THE INDUSTRIAL

REVOLUTION
The second important change which impacted the nineteenth century was the
Industrial Revolution. This change took place in the late 18th century and was the
cause of changing social and economic aspects of western society and impacted the
entire world.

CONTEXT/BACKGROUND

Life in Britain before the Industrial Revolution revolved around a peaceful agricultural
society. This is referred to as an agrarian society. The economy of Britain was based
on cottage-industry, trade and slavery in its colonies. Before the 1700’s, 90% of
Britain’s population lived in the country where towns and villages were involved with
farming. Peasant families were mostly poor and only produced enough food for
themselves and a small surplus to trade. Roads were rough, medicines and doctors
were a luxury few could afford and the poor were not well educated.

Farming took place on wealthy landowners farms. They were part of the upper,
wealthy class. Poorer, lower classes worked on the land ploughing by hand, using
horses and oxen. Peasants had a hard life as they often suffered from crop failures
due to floods or droughts which then led to food shortages, bad health and sickness.

Cottage industry was the home or

domestic industry by which production
occurred before the Industrial
Revolution. People lived in cottages in
the country and made their own clothes,
furniture and tools from raw materials.
Life was lived at a slow, casual pace.
The production of goods by hand was a

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long, slow process. Trade would take place with traders who would pass through
villages selling other supplies (tea, sugar, coffee, cotton or spices) which could be
traded for home-made items (blankets, clothes and cloth).

The Industrial Revolution started in Britain in the 1700’s for a number of reasons. This
turning point in History could never have happened without the wealth that was
generated through the slave trade and slave labour required to work on the
plantations in the colonies. British ships transported men and women from west Africa
to North America and the Caribbean where they were sold to work on cotton and
tobacco plantations. Slave traders became rich and influential through this exchange
despite the horrific conditions under which the slaves had to live and work. Slaves
were transported in horrendous conditions, many dying at sea. Once in the colony,
slaves were treated as possessions and had no human rights. They could be bought
and sold, had no family names, were not allowed to practice their traditions or religions
from home and were treated as inferior.

The Transatlantic Slave Trade

Merchants in Britain became very wealthy through the products produced by slave
labour and this wealth was used to finance:
• Factories

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 • New inventions that increased production and made it faster and more effective
• The steam engine which was used to power machines in the factories, on
farms, in the mines and the first railway
• Coal and iron mines were created
• Ships were built to carry raw materials, resources and manufactured goods to
and from colonies

WHAT WAS THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION?

The Industrial Revolution was a period of time between 1750 and 1850 when
Britain changed dramatically from an agricultural to an industrial society. Britain
had previously used a cottage industry in which goods were made from home, by
hand. The development of industry meant that production had to be increased and so
factories and manufacturing using machinery was introduced.

WHY DID IT OCCUR IN BRITAIN?

The change from a predominantly agricultural to an industrial economy took place in

Britain before any other major European country for a number of reasons, including
the following:

• There was an increase in population, which led to a greater desire for

manufactured goods. There were more people available for work in the new
and expanding industries.

• Britain was periodically at war with France during the 18 th century. This
stimulated the growth of certain war-related industries, particularly the iron
industry.

• By 1815, the British Empire had grown considerably. The British Empire
provided Britain with raw materials and was a convenient market for
manufactured goods.

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• Trade with European countries increased because British manufacturers could
supply goods far more cheaply and efficiently.

• No wars were fought on British soil and there was relative political stability
compared to Europe.

• Britain possessed a good supply of raw materials, such as coal and iron.

• There was a group of very wealthy people who were prepared to invest capital
in new businesses. Some had made their money through trade – particularly
the slave trade. These men were known as entrepreneurs and / or capitalists.

• Britain had a centralized banking system which was prepared to lend money to
entrepreneurs. This made starting a business easier.

• The intellectual climate of Britain encouraged rational and scientific thought,

producing many inventions that transformed manufacturing.

• People were free to move to new places for work, unlike many other European
countries where people were obliged to work the land as serfs.

• There were considerable improvements in transportation in the 18 th century,

particularly canals and roads, which made transport of goods far more efficient.
Better communication, such as a faster postal network and easier travel,
enabled news, especially concerning inventions and methods of production, to
spread more quickly.

• Britain had the largest navy and merchant fleet in the world.

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Britain had taken control of a number of colonies around the world. In both Britain,
and the countries with which they traded, there was a large demand for
manufactured goods. The cottage industry was too slow for the growing markets.

