The Industrial Revolution

96 Pages·2013·17.996 MB·English

by  Hal Marcovitz

Other titles in the series include:
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Ancient Rome
Th e Black Death
Th e Decade of the 2000s
Th e Digital Age
Th e Early Middle Ages
Elizabethan England
Th e History of Rock and Roll
Th e Holocaust
Th e Late Middle Ages
Pearl Harbor
Th e Renaissance
Victorian England
Understanding
World History
The
Industrial
Revolution
Hal Marcovitz
Bruno Leone
Series Consultant
®
San Diego, CA
3
®
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Marcovitz, Hal.
The industrial revolution / by Hal Marcovitz.
pages cm. -- (Understanding world history series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Audience: Grade 9 to 12.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60152-601-4 (e-book)
1. Industrial revolution. 2. Economic history. I. Title.
HD2321.M236 2014
330.9'034--dc23
2013015813
Contents
Foreword 6
Important Events of the Industrial Revolution 8
Introduction 10
Th e Defi ning Characteristics of the Industrial
Revolution
Chapter One 16
What Conditions Led to the Industrial Revolution?
Chapter Two 29
Th e Revolution in Locomotion
Chapter Th ree 42
Th e Revolution in Warfare
Chapter Four 55
Th e Revolution in Mass Production
Chapter Five 68
What Are the Legacies of the Industrial Revolution?
Source Notes 82
Important People of the Industrial Revolution 85
For Further Research 88
Index 91
Picture Credits 95
About the Author 96
Foreword
W hen the Puritans fi rst emigrated from England to America in
1630, they believed that their journey was blessed by a cov-
enant between themselves and God. By the terms of that covenant they
agreed to establish a community in the New World dedicated to what
they believed was the true Christian faith. God, in turn, would reward
their fi delity by making certain that they and their descendants would
always experience his protection and enjoy material prosperity. More-
over, the Lord guaranteed that their land would be seen as a shining
beacon—or in their words, a “city upon a hill,”—which the rest of the
world would view with admiration and respect. By embracing this no-
tion that God could and would shower his favor and special blessings
upon them, the Puritans were adopting the providential philosophy of
history—meaning that history is the unfolding of a plan established or
guided by a higher intelligence.
Th e concept of intercession by a divine power is only one of many
explanations of the driving forces of world history. Historians and phi-
losophers alike have subscribed to numerous other ideas. For example, the
ancient Greeks and Romans argued that history is cyclical. Nations and
civilizations, according to these ancients of the Western world, rise and
fall in unpredictable cycles; the only certainty is that these cycles will per-
sist throughout an endless future. Th e German historian Oswald Spengler
(1880–1936) echoed the ancients to some degree in his controversial study
Th e Decline of the West. Spengler asserted that all civilizations inevitably
pass through stages comparable to the life span of a person: childhood,
youth, adulthood, old age, and, eventually, death. As the title of his work
implies, Western civilization is currently entering its fi nal stage.
Joining those who see purpose and direction in history are thinkers
who completely reject the idea of meaning or certainty. Rather, they
reason that since there are far too many random and unseen factors
at work on the earth, historians would be unwise to endorse histori-
cal predictability of any type. Warfare (both nuclear and convention-
al), plagues, earthquakes, tsunamis, meteor showers, and other cata-
strophic world-changing events have loomed large throughout history
and prehistory. In his essay “A Free Man’s Worship,” philosopher and
6
mathematician Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) supported this argu-
ment, which many refer to as the nihilist or chaos theory of history.
According to Russell, history follows no preordained path. Rather, the
earth itself and all life on earth resulted from, as Russell describes it, an
“accidental collocation of atoms.” Based on this premise, he pessimisti-
cally concluded that all human achievement will eventually be “buried
beneath the debris of a universe in ruins.”
Whether history does or does not have an underlying purpose, histori-
ans, journalists, and countless others have nonetheless left behind a record
of human activity tracing back nearly 6,000 years. From the dawn of the
great ancient Near Eastern civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt to the
modern economic and military behemoths China and the United States,
humanity’s deeds and misdeeds have been and continue to be monitored
and recorded. Th e distinguished British scholar Arnold Toynbee (1889–
1975), in his widely acclaimed twelve-volume work entitled A Study of His-
tory, studied twenty-one diff erent civilizations that have passed through
history’s pages. He noted with certainty that others would follow.
In the fi nal analysis, the academic and journalistic worlds mostly regard
history as a record and explanation of past events. From a more practical
perspective, history represents a sequence of building blocks—cultural, tech-
nological, military, and political—ready to be utilized and enhanced or ma-
ligned and perverted by the present. What that means is that all societies—
whether advanced civilizations or preliterate tribal cultures—leave a legacy
