Industrial Revolution Research

Document Type:Research Paper

Subject Area:History

Document 1

Around eighteenth century there was a rapid development of industries and large machinery such as steam engines (Tomory, 2016)1. This marked the start of the industrial revolution which led to mass production of the good. The purpose of this essay is to examine the history of this revolution and explain the changes that occurred, and how these discoveries have impacted Britain. As indicated in the last sentence, the theme of this essay is to explain the British industrial revolution. The industrial development was helped by different factors which promoted its success. 3 Pasture lands were also converted into arable lands where farming could take place. The use of deep trenches was introduced by Joseph Elkington of Warwickshire back in 1764 to drain land. Flooded soils were drained and reclaimed making them favorable for farming (Tomory, 2016)4.

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Many markets were opened in Europe with eight hundred in Britain and were not freely operated but had regulations. Private marketing was the most critical development, and agricultural products were for marketing and not for subsistence. In 1800, the time to dry hay was reduced due to the efforts of Salmon of Woburn who invented the hay-tossing Due to the replacement of human labor by machines, many people were left unemployed. In 1812 there was luddites riot assembly across England in protest against the loss of jobs. In 1815 and 1846, there was the Corn Laws which were used to maintain the prices of cereals in favor of farmers, producers, landlords and 7capitalists instead of the diverse population that needed it (Allen, 2016). The Corn Laws Repeal was also formulated during the same period.

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Robert Peel the prime minister, was tasked with the work of repealing the measures which cost his premiership. The spinning jenny was innovated by James Hargreaves while Samuel Crompton combined the knowledge of James and Richard and came up with the spinning mule. All these innovations occurred between 1769and 1783. James Watt, in 1775, invented the steam engine which was a new source of power and was initially used drain water and to pump coal out mines. The steam engines were later incorporated into other power machinery increasing the rate of production and efficiency of semi-automated machinery (Allen, 2016). However, Thomas Newcomen produced the first steam engine, and Watt improved it. This ensured a smoother flow of canoes in those rivers (Allen, 2016). Bulk materials were transported cheaply over long distances inland.

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Canals were also constructed to link essential industries for ease of carrying raw materials to those industries hence reducing the cost of transport. From the beginning of 1720, Turnpike Trust was charging a toll and was responsible for maintaining roads (Tomory, 2016)9. The Marsh road of Ashton Gate, Bristol was macadamized in 1816. As time went by, between 1750 and 1800 the population had increased by more than double the number of people that were there. The increment occurred when the industrial revolution was taking place, a clear indication that the two were interconnected. People had started relocating from rural area to the urban centers where the industries were located. The industrial revolution had its positive and negative impacts on Europe and the world. It had far-reaching consequences to the social structure.

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The streets had better drainage systems and were easy to use especially in the movement of people and also raw materials to the industries. Horses could be able to carry heavier loads for longer distances on the macadam roads. Argument It can be argued that, the industrial revolution brought more problems than benefits to the people. Industrial revolution had its negative impacts that faced the people, especially in the urban areas. Many people migrated to the urban areas at an alarming rate which led to overcrowding (Overton, 1976). Working with machinery was very risky as the speed of hands mattered a lot since a simple delay would be tragic and could lead to the severe infliction of wounds or cutting off body parts.

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Workers were fired as a result of injuries by the heavy machines they were working with and no compensation was offered to the injured as there were no regulations to control this. Since there were no regulations to control the development of industries and their effects on the environment. Many industries participated in damaging the environment via deforestation to build their factories. The factories did not have proper mechanisms of disposing their waste products hence they disposed it off into the rivers causing health hazards on people. As a result of high production rate of goods, prices of commodities were decreased due to availability of the goods. The economy of Europe was improved since they were able to trade with other continents Due to industrialization, many farmers left their farms to go and work in the factories and had a steady income which enabled them acquire more farms and increased the form outputs since they had enough money to fund the farm operations.

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Farm lands were easily cultivated using machineries such as ploughs and seed drills thus more production was observed in the field of agriculture. Farmers’ livelihoods were also improved as they were supplying the urban centers with their agricultural products and in return got finance. Invention of the steam engine facilitated faster movement of goods and people thus promoted faster industrial revolution and the economy of Europe. It also says when industrial revolution started in Britain and also the impacts that were brought about by this revolution in this country. Mantoux, Paul.  Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century: An Outline of the Beginnings of the Modern. Factory System in England. [Place of publication not identified]: Routledge, 2015. There is also the mention of land systems in this journal.

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