agricultural society. Around 80% of people at the time lived and worked on small farms in rural areas. Most farms harvested small crops each year and raised small herds of livestock (such as sheep and cattle). Despite the small scale of most English farms, agriculture was still the main economic activity in Britain.

mining and trade employed relatively few people in Britain. For the most part, manufacturing was small and localised. Tools used in

the manufacture of most goods (such as carts, mills and looms) were basic and powered by people, animals or waterwheels that harnessed the power of fast- flowing rivers and streams. Towns and villages at the time were small and self contained. Roads linking villages were poor and most people travelled on foot or by horse. In fact, Britain’s road system had not improved much since the fall of the

Roman Empire, around 1300 years earlier. As a result, most people rarely travelled far from the places where they lived and worked.

according to wealth and position based on birth. The aristocratic (noble) families made up only 1 per cent of the population but controlled about 15 per cent

of Britain’s wealth. Noble gentlemen did not involve themselves in farming, trades or professions. Instead, they invested much of their wealth in land. There is no single event that marks the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, but the

industries that  first experienced it were connected with the production of iron, coal, cotton and wool.

rates. The population of Britain moved from rural to urban communities, and Britain was transformed through the development of:

• factories and textile mills – the Industrial Revolution led to thousands of new factories and mills being built across Britain. These factories relied on large

numbers of workers and machinery to manufacture massive quantities of goods in one place. The growth

of factories and textile mills transformed Britain’s economy and society.

• modern towns and cities – great industrial and commercial cities like London and Manchester grew

as people moved to towns and cities to work at the new factories, mills and metal foundries. Before the Industrial Revolution, 80 per cent of the population lived in the countryside and only 20 per cent in

cities. Industrialisation reversed this pattern. By 1850, 80 per cent of people in Britain were living in a major city or town and only 20 per cent remained on the land.

• new sources of power – the development of steam power and electricity transformed the manufacturing, agricultural transport and communications industries, having a major impact on people’s everyday lives. Supplies of coal became vital to fuel steam engines and, later, electrical power

stations.

• improved transport and

communications – as the

population grew, towns became linked by new canals, roads and railway lines. New modes of transport were also invented to replace horse-drawn carriages. As travelling conditions improved, people travelled more and lived

less isolated lives. Later, new

communication technologies

like telegraph and telephone

systems were also introduced.

social class that became known as the ‘middle class’. This new group

of people came from a broad range of backgrounds and were neither

wealthy aristocratic landowners nor impoverished factory workers.

Instead, they included wealthy industrialists and merchants, as well as bankers, shopkeepers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, and the increasing number of managers, clerks and government officials. People earning middle-class salaries could afford fine clothing, furniture, ceramics and other household items. It was this class of people that drove the demand

for mass-produced consumer goods. They also drove the need for more schools, universities and libraries. The political power of the British middle class increased throughout the 1800s.

society in the century before the

Industrial Revolution began.

3. Write a paragraph summarising how life changed for British people

between the mid-1700s and the

late 1800s.

4. Using Source 2 on page 257, describe the changes that took place in Britain from 1700 to 1840.

5. Before the Industrial Revolution,

80% of people lived and worked on the land. How had this trend changed by 1850?

6. Historians still argue about why Britain became such a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution, while other European countries were slower to modernise. The Netherlands and France were two other countries that might have had an Industrial Revolution first. Conduct some Internet research to identify some of the reasons why this didn’t happen.

• The first phase was the establishment of the earliest British colonies in North America in the

1600s. Over the next 200 years, Britain, France, Spain, the Dutch and Portuguese all laid claims to

new territories around the world, including the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Pacific.

• The second phase was linked to a series of wars fought between the European powers in the 18th

century and early part of the 19th century. Britain’s superior naval strength ensured that it succeeded

in becoming the dominant imperial power, despite the loss of many of its American colonies in the American War of Independence in 1865.

Britain’s colonies provided the raw materials, workforce (in the form of slaves) and customers needed to drive the Industrial Revolution. Britain controlled more colonies, and therefore had access to more raw materials than any other country, including sugar from Australia and the West Indies, wool from Australia and New Zealand,

cotton and tea from India, rubber from Malaya, gold from Australia and South Africa, coffee from Jamaica and Africa, wheat from Australia and Canada, and timber from the vast pine forests of Canada.

lies in a combination of factors related to Britain’s history, geography and culture. Some of these are discussed briefly in the posts below...

large supplies of coal, a vital fuel for the steam power that drove the Industrial Revolution. None of the

other European powers had such large quantities of accessible coal.

ground for those willing to try new methods and take risks. In other parts of Europe, government

restrictions and less individual freedom limited opportunity.

