Definition and Impact:

• When society changes from agriculture to industry as its main economy and it began in Britain

• It changed the course of Western history and resulted in new technologies and innovations

• Most people moved out of the countryside into the cities

• Consumer culture began

Urbanization

• The movement of people from rural areas to cities

• People moved to where the work was

• When the economy shifted from agriculture to industry, people followed and moved to live near factories

• As a result, cities became large, sprawling, dirty places

Global Immigration:

• push and pull factors

• many people moved overseas from Britain to other British Empire countries, or to the USA

• Some migrated within Europe (e.g. Irish Famine, the 1840s)

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire:

• 1911: a fire started on the top floor, where 146 people died and more than 6,000 wounded

• Emergency exits had been locked because of the owner’s paranoia of thieves; this trapped them in

• Women and girls jumped to their deaths to avoid being burned

• This event spurred further action to organize and change workplace conditions

• Most of the employees had been recent Italian and Jewish immigrants, trying to feed their families

Rise of Trade Unions:

• In England, workers began to organize to negotiate better working wages and working conditions despite being outlawed in 1799

• “Luddites” - workers who destroyed machines that replaced human labor

• Unions legalized in England in 1872

• Unions legalized in France in 1884