Industrial Revolution Essay, Research Paper

Positive & Negative Aspects of the Industrial Revolution

In the end of the 18th century a new revolution in history would be formed. It brought positive and negative effects to the world and the people living in it. Inventions, ideas, and new ways of transportation were all positive outcomes of this revolution. Pollution, mass population growth, and child labor were the negatives. This revolution was called “The Industrial Revolution”. The Industrial Revolution first started during the 18th century in England. It soon spread through countries such as the United States, Germany, and France.

Positive aspects of the Industrial Revolution

In technology, steam power must have been the biggest advancement in its field. Fuels such as coal and petroleum were ideas used for the power of the steam engines. This new idea of steam power revolutionized many industries including textiles and manufacturing.

In communications, Samuel Morse, an American inventor, had made a working model of the telegraph using a language of dots and lines. It carried information at high speeds, which made communications between Europe and North American cities a lot quicker.

In the field of medicine new ways to keep food from spoiling were invented by the scientist Louis Pasteur. New methods were used to make surgeries safer, less painful, and keep germs from spreading inside the body in which surgery was being performed. Vaccinations for smallpox (world’s first vaccination) were created by Edward Jenner who believed that people who had contracted cowpox never caught smallpox.

Negative aspects of the Industrial Revolution

One of the problems in the Industrial Revolution was the high growth rate of people. People moved into the cities causing less jobs and leaving some people unemployed and even homeless. Most factories were mainly looking for cheap labor, which in turn caused the problem of child labor. They put the children to work from the crack of dawn to the late hours of the afternoon and were only paid enough to buy a portion of their family’s food.

Another problem that was caused by the growth of cities, steam engines, and mass productions was pollution. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was increased by two times the amount as before.

There is still one more aspect of this revolution and this is aspect is felt to the present day. Without the inventions and changes that took place to form a more ideal society, we wouldn t be where we are today. Without labor laws and health benefits, the life expectancy of a human would drop at least 20 years. Our lives would not be integrated with the technology that helps us learn and grow such as computers, cars and airplanes. Without the growth of industrialization, there would not be the need for any of these inventions, and we would all still be working on a farm. Some would say that they would rather live on a farm, but many can easily see how much better our lives are with the effects of the industrialization.