1.

Life During the Industrial Revolution

For most of human history we lived as either hunter gatherers or in agricultural societies.
Most people’s lives were centered on obtaining food, either through hunting or farming. The
majority of people lived rural lives in small villages. Everything people owned was made by
hand, many people made their own clothes and furniture.

During the 18th Century cities began to grow and manufacturing of goods became
mechanised. Inventions such as steam powered machines and a range of cloth making
innovations meant that goods could be mass manufactured. Refrigeration meant food could
be sent long distances, and people were no longer tied to their local food supply. People left
their rural lives and headed to the cities to work in factories. These innovations meant
freedom for people, but also the opportunity for exploitation by ruthless industrialists. This
movement of people from an agricultural lifestyle to an urban one brought many changes,
and not all were for the better.

City life in the 19th Century was dismal was the working poor.
As people moved away from their small family farms the cities
became quickly overcrowded, and many people lived in slum
conditions. Cities struggled to overcome problems of housing,
clean drinking water, and sewerage. Alcoholism became a
social problem.

Housing was cramped and many families lived in appalling

conditions. Cities had poor infrastructure and slums developed.
The writings of Charles Dickens showed the inequity of
society.

Wretched houses with broken windows patched with rags and paper;
every room let out to a different family, and in many instances to two
or even three – fruit and ‘sweetstuff’ manufacturers in the cellars,
barbers and red-herring vendors in the front parlours, cobblers in the
back; a bird-fancier in the first floor, three families on the second, starvation in the attics, Irishmen in
the passage, a ‘musician’ in the front kitchen, a charwoman and five hungry children in the back one –
filth everywhere – a gutter before the houses, and a drain behind – clothes drying, and slops emptying
from the windows; ... men and women, in every variety of scanty and dirty apparel, lounging,
scolding, drinking, smoking, squabbling, fighting, and swearing.

Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz, 1839

Children were treated especially poorly at this

time. Factories would employ children as
cheap labour. Working conditions were
terrible and there was little in the way of
safety. Children worked from dawn to dusk in
dangerous conditions and many children
were killed or injured in the machines. Poor
children were sent to workhouses where they
had little education. A law was passed so that
children would be educated at least well
enough to sign their own indenture papers.
A children’s workhouse

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 Activities

Comprehension Questions Thinking Questions

Before you start, define the terms in bold. 1. Create a table comparing life before
the 18th Century with life during the
industrial revolution in the 18th and
19th Centuries.

2. Write a paragraph describing why

1. How did people live for most of human people’s lives would have been
history? difficult during the 19th Century.
2. Describe their lifestyle?
3. Name 6 changes that occurred during 3. Why do you think children of the 18th
the 18th Century. and 19th Centuries were exploited?
4. Why was life during the 19th Century
dismal?
5. What are the negative words used by
Charles Dickens about life in the 19th
Century.
6. Why were factories so bad for
children?
7. Where were poor children sent?
8. What education did poor children
receive?

Research and Extension

Creativity
1. Visit the link below.

2. Describe what happened during the

Brentwood scandal of 1894.

1. Imagine you are a time traveller

visiting the 19th Century. Write a 1
page journal describing what you
see.

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/education/

Ctrl+Click the link to visit the website

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2. Imperialism, Enlightenment, and Revolution.
The 18th and 19th Centuries were times of great social change and upheaval. Many people
wanted change, and many had change thrust upon them. For many people throughout the
world their lives were affected by rulers far away, on different continents.

Imperialism is the idea

that strong nations
should rule the weak.
Often driven by racist
ideas of superiority this
led the countries of
Europe to seek out new
lands and people to
conquer, rule over, and
exploit. As explorers
opened up the world in
the 15th and 16th
centuries the Europeans
took the opportunity to
conquer the new lands
and become rich trading
nations, often at the
expense of the people
they had conquered.
Countries like Britain,
France, Portugal, and Belgium, carved up the world between them, ruling over people in
Asia, Africa, and the Americas. These people were put to work in terrible conditions, sold
into slavery, and killed in large numbers. The European powers argued amongst themselves
for imperial power, an empire meant great wealth, and the people they subjugated were
reduced to second class citizens, often without rights. The effects of Europeans empires are
still felt today.

