On a sheet of paper, write the following:

• 4 thoughts/ideas you have about the Industrial Revolution.

• 3 examples or impacts of the Industrial Revolution that come to your mind.

• 2 questions you are curious about regarding this topic.

• 1 analogy that explains the Industrial Revolution. To help, reflect on this quote:
  “Factories are the engines of progress, but also the prisons of men.”

You can use the photos as your reference.

The Industrial Revolution was a period of profound change between 1750 and 1850.

In modern history, it is defined as 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.

Until 1750, the population in Britain was about 11 million; the majority of people lived in villages or small towns and depended on agriculture for their living.

However, by 1850, the population had grown to about 21 million; 50 per cent lived in cities and over 40 per cent of the workforce was employed in factories.

This massive 'revolution' in turn had an impact on living conditions, travel, types of work and social and political change.

Britain had the raw materials that were necessary for the Industrial Revolution. It possessed large quantities of iron, which was needed for making the machines and railways. It had coal to drive the steam engines in the factories.

7. Britain was at peace

The relatively stable political situation and absence of war allowed the British to pursue economic activities, and for trade to flourish between Britain and its cofonies .

An agricultural revolution in Britain had already increased the amount of food that farmers could produce. This was important as it meant that there was enough food for the growing population, particularly the people in towns, who could not grow their own food. Farm workers were also paid more, so they had money to spend on goods produced by the new industries.

4. Transport was improving

Between 1660 and 1750, it became much easier to transport goods around Britain. This was due to the improvement of roads and rivers and the building of canals. This allowed r,m materials such as coal and iron to be moved more easily around the country, which also kept costs down. It also allowed the finished goods to be transported to a wider range of markets. Letters, orders for goods and even new ideas could all travel much more quickly.

5. Britain had entrepreneurs and inventors

Britain had individuals who were prepared to risk their money in new ventures. There was also a great interest in science and technology, which meant that many new inventions were made in the textile and iron industries.

Britain was the first country in the world to have an industrial revolution and this was due to many factors.

1. The population was increasing

Around 1740, the population of Britain began to increase. This meant there was more demand for goods. It also meant that there were plenty of workers for the factories.

2. Britain's overseas trade was growing

In 1750, British merchants had many opportunities to trade overseas due to the fact that Britain had many colonies. This meant that many merchants became wealthy enough to have capital to invest in new businesses. The British Empire also provided a source of both raw materials and markets for British goods. For instance, raw cotton could be obtained from India and then the manufactured cotton goods could be sold back to India.

• Transformation of work: from craftsmanship to machine operation under factory discipline

• Development of new skills

• Growth of confidence in human ability to use resources and control nature

• Agricultural improvements → supported larger populations

• Economic shifts: rise of industry, wider wealth distribution, decline of land as wealth, international trade

• Political changes: new state policies and shift in economic power

• Social changes: urbanization, working-class movements, new authority patterns

• Use of new materials: iron, steel

• New energy sources: coal, steam engine, electricity, petroleum, internal-combustion engine

• Invention of machines: spinning jenny, power loom

• Work organization: factory system, division of labour, specialization

• Transport & communication: steam locomotive, steamship, automobile, airplane, telegraph, radio

• Application of science to industry → mass production

Making Cloth

Cotton and wool had to go through several stages in the process of making -cloth:

• Washing and carding: the cotton was cleaned and washed and then combed out into straight lines.

• Spinning: the cotton or wool fibres were spun together to make a thread or yarn.

• Weaving: the yarn was woven into cloth.

Before factories, spinning and weaving took place in people's homes.

Spinning was usually done by the women on a simple spinning wheel.

Mothers, daughters and sometimes grandmothers would work together.

The first industry to move into factories was the textile industry.

The rapidly growing population after 1750 meant that there was a need for industry to produce goods in large amounts.

In particular, there was a demand for cloth, and the domestic system by which spinning and weaving was done in people's homes could not meet the demand.

