Economic Effects Of The Industrial Revolution

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Kacie Lee 2/23/18 Tomasetti AP World P.6 Practice Essay #3 The advent of the industrial revolution was a big historical moment. This revolution impacted the world in many different ways such economically and socially. In the period between 1750 and 1900, although certain aspects of the quality of life for the average worker was positively affected due to an increased number of jobs and cheaper goods, overall, other factors such as unsafe and crude working conditions, child labor, and bad living conditions from most of the factories negatively affected the quality of life for the average worker as a result of the advent of the industrial revolution. Before the period of industrialization, was the commercial and scientific revolution. The commercial…show more content…
Richard Arkwright started the creation of new technology by creating a machine that used waterpower to weave cotton. Not only was this new machine substantially faster, but also lead to the creation of factories and mass production. However, due to these machines being powered by water, these factories were established by the water. In 1765, James Watt created the steam engine, which let factories spread all throughout the land because they were no longer waterpower dependent. With a creation of many more factories, many jobs were available. However, the average worker’s quality of life generally decreased as the jobs became more unsafe and cruel, living conditions worsened. The Sadler Committee was a group that exposed the British factories for being inhumane. The average worker began to work as a child in factories, 16 hours each day with only one 40-minute lunch break (doc 1). Workers were abused and given no education. Most workers also became ill as a result of inhaling the dust in the factories (doc 4). Many died and were injured due to the crude machines that they were forced to use. Both document 1 and 4’s purpose of exposing the cruel nature of the British factories is relevant to the argument that the average worker in this time period had life bad. Additionally, the point of view for both documents 1 and 4 help prove my argument more because since these are testimonies from factory workers, a more…show more content…
The effects of a revolution repeats throughout history – both the industrial revolution and agricultural revolution created new forms of labor. While the industrial revolution created factory workers due to an increased amount of factories built throughout the world, the agricultural revolution lead to specialization of labor, where people were free to become a merchant, artist, writer, etc. Before both the industrial revolution, there weren’t any factory workers and similarly, before the agricultural revolution, everyone was a hunter and gatherer. Although these two scenarios differ slightly from each other, the fact that both revolutions created new types of labor is continued through
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