The Industrial Revolution By Cynthia Stokes-Brown (for BHP) Abundant fossil fuels like coal led to innovative machines, like engines. These inventions launched an era of accelerated change that continues to transform human society. 920L The Industrial Revolution Cynthia Stokes-Brown (for BHP)

The transformation of the world Make a list of the machines around your house, from bicycles to cell phones to microwaves. You might be surprised how many there are. Now imagine young people who grew up before such machines were invented. How did they travel from place to place? How did they communicate? Where did their food come from?

At one time, humans relied on physical labor to provide much of the energy needed to feed and house themselves. They burned wood for warmth and cooking, and domestic animals help with chores and transport. Windmills and waterwheels powered simple machines, but their uses were limited.

However, the early 1700s saw the early developments of what became the Industrial Revolution. Now, people found an extra source of energy that could work for them. That source was fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas. These fuels had been forming from the remains of plants and animals from much earlier geologic times. When burned, these fuels released much more energy than burning wood.

Early steam engines The story of the Industrial Revolution begins in Great Britain and its coalfields and coal mines. By the early eighteenth century, coal was being used more and more to heat homes and fuel workshops. The mines that produced this coal, though, often filled with water, slowing work. In 1712, Englishman Thomas Newcomen created a coal-powered steam engine. It was capable of pumping water from the mines. More than fifty years later Scottish instrument maker James Watt designed a much-improved version. His steam engine was soon adapted for other uses, including milling and weaving. Other inventors and engineers continued to fine-tune Watts’ design, making it more efficient and versatile.

Industry soon took advantage of coal-fueled steam engines. Textile mills were among the first to adopt them. Historically, textiles were woven by hand or in workshops powered by river-driven waterwheels. Now steam-powered machines could spin the cotton thread and drive the looms for weaving. Attaching a steam engine to such machines was like trading a bicycle for a jumbo jet. It allowed much more work to be done much faster. These large engines were installed in factories where they could power many machines at once. Industries hired more and more workers to operate them. Early in the Engraving of Boulton and Watt’s steam engine, 1781, from Robert nineteenth century, the British added steam engines Henry Thurston’s A History of the Growth of the Steam Engine. to locomotives and ships. The technology made them New York: D. Appleton, 1878, p. 104. By Robert Henry Thurston, faster, more powerful, and more reliable than horse- public domain. drawn wagons and sailing ships.

2 The Industrial Revolution Cynthia Stokes-Brown (for BHP)

The Industrial Revolution continued to gain momentum. Its products were on display at the first world’s fair, hosted by Britain in 1851. There, companies demonstrated a growing assortment of equipment, including telegraphs, sewing machines, farm machinery, and steam hammers. Industry was changing society and even the landscape as cities grew and factories changed where and how people worked.

Why Britain? Britain wasn’t the only place that had deposits of coal. So why didn’t the Industrial Revolution begin somewhere else, like China, that had similar fuel resources? Did it start in isolation in Britain, or were there global forces at work that shaped it? What influence did geography and cultural institutions have? Historians continue to investigate these questions.

Possible reasons industrialization began in Britain include:

• An abundance of convenient coal deposits and shortage of wood • A wealthy ruling class interested in economic development • A capitalist economic system, with little government interference • A strong navy to protect commercial shipping • Profits from the transatlantic slave trade that provided Britain with capital to invest in industrialization • Relative safety of Britain as an island nation • British colonies in India, Africa, and the Americas which provided land, natural resources, labor, and markets

Possible reasons industrialization did not begin in China include:

• Location of China’s coal—the north—while most economic activity was in the south • Coal resources deeper underground, and therefore less accessible than Britain’s • A large, rapidly growing population, making human labor cheap • Cultural ideals that valued stability and discouraged experimentation and change • China’s focus on threats from nomadic tribes in the north and west

Global forces influencing the development of industrialization in Britain include:

• Britain’s location on the Atlantic Ocean • British colonies in North America, which provided land, labor, and markets • Silver from the Americas, used in trade with China • New thoughts about the economy encouraged an entrepreneurial spirit

The spread of the Industrial Revolution Industrial technologies, practices, and ideas soon spread out from Britain. In Europe, countries established their own factories and railroads in the first half of the 1800s. Building a national rail system was an essential part of industrialization, wherever it took hold. Trains could transport raw materials and fuel to factories faster and more cheaply.

3 The Industrial Revolution Cynthia Stokes-Brown (for BHP)

Children working in a mill in Macon, Georgia, 1909. By Lewis Hine, public domain.

