Industrial Revolution: Causes and Agriculture

Question 1

When did the Industrial Revolution take place?

Answer 1

1750-1900

Question 2

Describe how and where goods were made up to the 1750s.

Answer 2

Around the 1750s most goods were hand-made, produced slowly and in small quantities in homes: cottage industries.

Question 3

Describe the changes that occurred in how and where goods were produced between 1759 and mid 1800s.

Answer 3

By the 1850s most goods were made at great speed and in huge quantities by machines in large factories.

Question 4

How did the Agricultural Revolution contribute to the Industrial Revolution?

Answer 4

Improvements in agriculture and agricultural technology throughout the 1700s led to a large increase in the supply of food. A larger supply meant cheaper food. This led to a population explosion because poorer families could now have more children as they could afford to feed them.

Question 5

In Britain around 1750, the birth rate increased at the same time the death rate decreased. Did this led to rapid population decline or a population explosion?

Answer 5

A population explosion

Question 6

By how much did the British population grow between 1700 and 1850?

Answer 6

It grew by 15 million!

From 5 million in 1700 to 20 million in 1850.

Question 7

Name two major industrial cities in Britain in the 1850s.

Answer 7

London
Leeds
Birmingham
Manchester
Glasgow

Question 8

What was the cause of the population explosion in Britain between 1700 and 1850?

Answer 8

The Agricultural Revolution was the single greatest cause of the population explosion.

Question 9

How was Agriculture improved?

What factors led to the Agricultural Revolution?

Answer 9

Enclosure
New Machinery
Improvements in Livestock
The four field system/crop rotation

Question 10

Who invented the seed drill?

Answer 10

Jethro Tull

Question 11

Describe two advantages of the seed drill.

Answer 11

It was faster than planting by hand.

It sowed the seeds deep in the soil so birds could not eat them.

Question 12

Who invented the mechanical reaper?

Answer 12

Cyrus McCormick

Question 13

What did the mechanical reaper do?

Answer 13

It made it faster and easier for farmers to harvest their crops.

Question 14

Name two new farm machines invented in the 1700s that increased the supply of food.

Answer 14

Jethro Tull’s seed drill

Cyrus McCormick’s Mechanical Reaper

Question 15

Who developed the practice of selective breeding?

Answer 15

Robert Bakewell

Question 16

What is selective breeding?

Answer 16

It is selecting the best livestock you have and allowing them to breed. Smaller, weaker animals are slaughtered.

Question 17

What does it mean to allow a field lie fallow?

Answer 17

It means to leave it empty, not to grow anything on it, to let it rest.

Question 18

Who introduced the system of crop rotation in the early 1800s?

Answer 18

Viscount Charles Townsend

Question 19

What was the main advantage of crop rotation over the older three field system of farming?

Answer 19

It meant you could plant crops in all your fields instead of resting every fourth field each year.

Question 20

What was the three field system of farming?

Answer 20

The three field system existed before the Agricultural Revolution. Every year, every fourth field lay fallow or empty to rest.

Question 21

List 3 outcomes or results of the Agricultural Revolution.

Answer 21

• increased supply of cheaper food
• population explosion
• unemployment in rural areas
• decreased demand for farm labourers
• people left rural areas to work in cities and towns

Question 22

List 3 reasons why the Industrial Revolution began in Britain.

Answer 22

-the availability of Coal and Iron (which drove steam power)
-the Empire (cheap raw materials and huge markets
-good education and banking systems, plus stable government
a ready-made workforce (population explosion and migration from rural areas to cities)
-the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (great engineers and inventors)