Industrial Revolution And Its Effects

The Industrial Revolution led to the new age of industry. With the development of the spinning machine by Sir Richard Awkwright in England led to the new era of manufacturing products. It started the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution which occurred in the 18th-19th centuries was a period in which the rural societies of Europe and America became industrial. This helped them to surpass others and helped them to become leading manufacturing nations.  Before the revolution, most of the manufacturing was done by hand. The iron and textile industries, with the invention of the steam engine played a fundamental role in the Industrial Revolution. It improved systems such as banking, transportation and communication. However it brought high standard of living for the rich and the rest mainly the working classes suffered poverty.

How the Industrial Revolution began?

Before the revolution began, people mainly lived in small houses and their livelihood primarily consisted of farming. Life was hard as work was more and incomes were low. Most manufacturing were done in small houses with hands or simple machinery. 

Britain was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. Research says that Great Britain had large reserves of coal and iron ore and it was the world's leading colonial power. It’s colonies served as a marketplace for resources for raw materials. The demand for British goods quickly increased and new machinery and methods of production needed which led to the rise of factory system.

Industrial Revolution and Textile Industry

The Industrial Revolution aided the Textile Industry in a great way. Textiles were primarily made by people at homes before the revolution. It made production slow and consumed much time. Also human labour made errors and the production sometimes became inefficient. The innovation of the “spinning jenny” by James Hargreaves of England was a great help to the workforce. It enabled to produce multiple spools of threads continuously. It was further improved by British inventor Samuel Compton. The power loom which was another invention transformed the process of weaving clothes and it was developed by inventor Edmund Cartwright in 1743. Developments in the iron industry helped the revolution further. Abraham Darby, an Englishman discovered a cheap and easy to use method of producing cast iron. Iron and steel became valuable materials for producing ships, buildings, new tools and machines. The steam engine also greatly helped in the industrialization process. With later innovations the steam engine began to power ships and various other machines.

The Industrial Revolution life

The Industrial Revolution brought higher quality of life and increased  living standards for most people. The upper and middle classes benefited the most. However it effected the rural areas and unsanitary living continued to progress for the poor and lower classes. It gradually improved as various reforms were made by the government and  workers got rights of forming trade unions.

Spread of Industrialization 

The British forwarded various laws to stop the industrialization to various countries outside Britain but they failed. Industrialization spread and it reached other countries such as France, Germany and other European countries. Industrialization was well-established in Western Europe and north-eastern parts of America in the mid 19th century. By the early half of the 20th century, the U.S became the leading industrial nation in the world.