Industrial Revolution

Not a Normal Revolution Not all Revolutions are violent, in the 1700s Great Britain underwent what was called an Industrial Revolution. Why is it that not all revolutions are violent, what must that look like? In groups of 3 – 4 discuss the main elements of a revolution, what happens before one, during one and after one. Then write down what could potentially happen during a non- violent revolution. Money game – how much money are you making? Taking into account inflation, how much money are you making working in the factories?

Effects of an Industrial Revolution Positive Effects of the Industrial Revolution In Great Britain new cities were created Farming was becoming a thing of the past (i.e. more work was found in the city than in the farmland) Great Britain’s economy exploded and lots of businesses were popping up and making A LOT of money Neutral Effects of the Industrial Revolution The economy became global – no longer were you just selling goods and services in your local community, but now you were selling goods and services around the world. Countries became involved in complex trading arrangements

Effects of an Industrial Revolution Negative Effects of the Industrial Revolution Majority of people worked long and hard hours in unsafe conditions with VERY VERY VERY little pay. Cities became over crowded, filled with diseases Colonization started to rapidly grow Rapid increase of pollution and global warming Sign of Progress

Why Great Britain Great Britain led the way on the Industrial Revolution. It was done with all of its internal battles (civil war) and really didn’t not want to take part in other countries revolutions. Their population was able to grow exponentially and thus they had a lot of people who were willing to do work – i.e. they had a huge labour supply. Recall that the middle class of Great Britain played a huge role in creating parliament, and as such they filled the seats of government and could control the laws of the land. Since the middle class was predominately filled with businessmen and land owners, they made sure the laws would benefit them and their desired outcomes.

Why Great Britain The business class soon became very wealthy and used this money to invest in new businesses, this is what is called capital. Capital – is the ability to use money to buy/invest/own new buildings, businesses, or get involved in investments. Great Britain also capitalized on the power of science. They used scientists to create new forms of technology and inventions to help further the Industrial Revolution. Britain had a huge supply of coal. Coal is a cheap way to produce power for the newer machines needed in industry. Finally, Britain had a vast empire – it was so big that it was said the sun never set on the British Empire – and as such they had access to a plethora of raw materials, labourers and were able to create a vast trading supply around the world.

Why Great Britain An industrial revolution needs A labour supply – lots of people to work A stable and pro-business government – middle and upper class MPs making laws that benefited them Capital – Businesses willing to invest money/buy land/ and purchase factories to create profit Technology – Willingness to trust scientific innovation Raw materials – Access to cheap materials to help build your business (Coal/Trees/Steel) Trading partners – A vast empire to trade with All of which Great Britain had a bunch of amount of. Capitalism - An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

Farming In the medieval era, farmers would have strips of land that they would take care of. The problem was that they were unable to produce the amounts of food that was needed – not only for themselves, but for the rest of the British population. These scattered strips of land became inefficient, and as such government forced farmers to consolidate (bring together) small strips of land into a bigger and larger field to harvest the crops and raise the animals.

Farming Commons land – land that was spread throughout the country and that could be used by anyone, were now being turned into private property by the government. The combination of commons land being bought by wealthy people and the consolidating of farm land is known as enclosures. Only wealthy people could buy the land, and as such the lower class (and some middle class) people were forced to sell their land.

Farmers Enclosures are a form of capitalism – a wealthy person buys land and invests that money into making more money. The loser in this situation is the poor farmer who cannot afford to buy land. Most of the poor farmers had no choice but to sell their land. Some found work as a labourer for farmers who owned land, while others had to find work in the city (many were forced to choose the latter). As a result of this turn of events, many major cities became to be FLOODED with poor, and unemployed people with rather large families.

New Breeds Farmers who were able to keep their land started to manipulate the types of food they produced. They realized that better farm animals would produce a higher yield of profits and as such started to create new breeds of animals, ones that were more desirable to the buyer. For example – Sheep with thicker wool, cows that were more beefy, animals that were more hardier that did not catch diseases and etc… Those that were able to keep up with this type of breeding were successful, those that could not were forced to sell their property because they were not making enough money Guess where these people ended up?

New Crops and Technology Landowners of farming, now making more profits then ever before, were willing to take those profits and invest it into new farming techniques in hope it would make them more rich. In doing this, however, landowners realized they had to accept a few failed attempts before being successful (another sign of capitalism) Jethro Tull and Lord Townshend were both inventors and farmers. They tested soil and realized that if you cultivate the soil (i.e. make sure it was well broken up) and enrich it with manure (or fertilizer) your crops would grow at a much better rate.

Jethro Tull Separately Tull and Townshend added to the technologies of farming. Tull invented the Seed Drill it was a wagon that you hooked up to a horse. It would create nice and even rows in the soil, and as it was doing this it would then drop seeds into the ground. An evenly seeded land yielded more crops than an uneven seeded land (like broadcasting).

Lord Townshed Townshed was a politician, and he devoted his time in parliament to help the farming industry (i.e. his people – landowners). He studied the affects of farming. He found out that if you grew four different crops – turnips, barley, grasses and wheat – and rotated the crop ever year, i.e. turnips one year, barley the next, grasses the year after that and wheat in the final year and repeat the cycle, you would yield four times as much crop as you would if you just grew barley every year. This is because each crop will leave behind nutrients that will help benefit the next crop that is planted

Lord Townshed Also, the excess turnips and grasses could be used to feed your livestock. This was an inexpensive way to feed them over the winter months and thus you could maintain a large herd of animals. A larger herd of animals also meant more manure, and more manure was a good thing as it was a form of fertilizer for your soil.

Write a Letter To your MP Suppose each of you were poor farmers who lost your land to enclosure (a more wealthy landowner bought your property from you), write a letter to your MP – Lord Willard – and explain the consequences of enclosure to your family.