Revolution, Britain had enjoyed a prolonged period without much political or social conflict, compared to many other countries in Europe. This sense of stability and order encouraged the growth of business.

banking sector was more advanced and modern than those of other European countries. There was a ready supply of capital (money) available at very low rates of

interest. This meant that money was available to start up new businesses and pay for experiments to develop new inventions. Two of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution, the steamship and the telegraph, were important in helping Britain administer their

colonies around the world.

industries in Britain during the Industrial Revolution?

3.  By 1900, the British Empire had become known as 'the empire on which the sun never sets'. What is meant by this?

4. By 1900, 25% of the world's population was under British rule. How many people were therefore under British rule?

5. Over the 20th Century, for a number of reasons, the size and scope of the British Empire reduced. By carrying out your own research, find out the current population of what was once known as The British Empire (but is now more commonly called 'British Overseas Territories'). Then, once you have that population, express that as a percentage of the world's current population and compare it to the 25% it was in 1900.

6. Again, from your own research, identify what happened in 1997 that, for many people, marked the end of the British Empire.

in the production of cotton, wool, coal and iron. However, arguably the most important ‘invention’

of the Industrial Revolution was not a single item of equipment or technology at all. Instead, it was a way of producing goods on a large scale using many workers and specialised machinery on one site. This method of production became known as the factory system.

industries’). Local trades and crafts people such as blacksmiths, wheelwrights (wheel makers), cartwrights (cart makers), potters, millers and weavers used their

skills, muscle power or water power to largely hand-make items. In contrast, the factory system brought together large numbers of workers in a single site or factory.

Few of these workers were skilled because most of the manufacturing was done by machines. Instead, the many workers performed tasks that were repetitive and required little skill. The machines were powered at first

by water with waterwheels, then by steam and next by electricity. The factory system itself was made possible by a combination of the technological innovations and

knowledge that emerged during this period.

production of cotton and wool.

spinning wheel could only spin one thread at a time.

source to spin multiple machines, and worked with wool or cotton yarns. However, it still required a skilled weaver to operate. These spinning mules were developed further so they could be operated by unskilled workers. Steam power was later applied to the spinning mules for use in cotton-spinning

factories.

of workers and potential customers.

As a result of these developments, over time the skills of traditional weavers (image below) were no

longer needed. Weavers were replaced by workers who were only required to feed the raw cotton or

cotton yarn into machines. Many mill owners, keen for increased profits, wanted their machines

running all of the time. This meant long working hours – up to 16-hour working days – and shift work

for labourers. Because mill workers did not need to be skilled, women and young children became part

of the workforce as they were cheaper to employ.

Brutally long hours for low pay, in badly lit and uncomfortable conditions became commonplace.

Although harsh working conditions for the men, women and children working in factories and mines were common, there were also exceptions. For example, at the cotton mills operated by Robert

Owen in New Lanark in Scotland, the children of workers were well cared for and educated.

industry’ prior to the Industrial Revolution?

3. In your opinion, which of the four inventions discussed above in this column, was the most important for the textile industry in Britain? Justify your response.

4. Imagine you are an 80-year-old weaver in the late 1700s. Write a short account of how your life and

work practices have changed over your lifetime because of new inventions in the textile industry. (2-300 words)

 

1. Make a list of examples of the negative treatment by most mill owners of their workers including women and children.

2. Make a list of the steps taken by Robert Owen to ensure that his workers, especially children, were well cared for and happy.

3. Give two reasons why other mill owners may have opposed Owen’s schemes.

growing numbers of wealthy merchants and industrialists started demanding quicker and cheaper forms of transport to move coal to their factories, ship their

products to markets and speed up travel between cities. As a result, a number of new inventions and improvements were made in the area of transport.

rather than rails. In 1804, Trevithick was the first person to drive a steam locomotive on the rails of a tramway. The first locomotive built

and used for commercial purposes was known as the Stephenson’s Rocket. It was invented by George

Stephenson (see below) in 1829 and remains one of the most famous steam locomotives. From this point on, the designs of steam

locomotives became more

sophisticated. They also became far more powerful and capable of reaching greater speeds.