Thus, it was the textile industry that first moved to powered machinery and to factories.

https://youtu.be/r7fWH2jzkrQ?si=eixgrH_AEtq-9nBD

1764 - John Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny, which had 16 spindles but was still small enough to be used in the home. By 1788, there were 20,000 spinning jennies in use.

https://youtu.be/6CfhB9m_BJg?si=XXjaUqC_vtRkNstt

1769 - Richard Arkwright, who was a wig-maker from Preston, invented the water-frame. This was another spinning machine but was powered by water. It was too big for a house and so he built a mill at Cromford in Derbyshire, this was the first factory.

https://youtu.be/AloWMoc-3WU?si=E2QfSFeBRDmMaS-V

1779- Samuel Crompton invented another spinning machine (the mule), which improved on Arkwright’s by making the thread much finer – but also strong. This too had to be put in factories. The water-frame and mule meant that now the weavers were kept busy and were paid well for their work, which was in demand.

https://youtu.be/M7RAlNNgEQQ?si=HQkDjL8IvLBNdxFu

1785 - Edmund Cartwright invented a power loom which could speed up the work of weaving. However, it was not until the 1820s that this was able to work efficiently and produce good cloth. As a result of this invention, the hand-loom weavers were gradually put out of work.
The weekly earnings of weavers in the town of Bolton fell from 25 shillings in 1800 to 5 shillings in the 1830s. Thousands lost their jobs and had to join the ranks of the unskilled poor looking for jobs in the new factories.

https://youtu.be/E9M1UT1d0rA?si=mUi_iUEFeh-EcGcd

At Present - How Garments are made in the Factory

https://youtu.be/WypyTb-Rw-k?si=44HIPNlcDnR52c2B

Additional source:

The Textile Industry in the British Industrial Revolution - World History Encyclopedia

For this activity, you are required to write a reflection paper based on the article and video presentation provided in this section.

Your reflection paper must include a clear title and should address the following guide questions:

1. What were some of the downsides of technological advancements in textile production during the Industrial Revolution, and how did these new machines affect the lives of workers such as the Luddites?

   
   

2. Do you think the resistance of the Luddites was reasonable given their situation? Why or why not?

   
   

3. What lessons can we learn from the experiences of the Luddites when considering the impact of modern technologies (such as automation or artificial intelligence) on workers today?

Format:

-A4 bond paper

-Arial 12

-Normal Margin

Consequences: The Luddites

Machines meant textile products were cheaper to buy for everyone, and supply industries like the cotton plantations and coal mines boomed. The increase in the number of factories meant many new jobs were created, albeit largely unskilled work. The populations of cities and towns like Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, and Halifax increased ten times over in the 19th century as people in the countryside flocked to cramped and unsanitary urban centres to find work.

The arrival of machines put a lot of skilled textile workers out of a job, and many protested violently against the loss of their livelihood or the reduction in their wages. In the great manufacturing cities of Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Nottinghamshire between 1811 and 1816, a new protest group emerged, the Luddites, named after their mythical leader Ned Ludd, aka King Ludd. The Luddites broke into factories and smashed the machines that had taken away their jobs. The Establishment fought back. Handsome cash rewards were offered for information on or for the capture of Luddites, and the army was called in to protect factories and their owners. Those protestors who were caught faced harsh penalties that included hanging or deportation to Australia.

Working Conditions & Trade Unions

Workers in textile mills had to put up with difficult conditions. Not only were the machines noisy and sometimes dangerous when they failed (falling heavy parts and shuttles flying out like missiles with alarming regularity), but in order to keep the cotton thread supple and strong, the atmosphere in a factory was deliberately kept warm and damp. Such conditions meant that many workers suffered health problems, particularly with their lungs.

A working day in a factory was long, typically 12 hours and included night work as factories and their machines worked around the clock. Many employers preferred women and children to men as they were cheaper. Children were employed, too, because they could crawl under the machines to clear up cotton waste and prevent hanging threads clogging the machinery, all too often a lethal task. As money and efficiency became the obsession of many mill owners, workers were increasingly pressured to work faster and not cause delays in production. There were fines for workers with dirty hands or those who took too long on a toilet break.

All of these negatives meant that workers eventually grouped together to protect their interests. Trade unions were formed to try and curb the greater abuses from unscrupulous employers. Unions collected funds to help those who were ill or injured and so unable to work or be paid. Owners did not like these limits on their profits, and the government banned trade unions between 1799 and 1824, but the movement to protect workers could not be stopped indefinitely.

