Industrial Revolution Flashcards
Describe what life was like before the Industrial Revolution? (Where did people work, how did we make our stuff, etc?)
Most people lived on small farms and grew crops to eat
Most work was done in the home or was done by hand by an artisan
What major changes took place because of the Industrial Revolution?
Machines began doing more work for people instead of muscle power
People began to work outside of the home, and buy things that were mass produced in a factory
Explain what the enclosure movement was.
Rich farmers bought up the common land, and fenced it off so smaller farmers were not able to use it
Explain what the crop rotation was.
Planting different crops each year to replenish soil, which grew more food per acre
Explain what effect the previous two inventions had on the causes of industrial revolution.
Enclosure movement - Forced a lot the farmer to move to the cities, where they were the workforce for factories
Crop rotation - Even with fewer farmers, this allowed the remaining ones to produced enough food for everyone
List the 7 reasons why England was the first to industrialize.
Plenty of rivers and coal
Large amounts of natural resources like coal and cotton
England had lots of rivers
Large harbors already built
Stable economy and government
Already had a global trade network
Large urban population with no other options
Explain the 5 reasons out of 8 for why England was first to industrialize.
Plenty of energy with rivers and coal to run the machines
Large amounts of natural resources like iron ore for building machines, and raw materials like cotton and wool
Rivers to transport materials and finished goods
Large harbors to handle all the new trade were already built
Stable economy and government allowed businesses to grow
Already had a global trade network to sell goods to
Large urban population with no other options to work in the factories for little pay
Describe the problems of housing for low wage workers during the Industrial revolution.
No building codes
No national free education
Very poor police protection
Streets had no drains and were piled high with waste
Widespread disease
Poor conditions were due to the fast pace of population growth in cities and government’s unwillingness to address the problems
Describe the working conditions of low wage workers
12 hour work days, 6 days a week
Paid 1 to 5 dollars per day
Incredibly dangerous
No minimum wage, worker’s compensation, or overtime
Business allowed to regulate businesses
Government in the US at the time believed in extreme hands-off principles
Allowed businesses to gain huge profits and make owners incredibly wealthy while workers remained incredibly poor
What does hands off mean in the economy?
No government involvement in the economy
Explain how the invisible hand works and an example of it.
Invisible Hand - the collective decisions of all consumers informs businesses of what to make without the need for governments involvement
Picnic pants vs the charger
Who owns the factors of production in capitalism and makes decisions?
The people/ consumers/ business
What is the incentive to work hard in capitalism?
Provides incentives for hard work and new ideas in the form of money
What is social darwinism?
Applies ideas of “Survival of the Fittest” to humans
Explain how Social Darwinism justified the condition of the poor classes.
Poor people are poor because they are not as advanced as rich people
