Industrial Revolution

 What are the 5 most successful countries today?

Why Study the Industrial Revolution?  All nations face problems of industrialization, such as air and water pollution, acid rain, and crowded cities.  Today’s global society depends on transportation and communication that can be traced to the Industrial Revolution.  Industrialized nations such as those in western Europe continue to use low-wage labor from less-industrialized nations.  Socialism and communism have increasingly given way to capitalism, causing major global upheavals in places such as Russia and eastern Europe.  Tensions continue between the industrialized nations of Europe and North America and less-developed nations such as those in Africa.

What is the Industrial Revolution?  Industrialization: the process of developing machine production of goods.  The Industrial Revolution refers to the greatly increased output of machine-made goods that began in England in the mid 1700s.  Before Industrial Rev: people wove textiles by hand  After Industrial Rev: machines began to do this & other jobs  I.R. spread from England to U.S. & continental Europe (mostly western Europe)

How do you industrialize?  You need natural resources, such as:  Water power & coal to fuel new machines  Iron ore to construct machines, tools, & buildings  Rivers for inland transportation  Harbors from which merchant ships set sail  And (in the 1800s) a ton of new inventions like:  Reapers, telegraphs, sewing machines, telephones, steam-driven locomotives

How did Industrialization change economics?  New inventions and development of factories  Rapidly growing industry in the 1800s  Increased production & higher demand for raw materials  Growth of worldwide trade  Population explosion & expanding labor force  Exploitation of mineral resources  Highly developed banking and investment system  Advances in transportation, agriculture, and communication

How did Industrialization change society?  Increase in population of cities  Lack of city planning  Loss of family stability  Expansion of middle class  Harsh conditions for laborers, including children  Workers’ progress versus laissez-faire economic attitudes  Improved standard of living  Creation of new jobs  Encouragement of technological progress

How did Industrialization change politics?  Child labor laws to end abuses  Reformers urging equal distribution of wealth  Trade unions formed  Social reform movements, such as utilitarianism, utopianism, socialism, and Marxism  Reform bills in Parliament and Congress

Impact of Industrialization  Rise of global inequality: gap widened between industrialized and nonindustrialized countries  Industrialized countries needed raw materials from less-developed countries (making it so they could not have those materials to industrialize themselves)  Industrialized countries sold their manufactured goods to nonindustrialized countries  Europe and U.S. gained tremendous economic power over nonindustrialized countries in Africa & Asia

 Are the countries of the United States and the Western Europe better off than the rest of the world today? EXPLAIN!