The Industrial Revolution was a time of great change throughout the world and marks a major turning point in History. This transition happened from 1760 to the later part of the 19th century. The Revolution originated in the United Kingdom and soon expanded to Western Europe and the United States. The Revolution transformed the U.S. from an agricultural economy to an industrial one, as well as impacting the economy and the general population. The United States used to be mostly agrarian, work and manufacturing was done in people’s homes and many workers would use hand-made machines or tools. Once industrialization started to spread, it changed the system of how people worked and lived. Now, many workers were introduced to new machinery, factories …show more content…
During The Revolution, inventors and engineers improved technology by making it easier to transport goods and be able to create more things due to advanced technology and machinery at the time. Merchants and manufacturers built factories and exploited a wide range of resources and as the output increased, goods that had once been luxury items became part of everyday life. As mass production spread, the American Industrial Revolution began to come of age. In the article, Consumerism and the Industrial Revolution, Ben Fine and Ellen Leopold argue that consumerism had a major effect on the ‘lower classes’ of the time and urbanization created a much higher standard of living than ever before (Fine and Leopold). This relates to my topic and how the demand of lower classes increased because of all of the new products were coming in. One of America’s foremost industrialists, Henry Ford, helped revolutionize the assembly-line and produce the first successful automobile. Since Henry Ford was an industrialist, he knew all of the new technology used and relied on it for his career. Henry Ford states, "We are entering an era when we shall create resources which shall be so constantly renewed that the only loss will be not to use them. There will be such a plenteous supply of heat, light and power that it will be a sin not to use all we want. This era is coming now. And it is coming by way of Water" (Henry Ford). This source helps further prove my thesis because he was alive during that time and believed that the new era would create new resources and the U.S. would be able to advance and progress for the better. Before the Industrial Revolution, the economy was agricultural and then it transformed into an economy that depended on industrialization and new technology and
There are several different ways that the industrial revolution transformed the United States of America. There was an abundance of people along the way to help and support the buildup. At the same time, there were other people that did not support the changes and the huge transformation. Before the industrial revolution, many people worked in agriculture. They would make a living working on their farms with family members.
With the American Industrial Revolution in full swing, the shift in society was prevalent. In the late 19th century the growth of the industry moved Americans from rural farms to factories. This shift in mass production, made production faster and cheaper. Although the United States prevailed as the powerhouse of production, it came with some sacrifices. The factory worker was unskilled and paid a low wage.
The early industrial revolution was a time of the biggest change in the American economy. Advancements in the textile industry, changes in social class structure and increased transportation infrastructure were defining aspects of the industrial revolution. With the victory in the War of 1812 the Americans realized that it was time to produce goods in our country and to stop relying on Great Britain. The textile industry was the mark of change from home made products to products being produced in factories.
“And the new industrial cities became, as we read earlier, sources of wealth for the nation” (Effects of the Industrial Revolution). Since the businesses and people were making more money the cities became wealth for the nation because hardly anyone was in debt. The more money they made was caused by being able to make more products faster than before. Finally, the population was on a rise so they had to meet more people's demands. “Production expanded, leading by the end of the 18th century to a first wave of consumerism as rural wage earners began to purchase new kinds of commercially produced clothing, while urban middle-class families began to indulge in new tastes, such as uplifting books and educational toys for children” (Revolution and the Growth of the Industrial society 1789-1914).
The new factory system allowed products to be more widely available to the public. The price dropped due to the increase of production and now even the lower classes in society could afford these mass produced products. “You are surrounded… with an infinite number of comforts and conveniences which had no existence two or three centuries ago and those comforts are not used only by a few, but are within the reach of almost all men.” (Document 4) Document 4 demonstrates the idea of how things products that didi’t exist previously was able to be in the hands of whoever wanted it. Another positive affect of the Industrial Revolution was how there were many more jobs available within society.
