When we talk of the Industrial Revolution, the first thing that comes to mind is the Rise of Machines.

Everything has pros and cons, but the Industrial Revolution was no exception. The revolution itself is a pro for the people who benefited from it.

It is a con to a certain extent for the human race and our planet because its results were established without considering its effects on nature.

Before moving over to who are the people who benefited from the revolution, let’s take a step back to know what the Industrial Revolution is and then go over to its effects on society worldwide.

1 The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution, which started in Great Britain in the middle of the 18th and early 19th centuries and eventually expanded over much of the world, was a time of significant automation and invention.

Coal and iron exploitation dominated the British Industrial Revolution.

The term that historians have given the Industrial Revolution is appropriate. It caused profound and long-lasting changes in society’s fundamental institutions, business, and economy.

Social structures remained largely unchanged from the Middle Ages before industrialization, when small-scale farming and artisan handicrafts were the dominant economic activity in the majority of European countries.

The Second Industrial Revolution, sometimes known as the American Industrial Revolution, started in the 1870s during the Gilded Age and lasted through World War II.

The automation of industries and agriculture occurred during this time, as well as the development of new forms of transportation including steamships, cars, and aircraft.

This fundamental transformation of society structure is still going on now, and it has had several consequences that have impacted Earth’s political, ecological, and cultural domains.

Additionally, the new urban industries’ work environments had a big societal influence. Most of Europe’s manufactured goods were created by craftsmen with specific talents before the Industrial Revolution.

The conventions of their trade and the constraints of the materials at hand guided their work. The major sources of energy at that time were the waterwheel, human, and animal muscle.

2 Social Impact of the Industrial Revolution

Most of the entrepreneurs who contributed to starting the Industrial Revolution became extremely wealthy as a result. However, the industrial period also brought hardship and poverty to the millions of laborers crammed into the new factories.

People from all strata of society would profit from industrialization as standards of living rose.

Rapid urbanization, or the influx of people into cities, resulted from the Industrial Revolution.

Numerous individuals moved from fields to cities as a result of changes in farming, rapid population increase, and a growing need for employees.

Along with the working class, a new middle class emerged as a result of the Industrial Revolution.

The new mines, railways, factories, and other enterprises were owned and run by the middle class. Compared to the industrial working class, their standard of living was far more pleasant.

This new middle class, or bourgeoisie, was founded by the Industrial Revolution and its members came from a range of socioeconomic origins. Some were entrepreneurs who bought industries with their expanding revenues.

Others worked as innovators or new technologies were created by talented craftspeople. A few individuals achieved rags to riches, as the saying goes.

An essentially social and economic unit, the preindustrial family played both of these roles. On a family farm, at a business, or in other ways dividing labor for the benefit of the whole family, married couples and their kids frequently worked side by side.

In the 18th century, it was also typical for both men and women in Great Britain to labor in their rural houses on piecework contracts for merchant proprietors, such as textile spinning and weaving.

It was known as the “putting-out” or domestic system, and it was a decentralized system of employment.

Families from the middle class resided on paved streets in well-furnished, large homes and had water at the ready. They ate well and wore expensive apparel.

The middle class took pride in their effort and drive to “get ahead“. Pity for the underprivileged was rare.

While the wealthy hired maids, the average person didn’t go home to work but instead focused on raising their children.

3 Effect of the Industrial Revolution on Prices

The Industrial Revolution was not always spontaneous or solely guided by the forces of the free market.

Significant social effects were also caused by the nature of labor in the new urban industries. The majority of Europe’s manufactured items were created by skilled craftsmen before the Industrial Revolution.

Their labor was governed by the conventions of their trade and the constraints of the materials at hand. The major energy sources of the time were the waterwheel, human, and animal muscle.

Throughout the 19th century, as Europe, the US, and other countries across the world developed their industrial economies, manufacturing businesses grew in size and scope.

Larger businesses with economies of scale had an edge in the cutthroat world of international trade. New, faster ones replaced older, slower ways of working and living as the globe became more industrialized.

Significant social effects were also caused by the nature of labor in the new urban industries. The majority of Europe’s manufactured items were created by skilled craftsmen before the Industrial Revolution.

3.1 Pros of the Revolution

Employment opportunities increased as a result of the Industrial Revolution.

As factories grew, more managers and workers were needed to run them, which increased the number of positions available and total earnings.

Higher education levels and more inventiveness together frequently produced multiple ground-breaking innovations that are still in use today.

The sewing machine, X-ray, lightbulb, calculator, and anesthetic are some innovations.

The Industrial Revolution altered the technology that was accessible to humans, how they worked, and ultimately where they lived.

Although living circumstances for employees remained horrendous, it made life more bearable for many people.

This eventually drove the growth of labor unions, which in turn led to better working conditions and fair compensation.

3.2 Cons of the Revolution

A lack of food production resulted from workers abandoning their farms to work in industries for greater earnings.

Urban pollution rose as a result of the sudden rise in factory construction.

