Industrial Revolution: Key Figures and Concepts

Great Britain

Country where the Industrial Revolution began

Industrialization

Positive effects were better quality of goods, increased the standard of living and gave more educational opportunities. Negative effects - poor working conditions - child labor abuses. Created jobs in railroad construction, coal mining, and factory production.

Charles Dickens

Great writer of this time period - showed realities of life for the poor during the Industrial Age. Very popular with his novels focusing on the lower and middle classes in Britain.

Cotton Cloth

Mass production of cotton cloth was the first industry to come about. Led to important inventions by Watt, Hargreaves and Cartwright.

Eli Whitney

His invention the cotton gin could produce cotton 50x faster than one person.

Samuel Slater

Stole Industrialization ideas from Great Britain and brought them to the US.

Robert Fulton

Built the first paddle-wheel steamboat.

Jethro Tull

Created the seed drill. Got seed in the ground quickly and in the correct depth for germination.

James Hargreaves

Created the spinning jenny which spun thread from raw cotton.

Karl Marx

Helped write the Communist Manifesto. Take from the rich and give it to the poor.

Adam Smith

Wrote 'The Wealth of Nations'. Economic Liberty = Economic Progress.

John Kay

Introduced the Flying Shuttle which enabled factories to produce cloth faster.

Richard Arkwright

Used water power to spin thread faster and more efficiently.

Factories

Created a new labor system in which workers had to work regular hours and do the same work over and over. Pitiful conditions inside factories led to a new movement called 'socialism', in which society owns and controls the means of production. Led to the Factory Act of 1847, also known as the Ten Hours Act which restricted the working hours of women and young people; passed by Great Britain.

Collective Bargaining

Negotiations between workers and employer with a third party helping. Unions - helped in the organizing of workers to get what they wanted. Strikes - actions taken by workers who refused to work until their demands were met.

Laissez-Faire

French term meaning let it be. Philosophy of governments to let the business do their thing without any interference.

Life Before AR and IR

Only 25% lived in towns and cities. Most lived on farms. Only 50% of babies made it to the age of 21 so high mortality rate.

Civil War

US 1861-65. Confederate States were formed once Abraham Lincoln became president.

Charles Darwin

Believed in Natural Selection - it was central to organic evolution.

Uptown Sinclair

Wrote the book 'The Jungle' - went undercover to write about the abuses of the meat packing plants. Book brought about legislation and new agencies - Food and Drug Administration.

Louis Pasteur

Proposed the germ theory of disease. Led to pasteurization where heat was added to kill germs.

Romantic Authors

Favorite new read; Walter Scott, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allen Poe, William Wordsworth.

Steam Engine

Invented by James Watt. Was crucial to Britain's Industrial Revolution.

Trains

Biggest impact on the growth of the United States.

Principle of Intervention

Policy that gave powerful countries to send armies into other countries where there revolutions in order to restore legitimate monarchs back into power. Never again would a King Louis and Marie Antionette situation take place.

Crimean War

Its effect would destroy the Concert of Europe and leave Austria without friends among the great powers.