Several acts of Parliament were passed from 1833 to try, not always successfully, to limit employers' exploitation of their workforce and lay down minimum standards. New regulations included the minimum age children could work, the length of shifts, the prohibition of night work for women and children, the obligation for owners to build protective screens for the more dangerous machines, and the appointment of government inspectors. Textile factories offered valuable employment, but they remained noisy, dangerous, and unhealthy places to spend most of one's waking hours in. The poet William Blake's 1808 description of factories as "dark satanic mills" (Horn, 52), sadly, remained apt long after the Industrial Revolution had passed.

What is Steam Engine?

It is a heat engine that uses steam as a working fluid to do mechanical work.

How does it work?

https://youtu.be/fsXpaPSVasQ?si=D6A-QCQLKgaBivDi

The steam engines use the force generated by the steam pressure to make the piston move back and forth in the cylinder. This motion is transformed into rotational motion by Connecting rod and flywheel. In this way, steam engines do useful work.

In the early eighteenth century, only the traditional forms of power were used for working the new machinery: horse power, wind power and water power.

Who perfected the Steam Engine?

As the factory system started to develop, it became clear that a more reliable source of power was needed; this need led eventually to the steam engine being perfected by James Watt.

Who is James Watt?

• James Watt (1736–1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist best known for improving the steam engine.

• His innovations—particularly the separate condenser—greatly increased the engine’s efficiency, helping to power factories, mines, and transportation during the Industrial Revolution.

The first steam engines were found in the coal-mining industry. As the demand for coal grew to make iron, mines become deeper and thus faced more problems with flooding.

In 1712, Thomas Newcomen managed to build an 'atmospheric engine', which used steam to work a pump that could be used to drain mines.

By 1775, there were over 100 of these machines at work in the tin and coal mines. However, they could only be used for pumping water and were very expensive to run because they needed so much coal.

In 1763, James Watt, an instrument maker at Glasgow University, was asked to repair a demonstration model of a Newcomen engine. He noticed that the engine had several design faults and worked out how to improve the engine so that it did not waste so much energy; this involved including a separate condenser.

In 1781, Watt, helped by William Murdoch, devised a rotary motion steam engine which used sun and planet gears. Watt was also helped by John Wilkinson, the iron-master, who invented a lathe which could produce accurately bored cylinders.

The rotary steam engine could be used to drive machinery in textile mills and other factories, which no longer had to be built near rivers for their power. It could be used in iron foundries and in canal building. It also led to the development of the first railway.

How Steam Technology Works | HowStuffWorks

Instruction: Visit and explore the science behind the innovations in the steam engine and answer the following questions below.

• What was the impact of the improvements to the steam engine invented by Watt and Newcomen?

• What was the relationship between the development of the Industrial Revolution and developments in physics and the world of science?

Colet- Watt Steam Engine

Durec- Smelting

Jackmilk- Henry Cort-Puddling

By 1700, Britain faced a shortage of timber for making charcoal, which was necessary for smelting iron, ore.

However, in 1709, Abraham Darby I discovered that if coal was first turned into coke, it could successfully be used for smelting. Although kept a secret at first, by the 1750s this method was being widely used. Darby's method produced iron that was suitable for casting, i.e. pouring into moulds to make items such as pots and cannons.

It was very hard but also brittle. Wrought iron, which is more flexible and so can be used for a wider range of goods, was also needed. In 1793, Henry Cort devised a method called 'puddling', which enabled wrought iron to be produced.

The first cotton factory was built by Richard Arkwright to house his water frame.

This was the start to the cotton industry leading the way in industrialization.

Mill owners became nationally important figures, and the mills changed the landscape, working conditions, and lifestyles of the population.

Role of Children, Women and Men

• Work in the mills was done mainly by unskilled labour, women, and children.

• Some children were pauper apprentices, orphans sent to work by town authorities or workhouses.

• In some cases, whole families worked together in the mills.

• Mill owners employed children because they did not have to pay them as much and they could crawl under the machines to repair or clean.

