HISTORY (XI)-THEME 9 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (LESSON NOTES)

 

HISTORY (XI)-THEME 9

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

(LESSON NOTES)

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v INTRODUCTION

Ø The industrial revolution refers as the transformation of handmade manufacturing to mechanical manufacturing after 1780 from Britain.

Ø This lesson focus on the changes occurred in Britain and later on other countries. We will see that how the machine and technology create large scale changes in textile, iron steel, transportation and railways industries. We also see that most the inventers were common persons.

Ø We also notice that Industrialisation bring greater prosperity for some, but in the initial stages it was linked with poor living and working conditions of millions of people, including women and children. This sparked off protests.

v SOURCES ABOUT INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Ø Georges Michelet in France and Frederic Engels in Germany were the scholars who used the term ‘Industrial Revolution’ for the first time.

 

Ø Arnold Toynbee, an English economist used it first time in English, during his lectures at Oxford University to describe the changes that occurred in Britain during 1760 and 1820 (During the time of King George III) . His lectures were published in 1884 known as “Lectures on the Industrial Revolution in England: Popular Addresses, Notes and Other Fragments.”

Ø Works of historians T.S. Ashton, Paul Mantoux and Eric Hobsbawm, also give the information about industrial revolution

v FIRST INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Ø The transformation that occurred in the industrial and economic sectors in Britain during 1780s and 1850s is called as the ‘first industrial revolution’.

Ø The initial focus of first industrial revolution was on textiles. The consequences of this revolution changed permanently the human labour, consumption, family structures and social structure.

v SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Ø After 1850, the expansion of chemical and electrical industries refers as the second industrial revolution. In that period, Britain fell behind, and lost its position as the world’s leading industrial power, as it was overtaken by Germany and the USA.

v FACTORS THAT LED TO INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN BRITAIN.

The industrial revolution was started from Britain. There are different factors which are suitable for the industrial revolution in Britian as:-

Ø POLITICAL SATABILITY

§  In the 17th century unification of Wales and Scotland with England under monarchy gave them a political stability.

§  This stability paved the way for the common law, a single monetary system and currency with a single market. All these enabled authorities to impose proper taxes on goods that passed through these unified regions.

§  By the end of the 17th century, money became the medium of exchange. People got choice of spending money as well as expansion of their market for the sale of goods.

Ø AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION

§  England witnessed a major economic change known as ‘agricultural revolution’ in the 18th century.

§  This was the process of enclosure in which bigger landlords bought up small farms near their properties and enclosed the village common lands.

 

§   Large estates were created and resulted in the increase in the food production. Landless farmers and those who lived by grazing animals on the common lands were forced to search for jobs somewhere else. Most of them shifted to nearby towns.

Ø EMERGENCE OF LONDON

§  The 18th century England witnessed the growth of many towns and population.

§  London was the largest city in England and was the hub of markets as well.

§  London was a significant city for global trade. By 18th century global trade shifted from Mediterranean ports of Italy and France to the Atlantic ports of Holland and Britain.

§  London became the place for international trade by replacing Amsterdam.

§  London also became a centre of a triangular trade between England, Africa and the West Indies.

Ø DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPORT SYSTEM

§  Rivers and coastline facilitated the movement of goods in England.

§  Transport by waterways was cheaper and faster than land until the introduction of the railways.

§  During 1724, Rivers in England provided 1,160 miles of navigable water. Except for the mountainous regions, other areas were within the 5 miles of a river. 

§  Rivers provided easy movement of coastal ships (coasters) since all rivers flew into the sea.

Ø DEVELOPMENT OF FINANCIAL SYSTEM IN ENGLAND

§  The financial system of England was implemented by the Bank of England, which was founded in 1694.

§  By 1784, there were more than hundred banks. By 1820s it increased to more than 600 Banks.

§  London alone had 100 provincial Banks.

v IRON INDUSTRY

Ø England was having a plenty of iron and coal resources, which were required for mechanization. It was also rich in other minerals such as lead, copper and tin, which were required for industries.

Ø Smelting was the process through which iron is drawn from ores as a pure liquids metal, is known as smelting. But till the 18th century charcoal was used for smelting which have many defects as

§  Charcoal was too brittle to transport across long and distances.

§  Its impurities produced poor quality iron.

§  It was in short supply as forest were destroyed for timber.

