The Industrial Revolution Packet Summary

The Industrial Revolution started in England around the eighteenth century because of the demand in the textile industry. I thought it was really interesting that this one industry sparked an entire revolution in communications, socio-economic status, inventions, etc. From the birth of many inventions in the textile industry came the first example of a factory system, which led to urbanization of many products. I never realized how competitive it was during this revolution. In the section British dominance of the industrial age, it said that Belgium and Germany started to catch up with England, so England made laws that would stop the global growth of this new type of industry that seemed to have been working for them. I also thought it was amazing that the industrial revolution affected so many things, for instance socio-economic status and the entire culture of the areas in the revolution. It caused advantages and disadvantages. Globalization and technology became popular, but with that came many downfalls. The working class were often mistreated in factories, even though they were the backbone of this revolution. This mistreatment of workers caused unions and strikes to become extremely popular. It was an idea of standing up for your rights. Another disadvantage was that child labor became popular with the idea that it was cheap labor for long hours. Thankfully, that caused many activists and governments to make laws against child labor. Overall, I think that without the Industrial Revolution we would not be where we are today in terms of technology and the connections between this world.