Wealthy merchants and business people decided to build factories to speed up

production. The factories were built near rivers and ports so supplies from colonies
could be delivered from the ships straight to the factories. Coal and iron mines hired
a lot of workers to dig the coal and iron ore from deep inside the mines. Coal was
required to power the factories and machines and iron was used to build the
machinery. Animals were used to pull the loads from the mines to the surface. These
natural resources were what made the Industrial Revolution possible as they were
required for the mechanisation of production. Later on, during the revolution, some
people thought of quicker ways to extract and transport the natural resources from the
mines and this resulted in the invention of new machines. Food production had been
very slow and new methods of farming allowed for more food to be produced to feed
Britain’s growing population. Farms were privatised and farmers became
responsible for larger farms and more production. Unfortunately, farmers were poorly

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paid and labourers on farms soon started losing their jobs as machines were
developed which could do the work faster. This forced labourers to move into the newly
developed towns to search for employment in the factories. This is referred to as
urbanisation. Industry took over from agriculture as the most important sector of the
British economy.

The Industrial Revolution was a major turning point for British society. Many changes
took place as a direct result of the Revolution.

The most important of the changes that brought about the Industrial Revolution were
(1) the invention of machines to do the work of hand tools, (2) the use of steam and
later of other kinds of power, and (3) the adoption of the factory system.

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 NEW INVENTIONS DURING THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Machinery – machines were invented which produced goods faster than handmade
goods. The first machines were invented for the manufacturing of cloth from sheep’s
wool and cotton.
• Spinning Jenny – this invention allowed for multiple threads to be spun at the
same time, making manufacturing of cloth more efficient.
• Water Frame – this machine used water to drive a spinning machine. It used
water power as energy.
• Power Loom – The power loom could weave very fast and could do the work
of many weavers much faster that they could do so by hand.

Factories – The new machines could not fit into people’s houses so large buildings
had to be built to house the inventions. People had to leave their homes and go to
work in these factories, contributing to urbanisation.

Power and Energy – the first machines were made from wood and some were
powered by water. In the early 1700’s, an engine that used steam to power a machine
was invented. In 1770, James Watt used this technology and improved it. In order to
boil the water, coal was needed, and in order to create machines that could withstand
the heat of the steam, iron was needed.

Mining – Coal and iron ore were mined before the Industrial Revolution but the
creation of machinery and factories required it in far greater quantities. Factories were
built near the mines.

Transportation – Good made in factories had to be transported to seaports. Prior to

the revolution, transport was conducted by wagons and coaches pulled by horses.
During the revolution, tarmac roads were invented and thousands of kilometres of
roads had been built between factories, towns and seaports. George Stephenson
developed the technology pf a steam-powered engine that could travel along rails. As
railway travel became faster, trains became the main way that unprocessed goods
such as coal and iron, cotton and sugar, and manufactured goods were transported.

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 SOCIAL CHANGES AFTER THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Urbanisation - the population increase in Britain meant that more people required
food. When the farmers were not able to keep up with the demands of the towns, many
left farming in search of work in the cities. Some also lost their jobs due to the invention
of new machinery which replaced their labour on the farms. This led to urbanisation
(the movement of people into cities and urban areas).

Changing living conditions - the towns had very little accommodation and often
families would live in one bedroom. There was no running water and bathrooms were
outside and had to be used by 20-30 people. There was no sewage or waste removal
system so pollution was rife. Overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and black smoke
from the factories meant that diseases such as smallpox, dysentery, cholera and
typhus were
rife. Only
towards the
end of the 19th
century were
laws created
which made
way for proper
development of
infrastructure in
towns.

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 Working conditions and child labour -
factory owners preferred to employ
children in factories, mills and mines as
they were small and could work in
cramped conditions but also because
they were cheaper labour compared to
adults. Factories had few windows, no
safety regulations and no regulation of
working conditions so injuries occurred
often. Some children started working at the age of four. They worked for 16 hours a
day. The worst job for children was working in the coal mines as a Trapper. This job
was usually given to a child of 4 or 5 years old. They had to sit in the dark for hours by
themselves, waiting to open the track door for the coal wagons to go through.

Labour resistance, trade unions and the working class - the Industrial Revolution
created a new capitalist society. This is an economic policy which values profit,
individualism and private enterprise. Thus, the rich get richer by exploiting and abusing
the poor. Due to massive unemployment rates, poor people would work for very little
pay under awful conditions, and many families would send their children to work. After
some time, laws were created to protect workers, however, the law-makers usually
represented the wealthy landowners or factory and mine owners.

The Luddites - in 1812, workers from some factories began losing their jobs due to
the invention of machinery which made 14 out of every 15 men redundant. These men
protested and rioted in the streets. They destroyed machinery and killed factory
owners. They became known as the Luddites and every protest they held was done
in the name of their anonymous leader “King Ludd”. By 1817, the Luddite leaders had
been arrested or killed and the rioting stopped.