• The workers were watched by overseers, who were always men.

• By the 1830s, it was realized that there was an urgent need for reform.

• The factory system had grown with 30,000 children under 13 and 75,000 children aged 13–18 working in factories.

• Adult workers also faced low wages and long hours.

  
  

Pressure for Change

• Because of this situation, there was more pressure for reform and a demand for restriction on working hours.

• In Yorkshire and Lancashire, trade unions campaigned for a maximum of ten hours for children.

• They were supported by some factory owners, writers, campaigners, and Members of Parliament.

  
  

Opposition to Reform

• The idea of reform was strongly opposed by many factory owners.

• They believed it was not the role of governments to interfere in private business.

• They supported ‘laissez-faire’, allowing industry to do what it thought was best for making money.

Government Action

• Due to pressure from campaigners and growing awareness that the Industrial Revolution created new conditions needing government intervention,

• A committee was set up by Parliament to interview children and adults about factory conditions.

After pressure from campaigners like Lord Shaftesbury and Edwin Chadwick, the Factory Reform Act of 1833 was passed.

This Act had the following provisions:

• No children under the age of 9 could work in the mills.

• Children between 9 and 13 were to work no more than 12 hours a day.

• No one under 18 was to work the night shift.

• Four factory inspectors were appointed to oversee the Act.

Implementation and Effects:

• It was difficult to ensure these provisions were followed because only four inspectors were available, and ages of children were often falsified by parents or factory owners.

• Despite challenges, the idea of inspection was established, leading to further improvements.

• The Factory Act of 1853 set a working day of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. or 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with an hour and a half in breaks — a ten-and-a-half-hour working day.

• Laws after 1850 extended protections to other workers beyond textile mills.

• As more reports exposed poor conditions, Parliament continued to pass reform laws, and people accepted that government intervention was necessary.

• In later years, laws also provided free education, old age pensions, free health care, and unemployment benefits.

Your law must include the following parts:

1. Proposed Bill Title
The official name of your law. It should be short but clear, showing what the law is about.
Example: “Child Safety and Welfare Act of 2025”

2. Rationale
This part explains why you created the law — the problem or unfair situation it aims to solve. Add the people who will benefit from or be protected by your law.
Example: “Many children still face unsafe working conditions. This law ensures their safety and education.”

4. Specific Provisions
These are the main rules or guidelines stated in your law. They describe what must be done, what is not allowed, or what changes should happen.
Example:

“Children under 15 are not allowed to work full-time."

"Schools must provide free safety education for students.”

4. Implementing Body
The agency, group, or organization that will enforce and make sure the law is followed.
Example: “The Department of Labor and Employment will check if companies follow the rules.”

What do you think about the 1833 Factory Reform Act — do you believe it was fair and effective in improving the lives of children during the Industrial Revolution? What weaknesses or lapses can you identify in this law?

• Many houses were badly built, with little or no sanitation or access to clean water.

• An 1842 report on Leeds described extreme overcrowding (10 people per house) and filthy conditions (manure piles left for years).

• Speculators built as many cottages as possible on very small plots of land, worsening the situation.

• Diseases such as typhoid, typhus, tuberculosis, and especially cholera spread quickly.

• Cholera outbreaks occurred in 1831, 1838, 1848, and 1854, killing hundreds of thousands.

• Wealth expanded to new groups of people during the Industrial Revolution.

• A middle class emerged, earning money from factories and investments (e.g., railways).

• Middle-class families had access to more goods such as cotton, pottery, and iron products.

• Small business owners, professionals, and shopkeepers also gained wealth.

• They benefited from lower prices of manufactured goods and greater food variety due to railways.

• Skilled workers (e.g., engineers, engine drivers, fitters) could earn good wages.

• Some traditional workers, like wool combers and weavers, lost jobs due to machines.

• Unskilled workers earned more than agricultural laborers but had unstable employment.

• When demand dropped, unskilled workers could lose jobs suddenly.

• Many workers still faced harsh working and living conditions despite industrial progress.

• The Industrial Revolution not only changed work and home life but also influenced political attitudes.