This period also saw the rise of an idea called Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason in
Europe. Intellectuals sought to change society by challenging faith and superstition with
science. The Church’s dominance in society was under attack, and ideas of political
liberalism meant old government structures were brought into question. The enlightenment
lead to revolutionary changes throughout the world.

While people overseas were being oppressed, people in Europe and North America were
influenced by the new ideas of the enlightenment. Absolute monarchies and church leaders
had ruled over these people for centuries. Governments during the 18th century were being
pressured by a growing middle class to give everyday citizens more of a say in how they
were governed. The Americans had a revolution and overthrew their British Colonial
masters, signing the Declaration of lindependence in 1786. The French overthrew their
monarchy and set up a republic following the French Revolution in 1789.

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 Activities
Comprehension Questions Thinking Questions

Before you start, define the terms in bold. 1. Why do you think Europeans
thought it was right to exploit people
in Asia, Africa, and the Americas?

2. How does the world view conquering

other nations today?
1. What does the map show?
2. What is Imperialism? 3. If a European country tried to take
3. How did the idea of Imperialism affect over Asia today what do you think
European behaviour? would happen?
4. What did the Europeans do in Asia,
Africa, and the Americas?
5. What was the Age of Reason?
6. How did the Enlightenment period
affect
a. The Church?
b. European and North American
people?
7. What happened in America and
France in the late 18th Century?
Research and Extension

Creativity 1. Visit the link below.

2. Describe the causes of the American

Revolution and how it ended.

1. Draw a mind map for each of the

following words.
a. Imperialism
b. Enlightenment

http://www.ducksters.com/history/american_revolution.php

Ctrl+Click the link to visit the website

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3. Democracy and Nationalism
Two ideas dominated political thought in the 19th Century - Democracy, and Nationalism.
The first was a desire for people to rule themselves, and the second a fervent ethnic and
cultural patriotism which led to the carving up of Europe and was a cause of the First World
War.

Today most people take democracy for granted. In Australia we have elections for our
governments and if we don’t like them we vote someone else next time. But for most of
human history this was not the case.

The rights of the individual spread from ideas in the 17th century. The enlightenment
brought renewed interest in thoughts from Ancient Greek philosophers. Throughout the 17th
and 18th centuries revolutions caused social change in the the nations of Europe. People
began agitating for a fairer society after the feudalism of the middle ages and one in which
people had their say.

In the 17th Century there was partial suffrage in some

nations, which allowed some of the the nobility and
landowners to influence the decisions of monarchs. It wasn’t
until the 18th Century that democratic reforms began that
allowed for a greater franchise of the population. In 1788 the
US Constitution created a blueprint for democracy throughout
the world. In Britain reforms througn the early 19th century
enfranchised the population. In 1848 France created
universal male suffrage. In the 1850’s Australia introduced the
“secret” ballot.

Many groups were excluded from voting rights up until the

20th century including women (except in New Zealand in
1893) and Australian indigenous people. Women would not
gain suffrage in Australia until
Federation and not in most
other countries until after
World War One. France
waited until 1944 to give women the vote and Australian
indigenous people did not have full voting rights until
1962.Nationalism is the idea that a person should identify
with a particular country, usually along ethnic, language, or
religious grounds. Before the 18th century people would
identify with their church, or ethnicity rather than a nation-
state. With French and American Revolutions the ideas
surfaced that people belonged to a sovereign state with a
national identity. Throughout Europe people began to
associate their cultiral group with the country they were in. This saw the rise of nationalist
movements leading to the drawing of borders along national and ethnic lines. This
nationalism led to wars in Europe, notably the First and Second World War. Across the
European empires people becan agitating for freedom as the oppressed people of Asia,
South America, and later Africa pushed for independence and freedom.

