The Industrial Revolution Essay, Research Paper

I. Industrial Revolution

A. Around the middle of the eighteenth century, Europeans began to substitute machines for human labor on a large scale.

B. This process is known as industrialization. It transformed society to such a degree that, historians came to refer to it as a revolution, the industrial revolution.

C. Industrialization began in England, because the nations growing population created an ever increasing demand for goods and services.

D. England had an abundant supplies of coal and iron, the basic raw materials of industrialization.

E. Before a society can industrialize, it has to be able to feed its people efficiently enough so that a sizable number are freed from the necessity to farm for a living.

II. The Enclosure Movement

A. English agriculture in the sixteenth century had changed little since the middle ages. This situation was changed during the seventeenth century.

B. Rising price in wood encouraged a number of large land owners to enclose in part or all of their common lands for sheep pasturage.

III. Three Innovators

A. Charles Townshend discovered that, with proper planning and crop rotation, it was possible to keep farmlands productive all the time.

B. Robert Bakewell, who demonstrated the advantage of selective livestock breeding. By selecting only the largest and best animals for breeding.

C. Sethro Tull invented, a mechanical seed drill that enabled farmers to sow seeds in straight rows.

IV. The Use of Steam

A. The greatest out of all the inventions was the steam engine

B. Thomas Savery, designed a steam operated device to pump water out of mines.

C. Around 1760 Thomas Newcomen’s developed an improvement.

D. In 1769 a Scottish engineer named James Watt dramatically improved the design with an engine requiring far less fuel.

V. Working Conditions

Workers use to work at their own pace in the comfort of their own homes. Now they work at someone else’s pace in a dark, unsuitable, cheaply built factory. Workers were paid little, and women were paid less, child labor was common.