 |
| Industrial Revolution |
Around 300 years ago began an age in Britain and Europe which was to change the way people lived and worked. This age was called the Industrial Revolution. In the years before the beginning of the 18th century most of the goods were produced with the help of manual labour.
More Topics:
In the beginning of the 18th century inventions revolutionized the manufacturing processes and gave the factory owners the capability to produce large quantities of goods in lesser time.
Some of the inventions which made this possible included the discovery of the ‘flying shuttle’ and the ‘Spinning Jenny’ mechnised the textile industry.
Along with these developments came the building of locomotives, establishing of railways, building of bridges, etc. Refinement and further development on these inventions continues till today. As these machines became popular, rich industrials set up large factories to produce finished goods at a large scale. Since many people were required to run these machines, jobs were in abundance. People from the centuries and moved to the cities thus giving days the textile factories employed mostly women and children because they could be paid less. Compared to the villages the workers earned more many in the cities, but their standard of living was very poor.
They lived in small towns which were cheaply built and lacked most of the basic amenities.
Large families often lived in small houses which did not have a clean water supply and disease and death was a common thing among the young. In 1833 the British Government banned child labor but failed to regulate the hours of work because most of the industrialists were paying less but demanding long working hours. This led to the formation of Workers ‘Unions which fought for workers’ rights.
Tags:
Encyclopedia