A Revolutionary Revolution

     To begin our unit on the industrial revolution, our class watched a brief video that gave us a lot of brief information about this revolution. Our main focus was to figure out what things were revolutionary about the revolution.  We then put these "things" in categories labeled people, technology, resources, and transportation. In my opinion, the two most important categories are people and technology.


     During the industrial revolution, people and the way they worked changed for the better. Before the industrial revolution, 80% of people were farmers trying to feed everyone. Today, only 1% of people claimed that farming was their occupation. This drastic change was due to new farming techniques. The fields were being made larger, fertilizer was being used, and much more crops were being harvested each year with less farmers. With the improved techniques and fertilizers, crops that were out of season could be grown and eaten during every season. The enclosure movement also helped the farming industry. Fields that were once occupied by peasant farmer, were fenced off by rich landowners and created more space to cultivate more crops. Also, this created more pastures for sheep which increases the wool that was being collected. With more wool there is a need for more workers and that was also now possible because not as many farmers were needed to grow crops so they could move into the cities and work the machines. With everything taken into account, the death rates were declining. Now there was not such a risk for famine. Also, women were healthier and having healthier babies. All in all, people's jobs during the industrial revolution changed and they were living longer.



     Another important aspect to the industrial revolution, is the technology that is being invented. There were many inventions that contributed to the clothing industry. The spinning jenny, flying shuttle, and water frame all increased the production in textile mills. These inventions were the cause for factories. More machines could be stored and operated all at once and more clothing could be made. Spinning was significantly faster which made clothing ore available to the people. With more factories, more electrical energy was needed. This problem was solved by the invention of the steam engine which produced electrical energy by burning coal to power trains, boats, and these new large factories. One last invention is the improved iron. The Darby family was able to find ways to make cheaper and stronger iron while also removing the impurities. Now iron was more reliable and more railroads could be made with it for more transportation.


Now these of course aren't the only good things from the industrial revolution. There are many more but this is just to give you an idea. To view the video my class watched click HERE.

Image from HERE .