Industrial Revolution Pros And Cons

Roxanne Salazar
World History
Ms. Emma
June 9, 2015
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION The Industrial Revolution was absolutely important to the progress of the world and the growth of people 's way of living from the 1800s all the way to present day. Many sacrifices and changes had to be made to be able to allow technological advancements to change the world. Many of this created many life opportunities, and overall life improvement along with happiness. The world began an astonishing transformation from hand tools, and handmade items to machine manufactured and mass produced goods. This change obviously helped to change the way we lived. But with it the so called "Industrial Revolution" brought many disadvantages as well, "Pollution,
such as co2 levels in the atmosphere rose, working conditions declined, and the number of women and children working increased." (History.com 3) Women and children would work for long hours and days to be rewarded with ridiculously low wages. The overall way man looked at life changed, with it; the arts, culture and literature did as well. Way before the industrial revolution, England 's economy was based on its famous cottage industry. Many workers would acquire raw materials from merchants, after they would take it back to their cottages, and produce goods at their own home. It was usually owned and managed by one or more people working together, who were more than likely close to the workers. "There seemed to be a good relationship between workers and bosses, which was later; unfortunately destroyed by capitalism."(Arellano 2) Capitalism could be simply defined as the use of wealth to create more wealth. The ones that had their own materials, money and place of work or production; known as capitalists bought many machines and stored them in a factory, where the people who they hired (who were between 13 and 20 years of age) worked the whole day manufacturing goods. For their work, they were paid ridiculous wages that wouldn’t even be enough to maintain their own selves, women around 5 shillings per week, and children about 1. One shilling to be equivalent to 0.010 of an American dollar. "This factory system almost entirely replaced the cottage industry."(Arellano 2) Mass production made usually expensive items, such as shoes, and clothing less expensive and easily affordable by lower class and less wealthy people. Consequently the quality of lower class people had changed in a positive way, it had improved as never before. By the beginning of the 1800 's inventions were not limited at all.
Steam engines were invented, these made a faster mode of transportation; they eventually replaced carriages with horses. With steam engines, cities were able to have more sources of water, they were not required to travel long distances to get a hold of it anymore. This made it possible for people to move further away and start cities. The machinery started to become something people would not only work with but talk about every day, and this made it easier for it to become socially accepted even faster. Art and culture also had their own revolution and art was drastically transformed into many different and unique styles. "The first industrial revolution had not just England; it had drastically forever changed the world."(McFurney 1) England was now ready for another change, as life with machinery had just beginned to be assimilated into society. It wasn 't yet known that the second industrial revolution was already on its way to
come. The second industrial revolution used the power of electricity to help new cities develop their technology and help home and social life. A British scientist known as Michael Faraday, started to explore how an electric current could be made, and it turned out successfully; making even bigger changes to this revolution in process. Electric currents concept and principle is still in use today. Electricity improved the way of life by supplying people with not only light, but as well needed; electricity to power machines. Communications obviously improved and enhanced as a result of electricity. "The telephone and telegraph were the first communicational devices that were available to public use." (History.com 3) It didn’t take too long for radio waves to be discovered with the advances and development of technology. At this point of the revolution messages could already be sent over long distances in literally no time. As well as communication, life improvement and machinery improved; science was not falling behind in the revolution. Many new scientific advances were made. "The discovery of radioactivity by Marie Curie helped discover radioactivity as an important power source, but also led to the discovery of the known as the most dangerous weapon, the nuclear bomb."(History.com 3) Petroleum also begun to be widely used as an alternate energy source instead of coal. And from there gasoline was also needed for transportation. This also changed the way machinery worked, and it went from steam engines to the internal combustion engine. "The internal combustion engine made transportation quicker and less public."(History.com 3) At this point a remarkable change was made, a person could now own a car instead of using public transportation. With all of the new improvements going on during this time, a new technology was born in the field of transportation. Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully finished the first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk. From there the air plane industry was created and beginned to grow astonishingly fast. Medicine in the 1750 's was never very well developed.
Once a dangerous infection was set in, there was nothing left in doctor’s hands to do. Various diseases couldn 't be stopped or controlled because of limited research due to lack of technology. "By the beginning of the 1850 's however, vaccinations were discovered and started to be administered"(Hughes 4), tested mainly on people older than 70 years old. Once they were known to be safe then they would be administered to children. Many advances were made for the good improvement of people 's lives and at this point in the second industrial revolution X rays were also discovered and provided doctors with a not only quicker but less complicated or difficult way of diagnosing medical problems. "Along with this discovery Louis Pasteur fabricated pasteurization; which is a way to eliminate all germs in milk"(Hughes 4), and is currently still used today. The technique involves heating the milk to very high powered temperatures to slow the fermentation process, which in fact kills all the bacteria. Pasteurization now days keeps millions of people from serious and even deadly
diseases. On the other hand, "Art changed with the different ideas of social Darwinism, the laissez-faire system and the industrial revolution"(McFurney 1). Realism tried to capture what was going on outside everyone 's windows and behind the walls, all the sadness and tried to make people work to change what was happening. "Romanticism started painting emotions such as love, religion, and beauty"(McFurney 1); things that as human beings we have no control over. It showed more of how people look at one moment in time than how they actually looked at a painting.
Known as a socialist; "Robert Owens 's reforms got the workers back in shape". (Arellano 2) He restricted minors of 11 years old from being allowed to work, he raised the pay and as well improved the working conditions. “Directly linked to Owens 's reforms disease and crime rates drastically dropped and life conditions improved.” (Arellano 2) All along this was the purpose of the well known socialist. In conclusion the Industrial Revolution brought with it major changes to our lives, beginning with technology, science, mechanics and social lives. Eventually it had some noticeable disadvantages coming from it, but as we all know there are always sacrifices to be made before we get a reward. The way I see it, people that couldn 't stand a chance of surviving "deadly" diseases gets to walk out of hospitals today completely cancer free or just healthy, all due to many advances and discoveries made from the Industrial Revolution. A lot of people only sees the bad it caused such as pollution and children working for low wages but I believe God allows everything to happen for a reason.

Works Cited
Carol McFurney, "Interactive Textbook, Modern World History, (The Industrial Revolution Beginned in England)" , March 19, 2010 Web. Feb 5, 2012
Ericka Arellano, "Capitalization and Socialism During the Industrial Revolution", History 1801, 13 March, 2009. Lecture Microsoft Power Point file.
History.com, "Industrial Revolution", A&E Television Networks, April 13,2014 Web, Article Web. 2014
Keith Hughes, "The Industrial Revolution Explained (World History Review)" YouTube. YouTube May 7, 2011 Web. 23 July 2009.