WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT...
5. THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
Background Needed because of the increase in the population and the growth of towns.
Problems with the Open Field system:
New developments
Enclosure Acts had to be passed and commissioners divided the land.
Commonage gone (poor to the towns)
Viscount Townshend developed Norfolk system (wheat, turnips, barley, clover and grass)
Cattle could be fed in winter.
Robert Bakewell (selective breeding)
Arthur Young’s ‘The Annals of Agriculture’
New machines
Jethro Tull’s Seed Drill
Cyrus McCormick’s Reaper
Andrew Meikle’s Threshing Machine
Results:
6. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Definition: A complete change from a rural to an urban way of life.
Why it began in Britain
Transport Revolution
Needed because transport was slow, expensive, loads were small and bad roads led to many breakdowns.
Roads: Telford, McAdam and Metcalf improved road design
Turnpike Trusts built toll roads.
Canals: James Brindley built the Worsley to Manchester canal for the Duke of Bridgewater. Canal building
mania.
Ships: Steel hulls and steam power replaced wood and sail.
Railways: First railways were stationary steam engines in mines.
Richard Trevithick in fairs Catch Me Who Can.
First goods railway was Stockton to Darlington designed by George Stephenson.
First passenger line was Liverpool to Manchester. George and Robert Stephenson designed the Rocket.
Railway building mania.
The Textile Industry
First to be industrialised.
Spinning wheels and hand looms in domestic industry.
John Kay’s Flying Shuttle.
James Hargreave’s Spinning Jenny.
Richard Arkwright’s Water Frame.
Samuel Crompton’s Mule
Edmund Cartwright’s Power Loom
These machines had to be put in factories and powered at first by water wheels and then by steam.
Thomas Newcomen’s steam engine could pump water out of mines.
James Watt’s steam engine could turn wheels.
Iron and Steel
Abraham Darby used coke to replace charcoal to make Pig iron
Henry Cort’s Puddling and Rolling Process made wrought iron.
Henry Bessemer’s Converter made steel.
Working in Factories
14-hour day, noisy, warm, dusty, and fines for breaking strict rules. Children often beaten.
1 euro a week for men, 44c for women and 23 c for children. Entire families had to work.
Unguarded machines. No compensation for injuries.
Working in Mines
Trappers (very young). Children carrying heavy loads on all fours on wet ground.
Lung diseases. Rock falls. Flooding. Gas explosions.
Newcomen’s steam engine helped stop flooding.
Watt’s steam engine dragged coal to the surface.
Davy safety lamp helped stop explosions.
Living in the Cities
Fast unplanned growth. Houses built by factory owners around the smoky factory.
Houses badly built. Damp and small, they had no running water or sewerage system.
Cholera from dirty water, typhus from bugs and TB from damp conditions. The rich moved to the suburbs.
Improvements in Health/Medicine
7. THE FAMINE
Background
Most landlords protestant. Many absentee. Gale day (landlord’s agent). Large farmers (30 acres +).
Sub-let to small farmers and cottiers. Spailpeens were wandering labourers.
Country divided into Poor Law Unions and each had a workhouse. Only the really badly off would go there (families split up, like prison).
Causes
Rise in population
Subdivision
Dependence on the potato
The Blight
What was done
1845 Peel’s government bought maize (Indian corn) and set up Public Works Schemes.
1846 Russel’s liberal government did not want to interfere and abandoned the above. (Laissez faire)
Soup kitchens were set up by the Quakers and the government but the government abandoned the idea in 1847.
The workhouses catered for 200000 and eventually were allowed provide soup kitchens.
Results
· 1 million died of disease and starvation
· 1 million emigrated by 1851 (coffin ships)
· Push and pull causes left 4 million by 1900
· Decline of Irish language
· Subdivision ended
· New catholic landlords
·
Hatred
for Britain
Background Needed because of the increase in the population and the growth of towns.
Problems with the Open Field system:
- Fallow
land - No point in making
improvements - Lazy
neighbours - Diseases
spread - Selective breeding
impossible
New developments
Enclosure Acts had to be passed and commissioners divided the land.
Commonage gone (poor to the towns)
Viscount Townshend developed Norfolk system (wheat, turnips, barley, clover and grass)
Cattle could be fed in winter.
