Industrial Revolution Reading Questions

The Industrial Revolution began in what European country in what century?

18th century, Great Britain (Scotland, Wales, and England)

Industrial changes grew out of what intellectual movements of the 17th and 18th centuries?

17th century scientific revolution and 18th century enlightenment.

Define the concept of “useful knowledge” as it relates to the Scientific Revolution and the Industrial Revolution.

Using scientific ideas to improve the livelihood of people. (practice applied to real life)

List and explain the characteristics of 18th century Great Britain that caused the Industrial Revolution to begin there.

Abundant natural resources (water power, coal, iron ore), favorable geography (many fine harbors, large fleet of merchant ships, access to raw materials, wealthy class of ship-owners and merchants), favorable climate for new ideas (ideas were not only encouraged but rewarded), good banking system (loaned money at reasonable interest rates for people to invest), political stability (no wars fought on homelands, merchants and business people in parliament.)

What revolutions occurred “simultaneously” in 18th century Europe?

Industrial and French revolutions.

Why may the Industrial Revolution not have spread to the rest of Europe until after 1815?

Napoleon imposed his continental system to try and stop the British from gaining a monopoly over industrial industry so that the French industry could grow, rest of the places were also dealing with napoleon and the aftermath of his reign.

What industry was the first to be “industrialized” in 18th century Great Britain?

Textile industry (cotton textile)

What was the original power source of the Industrial Revolution?

putting out system: take product to house, they make product, then put it outside (spinning jenny)

Why did factory owners turn to young orphans and abandoned children for labor in the early Industrial Revolution?

Could exercise absolute control over them like slavery, they are less expensive and pose less problems than adults. They also took advantage of their size and paid them very little.

What new power source promoted breakthroughs in the Industrial Revolution?

Steam/steam engine

By the mid-19th century, what became the cheap, basic, indispensable building block of the British economy?

Iron

What industrial innovation in transportation enabled markets to become larger and even nationwide?

Railroad industry/locomotives

Cite the growth in British industrial output and population from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century.

Output: 1750 = 2%, 860 = 20%, population: 1780 = 9 million, 1851 = 21 million (10 to 30 million)

What was the only non-Western country to industrialize in the late 19th century?

Japan, it adopts practices of the west to beat the west. (China and India)

Many Western, and some non-Western, countries used the power of the _________ to promote industry and attempt to catch up with Great Britain by the 2nd half of the 19th century.

state (governments)

Why was the export of textile machinery, and other industrial equipment, forbidden in early 19t century Great Britain?

Didn’t want other people to be able to compete with them, wanted to personally benefit from the information and stay ahead.

By the late 19th century, what countries began to “close the gap” and challenge British industrial dominance?

The united states, Germany, France, Belgium, and Prussia began to close that gap and challenge British industrial dominance. World rankings were united states, Germany, great Britain, France, and Japan. (Germany, France, Prussia, Belgium, and US)