1843, the great British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel launched

the SS Great Britain, the first iron-hulled steamship with a screw propeller designed to cross oceans. Steamships quickly began to replace sailing ships as the preferred means of ocean-going transport. Although their cargo space was reduced by the large

amount of space required for storing coal, they were faster and more reliable.

Lenoir developed an engine that sucked coal gas and air into a cylinder, where it was ignited by a spark, pushing down a metal piston that turned a wheel. This invention became the basis for the internal

combustion engine – the same engine that is used in all modern cars and engines.

German engineers Gottlieb Daimler

and Wilhelm Maybach experimented with an engine that used a new fuel, which later became known as gasoline or petrol. Daimler first used it in 1885 to power a wooden bike called the Daimler Reitwagen (pictured in the following post).

A year later, another German designer and engineer named Karl Benz patented the world’s rst petrol-powered car known as the

Benz Patent-Motorwagen (also pictured below).

As internal combustion engines became more reliable and powerful, cars became more and more common. At first, private cars

were painstakingly built by hand. Their high cost meant they became the toys of the very rich. It was not until 1908 that Henry Ford made the dream of owning a car possible for the common people. He did this by adapting the factory system to create an affordable car known as the Ford Model T. By using an assembly-line technique with a sequence of specialised workers who repeated the same task on a series of components, he was able to produce cars much more cheaply and quickly.

The internal combustion engine also allowed for the development of an engine that would be light yet strong enough to power flying machines. American brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright used a petrol engine connected to two propellers fitted onto a wooden glider to fly for 59 seconds in 1903. Powered flight was to develop rapidly, triggered by World War I.

repairs only when absolutely necessary. This meant that most roads outside London were in very poor condition. A few roads were managed by turnpike trusts

– agencies that collected fees from travellers in return for keeping the roads in good condition. By the early 1800s, pressure from industrialists such as Josiah Wedgwood (ceramics), John Wilkinson (iron) and Matthew Boulton (coin minting) led to a dramatic increase in the number of turnpike trusts. By the 1830s

there were more than 1000 such trusts. As a result, roads improved and travel times decreased. As roads improved, demand for more reliable and convenient ways of crossing rivers grew. In 1779,

Abraham Darby began building the world’s first cast-iron bridge to link a small mining town with nearby factories in the town of Coalbrookdale. A toll was charged for using the bridge which became known as the Iron Bridge. The bridge became famous in 1795 when it remained standing after a major flood. After that, many

more bridges were built using iron rather than stone.

the steam engine (formerly used to pump water from mines) and rail-mounted mining trucks (formerly pulled by horses).

Railways added a whole new phase to the Industrial Revolution. In 1830, a new track linking the Manchester cotton industry to the port of Liverpool opened to

transport goods for export. This was the first railway to link two major cities. Throughout the 1830s and 1840s, the building of rail tracks and strong, iron bridges for new train routes meant that iron production doubled at this time.

Development of railways in Britain grew rapidly, with permission for the construction of 438 new lines granted by parliament between 1844 and 1846. More workers

were needed in the iron factories to meet railway orders, and another 200,000 men were employed, just for laying railway tracks. By 1848, over 40 million train journeys were made in Britain.

Before the Industrial Revolution, the journey from London to Edinburgh – just over 640 kilometres – took

between 10 and 12 days by horse-drawn coach. By 1836, the travel time had dropped to just under two days by train. By 1850 – when all of Britain was linked by rail – this had dropped to around 12hours (see Source 6, below).

Travel for holidays became more common and some commodities became more readily available. These included fresh flowers and milk, delivered to London on early morning ‘milk trains’ from Cornwall and Devon in the south-west.

Just like roads, these new railway lines required strong, reliable bridges that could carry locomotives and their cargo across wide rivers and gorges. The designs of iron bridges – already being used to carry cars and

other small vehicles – were modied so they would be strong enough to carry much larger, heavier loads over larger distances. The surge in demand for these types of railway bridges in turn led to increased

demand for iron production.

204 kilometres long. Work on it was begun in 1770 and finished in 1816.

Initially, barges pulled by horses walking beside canals transported crops from the country the city and

manufactured goods from the city back to the country. The canals were also used to move coal and other heavy goods, replacing the slower method of coastal shipping.

