Industrial Revolution Study Guide

Jeremy Bentham

(1748-1832) British theorist and philosopher who proposed utilitarianism, the principle that governments should operate on the basis of utility, or the greatest good for the greatest number.

traditional farming

According with general definition traditional farming refers to agricultural practices that have been passed down through generations and have not been modified or industrialized. It often involves small-scale, sustainable methods of growing and harvesting crops and raising livestock. Disadvantage: Conventional agriculture causes increased greenhouse gas emissions, soil erosion, water pollution, and threatens human health. Organic farming has a smaller carbon footprint, conserves and builds soil health, replenishes natural ecosystems for cleaner water and air, all without toxic pesticide residues.

Industrial Revolution

A series of improvements in industrial technology transformed the process of manufacturing goods. It was the transition from creating goods by hand to using machines. Origins: Most historians place the origin of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain in the middle decades of the 18th century. In the British Isles and most of Europe at this time, most social activity took place in small and medium-sized villages. Why it began in Britain: Success in international trade created Britain's high wage, cheap energy economy, and it was the spring board for the Industrial Revolution. High wages and cheap energy created a demand for technology that substituted capital and energy for labour. These incentives operated in many industries. Impact/Importance: The Industrial Revolution shifted societies from an agrarian economy to a manufacturing economy where products were no longer made solely by hand but by machines. This led to increased production and efficiency, lower prices, more goods, i

Agricultural Revolution

An agricultural revolution definition outlines specific periods in human civilization when farming techniques drastically improved the mass cultivation of crops within a relatively short period of time. This leads to greater production of food and the transformation of societies and economies. Impact: The agricultural revolutions affected how people worked and got their food. The first caused people to grow crops and raise animals for food. The second caused people to move into cities and work in factories. The third led to an increase in human population.

Urbanization

An increase in the percentage and in the number of people living in urban settlements. Population Movement: With industrialization, improvements in medical knowledge and public health, together with a more regular food supply, bring about a drastic reduction in the death rate but no corresponding decline in the birth rate. The result is a population explosion, as experienced in 19th-century Europe. Living Conditions: Poor quality housing: houses were built very close together so there was little light or fresh air inside them. They did not have running water and people found it difficult to keep clean. Houses often suffered from damp due to their thin walls and roofs made out of cheap materials. Working Conditions: The working conditions in factories were often harsh. Hours were long, typically ten to twelve hours a day. Working conditions were frequently unsafe and led to deadly accidents. Tasks tended to be divided for efficiency's sake which led to repetitive and monotonous work for

Capitalism

Basic Characteristics: Capitalism is often thought of as an economic system in which private actors own and control property in accord with their interests, and demand and supply freely set prices in markets in a way that can serve the best interests of society. The essential feature of capitalism is the motive to make a profit.

Predictions about the collapse of capitalism

Crisis theory, concerning the causes and consequences of the tendency for the rate of profit to fall in a capitalist system, is associated with Marxian critique of political economy, and was further popularised through Marxist economics.

David Ricardo

David Ricardo was an 18th-century English economist renowned for his contributions to economic theory. He developed the comparative advantage theory, labor theory of value, and the theory of rents, which have founded other schools of thought and form the basis of current economic policies and decisions.

Bessemer Process

Description: A way to manufacture steel quickly and cheaply by blasting hot air through melted iron to quickly remove impurities. Impact: The biggest way that the Bessemer Process changed the world was by making steel cost-effective and mass-producible. Steel became a dominant construction material solely because of this invention. In England, the cost of steel dropped from £40 GBP to £6-7 GBP per long ton. New Industries created: Simply put, the Bessemer process was a game-changer for both the steel industry and the world economy. By making steel production faster, cheaper, and more consistent, it enabled a wide range of new applications and industries to emerge, such as skyscrapers, bridges, ships, railways, and weapons.

Laissez-faire

In laissez-faire policy, the government's role is to protect the rights of the individual, rather than regulating business in any way. The term 'laissez-faire' translates to 'leave alone' when it comes to economic intervention. This means no taxes, regulations, or tariffs.

Steam Engine

James Watt: (Jan 19, 1736-August 25, 1819) James Watt FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world. Why it was created: The first steam engines, like the engine invented by Thomas Newcomen, were used to pump water from coal mines. Later engines, such as the engine of James Watt, created in 1765, increased the efficiency and convenience of the steam engine. Impact: The steam engine resulted in the creation of semi-automated factories, and it increased goods production in places where water power was not available. In the 1800s, once coal-fired steam engines had been adapted for use with railways and ships, the international trade of goods and resources expanded tremendously. Industries created due to this: The transport sector saw enormou

Cottage Industry

Manufacturing based in homes rather than in a factory, commonly found before the Industrial Revolution. Effects and Impacts: Cottage industries may be the original remote work system. Before the Industrial Revolution, they opened a way for people living in rural areas to make a living doing labor-intensive jobs like spinning wool, tanning leather, and sewing clothing.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Marx and Engels founded Marxist theory and in 1845 published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research in Manchester, England. In 1848 the co-authored The Communist Manifesto. Later, Engels supported Marx financially to do research and write Das Kapital.

