Referat The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution

during the 1760s until 1851

During the 1700's and the 1800's, great changes took place in the lives and work of the people in several parts of the world. These changes resulted from the development of industrialization.

Reasons for the Industrial Revolution

Population Growth

Medicine and preventing epidemics

higher birth rate

a larger workforce

Agricultural Revolution

new improvements

More efficient Food Production

less labour-intensive

Other Reasons

New inventions, technological innovations

Presence of a large domestic market

British profit

Recourses

Why was Britain First?

Conditions were perfect for the Industrial Revolution.

The elements needed or preferred for the Industrial Revolution can be summarized as follows:

modern work attitudes

transportation for the product

large market

'modern' government

money

Technological Changes since 1700

Agricultural inventions

Mechanisation of the textile industries

James Watt developed the Steam Engine

Michael Faraday demonstrated how electricity could be produced

Boom of the railway

Communications / Telegraph Engineering

Gas lighting

Infrastructure

Life in Britain

SOCIAL EFFECTS

from country to town:

less jobs in agriculture

people began to move into the towns looking for work

cities filled to overflowing and London was particularly bad

the most cities were not prepared for this great increase of people

effects on work / life:

the population rose dramatically

rooms were rented to whole families

there was a increase in worker wages

work became 'caring for and handle machines'

expansion of newspapers and popular book publishing

the environmental pollution began with the Industrial Revolution

working conditions were often unsanitary

dangerous work

women and child labor:

families became dependent on the wages of women and children

women mostly worked in textile factories and in coal mines

Sometimes a better standard of living -

education suffered because of the demands of work

home life suffered

men received higher wages

also many factory workers were children

the government decided that working children ought to be protected by laws

POLITICAL EFFECTS

communism / socialism / Marxism:

a new political ideology that promotes a classless society based on common ownership (socioeconomic structure)

according to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels ('The Condition of the Working-Class in England 1844') industrialization polarized society into:

the bourgeoisie (those who own the means of production, the factories and the land)

and the proletariat (the working class)