Increased power and wealth of Britain and Western European economies -

Britain became a powerful manufacturing nation and dominated the ocean trade. New
technologies led to the growth of the capitalistic system. Economic growth meant that
national income doubled and Britain became the world’s leading industrial power, at
the expense of slaves and poor workers. New technologies developed in Britain

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quickly spread to other European countries, America and the East. The
industrialisation of these countries led to a need for more raw materials throughout the
world which resulted in a race for colonies.

An image depicting industrialised Britain in the 1800’s.

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 THE SPREAD OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Britain tried to keep secret how its machines were made, but people went there to
learn about them and took the techniques back home. Sometimes they smuggled the
machines out in rowboats to neighbouring countries. The first countries after Britain to
develop factories and railroads were Belgium, Switzerland, France, and the states that
became Germany. Building a national railroad system proved an essential part of
industrialisation. Belgium began its railroads in 1834, France in 1842, Switzerland in
1847, and Germany in the 1850s.

Industrialisation began in the United States when Samuel Slater emigrated from
Britain to Rhode Island in 1789 and set up the first textile factory on U.S soil. He did
this from memory, having left Britain without notes or plans that could have been
confiscated by British authorities. Francis Cabot Lowell, of Massachusetts, visited
Britain from 1810 to 1812 and returned to set up the first power loom and the first
factory combining mechanical spinning and weaving in the States. Railroad
construction in America boomed from the 1830s to 1870s. The American Civil War
(1861–65) was the first truly industrial war — the increasingly urbanised and factory-
based North fighting against the agriculture-focused South — and industrialisation
grew explosively afterward. By 1900 the United States had overtaken Britain in
manufacturing, producing 24 percent of the world’s output.

After 1870 both Russia and Japan were forced by losing wars to abolish their feudal
systems and to compete in the industrialising world. In Japan, the monarchy proved
flexible enough to survive through early industrialisation. In Russia, a profoundly rural
country, the tsar and the nobility undertook industrialisation while trying to retain their
dominance. Factory workers often worked 13-hour days without any legal rights.
Discontent erupted repeatedly, and eventually a revolution brought the Communist
party to power in 1917. This revolution will be taught in grade 10. A very important
economic alternative to the capitalist based industrial revolution.

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Industrialised nations used their strong armies and navies to colonise many parts of
the world that were not industrialised, gaining access to the raw materials needed for
their factories, a practice known as imperialism. In 1800 Europeans occupied or
controlled about 34 percent of the land surface of the world; by 1914 this had risen to
84 percent.

Britain led the 19th-century takeovers and ended the century with the largest non-
contiguous empire the world has ever known. (“The sun never sets on the British
Empire,” as the British liked to say.) Britain exerted great influence in China and the
Ottoman Empire without taking over direct rule, while in India, Southeast Asia, and 60
percent of Africa, it assumed all governmental functions.

In the last decade of the 19th century most European nations grabbed for a piece of
Africa (The Scramble for Africa), and by 1900 the only independent country left on the
continent was Ethiopia. The Scramble for Africa and the policy of Imperialism are very
important concepts that will be covered in our next section.

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References

(information has been extracted and adapted from the following sources)

ONLINE: Encyclopedia Britannica – Industrial Revolution [Accessed at

https://www.britannica.com/event/Industrial-Revolution on 4 December 2020]

ONLINE: History Crunch – Industrial Revolution [Accessed at

https://www.historycrunch.com/living-conditions-in-industrial-towns.html#/ on 6
December 2020]

ONLINE: Rethinking the Long Nineteenth Century [Accessed at

https://brewminate.com/rethinking-the-long-nineteenth-century-1750-1950/ on 14
December 2020]

“Timeline: Events and Inventions during the Industrial Revolution.” South African History
Online, www.sahistory.org.za/article/timeline-events-and-inventions-during-industrial-
revolution

Stokes Brown, C. (2020) Khan Academy: The Industrial Revolution. [Accessed at

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/big-history-project/acceleration/bhp-
acceleration/a/the-industrial-
revolution#:~:text=Consequences%20of%20the%20Industrial%20Revolution,in%20a%20me
re%20300%20years. On 16 December 2020]

Hambly, A. Allwood, J. (2012) Spot On Social Sciences, Learner Book. Heinemann: Cape
Town. Pp 72-81.

Ranby, P. Johannesson, B. Monteith, M. (2012) Platinum Social Sciences, Learner Book.

Maskew Miller Longman: Cape Town. Pp 110-125.

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