The Industrial Revolution: The Social Impact Of The Industrial Revolution

1408 Words3 Pages

Today, we live in a world where everything is available to us at a drop of a hat. We live in a world of industry, manufactured goods, and a convenient lifestyle. We have amazing resources, and the ability to buy anything we want, whenever we want, when we want, but this was not always the case. In fact, before the Industrial Revolution, goods were mainly produced by manual labor in homes or farms, and the convenience of mass production was non-existent (Fitzgerald, page 376). From the years 1760-1850, Great Britain introduced the world to a period of evolution and change known as the Industrial Revolution (Richard Fitzgerald, “The Social Impact of the Industrial Revolution”, page 376). The Industrial Revolution was a period where agriculture …show more content…

To illustrate, before the revolution, between the years 1700 and 1750, the population of England remained stable, but between 1750 and 1850, the population more than doubled (C N Trueman, “Life in Industrial Towns). Pre- industrial society saw their population not growing as poverty, war, diseases, and poor hygiene resulted in high death numbers (bcp.org). In fact, during this time, 25 percent of newborns died before their first birthday, and approximately 25% of children did not make it past their tenth birthday (bcp.org). As more food and products were being produced by these new factories, a surplus of resources was created, death rates decreased. As more people began to work in industry, prominent cities began to flourish; industrial cities such as Manchester were actually formed from small towns (C N Trueman, Life in Industrial Towns). Between the years 1771-1831, Manchester experienced a growth of six- times its size, and it became home to over 700,000 people (Trueman). As a result of population growth, homes and apartment complexes were produced quickly, creating the cities and metropolises with skyscrapers, such as Boston, that we know today

Open Document