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 Activities

Comprehension Questions Thinking Questions

Before you start, define the terms in bold. 1. Why do you think democracy is
important?
2. How do you think Women and
indigenous people would have felt
about not having he right to vote?
3. Why do you think many people who
are born in Australia identify
1. Which two ideas dominated political
thought in the 19th Century? themselves as being from a different
2. What did Democracy and Nationalism nationality?
lead to? 4. Why did it take so long to have
3. When did the rights of individuals universal suffrage?
become a popular idea? 5. Explain in a paragraph the problems
4. Who could vote in the 17th Century? nationalism can cause.
5. What reforms were made between
1788 and the 1850’s?
6. Which groups were excluded from
voting until the 20th Century?
7. How do people identify their
nationality?
8. How did people identify themselves
before the 18th Century?
9. Which revolutions made people aware
of their Sovereign State?
10. What happened because of Research and Extension
nationalism in the 20th Century?

1. Visit the link below.

Creativity
2. Describe the suffragette movement
in Australia

1. Create a poster promoting female

suffrage.

http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-suffragettes

Ctrl+Click the link to visit the website

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4. The language of the movement of peoples
Abolition : the movement that tried to
ban slavery
Blackbirding : the taking of Pacific
Islanders to work in Queensland
against their will
Chattel : a person who is regarded as
property
Colony : A place that is taken over and
populated by people from another
country
Convict : a criminal sent to Australia
for punishment
Coolies : an insulting term for Indian
and Chinese forced labourers
Diaspora : the large scale migration of
a group of people around the world
Emancipist : a freed convict
Imperialism : the building of Empires
Indentured labour : a type of forced
labour
Market : the trading of goods
Macaulay did this
Middle passage : the forced
transportation by ship of African slaves
Migration : the permanent movement
of someone to another country
Pogrom : a violent massacre and
persecution of a group of people,
particularly Jewish people
Racism : discriminating against people
on the basis race, or assuming
superiority of your own race
Segregation : the separation of people
along ethnic, racial, or religious
grounds
Settler : a free person moving to
Australia
Slave : a person that is owned and has
no rights
Transportation : the sentence ordering
the sending of convicts to Australia
Xenophobia : fear of anyone who is an
outsider, or from another country,
religion, ethnic group, or race
8
 Activities

Comprehension Questions Thinking Questions

Answer the following in full sentences.

1. Using the words from the glossary
explain the many reasons people
have moved to a new country

2. Write a paragraph describing the

racist attitudes people have had in
1. Which words from the list suggest the past.
people have had racist attitudes?
2. Make a list of the words that describe
why people have moved, or have been
forced to move to a new country.
3. Choose 5 words from the glossary
which relate to Australia. Give reasons
for your choices.

Research and Extension

Creativity
1. Visit the link below.

2. Describe why convicts were sent to

Australia.

1. Create a poster using words and

images that represent the words
from the glossary.

http://www.hht.net.au/discover/highlights/kids_fact_sheets/why_were_convicts_transported_to_australia

Ctrl+Click the link to visit the website

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5. Industrial and agricultural revolution
Until the 18th Century, people in
Europe lived a mostly agrarian
lifestyle. Two revolutions would
begin a movement of peoples
and force the ordinary peasant
farmer away from the
countryside and into increasingly
congested, filthy, and disease
ridden cities like London. These
two revolutions were the industrial revolution, which created factories and mass
manufacture, and the agricultural revolution which made farming more efficient and
required fewer labourers to complete the same work.

The Industrial Revolution, with its new inventions and use of coal and steam power meant
that large quantities of goods, such as steel, clothing, and
textiles, could be manufactured in factories, and sent overseas
for great profit. The factories required labourers to run the
machines and so many poor farmers left their land looking for
work in the cities. In the 19th Century London’s population
exploded from around a million in 1800, to over 7 million by the
end of the century. With Industrialisation came wealth for the
privileged section of the community, and a large proportion of
the population growth was made up of
young women who were employed as
domestic servants. One of the side
effects of the overcrowded cities was an
increase in crime. This lead to another reason for population
movement - the transportation of convicts from overcrowded gaols, to
colonies like Australia.

Life in rural communities was also undergoing a transformation.