Marxism

Marxism justifies and predicts the emergence of a stateless and classless society without private property. That vaguely socialist society, however, would be preceded by the violent seizure of the state and the means of production by the proletariat, who would rule in an interim dictatorship. Basic Characteristics: Some of the most important ideas in Marxism are economic determinism, historical materialism, the theory of class division of society and class struggle, the theory of base and superstructure, the Leninist theory of socialist revolution and the theory of imperialism.

How and why Marxism began to develop

Marxism was first publicly formulated in 1848 in the pamphlet The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, which lays out the theory of class struggle and revolution. Generally, Marxism argues that capitalism as a form of economic and social reproduction is inherently flawed and will ultimately fail.

Enclosure Movement

Nobles pushed for control of the land, arguing that it would be more productive under their use. While the Enclosure Movement did make agriculture more productive, giving farmers the ability to feed a larger population, poor farmers were pushed off of their land and lost their livelihoods.

Countries and leaders who inspired by Marxist ideas

Russia (1917-1991): Vladimir Lenin & Joseph Stalin Cuba (1959-Present): Fidel Castro & Ernesto "Che" Guevara North Vietnam (1954-Present): Ho Chi Minh China (1949-Present): Mao Zedong North Korea (1948-Present): Kim Il-Sung & Kim Jong-Il

Adam Smith

The essential feature of capitalism is the motive to make a profit. As Adam Smith, the 18th century philosopher and father of modern economics, said: "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest."

Crop Rotation

The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil. Now, by rotating crops, fields were seeded with a different crop each year so as not to drain the fertility out of the soil. They were planted with wheat one year, root crops (such as turnips) the next, and clover the third, greatly increasing productivity.

The Communist Manifesto

The text outlines the relationship between the means of production, relations of production, forces of production, and the mode of production, and posits that changes in society's economic base effect changes in its superstructure.

The Wealth of Nations

The two major ideas in "The Wealth of Nations" are a free market and an invisible hand. A free market is an economic system with little to no government interference. The invisible hand is the idea that people's self-interest helps them make decisions that benefit themselves, and in the long term, society.

Thomas Malthus

Thomas Malthus was an 18th-century British economist best known for his theory that human populations tend to outgrow their agricultural production capabilities, resulting in famines and other disasters.

Socialism (utopian)

Utopian socialism is often described as the presentation of visions and outlines for imaginary or futuristic ideal societies, with positive ideals being the main reason for moving society in such a direction.

Water Frame

Water frame developed by Richard Arkwright in 1775. Installed in water powered factories, the machine could spin large quantities of cotton yarn. Its operation relied on a supply of raw cotton grown by enslaved people.

Factory System

What caused it to develop: The factory system was a new way of organizing labor made necessary by the development of machines, which were too large to house in a worker's cottage and much too expensive to be owned by the worker. One of the earliest factories was John Lombe's water-powered silk mill at Derby, operational by 1721. Division of Labor: Specialization and division of labor were Smith's major contributions to management thought. The division of labor meant that a worker specialized in performing one task that was part of a larger series of tasks, at the end of which a product would be produced. Impact of the factory system: Overall, the factory system had a profound impact on the economy and society. It led to the mass production of goods and the development of new industries, but it also had significant social and environmental consequences, such as the exploitation of workers and the degradation of the natural environment.

Iron & Coal Industries

What the resources were needed for: Coal and iron were two essential materials that played a key role in this process. In this article, we will explore the importance of coal and iron in the industrial revolution and discuss some of the key developments in their production. How were they obtained: The traditional method of iron production was called 'smelting'. This involved heating iron ore in a furnace until it liquefied, and then pouring it into moulds to cool and solidify. Early slope or drift mines intersected coal seams relatively close to the surface and needed only small capital investments to prepare. Most miners still used picks and shovels to extract the coal, but some miners used black powder to blast holes in the coal seams, then loaded the broken coal onto wagons by hand.

Textile Industry

Why it began: It started with the mechanization of the textile industries, the development of iron-making techniques, and the increased use of refined coal. Trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads, and railways. Factories pulled thousands from low-productivity work in agriculture to high-productivity urban jobs.

Spinning Jenny

a multi-spindle spinning frame, and was one of the key developments in the industrialisation of textile manufacturing during the early Industrial Revolution. It was invented in 1764 or 1765 by James Hargreaves in Stan hill, Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire in England.

Seed Drill

created by Jethro Tull, it allowed farmers to sow seeds in well-spaced rows at specific depths; this boosted crop yields. The seed drill was a major innovation that was able to plant seeds in the earth instead of on the surface which would cause the seeds to be blown away or eaten by animals. This innovation greatly increased crop yields simply by inserting the seeds into the ground.

Utilitarianism

idea that the goal of society should be to bring about the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people General Characteristic: the core idea of utilitarianism is that we should want to improve the well-being of everyone by as much as possible. Utilitarian theories share four elements: consequentialism, welfarism, impartiality, and aggregationism.

Bourgeoisie and Proletariat

the bourgeoisie were antagonists in an emerging class struggle, but this time they faced the proletariat (working class). The struggle would be fierce but the workers would overthrow the bourgeois. the proletariat would then form a dictatorship do reorganize the means of production, resulting in a classless society which would not represent the views of any class, ending class struggles.