The Industrial Revolution

• The Industrial Revolution was the rapid development of industry in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries.
• The Industrial Revolution happened because of the development of machinery and the use of steam power.
• Coal and other raw materials were needed to power the new factories. Many people moved from the countryside and started working in the mining and manufacturing industries.
• The development of the Bessemer process for the mass production of steel led to the development of the shipbuilding industry and the railways. Manufacturing jobs became the main source of employment in Britain.
• Richard Arkwright is particularly remembered for the efficient and profitable way that he ran his factories.
• Canals were built to link the factories to towns and cities and to the ports, particularly in the new industrial areas in the middle and north of England.
• Working conditions during the Industrial Revolution were very poor. There were no laws to protect employees, who were often forced to work long hours in dangerous situations. Children also worked and were treated in the same way as adults. Sometimes, they were treated even more harshly.
• The Industrial Revolution was also a time of increased colonisation overseas. Captain James Cook mapped the coast of Australia and a few colonies were established there.
• Britain gained control over Canada, and the East India Company, originally set up to trade, gained control of large parts of India. Colonies began to be established in southern Africa.
• Britain traded all over the world and began to import more goods. Sugar and tobacco came from North America and the West Indies; textiles, tea and spices came from India and the area that is today called Indonesia.
• Trading and settlements overseas sometimes brought Britain into conflict with other countries, particularly France, which was expanding and trading in a similar way in many of the same areas of the world.
• Sake Dean Mahomet was born in 1759 and grew up in the Bengal region of India. He served in the Bengal army and came to Britain in 1782. He then moved to Ireland and eloped with an Irish girl called Jane Daly in 1786, returning to England at the turn of the century. In 1810, he opened the Hindoostane Coffee House on George Street, London. It was the first curry house to open in Britain. Mahomet and his wife also introduced ‘shampooing’, the Indian art of head massage, to Britain.