History 2⭐️

• Many changes took place during the Industrial Revolution in Britain, during the years 1750-1850
• Before the Industrial Revolution in Britain, most people lived in rural areas and farmed the land to grow food for their families
• Gradually Britain began to use machines to make goods in factories, this is called industrialisation
• The Industrial Revolution in Britain


  • Development of towns and cities
  • Families no longer worked in and around their homes
  • People moved to the cities to be nearer to the large factories where they could find work
• Workers in factories during the Industrial Revolution in Britain


  • Men, women and children as young as five years of age worked in factories for long hours
  • Children were employed because they could reach places that adults couldn't, crawl on and under machines and climb on top of machines to clean them
  • Children were cruelly punished for mistakes
• The Industrial Revolution in Britain also affected southern Africa
• From 1860, the British colony of India sent indentured workers to the British colony of Natal
• Indentured labour


  Workers who are on contract to work for a certain length of time at a certain wage for an employer
• Sugar plantation owners used indentured Indian workers to grow sugar in large quantities in Natal
• After 1867, with the discovery of diamonds at Kimberley, southern Africa's own industrial revolution started
• The Industrial Revolution


  A period from about 1750 to 1850 where changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation and the harnessing of steam energy affected the social and economic conditions
• The Industrial Revolution started in Britain and spread through Western Europe and eventually to the rest of the world
• Coal mines during the Industrial Revolution

  • Dangerous places to work
  • Small children were employed to pull and carry coal along tunnels to the surface
• Even children under the age of ten were employed in mines after the passing of the Mines Act of 1842
• Factories during the Industrial Revolution

  • Thousands of children worked in factories, some as young as five years old
  • The smallest children could crawl under machines while they were running, which was very dangerous
• The British took over Natal as a colony in 1843
• The soil and warm climate in Natal was good for growing sugar cane, which was in great demand in Britain and other parts of the world
• In the 1850s some British farmers from the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius arrived in Natal to grow sugar cane
• India was not a united country, but a collection of many states, and Britain gradually took control of more and more states
• In 1784, the British government took over direct control of the Indian land ruled by the British East India Company
• In 1858, all these states together became known as the colony of British India and Queen Victoria of Britain became Empress of India
• The Zulu people of the Zulu Kingdom and Natal kept cattle and grew crops for their own needs, and were not interested in working for the colonists
• The sugar farmers suggested getting indentured labour from India, as was done in Mauritius and the Caribbean islands, after the end of slavery
• Most indentured Indians who came to Natal, came from southern India and left from the port of Madras
• Sugar cane originally comes from India and south-east Asia, and Spanish explorers took sugar cane to the Caribbean in the 16th century
• Sugar was introduced to Britain when Britain became involved in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, and until the 18th century, honey was used to sweeten food and most Britons had never tasted sugar
• Sugar became widely used in drinks such as tea, coffee and cocoa (chocolate) which were also introduced into Britain by overseas trade
• Sugar was in great demand in Britain and Europe because it improved the taste of many foods
• Employers had to provide food for the indentured workers, and the staple food in India is rice