As the high price of coal was mainly due to the costs of moving it (rather than mining it), new canals caused the price of coal to drop by half. The new lower price fed even faster growth in cotton mills. Cheaper coal transport also dropped the price of cotton weaving, increasing the profits for mill owners.

benefits of one of the following inventions:

• the Stephenson’s Rocket

• the Daimler Reitwagen

• Benz Patent-Motorwagen.

You can create it electronically and stick it into your notebook or draw directly in to your book (or a combination of both)

Machinery both shortened the time required to make a product and reduced the number of people that were necessary for its production. Workers were needed to look after the machines, but they did not need to be skilled. Instead, production became focussed on producing large volumes of machine made

goods at far lower prices – a system known as mass production.

workers in the process being housed in one location. Many production centres turned into factory towns, with housing for the workers located close to the mill.

Manchester was one of the largest, with a population that grew from 25,000 to 300,000 between 1777

and 1851.

Employment was offered to women and children because they could be paid less. Factories became notorious for poor safety conditions and harsh working environments. Until parliamentary reform began to regulate these

working conditions, workers had to endure long hours and mindless repetitive tasks, unsanitary work areas, and conditions in which they either froze or roasted depending

on the season of the year.

Portrayals of the period often show the workers as if they themselves were machines or part of machines

churning out their products in gloomy, smoke-ridden

environments.

system to a new purpose with a sequence of specialised workers repeating the same task on a series of components. The Ford ModelT

(1908) was the first affordable automobile. It was initially available in grey, green, blue or red. By 1914, Ford had famously insisted on

a new policy, that his car should be available in ‘any colour … so long as it is black’.

'I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary

Henry Ford, My Life and Work, 1922

Ford was unusual for his time, in that he promoted high wages for workers and low prices for consumer goods. This approach would become known as Fordism. This, he believed, would allow ordinary people, not just those who were well off, to take part in what he imagined would be the peace-enhancing qualities of consumerism.

 

1. Which column contains the most entries?

2. From which perspective did you place entries into columns?

3. Argue for or against the idea that the development of mass production factories in the Industrial Revolution benefitted everyone.

across Britain, these improvements came at a high price. The obvious winners were the industrialists, the people who owned the mills, the factories and the mines. The new middle class also benefited from technological advances, making their lives more comfortable.

However, many more people were forced to give up their traditional rural lifestyle for a life in one of the

new industrial cities – working long hours and living in cramped and unsanitary conditions.

unchanged. However, life was very different for those in the factories and who struggled to survive on low wages and were forced to work in harsh conditions, as owners

operated for a time without any government regulation.

Factory and mine owners often cut corners with safety and conditions in the pursuit of higher proFIts.

This included enforcing long working hours and using cheaper labour in the form of women and children.

Long working days took their toll on families, and children were dragged into working life with little opportunity for education.

The phrase ‘dark satanic mills’ was First used by the English poet William Blake in 1808. It was frequently used in the 19th century to refer to the miserable working conditions of labourers in Britain. Many writers of the time were appalled by the plight of poor people whose work seemed endless and unrewarding, and whose lives were cut short by poverty, disease and injury. One of these concerned individuals, Friedrich Engels, a German industrialist and philosopher, wrote

extensively about this situation (see Source 2, below).

schools have been founded, it is true, but they, too, are most scantily supplied with teachers, and can be of use to those only who have already learnt something in the day schools. The interval from one Sunday to the next is too long for an ignorant child to remember in the second sitting what it learned in the first, a week before.'

only be used at stores owned by the factory owner. There, the children could use them to purchase clothing or basic foods such as flour. This system allowed the factory owner to avoid paying wages in cash and helped them to make extra profits on sales.

Even with long hours and low pay, children could still earn more in the factory towns than in the country. Over time, social reforms raised the minimum age, shortened the working day, increased wages and introduced some form of education. Child labour in factories also declined as complex machinery became more difficult for children to handle.

In other areas, such as mining, their use as labourers was limited or barred. It is hard for us now to imagine their lifestyles or the conditions in which these children

worked. Source 5 (below) comes from evidence given to a British

government inquiry into child labour in factories in 1833.

It is about half past five by our clock at home when we go in … We come out at seven by the mill. We never stop to take our meals, except at dinner. William Crookes is overlooker in our room. He is cross-tempered sometimes. He does not beat me; he beats the little children if they do not do their work right … I have sometimes seen the little children drop asleep or so, but not lately. If they are catched asleep they get the strap. They are always very tired at night … I can read a little; I can’t write. I used to go to school before I went to the mill …'