The Industrial Revolution increased the overall amount of wealth and distributed it more widely than had been the case in earlier centuries, helping to enlarge the middle class. However, the replacement of the domestic system of industrial production, in which independent craftspersons worked in or near their homes, with the factory system and mass production consigned large numbers of people, including women and children, to long hours of tedious and often dangerous work at subsistence wages. Their miserable conditions gave rise to the trade union movement in the mid-19th century. Learn more about trade unions. Important inventors of the Industrial Revolution included James Watt, who greatly improved the steam engine; Richard Trevithick and George Stephenson, who pioneered the steam locomotive; Robert Fulton, who designed the first commercially successful paddle steamer; Michael Faraday, who demonstrated the first electric generator and electric motor; Joseph Wilson Swan and Thomas Alva Edison, who each independently invented the light bulb; Samuel Morse, who designed a system of electric telegraphy and invented Morse Code; Alexander Graham Bell, who is credited with inventing the telephone; and Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz, who constructed the first motorcycle and motorcar, respectively, powered by high-speed internal-combustion engines of their own design. Read more about the history of technology. Industrial Revolution, in modern history, the process of change from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing. These technological changes introduced novel ways of working and living and fundamentally transformed society. This process began in Britain in the 18th century and from there spread to other parts of the world. Although used earlier by French writers, the term Industrial Revolution was first popularized by the English economic historian Arnold Toynbee (1852–83) to describe Britain’s economic development from 1760 to 1840. Since Toynbee’s time the term has been more broadly applied as a process of economic transformation than as a period of time in a particular setting. This explains why some areas, such as China and India, did not begin their first industrial revolutions until the 20th century, while others, such as the United States and western Europe, began undergoing “second” industrial revolutions by the late 19th century. A brief treatment of the Industrial Revolution follows. For full treatment of the Industrial Revolution as it occurred in Europe, see Europe, history of: The Industrial Revolution. The main features involved in the Industrial Revolution were technological, socioeconomic, and cultural. The technological changes included the following: (1) the use of new basic materials, chiefly iron and steel, (2) the use of new energy sources, including both fuels and motive power, such as coal, the steam engine, electricity, petroleum, and the internal-combustion engine, (3) the invention of new machines, such as the spinning jenny and the power loom that permitted increased production with a smaller expenditure of human energy, (4) a new organization of work known as the factory system, which entailed increased division of labour and specialization of function, (5) important developments in transportation and communication, including the steam locomotive, steamship, automobile, airplane, telegraph, and radio, and (6) the increasing application of science to industry. These technological changes made possible a tremendously increased use of natural resources and the mass production of manufactured goods. There were also many new developments in nonindustrial spheres, including the following: (1) agricultural improvements that made possible the provision of food for a larger nonagricultural population, (2) economic changes that resulted in a wider distribution of wealth, the decline of land as a source of wealth in the face of rising industrial production, and increased international trade, (3) political changes reflecting the shift in economic power, as well as new state policies corresponding to the needs of an industrialized society, (4) sweeping social changes, including the growth of cities, the development of working-class movements, and the emergence of new patterns of authority, and (5) cultural transformations of a broad order. Workers acquired new and distinctive skills, and their relation to their tasks shifted; instead of being craftsmen working with hand tools, they became machine operators, subject to factory discipline. Finally, there was a psychological change: confidence in the ability to use resources and to master nature was heightened.
History: Fact or Fiction? Get hooked on history as this quiz sorts out the past. Find out who really invented movable type, who Winston Churchill called "Mum," and when the first sonic boom was heard. The Industrial Revolution They were workers that struggled to live with the low wages in which they earned by working at factories. 95% of the population of that time were grouped into this class. Working class people lived in very poor standards were diseases spread easily due to the unsanitary conditions. The people in this lower class lived in houses with many other families; they usually only had one room to themselves or their family. Due to not having the right facilities or not enough money to buy these facilities themselves, their clothes were often dirty, soiled and they reeked of sewerage and unwashed bodies. Their clothes were often made with cheap coarse fabric. The Gap between them The between the Upper and Middle class was very small as they lived much the same lives. However, the gap between the Upper/Middle classes and the Working class was immense. The difference in living standards and jobs were the main contributors to this gap, nevertheless, the industrial revolution made this gap even wider due to the urbanisation of towns and cities and unemployment. The industrial revolution brought about lower prices, which made the rich even richer while the poor remained poor due to low wages. |
What was the biggest class during the Industrial Revolution?
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