Industrial Revolution

Today most people live in or around cities, and all people have jobs they go to to make money and buy the goods they need to survive. Before the Industrial Revolution things were different. Before the Industrial Revolution, most people lived on small farms where they grew and raised and made what they needed. There were no mass produced (one thing made the same way over and over) goods. If a person needed a new shirt they had to make one. If a person wanted a glass of milk they went to the barn and got it from the cow. This is called a family economy or a subsistence economy. Starting in the 1730’s however, James Watt of Scotland invented the Steam Engine. This was the first reliable machine. It could be used to pump, drill, spin fabric and all sorts of other jobs. The Industrial Revolution started in Europe, but it soon spread to the United States and Canada. By the end of the 1900’s, the US was the most industrialized nation in the world. The Industrial Revolution changed everything. Factory owners needed people to work in their factories. This made people move off of their farms and into cities for the first time in human history. People now worked for part of the day at factories and spent their money on mass produced goods. This type of economy is called “Capitalism”. Capitalism is based on competition. Many new goods were made all of the time. Much of the technology we have today goes back to the Industrial Revolution and capitalism. The Industrial Revolution gave people more free time, and brought many new goods to the world, but it also created many problems. Unfair and dangerous working conditions, child labor, pollution, nations fighting for natural resources and few getting rich off of the labor of others. By the early 1900’s these problems were solved and the US and Canada remain as some of the world’s most industrialized nations. Central and South America are still catching up, they remained in the family economy or subsistence economy for much longer than the Americans. 1.) What was life like for average people before the Industrial Revolution?

2.) What was life like for average people after and during the Industrial Revolution?

3.) What invention began the Industrial Revolution?

4.) What is Capitalism based on? Why do you think it worked?