History

• Revolution


  Drastic change (a dramatic and wide-reaching change in conditions, attitudes, or operation)
• Many changes took place during the Industrial Revolution
• Before the Industrial revolution, most people lived in rural areas and practiced subsistence farming
• Industrialisation


  a social or economic system in which manufacturing industries are prevelent .
• People in the rural areas could not compete with factory production, so many towns and cities developed as people moved there to find work in the factories
• Men, women and even children worked in these factories
• Why the Industrial Revolution started in Britain


  • Britain was a huge empire with many colonies that provided raw materials
  • The colonies provided Britain with a big market to sell manufactured goods
  • Britain had a powerful navy to protect merchant ships
• The Industrial Revolution could never have happened without the wealth generated through the slave trade
• British ports involved in the slave trade


  • London
  • Liverpool
  • Bristol
• Port


  A town with a harbour for ships to load and unload goods
• Wharves


  The areas where ships can load and unload goods
• Merchant


  A person who owns a trading business
• Reinvested


  Profits are used to expand the business
• Approximately 5,300 voyages set off from Liverpool during the time of the slave trade and Liverpool was responsible for 75% of all slaving voyages across Europe
• About 3,100 voyages set off from London and 2,200 from Bristol
• The large number of ships entering and exiting these harbours led to development of new wharves, storehouses, roads and canals, which created jobs
• New ships were built for merchants and all ships had to be maintained, putting a lot of money into the British economy
• Merchants purchased raw materials and manufactured them into goods to sell locally and internationally, which is how they made their money
• Plantation owners had high profit margins because they did not have to pay slaves for their labour and some plantations were operated 24 hours a day, which resulted in a high yield
• Some of the profits were reinvested but a lot of money went to building houses, engaging in social activities such as hosting parties and watching plays, and purchasing luxury items
• Before the Industrial Revolution, most people in Britain lived in small villages and practiced subsistence farming
• Subsistence farming


  Growing only enough food to feed your family
• Trade


  Exchanging goods for other goods instead of money
• Common land


  Land not owned by one person; it is shared by everyone
• As England's economy grew because of trade and the population increased, the demand for food increased
• Farming methods and tools needed to be improved to increase production, leading to inventions that made it easier to produce crops on a larger scale and manage larger herds of livestock
• This led to the implementation of the enclosure system, where wealthy people could purchase land and hire labourers to work on their farm(s)
• The enclosure system led to more efficient food production, but the people living on the common land before enclosure were now homeless and had to look for work in towns as miners or factory workers
• Opinions on the enclosure system


  • Geroge Orwell's view that the land grabbers were taking the heritage of their own countrymen
  • Some historians argue that the better-off members of the European peasantry encouraged and participated actively in enclosure, seeking to end the perpetual poverty of subsistence farming
• Cottage industries


  Farm labourers' wives made items at home to sell to supplement their husbands' income
• As higher volumes of raw materials from the Americas were arriving in Britain, peasants running cottage industries had more materials from which to make goods
• The Industrial Revolution was a period from about 1750 to 1850 during which there were major changes in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transportation and harnessing of energy
• The Industrial Revolution started in Britain and spread to the rest of the world, having a massive effect on social and economic conditions
• Spinning Jenny


  One of the first inventions of the Industrial Revolution that allowed workers to spin wool and cotton at a much faster rate than ever before
• Factories had to be built to accommodate the higher production rates and large machines, and many people who formerly worked from home (cottage industries) went to work in factories
• James Watt invented a new way for steam engines to operate machines more efficiently in 1769
• Tar roads were laid down all across the country, mainly between factory towns and port towns, to improve transportation of goods
• In 1825, George Stephenson had railway tracks built from Liverpool so that his steam powered locomotive engine could pull multiple wagons filled with goods
• Trains became the main transport system for raw materials and processed goods and were improved upon over time
• Industrial Revolution


  A period from about 1750 to 1850 during which there were major changes in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transportation and harnessing of energy