Period 5: The Industrial Revolution Flashcards
What was the Industrial Revolution?
- began in 1750s in Britain
- resulted in countries developing advanced military weapons which led to imperialism
- factories needed access to raw materials so colonies!
What was the process known as enclosure?
Public lands that were shared during the Middle Ages were enclosed by fences, which allowed for private farming and private gain.
Why did agricultural output increase in the 1700s?
- potatoes, corn, and other high-yield crops were introduced to Europe from the colonies in the New World
- more advanced farming methods and technology
- enclosure
What are some new technologies that improved the productivity of farms?
- new machines for plowing, seeding, and reaping
- chemical fertilizers (increased amount of land able to farm and decreased the number of people needed to farm)
Who was John Kay?
John Kay invented the flying shuttle in 1733 which sped up the weaving process.
Who was John Hargreaves?
John Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny in 1764 which was capable of spinning vast amounts of thread.
Who was Eli Whitney?
Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793 which allowed for massive amounts of cotton to be quickly processed in the Americas and exported to Europe. He also developed the system of interchangeable parts.
Who was Thomas Newcomer?
Thomas Newcomer developed an inefficient steam engine in the early 1700s.
Who was James Watt?
James Watt dramatically improved Thomas Newcomer’s steam engine in 1769, which was revolutionary because steam could not only be used to generate power for industry but also for transportation.
Who was Robert Fulton?
Robert Fulton built the first steamship in 1807.
Who was George Stephenson?
George Stephenson built the first steam-powered locomotive in the 1820s.
Who was Samuel Morse?
Samuel Morse invented the telegraph in 1837, which allowed people to communicate across great distances within seconds.
Who was Alexander Graham Bell?
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876.
Who was Thomas Edison?
Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb in 1879, which allowed factories to run all night.
Who was Gottlieb Daimler?
Gottlieb Daimler invented the internal combustion engine in 1885.
Who was Guglielmo Marconi?
Guglielmo Marconi invented the radio in 1890s based on designs by Thomas Edison.
Who was Charles Darwin?
Charles Darwin developed the concept of evolution by means of natural selection.
Who was Henry Ford?
Henry Ford developed the concept of the assembly line.
Who was Adam Smith?
Adam Smith wrote in The Wealth of Nations (1776) that economic prosperity and fairness is best achieved through private ownership. He supported the free market system aka capitalism.
What is laissez-faire capitalism?
Laissez-faire capitalism is when governments remove themselves entirely from regulation.
Who was Karl Marx?
- a German economist and philosopher
- spent a lot of his life in poverty
- said factory workers had genuine opportunities but were being exploited as a consequence of capitalism
- wrote The Communist Manifesto in 1848 with Friedrich Engels saying that the working class would eventually revolt and take control of the means of production
- Marxism served as the foundation of socialism and communism
Who were Luddites?
- groups of workers in England in the early 1800s who destroyed equipments in factories in the middle of the night to protest working conditions and pitiful wages
- the government sided with the business owners, executing some of the workers and enacting harsh laws against any further action
What was the Factory Act of 1883?
- passed by the British Parliament
- limited the hours of each workday
- restricted children from working in factories
- required factory owners to make working conditions safer and cleaner
What is social mobility?
Social mobility is the ability of a person to work his way up from one social class to the next.
How did the industrial revolution impact slavery?
- the slave trade was abolished in 1807 which meant no new slaves were transported from Africa although the ownership of existing slaves continued
- the British outlawed slavery in 1833
- slavery was outlawed in the U.S. in 1865 via the 13th Amendment
Who were social Darwinists?
- social Darwinists applied Charles Darwin’s biological theory of natural selection to sociology
- claimed that dominant races/classes of people rose to the top through a process of “survival of the fittest”
- meant that because Britain was the most powerful, it was the most fit, and therefore the British were superior to other races
Who was Rudyard Kipling?
- wrote a poem titled “White Man’s Burden”
- said it was the duty of Europeans to conquer other people so that they could be converted to Christianity and civilized in the European fashion