§  It also failed to generate high temperatures.

v INOVATIONS IN IRON INDUSTRIES

Ø A family of iron-masters, the Darbys of Shropshire, brought about a revolution in the method of iron smelting. The three generation this family brought about a revolution in the metallurgical industry.

Ø BLAST FURNACE

§  It began with an invention of blast furnace in 1709 by the first Abraham Darby (1677-1717).

§  In the Blast furnace coke was used, which could generate high temperatures.

 

§  Coke was derived from coal by removing the sulphur and impurities. This invention meant that furnaces no longer had to depend on charcoal.

§  The melted iron that emerged from these furnaces permitted finer and larger castings than before

Ø FURTHER INVENTIONS

§  The second Darby (1711-68) developed wrought iron (less brittle) from pig iron.

§  Henry Cort (1740-1823) developed the puddling furnace and the rolling mill which used steam power to roll purified iron into bars. Now a broader range of products could be produced.

§  In 1770s, John Wilkinson made the first iron chairs, vats and iron pipes of varied sizes.

§  In 1779, Darby III (1750-91) built the first iron bridge in the world in Coalbrookdale on the river Severn.

v EFFECTS OF THE NEW INVENTIONS

Ø Now the iron and steel industry concentered in the coal region. In Britain coal and iron were found in the same basin. These were also connected with ports.

Ø Due to the use of blast furnaces, the British iron industry quadrupled its output between 1800 and 1830, and its product were the cheapest to be available in Europe.

Ø In 1820, a ton of pig iron needed 8 tons of coal to make it, but by 1850 it could be produced by using only 2 tons.

Ø By 1848, Britain was smelting more iron than other countries in the world.

v COTTON INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND

Ø From earlier time textile industry in England used the wool and flax as raw material.

Ø From 17th century onwards, the East India imported bales of cotton cloth from India.

Ø When East India Company established its political control in India they started importing raw cotton along with cotton cloth, which was woven in England.

Ø Till the early18th century spinning was very slow and consumed a lot of labour due to the lack of good technology.

Ø But the new technology brought the drastic change in the cotton industry. To, make it more proficient, production gradually shifted from the homes of spinners and weavers to factories.

v INVENTIONS IN TEXTILE INDUSTRY

Ø Flying shuttle -It was invented by John Kay (1704-64) in 1733 by which broader fabrics can weave in less time.

Ø Spinning Jenny: - It was invented by James Hargreaves (1720-78) in 1765. By this a single person could spin several threads of yarn simultaneously.

Ø Water frame: - It was invented by Richard Arkwright (17332-92) in 1769. It made possible to weave pure cotton fabrics which is stronger than before.

 

Ø The mule: - It was invented by Samuel Crompton (1753-1827) in 1779 that allowed the spinning of strong and fine yarn

Ø Power Loom :- It was invented by Edmund Cartwright (1743-1823) in 1787. This was easy to work, stopped automatically every time a thread broke and could be used to weave any kind of material

v STEAM POWER

Ø Water had been an important source of energy for centuries but its use was determined by area, season and the flow of water.

Ø During industrialisation, it was realised that steam could generate tremendous power. It was reliable and inexpensive enough to manufacture machinery itself.

Ø Invention of steam power and its improvement boosted the industrialization.

Ø Steam power was first used in mining industries.

v MAIN INVENTORS OF THE STEAM POWER

Ø Thomas Savery (1650-1715) built a model of steam engine called the Miner’s Friend in 1698, to drain the water from coalmines. These engines worked slowly and the boiler burst under too much pressure.

Ø Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729) built another steam engine in 1712. This had the major defect of losing energy due to continuous cooling of condensing cylinder.

Ø James Watt (1736-1819)

§  He built a final and perfect steam engine whose significance was that it converted steam engine from mere pump into a ‘prime mover’ providing more energy to power generating machines in the factories.

§  Before this invention, the steam engine had been used only in coal mines.

§  James Watt established the Soho Foundry, with the support of a wealthy manufacture Matthew Boulton, from where his steam engines were produced in large number.

§  He also invented a chemical process for copying documents.

§  He also created a unit of measurement based on comparing mechanical power with that of the previous universal power source, the horse. Watt’s measurement unit, horsepower, equated the ability of a horse to lift 33,000 pounds (14,969 kg) one foot (0.3 m) in one minute.

§  After 1800, steam engine technology was further developed with the use of lighter, stronger metals.

v CONSTRUCTION OF CANALS

Ø In Britain the demand of coal grew constantly due to industrialisation, as energy sources and for heating and lighting homes in cities.