• Many people felt the existing political system no longer represented the middle and working classes.

• New industrial towns, which produced much of the nation’s wealth, had no representation in Parliament.

• A large middle class emerged by 1830, paying heavy taxes but unable to vote or stand for office, as voting rights were limited to landowners.

• The working class also had no voting rights and suffered from poor working and living conditions without political representation.

• The Birmingham Political Union (1829) criticized Parliament for serving aristocratic interests instead of industry and trade.

• Social unrest grew — in 1819, the Peterloo Massacre occurred when soldiers killed 11 protesters demanding political reform.

• The government responded with the Reform Act of 1832, which:

  • Increased the number of voters from 435,000 to 652,000.

  • Granted representation to industrial towns.

• However, most working men and all women still could not vote after the Act.

• This led to the rise of new movements (e.g., petitions and charters) demanding further political reform and broader suffrage.

Electoral Reform (1800–1885)

First 'Great' Reform Act (1832)

• New constituencies:

  • 56 boroughs were abolished (they had elected 112 MPs).

  • 30 boroughs with a population under 4,000 elected one, rather than two, MPs.

  • 142 MPs were now elected by voters in industrial towns.

• Qualification for vote: Reduced and made more uniform.

• Number of voters: Rose by 200,000.

  
  

Further Reform Acts (1867 and 1884)

• By 1885, all male householders could vote.

• Only one MP was allowed for each constituency.

• Boroughs with a population under 15,000 were abolished, allowing industrial cities to be fairly represented.

  
  

Secret Ballot Act (1872)

• Ended open elections; people now voted in secret.

  
  

Corrupt Practices Act (1883)

• Standardized election expenses for candidates.

• Bribery and corruption were punished.

• Find out about the ideas of key ideological and intellectual movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

•Explore:

• the factors that led to new ideologies and intellectual movements

• the ways in which socio-economic changes lead to new ideas.

• Take action by examining which ideas have an impact on us today.

In pairs, identify the ideas expressed in Sources A and B. What types of government are suggested? Discuss your answer for each source.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes Anarchism as a political theory that is skeptical of the justification of authority and power, especially political power.

• It holds that governmental authority is unnecessary and undesirable and instead advocates for a society organized through voluntary cooperation and free associations.

  
  

Britannica defines it as “a belief that government and laws are not necessary,” and envisions a society based on “cooperation, as opposed to competition and coercion.”

• Anarchists believe that there should be stateless societies.

• Many anarchists argue that societies should be self-governed by voluntary institutions.

• This ideology claims that governments are repressive, sometimes harmful, and always unnecessary, and therefore should be abolished.

• Anarchists oppose authority in society and have often been linked with socialists and communists, who also wanted revolution.

• Some anarchists want total rights for the individual, while others believe that individuals should be subordinate to the collective.

• Godwin argued that as reason spread to ordinary people, the need for government would eventually disappear.

• He did not advocate for revolution, but believed in a peaceful and gradual decline of government.

• He believed that laws, property, and marriage enslaved people and stopped them from using their own powers of reason to build mutually beneficial societies.

• He believed that organizations would naturally develop without imposed authority and would eventually form “spontaneous order.”

Another influential anarchist was the Russian Mikhail Bakunin, who met Proudhon in Paris.

• Bakunin had been imprisoned in Russia for protesting against tsarism and imperial oppression and was later sent to Siberia for hard labor. In 1868, he joined the socialist organization known as the International, a federation of workers’ associations, trade unions, and organizations across Europe, Latin America, and North Africa.

Bakunin supported socialist-anarchism and greatly influenced Spanish anarchism.

• Socialist-anarchism advocates for a society based on voluntary cooperation, mutual aid, and the abolition of hierarchical structures, including capitalism and the state.

He disagreed with Karl Marx, another major leader of the International. Marx believed that the state was needed to establish socialism, while Bakunin argued that the state should be replaced by self-governing factories and farms, which would create a socialist society on their own.

Their disagreement reached its peak during the 1872 Congress at The Hague, where Bakunin, unable to attend, was expelled by the Marxist faction.

