Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolutions: causes and consequences


Until the end of the 18th century, the European economy had been based almost exclusively on the agriculture and the trade. At the end of this century and the beginning of the following one, this form of production was modified. England was the country where these changes began. This period of changes is what we know like the FirstIndustrial Revolution. What we are going to explain are the different reasons of its appearance, its causes and consequences and how it developed, as well as its merging in the Second Industrial Revolution.
The old industry was based on the agriculture. Little by little, changes and improvements began to emerge and they began to increase the production, as well as it also increased thecreation of factories. These changes affected principally to Britain and subconsequently spread throughout Europe and North America. The commencement of the Industrial Revolution is closely linked to a small number of innovations in different areas such as textile, steam power and Iron founding. Other important sectors which were affected by this revolution were: textile manufacture, metallurgy, mining,chemicals, machine tools, gas lighting, glass making, agriculture and transports –creation of canals and railways-. There are different reasons of factors that helped to the development of the revolution, as the invention of the flying shuttle, the use of the hydraulic energy… but what provided the major development to the revolution was the appearance of the steam engine. Other influentialfactors were: the agricultural revolution –with the suppression of the triennial rotation- and the revolution of the transport –with new inventions and improvements; especially in the steamships and in the railways-. This allowed extending markets and a supposed major quality of life. On the one hand, these technical advances allowed that England transformed into a great power. But on the other hand,the new technologies and, above all, the commercial opening, harmed to the small industries. The first industrialized countries were: Great Britain, USA, France and Germany.
As it has been mentioned, in England an important agricultural transformation took place, which favoured to the industrialization. When the communal properties were suppressed, there was a massive exodus to the city. Thepeasants needed to survive; since then, they left the field to move to the city as workers in the new factories. In the industrial cities, a lot of people looked for a job. They were contracted by very low salaries and in terrible conditions –fourteen daily working hours, few hygiene, factories in wrong conditions…what supposes an increase of diseases-; also women and children were working forthese factories. Because of this, the infantile exploitation increased a lot, since the owners of the factories only cared the increase of their production. This caused that the life expectancy was not overcoming fourty years and as a consequence, increased the mortality, especially the infantile one.
Another important thing is the beginning of the labour movement. The “machinism” wasdemanding an important capital investment. In this way, the industrial bourgeoisie appeared, formed by the owners of the big factories. The artisans, who worked for themselves, had an only option: to work for these factories and to close their workshops. This is what we know as industrial capitalism. The industrial revolution determined the appearance of two new social classes: the industrial middleclass –owners of factories- and the industrial proletariat –the workers-. This implies a victory of the middle class above the upper classes. But, with the industrial revolution, the social conflicts also grew. This situation of injustice mentioned before -child labour, long working hours, diseases…- led to the appearance of the first unions of workers and also of the first strikes. This worker’s...