Unit 2: Industrialization Flashcards
Problems of the 1700s
- not enough food, poeple didn’t have a balanced diet
- not enough energy sources due to deforestation
- slow production, relied on human and animal power
- slow transportation, relied of horse-drawn carriages and sailing ships
- not enough goods, had to rely on imports
Industrialization
1750-1800
- Transformed agrarian and hadicraft-centered economies into economies distinguished by industry and machine maufacture
- Machines powered by coal, water and petroleum moved away from hand-made goods
- Factories and division of labor made mass production of a good possible
- Formation of big business and corporations
Agricultural revolution
What caused the Industrial Revolution?
Improved quality and quantity of farm products, which increased productivity, leading to a significant population growth. High population densities encouraged job specialization, and allowed people to have jobs other than cultivation
Many farm labors were thrown out of work, so people moved to cities to find work, forming the labor force of machines.
Enclosures
Process of taking over and fencing off land formerly shared by peasant farmers. Landowners experimented with productive seeding and harvesting methods to boost crop yields. As millions of acres were enclosed, farm output rose as well as profits because fields needed fewers workers on them.
Seed drill
Allowed farmers to sow seeds in well-spaced rows at specific depths.
Population explosion
Due more to the declining death rates that to rising birth rates. Agricultural revolution reduced risk of famine. People ate better, were healthier, and had healthy children. The plague went away, hygine, sanitation, and medical care improved.
Water power
Water wheels powered machines in the first factories
Coal
Used to power steam engines, invented by James Watt
Iron and steel
Industries benefited from technological refinement and avalibility of inexpensive, high-quality iron and steel. Smelters used coke (purfied form of coal) instead of charcoal as fuel to produce iron. Coke was chaper than charcoal. British iron production skyrocketed and prices fell.
Trade in Britain
Navigable rivers and canals facilitated trade and transport. Britain had some of the largest coal deposits.
Cotton
Demand for cotton was so strong, had to increase production in order to keep up with demand. Created the flying shuttle which sped up the weaving process.
Working conditions and wages
- People worked about 12-14 hours a day, with only short breaks
- Worked 6 days a week
- Factories were hot
- Overseers fined and threatened to fire workers if they weren’t paying close attention to jobs
- Factories were dirty, dangerous, dark, low ceilings, locked windows and foors
- People risked losing limbs from machines
- Throat or lung infections were common due to the polluted air
- Low wages, even lower if workers were late or business was bad
Child labor
- Children shifted from living at home or on farms to working in factories, brick yards, or mines.
- Children had weaker bodies, were more likely to get sick or deformed from machine accidents.
- Paid extremely low wages
- Long hours
- Abuse
Women in industrial era
- Moved with families to urban areas
- Worked 12-14 hours
- Couldn’t spend as much time with families
- Lace workers wore wooden rods along back to support them in their work, caused deformed ribs and chests
- Lung disease due to air pollution
- Skirts made them more likely to get caught in machines and crippled
- Low wages
Coal mines
- Worked in hot temperatures
- Drowining, suffocation from poisonous gases, and explosions were common
Education
- Few children received education
- Most working people didn’t go to school, because they had to support their families
- Government began to provide more support for schools, and created laws ordering that children must meet certain education requirements
Changing class structure
- Industrialization changed the top class from landowners to industrial capitalists, who owned factories.
- Growing urban middle class (doctos, lawyers, and shopkeepers).
- Urban poor, majority of the population, lived in slums around factories, low education
Industrial Production
British economy was prosperous enough to support investments in technology and machinery. Biritsh industries gained monopoly on products and could create further growth and development.
Capitalism
Economic system where factors of production are privately owned and money is invested in business ventures to make profit
Laissez-faire
hand off government in business
Adam Smith
Believed a free market (laissez faire) would help all people
David Ricardo
Opposed government help for the poor
“Iron law of wages”
Ricardo noted that when wages were high, families had more children.
Crop rotation
Growing crops in differ et fields to preserve land fertility
