The history of civilization has seen improvement and development become essential principles for all humans. Whether this originate in new inventions, changing ideas and theories, or government activism, several periods of time have illuminated what our species knows and furthered knowledge. One headlining time period, the Industrial Revolution, seems to come to the forefront. Originating in Britain from the mid 18th century until the early to mid 19th century, the Revolution affected the economic and social areas of production, urbanization, and labor that continue to have an impact on the daily lives of people all over the world, even today. Before the Industrial Revolution, the world maintained a small size. Rural communities thrived on …show more content…
Meager production outputs and unspecialized labor formed key proponents of the economy. In this domestic system, highlighted in the Document 1 flow chart, a merchant would “buy(s) raw wool” and take it “to farm families” to “clean, sort, spin” and transform the wool into yarn in the home. It would be woven, cleaned, shaped, and dyed and taken to the market by that same merchant. A previously, continent-wide popular but inefficient process, the cottage system was tough to organize and group labor to participate in. However, times changed, and new inventions proved a large reason that production ratcheted up several notches. James Hargreaves’ spinning jenny, Edmund Cartwright’s power loom, and even later inventions like the Bessemer steel process and Watt steam engine would revolutionize the rate of production and goods. The driving force behind the increase, the inventions, would also be shaped by the modification of the production system into hubs of manufacturing called factories. Document 4 highlights the use of these inventions in the factory system and the differences between the putting-out system and the newer factory system. After the merchant “buys raw wool” and “sells” to the factory, new machines …show more content…
Urbanization affirms the movement of people from the countryside to the city life, and the Industrial Revolution began to see the mass migration of people transitioning to inner city life and the creation of large urban areas. Previous European life saw agrarian societies dominate. Crops for a single family were grown on a single plot of land, often in a feudal hierarchy and communities were close; the simple life dominated. However, with the introduction of factories and opportunities for employment, cities became places of attraction. The growth of industry required a large residential workforce near the factories, and overseas trade required a strong port city. With these factories appearing, many believed “traditional society” slowly became “obsolete” and “ultimately swept away”, “incompatible with the basic requirements of an industrial economy” that began to take charge (Document 5). Along with this, population increases pushed families toward cities, where “an infinite number of comforts and conveniences” awaited, houses were “better built”, and travel was “ten times quicker” (Document 8). An increase in transportation allowed food and other necessities to be easily brought into the cities to feed the masses and provide luxuries the countryside could not. Another