Robert Bakewell (selective breeding)
Arthur Young’s ‘The Annals of Agriculture’
New machines
Jethro Tull’s Seed Drill
Cyrus McCormick’s Reaper
Andrew Meikle’s Threshing Machine
Results:
- Labourers had to move to the
towns - Towns could be
fed.
6. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Definition: A complete change from a rural to an urban way of life.
Why it began in Britain
- Large cheap labour force due to Enclosure and
Jenner’s vaccination for
smallpox. - Plentiful supply of coal and iron
ore. - Inventors.
- Large Empire (cheap raw materials and a ready
market) - Wealthy landlords and merchants willing to invest in
factories.
Transport Revolution
Needed because transport was slow, expensive, loads were small and bad roads led to many breakdowns.
Roads: Telford, McAdam and Metcalf improved road design
Turnpike Trusts built toll roads.
Canals: James Brindley built the Worsley to Manchester canal for the Duke of Bridgewater. Canal building
mania.
Ships: Steel hulls and steam power replaced wood and sail.
Railways: First railways were stationary steam engines in mines.
Richard Trevithick in fairs Catch Me Who Can.
First goods railway was Stockton to Darlington designed by George Stephenson.
First passenger line was Liverpool to Manchester. George and Robert Stephenson designed the Rocket.
Railway building mania.
The Textile Industry
First to be industrialised.
Spinning wheels and hand looms in domestic industry.
John Kay’s Flying Shuttle.
James Hargreave’s Spinning Jenny.
Richard Arkwright’s Water Frame.
Samuel Crompton’s Mule
Edmund Cartwright’s Power Loom
These machines had to be put in factories and powered at first by water wheels and then by steam.
Thomas Newcomen’s steam engine could pump water out of mines.
James Watt’s steam engine could turn wheels.
Iron and Steel
Abraham Darby used coke to replace charcoal to make Pig iron
Henry Cort’s Puddling and Rolling Process made wrought iron.
Henry Bessemer’s Converter made steel.
Working in Factories
14-hour day, noisy, warm, dusty, and fines for breaking strict rules. Children often beaten.
1 euro a week for men, 44c for women and 23 c for children. Entire families had to work.
Unguarded machines. No compensation for injuries.
Working in Mines
Trappers (very young). Children carrying heavy loads on all fours on wet ground.
Lung diseases. Rock falls. Flooding. Gas explosions.
Newcomen’s steam engine helped stop flooding.
Watt’s steam engine dragged coal to the surface.
Davy safety lamp helped stop explosions.
Living in the Cities
Fast unplanned growth. Houses built by factory owners around the smoky factory.
Houses badly built. Damp and small, they had no running water or sewerage system.
Cholera from dirty water, typhus from bugs and TB from damp conditions. The rich moved to the suburbs.
Improvements in Health/Medicine
- James
Simpson used chloroform in
operations. - Joseph
Lister improved hygiene in
hospitals. - Edward
Jenner vaccinated against
smallpox. - Edwin Chadwick’s report ‘The Sanitary Conditions of the
Labouring Population’ led to cleaner streets, piped water and sewerage
system.
7. THE FAMINE
Background
Most landlords protestant. Many absentee. Gale day (landlord’s agent). Large farmers (30 acres +).
Sub-let to small farmers and cottiers. Spailpeens were wandering labourers.
Country divided into Poor Law Unions and each had a workhouse. Only the really badly off would go there (families split up, like prison).
Causes
Rise in population
Subdivision
Dependence on the potato
The Blight
What was done
1845 Peel’s government bought maize (Indian corn) and set up Public Works Schemes.
1846 Russel’s liberal government did not want to interfere and abandoned the above. (Laissez faire)
Soup kitchens were set up by the Quakers and the government but the government abandoned the idea in 1847.
The workhouses catered for 200000 and eventually were allowed provide soup kitchens.
Results
· 1 million died of disease and starvation
· 1 million emigrated by 1851 (coffin ships)
· Push and pull causes left 4 million by 1900
· Decline of Irish language
· Subdivision ended
· New catholic landlords
·
Hatred
for Britain