HIST363 Study Guide

Unit 4: The Industrial Revolution in England

4a. Describe how new technology increased industrialization

  • How did technology transform the production of cotton fabric during the Industrial Revolution in England?
  • What were some of the machines used in the cloth manufacturing process?
  • How would you explain John Merriman's suggestion that the Industrial Revolution was more of a process than an event (and that it did not immediately change how things were manufactured)?
  • How did coal and the steam engine contribute to the mechanization of production in early industrial factories?

As we explored in previous units, new technology was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution, coupled with access to natural resources such as coal, iron ore, and water power. However, while technology dramatically improved the production of goods such as cotton fabric, it did not fully replace the domestic system or artisan handcrafting immediately. For a period of time, they coexisted and complemented each other.
 
To review, see:

 

4b. Discuss how improved methods of coal extraction drove multiple other industries

  • How were methods of coal extraction improved during the Industrial Revolution in England?
  • How did improved methods of coal extraction affect the production of iron, steel, and steam power?
  • How did improved methods of coal extraction affect new methods of transportation?

As we observed in earlier sections, coal was essential to the Industrial Revolution in Britain – not just because it provided an essential source of energy but also made other industries possible. For example, the steel industry would not have been possible without coal as an energy source, and the steam engine used coal to generate the heat that created its steam pressure. These, in turn, made other processes and technologies possible. Coal was at the foundation of it all, and improved methods of extracting it meant enough coal was available to drive these other technologies, processes, and industries.
 
To review, see The Shift to Coal, Lives and Work of Coal Miners in Industrial England, and History: The Bedrock of Industry.

 

4c. Interpret primary source documents to understand why some workers opposed industrialization

  • Who were the Luddites, and what did they want?
  • How would you describe the transition from domestic textile production to the mechanized factory production of cotton and wool fabric?
  • What were the primary reasons for opposing industrialization?

The industrialization process increased the production of goods, made materials cheaper, and helped create a mass consumer market such as the one we have today. However, it also dramatically changed the way we make products and disrupted the lives of the people who made them.
 
Since the Middle Ages, prior to industrialization, the European economy was built around a local community of craftsmen who made products in local workshops or in their homes. Industrialization and the factory system moved production from the home and workshop to the factory floor to a building designed to house the machines that mechanized the production process.
 
Factory workers lost control of their time and how their day was structured. For example, they often completed only one process step and never saw the final end product of whatever they were working on. In 1811, this process prompted a group of workers, called the Luddites, to engage in a series of riots that lasted for five years to destroy the machinery that threatened to eradicate their way of life and their communities.
 
To review, see Leeds Woolen Workers Petition, 1786, The Philosophy of the Manufacturers, and The Life of the Industrial Worker in 19th-Century England.

 

4d. Examine the impact of the factory system on the notion of human rights

  • What are human rights?
  • How were the first factories organized, and how did workers respond?
  • What were some ways in which early factories affected workers' health and well-being?
  • What were some of the first "fair labor" practices? How did they come about?

Factories were initially designed to be efficient machines, and workers' lives came to be structured around the factory and its efficiency. As workers began to be exposed to long hours, poor air quality, working around dangerous machines, and other unsafe and unhealthy conditions, the work began to take a toll on a significant portion of the population. The working class suffered illnesses and injuries that either hadn't been seen before industrialization or that had not been as severe or widespread previously.
 
At the same time, artisans who had been producing goods from their homes began to be driven out of business by the availability of cheap goods being mass-produced in factories. Some of them went to work in the factories to support themselves.
 
With the health, safety, and quality of life of so many people at risk, some people began to question whether exploiting the labor of so many people created problems for the larger society, in addition to being ethically problematic. The idea that people have rights based purely on their humanity began to be considered for the first time by a large swath of society.
 
To review, see:

 

4e. Identify major developments in transportation technology

  • What role did the improved steel production have as the basic foundation of the transportation revolution based on the steam engine?
  • What effects did the invention of the steam locomotive have on European society during the Industrial Revolution?
  • What effects did the steamship have on travel and transport during the Industrial Revolution?

The introduction of the steam locomotive and the steamship revolutionized the transportation systems in England, the United States, and elsewhere. However, steam power and the technology behind these inventions were based on the improved steel production in terms of the quantity and quality of the steel produced. Therefore, the transportation revolution was predicated on improved steel production in combination with the invention of the steam boiler.
 
To review, see:

 

4f. Explain how knowledge about industrialization spread within and beyond Europe

  • How did British textile manufacturing secrets get to the United States?
  • What role, if any, did patents play in early manufacturing in England and the United States?
  • How did Eli Whitney's cotton gin revolutionize the production of cotton and cotton textiles, as well as the course of American history?

As the Industrial Revolution in England developed, its technology spread. Despite efforts to keep the construction and processes of its machinery secret, such valuable knowledge could not be held under wraps for long. Enterprising individuals brought copies of the English fabric processing machinery to the United States and created similar machines and factories in Lowell, Massachusetts.
 
While patents may protect an invention and make the inventor wealthy, these legal agreements often fail in the long term. Inventors simply produced a similar machine or were able to profit in other ways. The invention of spinning jennies, water frames, and power looms initiated the Industrial Revolution in England. However, the single most important and influential invention in the United States was Eli Whitney's cotton gin. This machine made cotton production profitable, helped kick-start the Industrial Revolution in the United States, and changed the course of American history by reinvigorating slavery and causing it to spread throughout the southern states.
 
To review, see Manufacturing, Railways, and Industry: Early Days, The Transcontinental Railroad and the Pullman Car, and New Transportation Systems.

 

Unit 4 Vocabulary

Be sure you understand these terms as you study for the final exam. Try to think of the reason why each term is included.

  • cotton gin
  • Eli Whitney
  • factory system
  • Luddites
  • mass consumer market
  • patent
  • steam engine
  • steel industry
  • transportation revolution