1. Industrial Revolutions and Beginnings of the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolutions
Meaning of the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution was a peaceful change from
manual work to mechanical and industrial production. It was not sudden or quick. It was a long,
slow process, over several centuries. The Industrial Revolution had two stages. During the first
stage, from about 1750 to 1850, Britain took the lead in inventing new methods of production.
During the second stage, from 1850 to about 1914, the United States and Western European
nations also became modem industrial powers, and many social abuses were corrected.
Eventually, the Industrial Revolution completely changed the patterns of life in the entire world.
The meaning of the Industrial Revolution can be summarized in the following changes: (1) the
mechanization of agriculture and industry; (2) the use of power (electricity, steam, oil) in
industry; (3) the development of the factory system; (4) a sensational development
of transportation and communication; and (5) an increase in big business control of the
economy.
Beginnings of the Industrial Revolution
By noon, fashionable ladies, sailors, workers and bankers filled London's Crystal Palace, a
beautiful newly-built all-glass domed building in Hyde Park, London. The trumpets blared,
crowds cheered, and Queen Victoria of England stepped down from her royal carriage. She was
opening the Great Exhibition of 1851. The fair would display “the works of industry of all
nations.” Its theme was progress. Inside the Crystal Palace, visitors marveled at the more than
6,000 exhibits from around the world. What pleased them most was to see that Britain had
become the “factory of the world.” Britain was now the world’s greatest power.
Spiritual Revolution in Britain. As visitors looked in awe at the trains, power looms, steam
engines and other machines, they could see how far their world had
come in the 1800s. In the 1700s, Britain had suffered the loss of the Thirteen Colonies in
America. France and Europe was embroiled in bloody and violent revolutions and wars. The
economic and, political uncertainties then were made worse by a loss of morale in British
society. Street people roamed in London streets — men, women, and even children drank
because they thought they had no hope.
A Christian revival swept Britain and brought a message of salvation and hope by faith. In the
late 1700s, powerful evangelists led by George Whitefield and John and Charles Wesley inspired
2. crowds. People began returning to the Bible and to church. The Christian revival introduced
Christian education. .Because there were no free schools, Christian churches opened Sunday
schools. The revival gave importance to the value of work, teaching that it should be done for the
glory of God, not only for material or personal gain. The spiritual revival created a spirit of hope
and opened new opportunities for the nation.
Historians recognize that this Christian revival saved Britain from a bloody revolution and was
one of the causes of the Industrial Revolution. it inspired farmers, miners and workers to use
resources and work more efficiently. Better tools and methods were Invented, at first in
agriculture, then in manufacturing. With a stronger agriculture and more food, the population
grew healthier and bigger. Britain expanded into inventing the new machines and manufacturing
industries.
Britain, Cradle of the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the
middle of the 18" century. From there it spread to other countries of Europe and the world. The
favorable conditions which made Britain the cradle of the Industrial Revolution were as follows:
1) The Wesleyan Christian revival emphasized the work ethic and promoted, through Christian
education, the hope that poor people could better themselves.
2) Improvements in agriculture expanded food supply, made people healthier and happier, and
increased the population.
3) The abundance of natural resources like coal, iron and water in Britain.
4) Britain had many skilled artisans, including those who had fled France, Germany, and other
European countries during the religious persecution and wars.
5) Britain had a_ stable government dominated by a merchant and capitalist class. Furthermore,
the British government encouraged industrial growth by not making too many laws or taxes to
discourage business.
6) Being a colonial power, Britain had plenty of raw materials and markets for manufactured
products,
7) Britain had the best banking system in Europe at the time, and it was able to raise the
necessary capital to finance new business ventures.
8) Britain had a large merchant fleet to ship goods all over the world, and the best navy to protect
its ships.
3. 9) Finally, Britain's damp climate favored the manufacture of cotton cloths, since the thread
would not become brittle and break off easily when woven by machines. The mechanization of
the textile industry helped the Industrial Revolution takeoff in Britain.
REVOLUTION IN AGRICULTURE
Another reason why the Industrial Revolution got under way first in Britain was a revolution in
agriculture.
Changes in British farming greatly increased the amount and variety of food produced. People
with enough food in their stomach always start the day well.
Since the Middle Ages, farmers had planted the same crop in a given field year in and year out.
In the 1730s, Lord Charles Townshend, a British official and landowner, took an interest in his
farms. He introduced the mass production of turnips, which became a staple of the poor man’s
diet. He discovered that fields would produce more crops if the farmers rotated the crops they
planted in a field. He suggested that farmers grow wheat or barley in a field for one or two years
and then plant clover or turnips in the next years. His idea for a four-field crop rotation helped
increase not only food production, but also food for cattle and sheep. As food and eat became
available at lower cost, people could eat more protein and a healthier diet. His interest in
agriculture earned him the nickname ‘Turnip Townshend.”