Ø But its prices were very high as it was transported by road which is very expensive and slow.

Ø So, canals were built to transport coals to cities. The first English canal, the Worsely Canal was built in 1761 by James Brindley. The period from 1788 to 1796 is known as the ‘canal mania because 46 projects for building 25 new canals were begun.

 

Ø It had a great impact as:-

§  The prices of coal fell by half.

§  Canal also increase the value of the mines, quarries or forests. So many business persons built the canals.

§  It also paved the way for the emergence of many new markets in new towns. For example, Birmingham become important as it was on the way to connecting London, The British Channel and Mersey and Humber rivers.

v INVENTION OF THE RAILWAY

Ø Railways emerged as a new means of transportation that was available throughout the year, both cheap and fast, to carry passengers and goods. They combined two inventions, the iron track which replaced the wooden track in the 1760s, and haulage along it by steam engine. Historians argue that the invention of railways took the industrialization to the second stage.

§  First steam locomotive (Stephenson’s Rocket) was invented by Stephenson in 1814.

§  Richard Trevithick devised an engine called ‘Puffing Devil’, in 1801, which pulled truck around the mine.

§  In 1814, George Stephenson constructed a locomotive called ‘The Blutcher’ that was capable of pulling a weight of 30 tons up a hill at 4 mph.

§  All these developments paved the way for the development of the railway transport.

§  The first railway line was constructed between the cities of Stockton and Darlington in 1825 and next railway line connected Liverpool and Manchester in 1830.

§  During ‘little railway mania’ from 1833-37,1400 miles of line was built and during the bigger ‘mania’ of 1844-47, another 9,500 miles of line was sanctioned.

v CHANGES IN THE LIVES OF PEOPLE

Ø During the period of industrial revolution, there were a lot changes in the lives of people. But it has two sides: -

v POSITIVE CHNAGES

Ø Intelligent and talented got opportunities of industrialisation. They invested their money during this period and getting more profit and multiplying their money.

Ø  It provides the new opportunities to the people.

Ø It also increased the urbanisation. Many cities were developed. The number of cities in England with a population of 50,000 grew from 2 in 1750 to 29 in 1850.

v NEGATIVE CHNAGES

Ø It also affected people negatively that could be seen in broken families, new addresses, degraded cities and pathetic working condition of workers in the factories.

Ø The growth of city did not bring adequate number of houses, sanitation and clean water.

Ø New comers were forced to live in crowded slums near to factories.

v CONDITION OF THE WORKERS

Ø According to a survey in 1842, life expectancy of workers was lower compared to non-workers in the cities.

Ø The life expectancy in Birmingham was 15 years, in Manchester 17 and in Derby 21 years

Ø  Many people died at young age and children lived only up to five in the new industrial cities.

Ø Population in the cities increased not due to new born babies but due to the immigrants from villages.

Ø Deaths were caused by diseases like cholera and typhoid. In 1832 more than 31,000 people died due to cholera.

Ø Until 19th century, the municipal authorities did not pay attention to solve the sufferings of the people. The medical knowledge in understanding and curing these diseases was unknown.

v CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Ø BEFORE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

§  Before the industrial revolution, the children and the women worked either in farms or at home.

§  They worked under the watchful eyes of parents and relative.

§  Women worked in farms, they reared livestock and gathered firewood or were involved in spinning cotton.

§  It was necessary for the women and the children to work and support the meagre earnings of men.

Ø AFTER INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

§  The industrial revolution brought about important changes in the way the women and children worked.

§  They have to work in strict discipline for long hours in inhumane working conditions

§  Industrialists’ preferred to employ women and children, who did not oppose the poor working conditions and work on lower wages than men.

§  The women were employed in cotton textile industry, silk –lace making and knitting industry. It increased financial independence and self-esteem from their jobs.

§  The children were often employed in metal industry, coal mines and cotton textile industry. They have to work on Sunday also to clean the machines. The machine-like spinning jenny was designed to be used by child workers. They also move easily between tightly packed machinery.  Owners of coal mines used children to reach deep coal faces as the mines were very narrow for adults.

§  But many problems were faced by children and women like

·      Their hair was caught in machines or crushed their hands,

·      Some died when they fell into machines due to exhaustion.

·      Mines of roofs caved in or there could be an explosion, and injuries were therefore common.