The Paris Commune that was set up in 1871 followed many of Bakunin's principles, including self-management and decentralization. Proudhon, who had been a key influence on Bakunin, was a key participant in the Commune.

In 1870 Bakunin argued for a revolution of peasants and workers and said that the time was right to:

' . .. spread our principles, not with words but with deeds, for this is the most popular, the most potent and the most irresistible form of propaganda.'

Key Ideas of Bakunin:

• Bakunin was concerned that Marxism would lead to 'authoritarian socialism' and a dictatorship, and he was totally against this.

  
  

• Bakunin did not want any privileges in society. He believed that both capitalism and the state, in any form, prevented the working class and peasantry from gaining freedom.

  
  

• Bakunin also believed that religion prevented people from using their own power of reason and therefore also took away their freedom. He said that religion led to the 'enslavement of mankind'.

In general, liberals believe in democracy and free and fair elections.

They emphasize individual rights and the right to own private property.

Many liberal groups were supported by middle-class interests and preferred to use legal and peaceful methods to attain political power.

However, liberal movements in the late eighteenth century, particularly in France and the United States, also argued that the violent overthrow of a tyrannical regime could be justified in order to achieve a liberal, free, and democratic society.

• The establishment of governments which are elected by the people through voting

• Universal suffrage, i.e. all people above a certain age having the right to vote

• Voters to be able to choose from a number of different political parties

• A government holding power for a limited period of time, usually four or five years, before another election must be held

• A clear balance between the rights of the government and the rights of the individual: everyone has to obey the laws of the land- including the government itself, but freedoms and rights of the individual are upheld, for example, the right to free speech, the right to follow any religion and the right to join trade unions

• An economy based on capitalist principles, private ownership, property and the freedom to be as wealthy as you can be

• 'Free trade' between nations (no tariffs or trade barriers)

Class Division:

• Bourgeoisie- capitalist and ruling class

• Proletariat- working class

They argued that capitalism created a middle class, or bourgeoisie, who owned factories and mines and exploited the labor of the working class, or proletariat.

• This exploitation, they believed, would eventually lead to a class struggle in which the workers would overthrow their capitalist oppressors.

• After this revolution, a “workers’ state” would emerge, ruling for the benefit of all.

Marx believed in the idea of workers’ utopia but this would require a series of revolutions:

• First, the middle class would overthrow the old aristocracy

• Then the workers would overthrow the middle class

• Ultimately resulting in a socialist society.

It argues that all property, resources, and means of production (factories, land, tools, etc.) should be owned collectively by society rather than by individuals.

The goal of communism is to create a society where there are no social classes, no rich or poor, and no exploitation of workers.

In a fully communist society, everyone works for the common good, and wealth or goods are shared based on people’s needs, not on profit.

"from each according to his ability, to each according to his need"

• Communism seeks to remove social classes (rich, middle class, poor).
  Everyone is considered equal in status, opportunity, and access to resources.

  
  

2. Collective Ownership of Property

• There is no private ownership of factories, land, or major resources.
  Instead, everything is controlled by the community.

3. Abolition of Capitalism

• Communism rejects capitalism because capitalism allows a small group (the bourgeoisie) to own property and profit from the labor of workers. Communism aims to eliminate exploitation by removing private profit.

4. Central Planning

Instead of letting the free market decide production, a communist government plans:

• what is produced

• how much is produced

• and how resources are distributed
  This is meant to ensure that everyone’s basic needs are met.

  
  

5. “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

This famous Marxist principle means:

• People contribute to society based on what they can do.

• People receive goods and services based on what they need, not on how much they earn.

  
  

6. Workers’ Control of Production

Workers manage the means of production.
This is meant to prevent the exploitation found under capitalism.

7. No Government (in the final stage)

• Marx believed that once communism is fully achieved, the state would eventually “wither away.”
  There would be no need for a government because people would cooperate naturally for the good of all.

The people collectively own everything.
There is no private property, no corporations, and no wealthy owners.

Since “the people” cannot literally manage all factories together, Marx believed they would be represented temporarily by a workers’ government until a classless society is achieved.

2. In Practice (Real-world Communist States):

In real communist countries, the state (government) controls and manages the resources on behalf of the people.

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