- started in britain in the 1780s because of….
- agricultural revolution
- expansion of farmland
- good weather
- better transportation
- new crops (potatoes)
- more people fed with less labor
- more income for manufactured goods
- population growth (more people in towns=labor supply for factories)
- britain had a lot of money to invest in new machines
- lots of water, coal, and iron ore
- colonial empire=automatic market for goods
- cottage industry- when tasks are done in individual rural homes
- cotton industry was transformed by the spinning jenny (1764) and water-powered loom (1787), so it was more efficient to have factories
- steam power was started in 1780s, which made it easier for factories to be further away from large bodies of water
- factory workers were used to farming, owners used brutal methods to try and train them to be better suited to factory work
- no child labor laws
- coal industry expanded and people started using coal to create better iron (puddling)- this leads to a booming iron industry
- railroads were now steam powered, which made them more efficient, which made more jobs and lowered prices of goods
- by the mid 1800s great britain was the richest nation in the world- and the first industrialized one
- belgium, france, and germany were next: the governments encouraged the process
- the us was industrialized soon after
- global population boomed (less sickness and war), more people were immigrating
- rise of capitalism and the creation of the middle/working class
- TERRIBLE CONDITIONS
- socialism- society controls the means of production