Living conditions deteriorated as more people moved to the city because the few resources there were overrun.

Water sources weren’t monitored and safeguarded like they are now. As a result, rules and regulations were created to safeguard the populace.

As a result of the Industrial Revolution’s motivation to boost earnings, working conditions in factories declined.

Working long hours for little pay with little breaks became the standard. Child labor was a serious problem. Many of the plant workers began to have health problems.

4 Women and Children During the Revolution

The revolution brought a tremendous increase in the number of jobs in the job market for not only men but also women and children.

Everyone could go out, get a job, and support their families.

Women had jobs outside the house as well. Particularly unmarried women frequently held domestic service jobs.

To support their families, many British women, including mothers, worked in the textile mills. During the first century of industrialization, there was a huge problem with child labor in the textile sector.

Workers with tiny enough fingers to operate finely threaded machinery were in high demand by factory owners.

These women and children contributed significantly to the output of the business, but they received very little pay and sometimes had to labor 16 hours or more every day.

Even though female working circumstances were occasionally just as risky as those of their male coworkers, their professions were seen as being less competent.

5 Consumer

The consumers, we the people, buy anything and everything in the market just because we can have tremendously benefited from the Industrial Revolution.

Examining seriously the notion that the British Industrial Revolution was significantly influenced by a consumer revolution.

Theoretically, it is asserted, that the examination of significant shifts in supply or demand curves or both tends to provide an empirical narrative rather than a causal explanation for big economic and social change.

More precisely, and particularly in the case of clothes, it is discovered that the trickle-down theory of the wealthy imitating the poor is insufficient for either producing a significant impact on the level of demand or supplying an explanation for how desire spreads through the ‘lower’ strata.

This is not meant to discount the role that demand plays in change, just to argue that in certain historical contexts, it be organized philosophically and empirically as both cause and consequence.

Any alternative course of action would include projecting the past with a false grasp of the current consumerist culture we live in today.

6 Financer

During this time, both a manufacturing system depending on owners and managers and banks quickly attained unprecedented levels of significance.

In the early 1790s, the New York Stock Market was created, while a stock market was already in existence in London in the 1770s.

The Wealth of Nations, credited as the first work on modern economics, was published in 1776 by Scottish social philosopher Adam Smith.

In it, Smith advocated for a system of economics based on private property rights, free entrepreneurship, and little intervention by the government.

Industrialization raised economic production generally and raised middle-class and upper-class standards of living, but low and working-class people still had to struggle.

Working in factories had become increasingly boring and occasionally dangerous, as a result of technological advancement, and many employees, including children, had to put in obscenely long hours for pitifully meager pay.

The establishment of labor unions, the adoption of new child labor laws, and public health regulations in both Britain and the United States would be spurred on in the decades to come by outrage over poor living and working conditions.

All of these initiatives were made to improve life for the working class and poor people who had been adversely affected by industrialization.

7 Conclusion

Many aspects of industrialization are still up for question among historians, including its precise timing, why it started in Britain as opposed to other countries, and the notion that it was more of an evolution than a revolution.

The Industrial Revolution’s advantages and disadvantages are complicated.

A significant section of the labor force in the United States moved from the agricultural to the industrial sectors in the first 50 years following independence.

The textile sector paved the path for mechanization, much like in Great Britain. However, in many sectors wage labor in bigger, mechanically driven processes replaced home-based manufacturing and artisan craft traditions.

Cities in the United States grew quickly, and the market economy was developing at a rapid rate thanks to industrialization and significant transportation advancements.

It also influenced the growth of a sizable working class in American culture, which eventually gave rise to strikes and labor conflicts led by both working men and women.

In order to curtail some of the worst abuses of the factory system, reform legislation was debated and passed in Britain, the United States, and other industrialized countries during the late 19th and early 20th century.

However, as many regions of the world’s economy industrialized in the 20th and 21st centuries, terrible work conditions emerged in many of those same regions.

Industrialization’s impacts on everyday living reorganization reduced the material support for the institutions of the family and the community.

Even as industrialized civilizations have moved into a period that academics refer to as “postindustrial,” these impacts have lasted so long that they can still be felt today.

On the one hand, there were many unhealthy working conditions, and coal and gas pollution left behind environmental problems that persist to this day.

On the other hand, the influx of people into cities and brilliant discoveries that improved the affordability and accessibility of clothes, communication, and transportation for the general public altered the direction of world history.

Regardless of the answers to these concerns, the Industrial Revolution had a significant influence on the economy, society, and culture, and it helped establish the groundwork for contemporary civilization.

The Industrial Age had some good consequences despite the social issues it caused—low income and miserable living circumstances. New factories arose as the need for mass-produced items increased, leading to the creation of additional employment.

After paying rent and for lunch, employees still had money to spend on a newspaper or a trip to the store or music venue.

People could visit family in other places as the cost of railroad travel decreased. Horizons expanded, creating more chances.

Last Updated on October 10, 2023 by ayeshayusuf