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Introduction

The Overall view of the Industrial Revolution

Huge changes took place during the 1750's through the 1900's.  By 1850, towns and cities were 10 times larger then they had been 100 years before.  This is because of the Industrial Revolution!

The growth of towns and cities is one of the enormous changes that took place during the Industrial Revolution.  Urbanization was a big issue.

The reason who people were moving from the country-side to the cities was because of the new jobs that were being offered in cities and the decrease of profit in the Domestic System.  The fast developing iron, coal and textile industries or mines offered thousands of new jobs.

However, during the Industrial Revolution, people did not always move to cities .  Many thousands of people left Britain forever, and moved to another continent.  They left for South America (e.g. Argentina), South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and North America.   Most of the emigrants left because of all the hardships of Britain during this time.  During these years, people in Britain suffered from terrible difficulties such as low-pay, poverty, unemployment despite the jobs in cities, famines and epidemic diseases.  Migration to new countries offered new hope and a new beginning. 

Also, during this time, many changes in technology and methods of transports occurred:

• New roads were built, new better designs of coaches, with narrower wheels which meant that the coaches could move faster.  

• The great expansions of canals began in the 1760's.  Within the next 30 years from there, a whole national network of them had been created.  These canales permitted heavy cargo to travel quickly from city to city.  These canals were ideal for transporting coal and iron.

• Railways were probably the best improvement.  In 1832, 166 miles of railway track was opened.  By 1850, there was 6 559 miles of railway open.  Railways were ideal to transport heavy cargo as well.  Railways also gave a huge boost to the Iron industry.

There were other changes in the Industrial Revolution.  New inventions were being invented very quickly and there were several changes in industry.  New inventions made it possible for cloth to be spun more quickly, meaning that factory owners could make more money.

Britain became involved with international trade as well as everything else and during this time it got the name of "Workshop of the World".

Also during this time, there were changed in government, because, although it took a very long time, more and more working men were getting the rights to vote.

The Industrial Revolution was not all wonderful.  Although there were more jobs, working conditions for these workers were not brilliant.  Child Labor was used in most dangerous factories and there were many many diseases.

Since there are a lot of changes, we decided to do a project which could show all these changes very easily.  Click on "The Project" button to find out more.