What was the Impact of the Industrial Revolution

Did the industrial revolution affect things in addition to making things better? The biggest changes were in rural areas, landscape often became urban and industrialized, witch made it hard to live in the conditions that were made by the industrial revolution. Even though the industrial revolution affected things for the good, it changed and affected things like the surrounding countryside and landscape as well as the people who lived during this time.

The industrial revolution a period of increased output goods made by machines and new inventions (pg 509). It was a series of big changes not in a government way, but in how work was done (pg 509). It affected how people lived and the way people functioned (investopedia). There was change in agriculture, industry, transportation, and communications. Agriculture started using selective breeding, and a new way of crop rotation (bbc bitesize). For many years, the way to keep a fertile field was to let it lie fallow every two to three years. A result to this was, at least a third of the country in any year was producing nothing but weeds (pg 509). After they changed to scientific farming it had a twofold effect, better livestock and raising crop production meant more food (pg 510). The industry was the “factory age of the textile industry”, the making of iron increased 30-fold and coal increased 20 fold. The steam engine was advanced by Newcomen and Watt, it helped machinery work more effectively (bbc bitesize). By 1800 six major inventions had totally changed the cotton industry. Then Hargreaves invented a new spinning wheel that helped spinners keep up with the cotton production (pg 510). Lastly transportation and communication changed the biggest change in transportation came with steam power, just the invention of the steam engine was a key in the late 1700’s (pg 514). The railroad changed transportation for the good in England (pg 514). Previously to this there was no fast way of transportation (bbc bitesize). It is a revolution because of all the great achievements and scientific discoveries that took place (bbc bitesize).

The biggest change in the industrial revolution was where people lived. The growth of factories made people want to move to towns, where the factories where (pg 519). Eighty five percent of the population lived in towns and cities (bbc bitesize). At the start of the industrial revolution, only fifteen percent of the population lived in towns and cities. By the 1900’s england was the biggest trading nation. There were a lot more people to work in factories but this made more poverty and more people that needed houses and food (bbc bitesize). In factories the growth of spinning and power-loom weaving was the base the rural economy of the north, This affected the population (bbc history). Machines affected hand-lace making that succeeded in the south midlands (bbc history). Families from the country were used to working in the early morning to the evening, parents expected their children to work long and hard (pg 520). After the families moved to towns, the working conditions were much different. In the city, hours of work depended on the factory, not the season or weather (pg 520). Factory owners wanted their machines to run for as many hours as possible, this meant that the average worker spent as much as fourteen hours a day working in the factory, for six days a week (pgs 520-521). Factory conditions were dangerous and this affected the workers, witch made their lifespan an average of ten years shorter (pg 521). A period of bad weather could completely destroy a farmer’s whole crop field (pg 520). In the country children would work side by side with their parents on farms, in factories working children would be more in danger. Children would be separated from their parents, supervised by careless overseers (pg 521).

Therefore, the industrial revolution changed and affected things like the surrounding countryside and landscape as well as the people who lived during this time. It affected how people lived and functioned, but it also affected population and the lives of many people. Living during this time very hard but it also made it so the future was better. 

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