Materials, Machines, and More Food Make for Major Advances in the World

Our first unit in our history class this year is on the Industrial Revolution. For this unit, we worked in groups to try to figure out an answer to the essential question for this unit; what was ‘revolutionary’ about industrialization? Each group researched one of the 4 topics in the unit: people, technology, resources, or transportation. Once we were done our research, we used the application Evernote to record and present our information to the class. I am only going to mainly talk about three of these topics in my blog, but there are many reasons why industrialization was so important.  

                During the industrial Revolution, people learned how to use more of the raw resources around them to their advantage. Four major resources that contributed to the progress made by industrialization are coal, iron, cotton, and capital. These resources also tie into the topic of technology because people were able to make and use technology from these resources. Coal is one of the most important resources because people were able to use it for fuel. Coal became the main power source of the Industrial Revolution. It was mainly used to power steam engines. Steam engines were very important to industrialization because they were the first machines to harness electrical energy, and they were fueled by burning coal. The steam engine was invented by Thomas Newcomen, and it was improved on by James Watt. Steam engines were used to power the first factories, boats, trains, and many other machines that are an essential part of daily life today. Coal was also used to make another important resource, iron. Iron was very often used in constructing and manufacturing machinery, such as steam engines. The Darby family found a new way to produce iron using coal. The coal could be used to smelt the iron, however the coal produced some impurities in the iron that damaged it. The Darby family then found an improved way of making iron without the impurities, which led to the production of less expensive and better quality iron. This iron was used to manufacture many machines, but it was especially used to make railroads. Cotton was another important resource for industrialization. Before the Industrial Revolution, the putting out system was used to make cloth. Raw cotton was given to many local peasant families to be spun into thread and then into cloth. It was then given to artisans who would finish and dye it. However, this system had a very slow production rate, and it wasn’t efficient. Technology was able to help this problem. The flying shuttle, spinning Jenny, and water frame were all invented to speed up the production of cloth, each improving on the last.

The Flying Shuttle: http://inventors.about.com/od/indrevolution/ss/Industrial_Revo_2.htm

The Spinning Jenny: http://www.saburchill.com/history/chapters/IR/010.html

The Water Frame: http://mreamsnyderchapter9.blogspot.com/2011/02/water-frame.html

Lastly, capital was an important resource to the Industrial Revolution. Capital is wealth invested in enterprises, and during industrialization, many people were willing to invest their money in new businesses and inventions such as shipping, mines, railroads, and factories. This encouraged skilled merchants to keep inventing and improving on technology to advance mankind.

People’s improved farming methods also played a huge part in the Industrial Revolution. Farmers combined smaller fields into bigger ones to make better use of the land. They also used fertilizer to help the soil, and these improvements led to more efficient farming and more crops. A movement called enclosure also helped to improve farming. Rich landowners took over peasant’s land which made for larger pastures for more sheep, which led to the production of more wool. The former peasant farmers no longer had work to do on the farms, so many of them moved to cities and worked in factories. Some of these former farmers also became merchants and started inventing new technologies. Without having to only focus on farming and having enough food to survive, more people could think about how to improve the world. All of these improvements in farming also led to declining death rates. There was more food which meant less famine, and less people worked in the fields doing the extraneous hard labor. Also, people were able to eat healthier which prolonged their life. It was especially important that women ate healthier because it made their babies healthier. With the major decline in death rates, there was a rapid growth of population which meant there were more people to do jobs other than farming to help advance mankind. While I did not talk about transportation in my blog, the steam boats and locomotives that were invented that allowed for the transportation of goods and people were no less important than resources, technology, and people. The Industrial Revolution was an extremely important event in history because the major and revolutionary technological advances that were made during this time are the basis of almost everything that we use every day in the modern world.