of New Ideas:

• The process of Industrial Revolution gave rise to many new ideas and philosophies that came to dominate the
intellectual trends of the coming generations.

• The impact of the industrial revolution was pervasive and lead to new social, economic and political ideologies.

• When observed as a whole, industrial revolution permitted the emergence of entirely new political spectrum.

• Without industrialization, there would never have been enough power to truly overcome the feudal, autocratic
structures of early modern Europe.

• The idea of democracy, though existed in pre-industrial England, received a major fillip after the industrial revolution.

• During the 1800s, democracy grew in the industrialized countries, even as foreign expansion (colonialism and
imperialism) increased.

• It created motivations for imperialism and heightened already tense rivalries among nations.

• The impulse towards democracy became the basis of the French Revolution and the American Revolution which
brought about radical changes not only in the history of Western Europe and the American but the entire World.

• Further the ideas of Laissez-faire ( non-intervention of the state on economic realms), Classical Liberalism(Civil
Liberties with special emphasis on economic freedom) and Capitalism came to dominate the industrialized nations.

• To counter the negatives of too much economic freedom and exploitation of the working class, ideas of socialism
(societal ownership of the means of production) came into being.

Environmental Degradation:

• The industrial revolution marked a major turning point in Earth's ecology and human's relationship with their
environment.

• The industrial revolution dramatically changed every aspect of human life and life styles.

• The pollution of water and air resulted in a large number of deaths in the industrialized cities of England and other
industrialized nations.

• It was only in 1970s, nearly after 200 years of the beginning of industrial revolution, that the attention of global
community shifted towards the negative effects of industrialization on the environment and strategies were devised
to mitigate these negative effects.
Conclusion