Spielvogel - Chapter 20

Agricultural Revolution

18th-century improvements in farming (crop rotation, enclosures, better tools) that increased food production and population growth.

James Watt

Inventor who improved the steam engine (1760s), making it key to industrial machinery.

Factory

Centralized workplace where workers and machines produced goods on a large scale.

Crystal Palace

Giant glass-and-iron structure built for London’s Great Exhibition of 1851; symbolized industrial progress and British power.

Irish Potato Famine

Catastrophic crop failure (1845–1851) that caused mass starvation and emigration from Ireland.

Luddites

Skilled artisans who destroyed industrial machines they blamed for unemployment.

Chartism

British working-class movement (1830s–1840s) demanding political reforms, including universal male suffrage.

Reformer

Individual seeking to improve social, political, or economic conditions, often through legislation (e.g., factory reformers).