Industrialization took a major step in the United States in 1789. That year Samuel Slater left Britain for Rhode Island, where he set up the first textile factory on U.S. soil. Once factories were built, railroad construction in America boomed from the 1830s to the 1870s. The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the first truly industrial war. Factories mass-produced supplies and weapons for the war effort. The more urbanized and factory-based North used its industrial superiority to defeat the agriculture-based South.

After the war, industrialization experienced explosive growth worldwide. Both Russia and Japan shifted from agricultural to industrial economies. By 1900, the United States had overtaken Britain in manufacturing. It produced 24 percent of the world’s output. You’ll read more about industrialization in other parts of the world later in this era and in Era 7.

Consequences of the Industrial Revolution As industrialization took off in Europe and the Americas, nations began to use their military to colonize non- industrialized parts of the world. They exploited these colonies for their natural resources and labor, as well as markets for factory-made goods. Industrialization was a driving force in the age of imperialism. These topics will be covered extensively in the remaining lessons of Era 6.

Industrialization also had remarkable effects on the global population. In 1700, before fossil fuels were used widely, the world’s population was 670 million. By 2011, it was 6.7 billion, a tenfold increase in only 300 years. Industrial production touched every aspect of society. In the twentieth century alone, the world’s economy grew

4 The Industrial Revolution Cynthia Stokes-Brown (for BHP)

fourteen times larger and energy use expanded accordingly. Per capita income quadrupled. In turn, workers in search of jobs migrated in numbers never seen before. Millions of people shifted from rural to urban areas, and even to new countries.

Region 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 World 5% 5% 7% 16% 47% Western Europe 12% 13% 21% 41% 75% North America 1% 2% 7% 38.5% 79% Africa .5% 1.25% 3% 8.5% 39% China 7% 6% 6% 7% 37%

Table 1: Percentage of urban population growth, 1600 to 2000 CE Source: Population data adapted from Goldewijk, K.K., A. Beusen, and P. Janssen. “Long-term dynamic modeling of global population and built-up area in a spatially explicit way: HYDE 3.1.” The Holocene 20, no. 4 (2010): 568.

Today, many people around the world enjoy the benefits of industrialization. Much less physical labor is required than in earlier generations. Child mortality rates have decreased and life expectancy has increased as more people are able to feed their children and get medical care. Large numbers of people enjoy levels of wealth, health, and education, unimagined before industrialization.

The benefits of industrialization, however, have come at a cost. It has led to social problems as communities have been disrupted by rapid social changes. In addition, the resources that industrialization depends on are being overused and in some cases exhausted. The continued use of fossil fuels has also caused serious environmental impacts. Balancing industrialization’s negative and positive effects is an ongoing challenge.

5 The Industrial Revolution Cynthia Stokes-Brown (for BHP)

Cynthia Stokes-Brown Cynthia Stokes-Brown was an American educator-historian. Stokes Brown wrote Big History: From the Big Bang to the Present. Using the term big history, coined by David Christian at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, Stokes Brown told the whole story from the Big Bang to the present in simple, non-academic language to convey our common humanity and our connection to every other part of the natural world

Image credits Cover: Industrial Revolution : pollution from copper factories in Cornwall, England. Engraving from History of England by Rollins, 1887, private collection © Photo by Leemage / Corbis via Getty Images Engraving of Boulton and Watt’s steam engine, 1781, from Robert Henry Thurston’s A History of the Growth of the Steam Engine. New York: D. Appleton, 1878, p. 104. By Robert Henry Thurston, public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:SteamEngine_Boulton%26Watt_1784.png#/media/File:SteamEngine_Boulton&Watt_1784.png Children working in a mill in Macon, Georgia, 1909. By Lewis Hine, public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Mill_Children_in_Macon_2.jpg#/media/File:Mill_Children_in_Macon_2.jpg

The Lexile® Framework for Reading Articles leveled by Newsela have been adjusted along several The Lexile® Framework for Reading evaluates reading ability and dimensions of text complexity including sentence structure, text complexity on the same developmental scale. Unlike other vocabulary and organization. The number followed by L indicates measurement systems, the Lexile Framework determines reading the Lexile measure of the article. For more information on Lexile ability based on actual assessments, rather than generalized measures and how they correspond to grade levels: www.lexile. age or grade levels. Recognized as the standard for matching com/educators/understanding-lexile-measures/ readers with texts, tens of millions of students worldwide receive a Lexile measure that helps them find targeted readings from To learn more about Newsela, visit www.newsela.com/about. the more than 100 million articles, books and websites that have been measured. Lexile measures connect learners of all ages with resources at the right level of challenge and monitors their progress toward state and national proficiency standards. More information about the Lexile® Framework can be found at www.Lexile.com.

6