Reflecting and consolidating

Chapter summary
  • Changes in technology can improve our lives, and can also completely change the way we live. The period in Britain between about 1750 and 1850 is known as the Industrial Revolution, because it dramatically altered the lives of millions of people in Britain and across the world.
  • The greatest change was in the creation of energy.
  • Until then, energy came from human labour, animal labour or from the power of wind or water. When people harnessed the power of steam, and developed a steam-driven engine, they made more power available than ever before.
  • Another great change was the increase in the size and efficiency of industries like coalmining and iron making. A number of clever inventors created a series of new machines to increase the speed of production and the quality of output. This coal and iron became the raw materials for further industrial growth.
  • A third change occurred in the textile industry, where the introduction of steam engines could drive great machines for the spinning of thread and the weaving of cloth.
  • Millions of people left their villages and farms to find work in the new industrial cities. Many workers laboured long hours in dangerous conditions for poor wages. Others found only unemployment and poverty.
  • The Industrial Revolution also had an impact on the environment. Existing cities grew larger, and developed poor suburbs known as slums. New industrial cities sprang up near factories, and also had bad living conditions.
  • The Industrial Revolution caused social problems that raised debate about issues of social justice and the responsibility of governments to regulate industry with laws such as the Factory Act. Writers, artists and analysts all tried to make social problems visible to the general public, and had some success in mobilising public opinion to force governments to take action.
  • The Industrial Revolution also transformed life in Australia. Australians were quick to pick up the promise of the steam-driven train and tram, to apply steam engines to their factories, and to use gas and (later) electrical lighting.
  • We are still living with the effects of the Industrial Revolution, and are still learning to manage it properly. It is one thing to massively increase production, but another to use resources sustainably and to recycle scarce materials. The final triumph of the Industrial Revolution will occur when coming generations manage to make sustainable use of the Earth’s resources.
Interactive activities

Key terms

Significant individuals

Timeline

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Short-answer questions
  1. Discuss why the invention of the steam engine allowed a whole revolution in industrial production.
  2. Discuss why the invention of the industrial canal made such a big difference to the development of the Industrial Revolution.
  3. Explain the move from the cottage system to the factory system.
  4. Why did the Industrial Revolution cause social problems in Britain? Provide examples to explain your answer.
  5. Explain how the Industrial Revolution changed life and work in Australia.
Source analysis

In the 1880s, the English writer George Sims began to explore the poor areas of London, and was horrified by the misery he saw. He published his notes in his books How the Poor Live and Horrible London.

To the particular door … there comes a poor woman. White and thin and sickly looking; in her arms she carries a girl of eight or nine with a diseased spine; behind her, clutching at her scanty [thin] dress, are two or three other children. We ask to see the room. What a room! The poor woman apologises for its condition. The walls are damp and crumbling, the ceiling is black and peeling off, the floor is rotten and breaking away in places, and the wind and the rain sweep in through gaps that seem everywhere. The woman, her husband and six children live, eat and sleep in this one room, and for this they pay three shillings a week. As to complaining about the filthy condition of the room, they know better. There are a dozen families who will jump at the accommodation, and the landlord is well aware of the fact.

Source 11.25 Sims describes visiting a filthy room in which a whole family had to live.

  1. Why would living in this room have been unhealthy for the family Sims visited? In your answer, quote evidence from his notes.
  2. Consider why the 8-year-old girl might have had a ‘diseased spine’.
  3. Why does the landlord (owner of the building) know that he does not have to make any repairs?
  4. In modern Australia, identify what sorts of laws try to protect people from bad living conditions like this.
Extended-response question

Despite appearing to promise great benefits by industrial progress, the Industrial Revolution has done more harm than good.

Do you agree with this statement? Explain some of the benefits of the Industrial Revolution. Explain the problems it caused. Decide whether it has in fact done more harm than good. In your answer, quote facts and figures, names and dates, and statistics.