During the middle ages Feudal England and its 3 field farming system
kept peasants tied to the land. But by the 18th Century an agricultural
revolution had begun in England which would mean the labour on
farms could be done by fewer people, with greater output. Inventions
of the era include new seed planting machines which automated the
planting of crops, new plough technology with improved designed to
make digging the earth easier, harvesting machines run by horses
which replaced the traditional hand sickle or scythe, and threshing
machines which took the grain from a stalk of wheat - first animal
powered, then replaced by steam engines.

All of this new technology meant that producing a surplus of food for the cities and for
export was easier, and required fewer labourers. Small farmers were also driven off their
land as common fields were enclosed by landowners. These displaced people helped to
drive the movement of people into the cities.

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 Activities

Comprehension Questions Thinking Questions

Before you start, define the terms in bold.

1. Write 2 paragraphs explaining why
people overcrowded the cities. One
about the industrial Revolution, one
about the Agricultural Revolution
1. What lifestyle did most people have
until the 18th Century? Use the PEEL method to write the
2. Which 2 revolutions changed the way paragraphs.
people lived?
3. What caused the Industrial revolution?
4. How did the Industrial Revolution
affect where people lived and worked?
5. How did the movement of people
affect London?
6. Who made up a large proportion of the
city’s population?
7. What was one effect of the
overcrowding?
8. Which inventions changed agriculture
during the 18th Century?
9. What was the effect of the Agricultural Research and Extension
Revolution?

1. Visit the link below.

Creativity 2. Describe one of the new methods of

farming during the Agricultural
Revolution.

1. Draw a picture of a modern farm

machine, and a piece of pre-
revolution farming equipment.

http://inventors.about.com/od/indrevolution/a/AgriculturalRev.htm

Ctrl+Click the link to visit the website

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6. Population growth and natural disaster.
With the Agricultural Revolution came, for the first time in human history a large surplus of
food. As a result, populations which were kept low through starvation, famine, and disease,
began to grow. As you can see from the graph below, for most of the time people had
civilisations the world’s population was well under a billion, but in the time of the Industrial
and Agricultural Revolutions the
population begins to rise
rapidly. Because fewer people
were dying young they also had
the opportunity to have larger
families, adding to the population
pressures. Although mortality
rates among children were still
much higher than today, families
remained large. A wife might
would often have 9 or 10
children of whom 5 or 6 might
survive.

Today the world still suffers from

environmental disasters. Parts of
the world still occasionally have
famines and starvation affects
many people in the poorest countries. Unlike today, however, there were no relief agencies
like the United nations to organise food shipments, nor were there television advertisements
asking people to donate money to help starving people.

One place that suffered a natural disaster was Ireland. People in

Ireland, especially the poor, had come to depend on the potato as
their main source of food in the middle of the 19th Century. Men
would eat up to 60 potatoes every day as part of their diet. When
a disease known as “potato blight”
destroyed much of the crop in 1845
more than a million Irish died. This
natural disaster was the source of a
great deal of population movement
around the world. To escape the famine,
which lasted for 7 years, another million
Irish emigrated to places like the United
States and Australia. In Toronto,
Canada, more than half the population
of 1851 had come from Ireland. Ireland
lost a quarter of it’s population to
starvation and emigration in this time.

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 Activities

Comprehension Questions Thinking Questions

Before you start, define the terms in bold. 1. What reasons can you think of,
including food production, that would
have caused the world’s population to
remain low for so long?

2. What problems do we have in society

because of the excess of food being
produced?
1. What benefit did the Agricultural
Revolution bring? 3. What do you think would happen to
2. What happened because of the Australia if the crops that we depend
surplus of food? upon such as wheat were to suddenly
3. What was an effect of fewer young die?
deaths?
4. How large were families?
5. How does the world help victims of
natural disasters today?
6. Describe the diet of Irish people in the
middle of the 19th Century.
7. What caused the destruction of the
potato crop in 1845?
8. How many people left Ireland and
where did they go? Research and Extension

Creativity 1. Visit the link below.

2. Use the interactive timeline to
describe the periods of growth in
population and which events may
have caused the population to stop
growing.

1. Create a newspaper front page telling

of the potato famine in Ireland.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/animations/population/index_embed.shtml

Ctrl+Click the link to visit the website

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