The Industrial Revolution had many positive and negative consequences. Firstly, one of the positive consequences was that Britain became a richer country, obtaining a great amount of capital. This is because of the vast improvement and inventions of machinery within industry, such as ‘The Spinning Jenny’, by James Hargreaves, and ‘The Water Frame’ by Richard Arkwright. Both of these inventors were significant within the history of the Industrial Revolution.
Another positive consequence is that following the Industrial Revolution, there was an improvement in science, especially medical science whereby many diseases that had been killing many people before the Industrial Revolution could now be cured, for example, scarlet fever.
A social consequence was that because of the increasing financial growth in Britain, people were able to climb the social ladder, and so had more opportunities in life, such as education, in which anyone from any class was able to attend some form of schooling, decreasing illiteracy throughout Britain. This also improved the financial aspects of the citizens, which in turn began to reduce poverty.
Before these consequences took place, during the Industrial Revolution many children from the age of five years were made to work in factories in unsafe working conditions with dangerous machinery. Men and women also had to work in such conditions, and as changes such as illustrated above began to occur, a new labour code was introduced which improved conditions for the labour forces as well as reducing the amount of working hours within one day from 12-16 hours per day, to 8 hours. This change is still apparent today.
In Britain at the time, especially in the north of England, most people lived in rural areas. So, the bourgeoisie moved to more urban areas and built farms, mills, and houses creating jobs. The workers then had to move to urban areas for work, where they were given employment and a home. Whilst the workers thought this was a beneficial agreement, the bourgeoisie had social control over their workers, and so they had no choice but to carry on working with nowhere else to go. This can be considered as a consequence to the Industrial Revolution in the social context as it caused a larger gap between the upper class bourgeoisie and the lower classes, as the rich became wealthier from property ownership, whilst the lower classes became at the mercy of the upper class, relying on them for wages, for housing and for work. On the other hand, this could be considered as a positive consequence of the Industrial Revolution as it created societies in urban areas, and allowed a sense of community of the lower working class to be created. This is because all the workers were being exploited in a similar way and so they had a connection with each other.
Britain’s population grew during the Industrial Revolution. One reason for this is due to the better medical technology which meant that people lived longer and so the life expectancy figures rose dramatically. This caused over-crowdedness in cities as there was a lack of jobs in rural areas. This is a consequence which can be seen as negative and positive, it is positive as people had longer lives, and negative because people had harder lives to live with poverty and being cramped in cities.
Another positive consequence to the Industrial Revolution was that due to new inventions of machinery being created, it was enabled for electricity to be used rather than gas to light up the streets at night. This created less street crime which made areas much safer. Also, more public services were available such as the police force and the fire service, which increased security and safety as well as providing many jobs outside the factories and mines. The use of electricity also improved transportation as it allowed electric engines to be used in vehicles which could travel much faster, especially for emergency services such as in fire engines, improving efficiency.
Whilst these many positive consequences seem to outride any possible negative ones, the negative approaches still must be addressed to show the struggle that citizens had to endure in order for us to have the advantages of the world we live in today. When Industrialisation began, there appeared to be no immediate benefits to the country. As people moved to urban areas for work, the cities became overcrowded, polluted and unclean. This was seen as an early consequence to the Industrial Revolution.
Following this, factory workers were treated poorly. Food was expensive and as workers were paid little wages, they could only afford to eat stale bread, fatty foods, and fried foods. This caused under nourishment and inevitably caused illnesses within towns. Also, due to the coal used for machinery and in mines, a lot of pollution was caused which affected the atmosphere as well as workers’ lungs, which also caused sickness. Factory workers were given harsh punishments for mistakes, were given very low wages and were under constant exploitation from their employers and of the upper classes.
So, whilst these negative consequences had major affects at the time, these affects were only short-term concerning citizens at the time. This shows that it has to be considered whether economic progression is worth the hardship caused, and to contemplate which is more important, people’s lives or the nations’ and worlds’ development. In my opinion, progression is more important as it has improved people’s way of life, and turned people away from old ideals and lifestyles for what can be thought to be a better way of living.
In conclusion, during the Industrial Revolution, Britain became a rich, powerful country from simply being a small island of the world. This allowed Britain to be known as a place that created machinery, improved transportation, and improved the economy as well as transporting goods around the world. Whilst this historical time had many negative affects on the people at the time, such as bad working conditions, the positive consequences have changed the world in terms of progression and development and have collectively improved the life chances and improved the general quality of life of everyone.
References
Mathias, Peter ‘The First Industrial Notion.’ An Economic History of Britain 1700 – 1914. 2nd Ed.
Teich,M and Porter,R. ‘The Industrial Revolution in National Context. Europe and the USA.’ Pg 13-35 Chp 1 ‘The British Industrial Revolution.’
Jones, E.L ‘Agriculture and the Industrial Revolution’. 1974
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