How Did Industrialization Affect Society

The Industrial Revolution had a significant impact on everyday life in Britain, mainland Europe, Japan, and the United States. The introduction of the factory system, advances in transportation and philanthropy had far reaching impacts on the economies of these nations as well. Industrialization had its share of both champions who celebrated these changes and critics who opposed them. While the Industrial Revolution had both positive and negative effects on society and the economy, the positive effects outweighed the negative.
The Industrial Revolution of the United States and the growth of the factory system directly impacted the rise of urbanization. Urbanization is when people move from rural areas to the city where industry is found and more opportunity for employment. The factory system was an innovative way for factories or mills to organize their labor and production force. There were many workers helping in the production of goods or products. These workers often lived
together in settlements or factory towns near the factory where they worked. The factory system is illustrated by the “Lowell System” at the Lowell Factories, located just outside of Boston. There were over 10,000 workers that were mostly unmarried young women who lived in dorms that were built by Lowell Factories. The “Lowell System” provided the workers with religious and educational opportunities. The highly-organized factory system was one of the positive results of the industrial revolution.
With new goods being manufactured they still needed a way to get them to market. That required new means of transportation. One of the most interesting forms of transportation that came about was the Erie Canal. Once the Erie canal was finished it would connect the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, shortening the distance goods would need to travel to get to market. The construction of the 363-mile-long, 40 feet wide, four feet deep waterway broke ground in 1817 and wasn’t completed until 1825, eight years later. Although it cost $7 million to build it paid for itself in no time. Prior to the canal, it cost 19 cents a mile to ship a ton of merchandise and with the canal it lowered the cost of shipping one ton of merchandise to just one cent per mile. This is another example of a huge success brought on by the industrial revolution.
The Industrial Revolution was also responsible for many social changes.
Industrialization made some individuals enormously wealthy. Men like oil tycoon, John D. Rockefeller and the steel industries business mogul, Andrew Carnegie contributed back to society as philanthropists by giving away much of their wealth to benefit charitable or cultural goals. Due to the huge sums of money these philanthropists gave the cities became epicenter of culture as libraries, performing arts centers, museums, libraries and even symphony orchestras were instituted – often in the name of the philanthropist. This again was a huge benefit stemming from the Industrial Revolution that we still reap the rewards from today.
There were many positive effects of the Industrial Revolution such as; the introduction of the factory system, advances in transportation like the Erie Canal, and the social impact that came from philanthropy. These positive effects of the Industrial Revolution far outweigh any of the
negative.