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Homework for October 14th
Directions: Actively complete the following reading. Answer the
following question on page 15 in the number boxed that correlates.
Question: How did the Industrial Revolution bring change?
Social Impact of the Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution brought great riches to most of the entrepreneurs who
helped set it in motion. For the millions of workers who crowded into the new factories,
however, the industrial age brought poverty and harsh living conditions.
In time, reforms would curb many of the worst abuses of the early industrial age
in Europe and the Americas. As standards of living increased, people at all levels of
society would benefit from industrialization. Until then, working people would suffer with
dangerous working conditions; unsafe, unsanitary, and over- crowded housing; and
unrelenting poverty.
1. People Move to New Industrial Cities
The Industrial Revolution brought rapid urbanization or the movement of people
to cities. Changes in farming, soaring population growth, and an ever-increasing
demand for workers led masses of people to migrate from farms to cities. Almost
overnight, small towns around coal or iron mines mushroomed into cities. Other cities
grew up around the factories that entrepreneurs built in once-quiet market towns.
The British market town of Manchester numbered 17,000 people in the 1750s.
Within a few years, it exploded into a center of the textile industry. Its population soared
to 40,000 by 1780 and 70,000 by 1801. Visitors described the "cloud of coal vapor" that
polluted .
2. New Social Classes Emerge
The Industrial Revolution created a new middle class along with the working
class. Those in the middle class owned and operated the new factories, mines, and
railroads, among other industries. Their lifestyle was much more comfortable than that
of the industrial working class.
When farm families moved to the new industrial cities, they became workers in
mines or factories. Many felt lost and bewildered. They faced tough working conditions
in uncomfortable environments. In time, though, factory and mine workers developed
their own sense of community despite the terrible working conditions.
3. The Industrial Middle Class
Those who benefited most from the Industrial Revolution were the entrepreneurs
who set it in motion. The Industrial Revolution created this new middle class, or
bourgeoisie, whose members came from a variety of backgrounds. Some were
merchants who invested their growing profits in factories. Others were inventors or
skilled artisans who developed new technologies. Some rose from "rags to riches," a
pattern that the age greatly admired.
