industrial revolution, a period of transition and innovation, inevitably brought with it changes. Life for both rich and poor was changed forever. A way of life in Europe was passing away, when the lord of the manor, independent farmers, servants and workers that had previously lived independently in a vertically integrated society were replaced by a city based society of segregated social classes. The population grew rapidly, and people found work in the factories of cities. The industrial revolution began in Britain, which filled all the requirements for it to happen. As an aftermath of 1688 and the “Glorious Revolution”,
British kings lost much of their power and influence to aristocratic landowners, who in turn sought to bring their own lands under greater control. This is known as the Enclosure
Movement. This lead to two very important consequences; the land became more productive, which in turn lead to the agricultural revolution, and people who used to work the lands of the aristocratic landowners effectively became a poor, unemployed, new class of society in need of work. It was this class of poor that manned and worked in the factories that the industrial revolution brought along with it. They were ideal for the job, because they were in desperate need of work and would work for low wages. Although they were mostly unskilled labourers, it didn’t matter much since the jobs at factories required little skill from the workers. So, the factories had a big work force available at the very beginning, and this was not the case in other European countries. As the Industrial
Revolution literally revolutionized society, power and influence in Europe changed hands once more. The traditional aristocratic landowners had to give away to new entrepreneurs and manufacturers. This was because of mainly two things; the new
“upstart”