European Industrial Revolution Essay, Research Paper

The European Industrial Revolution was

a time of drastic change. In England it became a transformation from

hand tools and hand made items to machined and mass-produced goods.

The growth of factories replaced the cottage industries and spawned the

development of cities. Growing cities and factories led to changes

in transportation, labor, and working conditions. These changes generally

helped workers lives, even though initially there were more negatives than

positives.

Before the Industrial Revolution England’s

economy was based on its cottage industry. Workers would buy raw

materials from merchants, take it back to their cottages, hence the name,

and produce the goods at their homes. This industry was efficient

but the workers productivity was low. Subsequently, goods were high

in price and exclusive to only wealthy people. The Industrial Revolution

meant factories could mass-produce items at much lower costs than the cottage

industries, making goods more affordable to consumers.

With the invention of the steam engine,

a shift from rural waterwheels to steam engines as an industrial power

source facilitated the emergence of factories and industrial cities.

Factories started the process of urbanization by causing people to leave

rural sectors and move to the cities looking for a better life. The

increase in population in the cities caused overcrowding, pollution, and

thus became a breeding ground for communicable diseases. Cities had

a snowballing effect developing new business. New and improved transportation

systems evolved.

The developments in transportation played

an important role in industrialization. Growing cities necessitated

investments to be made in improving infrastructure, including roads, bridges,

and canals. This paved the way for industrialization which needed

an efficient system to transport mass amounts of goods from factories to

markets. As the sale of goods increased, factories’ production needed

to increase causing problems for the factory worker.

Factories changed the meaning of labor.

Even if the hours worked were roughly the same in the factory or in the

cottage, factory wage earners lost control over the pace and methods of

their work. Constant supervision was also a novel experience, at

least for the head of the household. The head of the household, usually

the father of the family, was the supervisor in the family run cottage.

In the factories he lost his supervision power and was just a worker.

Consequently men avoided factory work in the early nineteenth century.

Most cottage working families chose to

stay in their homes. As factory production grew, home workers saw

their earnings shrink. The next generation cottage workers would

find their choice tipped much more heavily toward factories.

Life was drastically changed during the

Industrial Revolution. Factory workers were living in germ infested,

crowded and very unhealthful conditions, much like their place of work.

Children and women labored in harsh conditions, working long hours with

little pay. Much of the British working class was worse off.

Real wages stagnated while workers sacrificed freedom, health and family.

Government involvement was needed to change these conditions. Laws

such as the Factory Act (1833) were passed to improve working conditions.

The Industrial Revolution changed Europe forever and it’s social and economic

changes helped guide other countries through their growth and industrialization

processes.

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