INGLESE The First Industrial Revolution.

The First Industrial Revolution

In the mid 18th century, Great Britain was changing quickly. The population was increasing, so there was a greater demand for food and clothing. New inventions were changing farming and transport, that allowed countries to buy and sell things to each other more easily. This important period of history is called “The industrial revolution”. It began in Great Britain in about 1760 but over the next 70 years it spread to other countries of Europe and America. England became a manufacturing country, capitalism began to develop, and a new class of industrial workers appeared. The most important invention of Industrial Revolution was the Spinning Jenny, because it led to dramatic changes industry. In 1764, James Hargreaves invented this large machine that produced cotton much faster than ever before. New factories appeared all over Britain and people started moving from the country to the city to work in them. This event is called urbanization. The new factories produced new machines, but these machines needed power. At first people used horses and water power. Then in 1736, James Watt developed a new type of stream engine. This invention is a symbol of this revolution. It was used in factories to give power to the machines, and it was also used in new form of transport such as steamboats. Steamboats were the main type of water transport during 18th century. However, there where many problems to transport these boats on land, infact needed horses, but there weren’t many roads. The answers to this problem were canal. So, between 1760 and 1790, many canals were built to join the main rivers in England. In the 1830s trains replace canal transport, but some people today still live in boats called barges. The Industrial Revolution changed men and women’s roles forever. Before, husbands and wises worked together in home. They sold things in a market, in a local town. During the Industrial Revolution, the work life and the home life began to separate. Some women stayed ad home to look after the children. But poor families didn’t have a choice: men, women and children all went to work in factories, often in terrible condition. They had to spend regular hours sometimes fourteen or sixteen hours a day. The result was that crowded unhealthy towns grew up around the factories. The living conditions of the people were miserable. Millions of British boys and girls worked in the factories and lived the lives of slaves. The diffused social discontent found expression in movements of protest and factory riots. One of the greatest interpreters of popular discontent was Robert Owen, who is sometimes called “the father of the English Socialism”, because he put forward so many ideas to improve the lives of the working people.