Industrial Revolution
Robert Chaplin History 112 Dr. Farrell 20 April 2000 Industrial Revolution
One of the most significant personality changes that has occurred in the world
took place during the 1700’s to the early 1800’s; the Industrial Revolution. It
is described as a time of drastic change from hand made items to machine made
goods. This meant basically that people had to learn how to manufacture goods in
enormous factories instead of cultivating them from the land. The Industrial
Revolution began in England because of their large demand for coal and iron. And
since they had a large supply of this, England soon began to have to produce
vast amounts across all of Europe. In the 1700’s, England was one of the world’s
leading producers of iron and coal and was considered as having the most
colonial power. This is all due to their newly acquired colonies. The colonies
currently known as the United States of America. The colonies provided a market
for manufactured products. The markets helped stimulate the textile and iron
industries in England. The colonies also gave England all of the resources that
were desperately needed due to produce all of the goods that were necessary In
most industries, before the Industrial Revolution, labor was done by hand. This
was called the cottage industry. In the early 1700’s, there was great demand for
cotton cloth. In order to meet this demand people needed something to increase
their output. So the spinning jenny and the water frame were invented. These two
inventions cut time and expenses in half due to the lesser amount of labor that
was needed. These inventions also left a lot of people that were used to working
the land baffled. People were presented with a whole new scenario in life which
changed their outlooks on the way that they should go about living their lives.
Kind of like how the older generations of today are being perplexed by the
hindrances of trying to figure out all this new computer technology.
Another
great invention in the seventeenth century is the steam engine. The steam engine
is something that I think of as one of the greatest inventions of this time era.
The steam engine allowed people to travel to remote destinations much quicker
than ever before due to the steam power of a train or ferry. Cities were able to
expand in size because people could go farther in less time. It even allowed
some of the hardest task known to man to be done in a much more time saving and
least dangerous fashion. Without this great invention none of the manufactured
items that were being produced to support most everybody in the world would have
ever been able to have been distributed. Several systems of making goods had
grown up by the time of the Industrial revolution. In county districts families
produced most of the supplies that they used, while in the cities merchandise
was made in shops, and manufacturing was strictly regulated by the guilds and by
the government. The goods made in these shops were limited and costly. The
merchants needed cheaper items, as well as larger quantities, for their growing
trade. They had to establish another system of producing goods. The cottage or
domestic industry filled in the gap for sometime, because it gave the merchants
a large supply of manufactured articles at a low price. It provided employment
for every member of a craft worker’s family and gave jobs to skilled workers who
had no capital to start business for themselves. A few merchants who had enough
capital had gone a step further. They brought workers together under one roof
and supplied machines. These establishments were factories.
