Why Does Britain Industrialize First?

• England’s IR began in earnest in the 1780s and did not end the first one until 1830

  • This IR only had an impact on continental Europe until after the Napoleonic Wars (1815)

Economic and Social Factors of Britain’s Industrialization:

• Land and geography

  • England is an island nation that is isolated and this works in their favor for many reasons including. . .

    • They are very close to water as they are surrounded by it and have plenty of lakes and rivers

    • They have a strong navy that protects the island and though they participate in a lot of wars, the wars never touch their actual land so they don’t have to spend money on rebuilding infrastructure. They can use that money to invest back into industry.

• England has a good supply of coal and iron

  • Wales and northern England were important sources of coal in order to power machines

  • The coal is all their own, so there are no import fees, and their amount that they had at any given time was controlled by a foreign body

    • The majority of waterways also offered a different source of energy/power for factories and navigable transport for trade

    • Every part of England was super close to water (easily accessible)

• England’s Royal Navy and development of ports

  • The growth of the Royal Navy and the development of ports provided protection from foreign invasion and aided in Britain’s commercial empire as they established ports and markets in their multiple colonies

• Britain was the first place to have Ag. Revolution

  • The Enclosure Movement (a movement that was a push to take land that was formerly owned by all members of the village) forced many landless farmers to move to towns and cities

    • There was not an abundant amount of laborers that farmers had to work their land. As the demand for goods increased as the technology and methods of farming produced better product at a faster time.

    • The farmers weren’t able to feed as many workers so these people moved to the city, to work in factories, to make more money

• England the capital saved up

  • England avoided many costly wars

  • The Bank of England had been established in the 1600s and this central bank allowed for the storing of money, supply of uniform bank notes, and higher security

  • There was also the insurance companies (Lloyd’s of London) that provided some degree protection from commercial failure if their investments and ventures started declining

• Rich people willing to invest

  • The gentry were entrepreneurs that were not afraid to invest in new technologies, create new technology, and take overall risks

  • Many young men were educated on how to keep up their businesses and members of middle class could rise to rich

Why do the rest of the countries lag behind?

• The thriving of the cottage industry in which merchants paid entire families in villages to produce finished/semi finished products that they would then sell.

• The Napoleonic Wars hindered the industrial growth of these other industries

  • These wars were all fought on their doorstep and on their land so after they were over these other countries all had to pay to rebuild, Britain didn’t have to do this

  • These wars also reduced the access they had to Britain’s machinery as they couldn’t afford merchants being brought over to teach them success

• Britain was already dominating the world markets at this point so it was hard for other countries to get a foothold and have their product demanded as they begun to mechanize

• Steam power, the most notable device of the Industrial Revolution, was very expensive and they had to pay charcoal since these countries didn’t have it in such abundance as Britain

• These countries didn’t have as many factory workers

• The government could do little push entrepreneurs to take risks, create, and invent like the ones in Britain since they couldn’t promise to reimburse these people if the machine they invested in didn’t work

The Cottage Industry (Putting Out System):

• Since rural members of the population were eager to supplement their income the cottage industry worked perfectly

  • This industry relied upon merchants who sold specific products putting out materials and instructions to entire families in villages in order to make finished products

  • This way the families got paid their share from the merchants and the merchants got paid from whoever bought the product that they sourced out to create

  • This challenged the urban craft industry

  • Thousands of poor families were able to supplement their income because of this

  • There were some flaws because quality of the product that was made wasn’t vetted, labor was hard to control, and their were arguments over quality of cloth being provided by merchants

Steam Engine (Hallmark of the Industrial Revolution):

• Coal was used to power this hallmark of the IR, and since it was so abundant in Britain the invention only grew in use

• Due to this invention there was a shift from burned wood, charcoal, and pig iron to coal burning, steam, and real iron

• This steam engine powered the steam engine, which revolutionized transportation.

  • There was the creation of the George Stephenson

• The steam engine transformed the iron industry

  • There was the switch to heavy industry

• This helped the development of the railroad industry

How Did Inventions Grow/Change in the Industrial Revolution?

• Textile Industry:

  • The Flying Shuttle (1733): This was made by John Kay and it was a machine in which a shuttle could be thrown back and forth between threads by using only one hand

    • This allowed for higher production with only one person to pay

  • The Spinning Jenny (1764): This mechanized the spinning wheel

    • The early models had between 6 to 24 spindles mounted to a sliding carriage. Women could move the carriage back and forth with one hand while spinning the wheel with the other hand

  • The Water Fame (1769): This was several hundred spindles on a machine that was run on water power and it required larger factories

    • It was able to produce a better quality fabric

  • The Spinning Mule (1779): This combined the best features of the spinning jenny and the water frame

    • It had both the moving carriage and the water frame

  • The Steam Engine

  • The Locomotive/ The Railroad

How Did the Lives of the People Change in the IR?

• There was a high quality of life (in some cases) due to. . .

  • The ability to have a higher paying wage

  • The ability to buy better products because of these higher paying wages, like clothing that was not rough or itchy

• There was a huge shift in demographic as people moved from the country to the city in order to work in factories

  • This meant that the quality of life in cities was pretty terrible when living in tenements with thin walls that allowed for no privacy and for the steady of passage of disease between households

  • There was also no plumbing so there was excrement in the streets

• People were able to get places quicker because of the transportation revolution as steam powered wagons and locomotives were built

• There was the creation of the new working class (The Proletariat)

• There was also the creation of bigger middle class that was split between the higher and lower bourgeoisie

• There was the higher examination of child labor practices that led to the mandated creation of schools for children of 9 and under to go while their parents worked

• There was the creation of labor unions that were focused on rights for better work days/conditions and subsequently the demonization of these labor unions

• Socially:

  • Chartists was a political organization that sough democracy for all men

  • Freiderich Engels talked about how the middle class was exploiting the working and poorer classes

  • Women and children were separated from the workplace and there was the creation of the idea that women’s domain was the home