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The Industrial Revolution - Coggle Diagram
The Industrial Revolution
manufacturing before the 1800's
Production was small-scale and goods were normally sold in local markets.
But Britain was also a leading European wool producer.
This was called the domestic system and was labour intensive.
The textiles made in Britain were often sold in Europe or sent to India and the American colonies.
Most manufacturing of textiles took place in the home.
This period is known as the Industrial Revolution, although some historians say this term is misleading, as change took place over a long period of time and so shouldn’t be called a revolution.
From the mid-1700s onwards, machinery started to be developed to speed up the production process and to produce on a larger scale, also referred to as the factory system.
the british empire
For example, the population of Britain’s North American colonies was growing rapidly, and they bought a lot of goods that were manufactured in Britain, creating a larger market for these goods.
Money that was made from the slave trade was used to build railways in Britain.
By the mid-1700s, Britain was becoming the world’s most powerful empire. Some historians have argued that Britain’s empire and its global trading contributed to the Industrial Revolution.
The wealth generated by the empire encouraged industrialisation in Britain.
technology
In 1778, James Watt and Matthew Boulton invented a steam engine that could efficiently power factory machinery.
Coal was burned to heat water to make steam.
This led to a huge increase in the demand for coal.
Factories were opened near to supplies of water and coal so they could power their machinery.
Coal mines were opened in the north of England, the Midlands and south Wales.
But conditions in coal mines were dangerous.
There was a risk of tunnels collapsing and poisonous or explosive gas in the mines.
Steam-powered mills could produce more textiles quicker, so factory owners could look to sell their products to a wider market, both in Britain and abroad.
This prompted improvements in transport.
transport
Before the 1700s roads were often muddy tracks, and impassable in bad weather in the winter.
They charged people to use roads and made improvements with the money raised.
Horses and carts were used to transport goods by road. From the 1700s, Turnpike Trusts had been set up and they set up toll roads.
John Macadam invented tarmac in the 1820s which meant roads started to improve and were easier to use in all weather.
In 1759, the Duke of Bridgewater paid for a canal to be dug to bring coal to his mills in Manchester.
Canals were a way of transporting a large amount of goods at once using waterways.
Far more goods could be transported in one journey on the canals than by road.
The most significant transport development in the 1800s was the invention of the railway. In 1829, George Stephenson entered a competition to design a locomotive engine.
His design, named ‘the Rocket’, won the competition. He went on to design and build the Liverpool-Manchester railway, which reduced journey times from four hours by road to just two hours by train.
factory workers
In the 1800s, it became common to employ women and children to work in factories. Before the Industrial Revolution, all but the wealthiest women worked.
However, this work was normally in the home or the fields, and often took place alongside the rest of the family.
As factories spread across the Midlands, North West and Scottish Lowlands, many offered job opportunities to women, particularly textile factories.
In these areas, young women could earn high wages, which gave them more independence than previous generations experienced.
It could be difficult to combine working in a factory with caring for young children; some women would leave young children in the care of female relatives or take them to work with them.
If children were tired and started to work slowly, there were strict punishments. Children were often beaten, or even had their ears nailed to a piece of wood.
There was very little safety equipment, so children could be seriously injured or killed by the fast-moving machinery.
Children were cheap to employ and their small hands were able to effectively operate the machinery.