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Topic 6:  The Industrial Revolution (chapter 20)

    I.       Introduction

II.                    Industrial Revolution in Great Britain

A.     Origins and Causes

1.  Agricultural Revolution; the enclosure movement

    a.  increasing population

2.  Capital for Investment

3.  Early entrepreneurs; Baines on Richard Arkwright

4.  Positive government environment

5.  Supply of markets

B.     Technological Changes & New Forms of Industrial Organization

1.      spinning jenny; water frame; power loom

2.      Steam Engine

       a.  factories

       b.  The railroads:  The Rocket (1830)

           1. multiplier effect on economy

        c.  The steamboat (Robert Fulton -U.S.)

C.     Britain as industrial leader

1.      Great Exhibition of 1851

II.   Social Impact of Industrial Revolution

A.  The middle and working classes

1.      Working & living conditions

2.      child labor

3.      working class consciousness; labor theory of value

                      4.      Beginning of unions

                      5.      The Luddites:  A militant response

                      6.      Chartist Movement (The People's Charter)

            B.  Urbanization

                      1.  Population growth: London 1 million in 1900; 2.5 million in 1850

                      2.  Living conditions

                            a.  Reactions:  Charles Dickens -- Coketown

Overview:  Industrialization meant unprecedented economic growth.  The heavily industrialized nations left others behind in the competition for wealth.  Decade after decade, a widening gap of wealth and power opened up between Western Europe and the U.S. and the non-industrializing regions of the world.  It also permanently altered how people worked, where they lived and how they lived.  Political power and wealth shifted from those who had traditionally held it to a new class of hard driving businessman determined to get to the top.  The Industrial Revolution also created a large underclass of workers who did not, at least initially, benefit from the new situation. The Industrial Revolution would also introduce a certain dynamic to the future of Europe and the world.