Industrial Revolution

Agrarian Economy

When most people make a living from farming, and raising animals. Main source of wealth: land, crops, and livestock. Was unreliable and didn’t help create a lot of wealth.

Industrial Economy

When most people work in factories or businesses that make goods. Main source of wealth: machines, industries, and producing products rather than farming. 

Industrial Revolution

Period of major change, starting in the late 1700s in Britian, when new machines and inventions were created. Changed the way goods were made, shifting production from small workshops to large factories. Spread to other parts of the world, transforming economies, societies, and how people lived and worked.

Technological Innovations

- Better transportation: Trains and steamboats were more efficient in moving goods and people, helping businesses grow.

- New machines for textiles: Inventions like the Spinning Jenny and the Power Loom made making clothes and fabrics much faster and cheaper.

- Machines replacing handwork: Factories started using machines to do jobs that people did manually, which sped up production.

- Interchangeable parts: Eli Whitney introduced the idea of making parts that were all the same, so products could be made and fixed more easily.

- Steam engine: James Watt improved the steam engine in 1769, making it powerful enough to run factories and trains.

Population Growth

- Better farming: Improvements in farming meant more food was available, allowing the population to grow.

- People moving to cities: As factories opened, people moved from farms to cities to find jobs, leading to the growth of industrial cities.

- More people, more workers: The population grew because people were living longer due to better food and medical care, creating a larger workforce. 

- Increased demand for goods: With more people around, there was a bigger demand for products, which led to the growth of industries.

Economic Conditions

- Money for investment: Rich landowners and merchants had money from trade and farming that they invested in factories and railroads.

- Strong banking system: Banks helped people start businesses by lending money to build factories and buy machines.

- Government support: The British government passed laws that made it easier for businesses to grow and trade to flourish.

- Entrepreneurs and Innovations: Many people in Britain were eager to create new inventions and start businesses, pushing the Industrial Revolution forward.

- Expanding markets: Britain’s colonies provided both raw materials and new places to sell their products, which helped industries grow.

Availability of Resources

- Iron: There was also plenty of iron ore, which was used to build machines, tools, and railroads.

- Coal: Britain had a lot of coal, which was used to power machines in factories and trains.

- Raw materials from colonies: Britain’s colonies provided important resources like cotton for the textile industry, helping the factories stay busy. 

- Rivers and canals: Britain had many rivers and canals, making it easy to transport raw materials and finished products.

Economic Changes

- Move from agrarian economy to industrial economy.
- New machines in factories replaced manual labor, creating new opportunities for jobs, both operating them and giving training for it.
- Production of goods increased and were sold for cheaper and faster.
- Created the thirst for increased wealth for industrialists.
 - Workers are payed a very low wage for long hours, but better than before industrialism.
- Children have to work to create money for their family to survive.

Technical Innovations

- Spinning Jenny (1764)
- Steam Engine (1776)
- Power Loom (1785)
- Cotton Gin (1793)
- Bessemer Process (1856)

Spinning Jenny

- Invented by: James Hargreaves (1764)
- Industry: Textile
- Purpose: Allowed a single worker to spin multiple spools of thread at a time, starting from 8 to until 120.
- How it worked: Operated by turning a wheel, spinning several spindles at once.
- Impact: Increased the production of yarn (high in demand due to growing textile industry). Factories used it to produce cloth more quickly and efficiently. Shifted textile production from small home-based operations to large industrial (growth of factories) settings, and made textile more cheaper and accessible.

Steam Engine

- Improved by: James Watt (1776)
- Industry: Manufacturing and Transportation
- Purpose: Used to power factories and mines, operating machinery independent of water. Adapted to power trains and ships, making them more faster and reliable.
- How it worked: Heated water to produce steam, which expanded and pushed pistons that could drive machinery or move vehicles.
- Impact: Revolutionized transportation by making it more reliable and faster, reducing transportation time for trade across long distances. Provided a dependable power source to fuel industries as factories were no longer needed to be built near water sources, expanding economic growth and manufacturing.

Power Loom 

- Invented by: Edmund Cartwright (1785)
- Industry: Textile
- Purpose: Produce fabric much faster and with less human labor with hand looms. 
- How it worked: Mechanized the process by using water or steam power to weave threads into cloth automatically.
- Impact: Increased production capacity and helped meet growing demands for textiles. Led to the establishment of larger textile mills, employing many workers, allowing making mass production. Greatly reduced handwork by skilled weavers, who resisted it.

Cotton Gin

- Invented by: Eli Whitney (1793)
- Industry: Cotton
- Purpose: Separated seeds and cotton fibers without difficulty and a long time.
- How it worked:  A machine that quickly and easily separated seeds from cotton fibers.
- Impact: Sped up the production process of raw cotton and made cotton farming much more profitable, making it a dominant cash crop. Increased the demand for slave labour as plantation owners expanded cotton production to meet growing demands.

Bessemer Process

- Invented by: Henry Bessemer (1856)
- Industry: Steel
- Purpose: Create stronger and more durable steel with efficiency and reduced expense.
- How it worked: Blowing air through molten iron to remove impurities.
- Impact: Strong and durable steel used for building infrastructure, such as railroads, bridges, and skyscrapers. Reduced cost of steel allowed construction of larger buildings, longer railways, and more durable machinery (large-scale application). Led to rapid expansion of industries that used steel as a primary material.