we call Industrial Revolution to the process that took place in England at the end of century XVIII. The Industrial Revolution it meant the replacement of an economy based on manual labor with one based on industry and manufacturing. But its social consequences went much deeper than a mere change in the form of production. The Industrial Revolution It is considered one of the most important events in the history of mankind from the invention of agriculture about 10,000 years ago.
Preconditions
As we have anticipated, the Industrial Revolution occurred in the first instance in England. This was not accidental. In England There were certain conditions without which this great advance would not have been possible. We can mention some of them:
- disarticulation of the agrarian economy model-based feudal,
- a population growing,
- the development of technical advances to improve the production,
- new ways of work organization (workshops of manufacture) ,
- the expansion of international market.
The appearance of the factory
The first industry to develop was textilein which the cotton coming from the colonies. To improve the productive work some were introduced inventions recent as the steam enginethe mechanical spinning machine and the automatic loom. With them one made serial productionwhich generated a large amount of productslower cost than those made by hand.
These machines they were very expensive, therefore they could not be acquired by the simple workers. only the bourgeois wealthy had him money necessary to invest in buying them. In addition they were machines large and heavy, so they had to be located in large buildings: the factories.
The workers
with this new technology the workers they stopped working on the little ones workshops or at your home. Now large amounts of workers they congregated in the factory. And how the factory was located in the citya huge number of people left the countryside and migrated to areas urban.
One consequence of this new way of production was that the worker no longer controlled the making of the product as a whole, as was the case with the previous jobs handcrafted. He now she performed a small part of that process, which was repeated a large number of times. The Workdays they could arrive at 14 hours or more. For him they received a salarywhich was very low and not enough to cover basic needs.
capital
In the Industrial Revolution it was essential the capital in order to afford the payment of the wagesthe machinesthe buildingsthe raw Materials. Let us remember that the capital is he money which is used for invest on the production with the aim of obtaining more money thanks to the Profits. who contributed the capital for these new Business they were great bourgeois merchants Y landowners.
From a more global perspective, it should be noted that the enormous capital that was required to push the Industrial Revolution had two origins. One of them riches obtained from the economic exploitation of the colonies. The other, the Profits that occurred on agricultural growth.
consequences of the industrial revolution
The consequences of the industrial revolution they were drastic for the model of world society and economy. It went from an agricultural and livestock economy based on the individual work of each one, to a production model in which technology and machinery were used in large plants to offer greater production.
First, there were great social changes. There was a great boom in bourgeoisie which was mainly the one that contributed the capital. On the other hand, a large number of workers were also needed for the factories and production plants, which gave rise to the appearance of the working class. Soon, these two classes would begin to clash, in part over working conditions, wages and workers’ rights, or that has led to several revolts, revolutions and workers’ struggles throughout history, as in the case of the Russian Revolution, the revolution of the Soviets.
also changed the economy. Mercantilism and free trade spread like wildfire, favored by the great increase in production capacity and the great existing demand. During this time, large companies begin to appear, those with the largest facilities and the largest number of workers. The differences between the rich and the poor, between the bourgeoisie and aristocracy and workers, are becoming more and more accentuated.
Countries are becoming more industrialized. Advances in the textile sector, in transport and in almost all areas favor the appearance of more and more factories. This also causes a demographic change. The passage from the countryside to the city is becoming more and more accentuated, the Rural exodus. The peasants go to the cities in search of work, with which the rural environment is progressively abandoned. Most of these people who led rural exoduses end up working in the sun on any plantation for a miserable salary. In this sense, it is worth mentioning the large number of deaths and illnesses that occurred at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution due to unhealthy working conditions and very little safety.
Another of the consequences of the Industrial Revolution, in this case negative, which has not been given importance until very recently (and still does not get the attention it deserves) is pollution. The proliferation of factories, means of transport and the use of polluting energies on a daily basis has given rise to an enormous and progressive increase in pollutionwhich today has already crystallized in phenomena such as the hole in the ozone layer or climate change, specifically with the so-called global warming.
It can be said that, since the industrial revolution, everything has evolved much faster.
Video about the Industrial Revolution
You can find numerous videos and documentaries related to the Industrial Revolution as it is a key period in the history and evolution of humanity. We leave you this very interesting documentary from Canal Historia, it is in Spanish and it answers a question: what did the industrial revolution do for us?
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