·      Due to humiliating terms of work women face many problems as they lost their baby at birth or in early childhood.

v v PROTEST MOVEMENTS AND REPRESSION OF GOVERNMENT

Ø The early decades of industrialisation coincided with the spread of new political ideas as liberty, equality and fraternity pioneered by the French Revolution (1789-94).

Ø POLITICAL PROTEST

Ø In England, political protest against the harsh working conditions in factories kept increasing, and the working population agitated to be given the right to vote. But the government repressed these movements by making twin laws in 1795 as

§  It illegal to ‘incite the people by speech or writing to hatred or contempt of the King, Constitution or Government.

§  Banned unauthorised public meetings of over 50 persons

Ø PROTEST AGAINST THE MACHINES

§  Due to encloser process thousands of small farms had been merged into the larger ones by powerful landlords, so many people lost their livelihood and move to the cities and towns, to find works in industries.

§  But due to the introduction of machines in introduction of machines in the cotton industry, many weavers lost their jobs.

§  So, these weavers start protest for demand a legal minimum wage, but it was refused by Parliament.

§  In desperation cotton weavers destroyed the powerlooms, shearing-frames and other machines in different cities as Nottingham, Yorkshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire etc.

Ø LUDDISM MOVEMENT

§  Luddism was a well-known protest movement that fought for the right of workers, who were affected by the arrival of new machines from 1811to 1817.It was started by General Ned Ludd.

§  They protest for Minimum wages, voting rights for workers,  to form trade unions, and to improve the work conditions and working hours etc.

§  In August 1819, nearly 80,000 working class people gathered peacefully at St.Peter’s Field in Manchester and demanded for democratic rights of political organization.

§  But They were suppressed brutally which came to be known as the Peterloo Massacre and their demand were denied by the Six Acts, passed by Parliament the same year.

§  After Peterllo Massacre liberal political groups recognised the need to make the House of Commons more representative and the Combination Acts were repealed in 1824-25.

 

v REFORMS BY LAWS

Ø A number of laws were passed by the government to improve the working condition of the children and the women.

§  In 1819 Laws were enacted prohibiting the employment of

children under nine.

§  Working hours for those who were between nine and sixteen years old was reduced from sixteen to 12 hours a day.

§  In 1833, a law was enacted that permitted children under nine to work only in silk factories and limited working hours. Factory inspectors were appointment to enforce these laws.

§  In 1847, the Ten Hours Bill was passed making working hours as 10 hours for women and young people. These laws applied only to textile industries and not to mines.

§  The Mines Commission of 1842 was set up to look into the working condition in mines.

§  The Mines and Colliers Act of 1842 prohibited children and women from working in coalmines.

§  Fielder’s Factory Act in 1847 declared that children under 18 should not work more than 10 hours a day.

v CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE

Ø The contemporary literature describes the suffering of people during industrial revolution.

Ø Hard Times written by Charles Dickens reflected the contemporary industrial society and the deplorable conditions of poor people by a fictious town Cocktown.

Ø Edward Carpenter eloquently described about cities in about 1881, in his poem ‘In a Manufacturing Town’

Ø Oliver Goldsmith (1728-74) give the description about village during industrialisation in the poem The Deserted Village.

Ø D.H Lawrence, another British essayist and novelist also describes about the hardships of people.

v THE DEBATE ON THE ‘INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION’

Ø The term Industrial Revolution was used to describe the changes that occurred in Britain between 1780s to the 1820s. But the term ‘industrial revolution’ has been challenged by modern historians after 1970. They gives different views as

§  Industrialization was a gradual change in industrial sectors rather than a sudden revolution.

§  The concentration of workers in factories, wide use of money etc.were already existed prior to the 19th century. Industrialisation carried out these processes towards new levels.

§  Large areas of England left unaffected by factories or mines. Therefore the term industrial revolution was considered incorrect.

§  Industrialisation had centred on a few regions or cities such as London, Manchester, Birmingham or Newcastle.

§  The remarkable growth of cotton textile industry was based on non-British raw material and sales abroad and no-metallic money.

§  Metallic money and steam power was rare till the 19th century.

§  The rapid growth in British imports and exports from the 1780s occurred due to the resumption of trade with the North America. The American war of independence had disrupted this trade.

§  Sustained industrial growth was to be seen after 1815-20. The cotton, iron and engineering industries had accounted for less than half of the industrial production until the 1840s.