The Industrial Revolution was a time when the world was experiencing new inventions very often. In the late 1700s, the Industrial Revolution came to America with a man named Samuel Slater, who had memorized a design for a new technology. Slater introduced America to the textile-making industry, building America's first textile mill on Rhode Island. After this, many new inventions and processes surfaced, helping America rise to the top in global economy. This new system of manufacturing overturned America's old agricultural based economy, which means that the Industrial Revolution really was a revolution.
The Industrial Revolution shaped the growing economy at the time in many positive and negative aspects. The Industrial Revolution took place during the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s and was considered to be the “New Industrial.” Many things were brought to the economy at the time due to this occurring; some in which being machinery, technology, production of goods, and even performance. The economy was not the only thing greatly affected by this revolution but the farmers, the working-class, and the middle-class were also affected to a deep extent.
The Industrial Revolution was the urbanization of rural areas, and the development of factories and machines. These transformations allowed economic prosperity and brought along tremendous plusses, and were still seeing the success in these up-comings today. “…Industrial Revolution spread to the
The Industrial Revolution, lasting from the late 1700s until the early 1900s, was possibly one of the greatest time periods in this world’s history. This time period caused people to think more and dream bigger. From these big dreams rose up inventors, entrepreneurs, and business owners. The Industrial Revolution brought many new inventions and production processes, but along with great new things come great terrible horrors. While some might argue that Industrialization had primarily positive consequences for society because of the new production methods and what they produced, it was actually a negative thing for society.
The general agreement in the historical society on the consumer revolution in the eighteenth century is that it was born from the population increase. Most historians argue that increased consumption of goods and materials was in response to new demands rising from the increasing population of most European countries throughout the century. Hufton is one of the historians that draws a parallel between the buying, selling and manufacturing of luxury goods and the population growth experience in Europe. Hufton argues that the agricultural demands in the 1700s gave birth to new wealth, consumer expenditure, the demand for luxury clothing and a high demand of basic commodities.
The Industrial Revolution began in England in the 1700’s within the textile industry. The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes by using different machines. Before the Industrial Revolution people made different things by hand or simple tools. For example, people wove textiles by hand, and after the Industrial Revolution machines were used instead. The Industrial Revolution began in England because of many reasons.
A spectacular and sweeping revolution that illuminated Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Industrial Revolution existed as a distinguishing event that changed the course of Europe for centuries to come. The Industrial Revolution is summed up as the period in Europe in which the growth of technological innovation sparked improvements in the European way of production. Large factories opened to mass-produce textiles, and the new steam engine allowed mines to operate more efficiently. The Industrial Revolution, moreover, completely transformed the European way of life.
Our age has witnessed a rapid economic growth accompanied by surging consumer demand and mass production ever since about two hundred years ago during the first industrial revolution. Technological productivity highly increases, and so does the extraction of resources, production of goods and services, and consumption of various newly-developed products. Then here comes the time when consumerism begins on the stage of history--coming across the rusty old age of past desires for simplicity, it rather concentrates on “the chronic purchasing of goods and services, with little attention to their true need, durability, product origin or the environmental consequences of manufacture and disposal,” bringing about benefits as well as challenges (Verdant).
However there was one problem, transportation, the key in expanding in the territory that america had. At first people started using the rivers to travel around the colonies, but one man, Peter Cooper, had created the first American Steam Locomotive. This was the true beginning for the Industrial revolution, the time when machines were becoming a part of life. From The Tom Thumb, rode a new mode of transportation over rivers, by countrysides, and through mountains, locomotive trains. The big iron brutes are the main thing we think of when we think of the Industrial revolution, as well as steamboats, cotton gins, and other inventions in the time of the 1800’s through the 1900’s.
The Industrial Revolution was a major change in the nature of production in which machines replaced tools and steam and other energy sources replaced human or animal power. The Industrial Revolution began in England in the middle 1700s. During the Industrial Revolution, workers became more productive, items were manufactured, prices dropped, making hard to make items available to the working and middle class and not only the wealthy. Life generally improved, but the Industrial Revolution was also harmful. Pollution increased, working conditions were harmful, and capitalists employed women and young children, making them work long hours for low wages.