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Britain Before 1750

Agricultural • Main economic activity in Britain

Society • 80% lived and worked on small farms in rural areas

Mining and • Tools were basic

trade employed
few people • Empowered by people, animals or waterwheels

Towns and • Small and self contained

Villages • Poor roads and travel on foot or by horse

Inadequate Short life Polluted water

diet expentancy supplies

Strict social classes

Working day based on wealth
(sunrise-sunset) (Aristocrats controlled
15% of Britain's wealth)

Beggining of Industrial Revolution

➢ Took place between 1750 and 1900

➢ There were huge technological advances

• Had an impact on every aspect of life
• Were happening while the British Empire was growing

➢ Not all of these changes were positive

• Conditions in factories and coal mines were dangerous and difficult
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Developments

Improved living ➢ Population quadrupled

standards ➢ Moving from rural to urban communities
Modern ➢ London and Manchester
towns ➢ New factories, mills and metal foundries
New sources of ➢ Steam power
power ➢ Electricity
Improved transport ➢ Towns linked by canals, roads and railroads
and communications ➢ People travelled more
Factories and textile ➢ Large number of workers and machines
mills ➢ Massive quantities of goods produced in one place

New Transport
Canals and steam trains could
Roads were improved
transport products quickly

New Technology
Steam-powered machinery increased
Coal to power factories
productivity

British Empire

Resources from the British Empire Wealth from the British Empire
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New Social Class Middle Class

Wealthy Bankers
merchants Teachers

Governement Shopkeepers
Officials
Backgrounds

Clerks Doctors

Managers Lawyers

➢ With higher salaries they could purchase

• Fine clothing
• Furniture
• Ceramics

➢ Demanded more schools, universities and libraries

Rise of the British Empire

1st Phase 2nd Phase

18th and 19th

1600s centuries

British colonies in North Britain's superior naval

America strenght
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Why the Industrial Revulution began in Britain

➢ Britain had access to cotton from its colonies and could
use slaves to collect it
➢ Colonies provided raw materials:
• Sugar from Australia and the West Indies
• Wool from Australia and New Zealand
Access to raw • Cotton and tea from India
materials • Rubber from Malaya
• Gold from Australia and South Africa
• Coffee form Jamaica and Africa
• Wheat from Australia and Canada
• Timber from Canada
➢ Britain had access to local and international economies
because of their powerful Navy and other ships
Naval power ➢ East India Company (EIC)
and trading • Largest trading company
power • Greatest in Europe in terms of wealth and influence
➢ The government allowed foreign trade and domestic to
occur to expand the economy and grow industries
Stable ➢ Regular meetings of Parliament, and longer legislative
sessions, allowed time to deal with local issues
government
➢ Little political or social conflict
Individual ➢ British individual and intellectual freedom
freedom ➢ Ground for new methods
➢ Financial services supported and protected trade
Superior ➢ Money available to start new businesses
banking ➢ Money available for experiments and new inventions
system • Steamship
• Telegraph

The Spred of The Industrial Revolution

Belgium France Germany

USA Japan Australia

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Belgium ➢ Similar to Britain

• Strong textile trade
• Potential investors
• Large reserves of coal
• Iron export
• Developed railways

France ➢ Slower development

➢ Agricultural economy until late 1800s
➢ Normandy
• Modernised textile industries

Germany ➢ Large deposits of coal and iron ore

• Exploited using new technologies
➢ 1870 - 1914
• Manufacturing outstripped Britain’s

USA ➢ Industry development in north east USA

➢ 1900
• Larger percentage of world manufacturing
➢ Rich in natural resources
➢ Expansion to the West
• New raw materials available

Japan ➢ Until 1868

• Cut off from Western influences
• All Christian missionaries expelled
➢ 1850
• American warships
• Meiji Restoration
• Emperor returned to power
• New modern government
• Increase in trade with the West
➢ First Asian country to become industrialised
• Adoption of Western ideas and inventions
➢ Export
• Tea
• Silk
• Cotton fabrics
• Buttons
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Australia ➢ Hectic and unplanned development
➢ 1788
• Established as a penal colony
• Increase in crime rates in new factory towns and
unemployed farmers
• Rising prison population
➢ 1813
• Steam mill operating in Sydney
• Roads constructed to transport goods
• Pastoral industry
➢ Mid-1830s
• Colonial destination for free British migrants
➢ 1850s
• Discovery of gold
• Railways
• Steamship travel

Late Developments in Technology and Sciency

Chemistry
➢ 1800s
• Discovery of:
o Petroleum
o Vulcanished rubber
o Portland cement
o Synthetic dyes
• Marie Curie
o Radioactivity

Electricity
➢ 1791
• Luigi Galvani (dead frog’s legs twitch)
• Alessandro Volta (store energy in a cell or battery)
➢ 1880s
• Power stations
o Alternative to steam engines
o Source of power for electric lighting (Joseph Swan and Thomas
Edison)
• Factories
o Cleaner and safer
o Located anywhere
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Communications
➢ Telegraph
• Revolutionised mass communications
• Text messages to be transmitted long distances
• Coded system of sounds to represent the alphabet
o Morse code
➢ 1851
• London and Paris linked by and undersea cable
➢ 1858
• Europe to America
o First transatlantic cable
➢ 1866
• Rapid communication between Britain and USA
• Distant part of the Empire binded together