★ Must-know
The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the late 1700s and spread to other parts of the world.
The Second Industrial Revolution, approximately 1870–1914, was based on steel, electricity, oil and chemistry and saw the development of technologies and transport such as the automobile.
Further detail
First: coal and steam; second: steel, electricity, oil and chemistry.
★ Must-know
Mechanization, standardization and assembly-line production made manufactured goods cheaper and accessible to more consumers, encouraging mass production and mass consumption.
The development of factories attracted rural populations to industrial towns, producing rural depopulation, rapid urbanization, overcrowding, slums and working-class suburbs.
Industrialization strengthened the bourgeoisie, especially factory owners, entrepreneurs and bankers, and expanded the urban working class.
Further detail
Growing inequalities and tensions between the bourgeoisie and workers contributed to the development of trade unions and labour movements.
Urban mass culture included: department stores such as Le Bon Marché, Macy’s and Harrods, advertising, cinema, music halls, new forms of art and entertainment
Factories attract rural workers → industrial towns grow → overcrowding and slums.
★ Must-know
Britain had extensive coal and iron ore deposits that were essential to industrialization.
Britain’s political stability and status as the leading colonial power gave it access to raw materials and markets for manufactured goods.
As demand for British goods increased, merchants sought cheaper production methods, encouraging mechanization and the factory system.
Further detail
Britain’s vast colonial empire supported overseas exchange, access to markets and the growth of ports such as Liverpool.
Technological innovation and the effects of the Agricultural Revolution, including mechanization, contributed to Britain’s early industrialization.
The source describes parish apprentices as orphans from southern English workhouses who were apprenticed to factory owners, supposedly to learn textile work, and made to work shifts of 8–12 hours and sleep in factory barracks.
★ Must-know
During the Tudor period, wealthier farmers bought large areas of land and barred others from using them, a process known as enclosure that made subsistence farming more precarious.
Between 1500 and 1650, England’s population more than doubled from 2.5 million to 5.6 million, increasing pressure on food supplies.
Before large-scale factories, Britain had cottage industries including home cloth-making, metal production in the Midlands and coal mining in the North.
Further detail
In the 16th century, as many as nine out of ten people in England lived in rural communities, often growing food for their own families rather than for sale.
Poor harvests from 1594 to 1597 intensified hardship in a period when grain prices rose faster than average wages.
Colonial markets and domestic demand for goods such as sugar and tobacco enriched merchants in ports including Liverpool and Bristol; the crops were often harvested by enslaved people in the colonies.
Enclosure and population growth strain rural livelihoods → labor and markets support expanding industry.
By the time of James Hargreaves’s death, more than 20,000 spinning jennies were in use across Britain.
In the early 18th century, Abraham Darby developed a cheaper, easier method of producing cast iron using a coke-fueled furnace instead of a charcoal-fired furnace.
★ Must-know
📌 In 1750, farming was the most common work and travel was by foot, horse or boat; by 1900, fast railways crossed Britain and many people worked in factories, mines or transport.
The journey from London to Edinburgh took twelve days by road in 1750, two days by road in 1825 and nine hours by train in 1900.
By 1900, water was piped into towns, streets were cleaned and sewers improved, while people understood that dirt and germs caused illness and killer diseases had become less common.
Further detail
By 1900, steamships, railways, steam locomotives and electric trams served an industrial landscape of factories, chimneys and densely packed workers’ housing, with less agricultural land.
By 1900, doctors could prevent many killer diseases and knew how to put patients to sleep during operations.
From horse, foot and boat to railways; London–Edinburgh travel fell from twelve days to nine hours.
★ Must-know
Industrialization drew women from domestic and home-based work into mines and mills as machines replaced individual labour and industries needed coal.
Women were paid less than men and employers assigned them tasks such as printing and operating spinning machines that required less strength.
Women’s paid industrial work did not replace unpaid domestic duties such as cooking, cleaning and childcare.
Further detail
In the late 18th century, many families sought employment together in the same factory or mine, while factory work gave some single women greater independence.
Some women in factories worked up to 80 hours a week in dangerous conditions and were served inedible food.
Paid factory or mine labor was added to women’s continuing unpaid domestic work.
Take a 22-question practice quiz on The Age of Industrialization in Europe, with every answer explained.
1. Which change best defines the Industrial Revolution?
2. Where and when did the Industrial Revolution begin before spreading elsewhere?
Memorize the key concepts of The Age of Industrialization in Europe with 56 flashcards.
What economic shift defined the Industrial Revolution?
A shift from agriculture and handicraft to industry and machine manufacturing.
Where and when did the Industrial Revolution begin?
In Britain in the late 1700s.
Where did the Industrial Revolution spread after beginning in Britain?
To other parts of the world.
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