“The invention of farm machines also increased food production, One day, Jethro Tull, a British
inventor, got an idea in church while watching the organ pipes playing music. In 1701, he
perfected a horse-drawn seed drill to efficiently plant seeds in neat rows into the soil. The Jethro
Tull mechanical seed drill was adopted by many landowners, and it helped form the basis of
modern agriculture. Farmers also began to use mechanical reapers and threshers, which made
harvesting easier. Food production increased some more.
In the 1700s, farmers began to enclose bigger plots of land to make agriculture more efficient
and experiment with new crops, like the corn and potato from the New World. The enclosure
movement of farmlands forced many small farmers off their land. Some became tenant farmers.
Others drifted to towns in search of new work, and became the factory workers.
The Agricultural Revolution helped set the stage for the Industrial Revolution. With more food
available, people’s diet and health improved. These changes contributed to a rapid growth of
population. With more people, the demand for manufactured goods, like clothing, grew.
4. Moreover, the new methods of farming needed tewer people to work the land. Unemployed farm
workers , formed the labor pool for the factories.
3 Changes in the Textile Industry
When changes in agriculture laid off many farmers and farm workers, they looked for new work
in the towns and cities. It was a blessing that new mechanical inventions and new factories were
being created in these places to absorb the workers. As you have read in Chapter 12, the
commercial revolution had developed a cottage production for wool cloth in the rural areas. But
the cottage system could not keep up with a rising demand for cloth, especially cotton cloth. In
the 1700s, practical-minded persons developed new ways to improve the manufacture of
clothing. Each invention triggered others, like a domino effect. Soon, the entire textile industry
boomed and a new era in world history began.
The Textile Industrial Revolution. The first industry to be mechanized was the manufacture of
cotton cloth. As compared to other enterprises, the cotton industry was young, so there was much
room for growth and invention. Secondly, the profits depended on production in bulk. Bulk
production meant more profits.
First, the cotton threads had to be woven. In 1733, John Kay, a watchmaker, invented the flying
shuttle, a device that doubled the speed of producing cotton thread. The flying shuttle replaced
the hand-held shuttle used in weaving thread. In 1764, James Hargreaves, a carpenter, invented
the spinning jenny, named after his wife Jenny. Using this spinning jenny, a person could spin up
to 80 threads at one time.
In 1769, a poor barber named Richard Arkwright built a machine that could hold up to 100
spindles. His invention was too heavy to be hand operated, so he used water power to turn it.
Thus, the machine was called the water frame. Ten years later, a mechanic named Samuel
Crompton developed the spinning mule, which used features of Hargreaves' spinning jenny and
Arkwright's water frame. Again, the production of cotton thread was increased.
Now, the loom had to be improved. With more thread now available, the weaver's loom found its
creator. In 1785 Edmund Cartwright, an Anglican pastor, invented the power loom which
quickened the process of weaving.
They needed more raw cotton to feed these machines. In 1793, an American, Eli Whitney,
invented the cotton gin (the term "gin" is a shortened word for "engine"). Whitney's cotton gin
5. made it possible for a single slave in an American cotton plantation to turn out raw cotton as 50
slaves had done by hand before. By the 1830s, Britain was importing 280 million pounds of raw
cotton every year, mostly from the US, its former colony, with which it had made peace.
The new machines were expensive and needed to be near rivers, so that the water could turn the
wheel to power the machines. Inventors like Arkwright built spinning mills and started hiring
hundreds of workers.
These early textile mills operated under the factory system, which replaced the cottage
production of cloth. Under the factory system workers and machines were in one place to
manufacture goods. Everyone worked a set number of hours each day, and workers were paid
daily or weekly salaries.
Development of New Sources of Energy. Although the textile mills run by water power started
factory manufacturing, steam power became the major source of energy. The idea of a steam-
powered engine had been around for a long time.
It was James Watt, a Scottish engineer, who perfected the reliable steam engine in the 1760s.
Watt's steam engine supplied most of the power to run industries in Britain and in - other
countries in Europe.
In 1831, Michael Faraday (English) invented the electricity dynamo used to run machinery.
Soon, electricity supplemented water and steam as a source of power for industrial purposes.
Development of the Iron, Coal and Steel Industries. Producing and operating the steam engine
and other new machines needed huge quantities of iron and coal. Britain was blessed in having
large deposits of both. During the Industrial Revolution, better methods of production boosted
the mining of iron and coal and improved the quality of iron.
Britain quadrupled its iron production between 1788 and 1806. Coal production also boomed
because coal fueled the early Industrial Revolution. Despite the mechanization of the other
industries, the work in coal mines largely depended on the backbreaking labor of men, women,
and even children. As you will read later, the conditions for these workers caused great concern.
In the 1856, Henry Bessemer developed the production of steel, a harder metal from iron and
other materials. As steel became available, it triggered the growth of other industries.