for succeeding generations to either embrace or disregard.
Recognizing the richness and fullness of history, the ReferencePoint
Press Understanding World History series fosters an evaluation and in-
terpretation of history and its infl uence on later generations. Each vol-
ume in the series approaches its subject chronologically and topically,
with specifi c focus on nations, periods, or pivotal events. Primary and
secondary source quotations are included, along with complete source
notes and suggestions for further research.
Moreover, the series refl ects the truism that the key to understand-
ing the present frequently lies in the past. With that in mind, each series
title concludes with a legacy chapter that highlights the bonds between
past and present and, more important, demonstrates that world history
is a continuum of peoples and ideas, sometimes hidden but there none-
theless, waiting to be discovered by those who choose to look.
777
Important Events in
the Industrial Revolution
1300s
Beginning of the Renaissance in Europe,
1712
the era in which art, literature, and the
sciences are rediscovered after the medieval A steam engine
period. Renaissance thinking would provide developed
a foundation for the Industrial Revolution. by Th omas
Savery, Th omas
Newcomen, and
1600s John Calley goes
Beginning of the Age of into operation;
Enlightment, in which philosophers the huge
urge scientists, engineers, artists, machine is used solely to
and others to use their talents for extract water from mines.
the betterment of humankind.
1600 1700
1455 1765
German goldsmith Johannes James Hargreaves revolutionizes
Gutenberg prints the fi rst book the textile industry by fashioning
using a press that employs a spinning jenny, which can
moveable type. Th e fi rst book create eight times the thread of
printed an ordinary spinning wheel.
on the
Gutenberg
1769
press is the
James Watt makes improvements to the
Bible.
Newcomen engine, adding a condenser
that helps shrink the size of the machine,
making it available for all manner of uses.
1793
Eli Whitney invents the
cotton gin, making cotton
into a valuable crop in the
South but also ensuring that
slavery would remain an institution in American society.
8
1914
World War I erupts; the combatants use the latest
1801 technology of the Industrial Revolution—airplanes,
On December 24 Richard Trevithick submarines, battleships, chemical weapons, and
makes improvements to Watt’s motorized tanks—to wage the four-year confl ict.
steam engine, bolts his version to
an iron carriage, and makes the fi rst 1913
trip in a motorized vehicle. Henry Ford adopts the principles of mass
production to the car industry at Ford Motor
1825 Company, making the Model T the fi rst
consumer product built on an assembly line.
On September 27
a steam-powered
locomotive 1876 1903
designed by George On March 10 On December 17
Stephenson launches Alexander Graham Orville Wright
the era of modern Bell improves makes the fi rst
railroading when it on telegraphy fl ight in an aircraft
pulls cars containing by inventing the propelled by an
four hundred telephone—a device engine. Th e maiden
passengers between that transmits and fl ight of the Wright
the cities of Stockton receives voiced Flyer lasts twelve
and Darlington, communications seconds and covers
England. over electrical wires. 120 feet (36.6 m).
1800 1850 1900
1835 1879
Samuel Morse applies Using a glass bulb containing a
electricity to magnets, sewing thread
enabling him to send coated with
impulses over an electrical carbon to act
wire. Th e discovery leads as a fi lament,
to telegraphy and the use Th omas
of Morse code to provide Edison
instant communication over illuminates
long distances. the fi rst
incandescent
bulb. Th e
1859
bulb remains
1808
Edwin Drake lit for thirteen hours.
Th e Clermont makes its drills the fi rst
fi rst voyage with passengers commercially 1862
on the Hudson River, successful oil On March 9 the Monitor and
launching the era of steam- well in Titusville, Merrimack clash at the Battle of
powered nautical travel. Pennsylvania. Th e Hampton Roads, launching the
well produces ten era of ironclad shipbuilding.
gallons a day.
999
Introduction
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In 1808 William Perry, a twenty-year-old student from Cincinnati,
Ohio, was making his way to Massachusetts to enroll in Harvard
University. Arriving in Albany, New York, Perry discovered he had just
missed the launch of a sailing ship heading south on the Hudson River
and that the next ship was not scheduled to depart for several days.
Perry believed he had no choice but to take a room at a local inn and
wait for the ship’s departure.
Th e next morning, while eating breakfast at the inn, Perry learned
some startling news: Th at morning, a boat powered by a steam engine
would be departing Albany. Th e boat, named the Clermont, would not
be going all the way to Boston, but Perry learned the Clermont would
be making several stops on the Hudson River, and the young man con-
cluded that he could continue his journey overland, embarking from
one of many port cities.
At the time, steam engines had been in use for several years, but they
were generally employed for industrial purposes—mostly for pumping
water out of mines. Powered by wood or coal fi res, steam engines used
the pressure of compressed steam from boiling water to drive pistons.
In the early 1800s the engines were typically outfi tted with a series of
10