Society and lifestyle

The Industrial Revolution, 1760 to 1840

The Industrial Revolution, began in the 18th century Britain, it was a complex social and economical modernization with significant changes in all fields of economical life (in industry, in agriculture, in infrastructure and urban areas) and had it´s great effects on society. Basically, the Industrial Revolution means a shift from using hand tools to more power machines, from home to the factory, from the country to the city, from human or animal power to engines powered by fossil fuels such as coal but later oil. The Industrial Revolution changes where we live, how we work, what we wear, what we eat, what we do for fun, how we are educated, how long we live and so on. 
In that period of time people began to believe in science and the force of technology. The Enlightenment, known also as the Age of Reason and also including the interest in progress and better lives for people also helped it. The Industrial Revolution represented as IR it began in agriculture because the English landowners began buying up much of the lands and began to improve the farming methods. Landowners began to try new agricultural methods like for example new crop rotation or they even came up with the idea of the inventions. If you work with machines you will have less need to have more workers. This forced to the farmers to to give up farming and move up to the cities. The hole story began in England with the colonization because there was more capital to invest in mass production. The British colonies were excellent in markets and the trade with other countries. England was a very well-workeed island. Additionaly with the help of the stable government and the lack of internal trade barries which means that there is one island and a country.

This old photo represents the smokestacks in Pittsburgh which is located near Pennsylvania in 1890s.
While time passed, in history it occur a very big difference between the pre-industrial societies and later the industrial societies. For example in the pre-industrial society people used in the factory the the hand tools, and with this I mean that people did not had machines to do their work. instead later in the industrial society the people that worked in the factory they used to work with machines. The work in the pre-industrial societies took place at home, people used to work at home while then in the industrial society they used to go to work to the industries. In the pre-industrial societies people used to live in the countryside although in the industrial societies they used to go to work to the city. Finally to conclude, in the pre-industrial societies the energy power the people used in their lives was the human or animal power and in the industrial societies they used the steam. There was such a big difference  between them!

Pre-industrial societies

                                                     

                                                              Industrial society

The quality of life of the low classes in industrial societies

The workers in that period of time did not have many labour chances against the factory owners. They did have to work more hours for less money. They did not have the opportunity to change their situation because they did not have political rights. In that time they worked aproxiamtely 10-14 hours, 6 days a week without any break or vacation. Due to this reason workers lost their original rhythm of life: they had to live according to the shifts in the factories and as I have said before they did not have any break or free time either. The workers were not helped a lot by the government. The houses were horrible and provided the residents with poor conditions. Water and air pollution was terrible and most of the cities were not planned yet. The children and women did not have better lives either. Child labour was cheap, secure and free from dangers of other workers. Children worked also a lot of hours and sometimes it was even worser than for the adults. 


- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF7-vN-aLOM (This video is a short documentary where it explains what is the industrial revolution, all the causes and consequences of it.)

-  http://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution/videos/the-industrial-revolition
(This video also summeries basically what the industrial revolution is, where and where did it occur and so on.)