The Effects of the British Industrial Revolution - Essay Example

The positive and negative effects of the 19th century British industrial revolution Introduction One of the most important events in the history of the Great Britain is the industrial revolution of the 19th century. This revolution completely changed the British socioeconomic system. The British industrial revolution generated very favorable results for the entrepreneurs who had opened companies and factories at that time. Their businesses flourished and they made a lot of money. On the other hand, people that worked at the grass-root level to make the factories run became poorer. In this way, the British industrial revolution played a fundamental role in increasing the divide between the rich and the poor at that time. The then cursed British industrial revolution has over the time proved to be the most fortunate thing to have occurred in the history of Britain. Negative Effects Urbanization surfaced and spread rapidly as a result of the British industrial revolution. Two of the most prominent causes of the rapid urbanization were the explosion of population and the increased demand of workers. The enclosure movement moved people from farms into the cities. As more and more people moved towards the cities, they expanded. Since too much happened in too little a time, cities were developed without sufficient planning. Most of the cities developed around the factories so that the workers would have convenience of living and working at the same place. Insufficient planning of the developing cities resulted in poor systems of sewage, sanitation, and poor quality of water. There was litter spread all over the streets. The filthy crowded slums generated favorable conditions for the spread of different diseases including cholera. Since the factories had just started to establish, work in them was full of danger. System was not organized and the risks were not catered for. Workers had to do intense had work for minimal wages and poor health and safety system. In most of the factories, workers had to work between 12 and 16 hrs. More workers were available than the quantity of work available. Therefore, if some worker got ill, got caught in an accident or made any sort of complaint, he would be fired straight-away. There was no compensation for workers of any sort. The social structure of the society underwent a complete revolution during the British industrial revolution. A vast majority of the people lived in villages before the onset of the British industrial revolution. They were primarily craftsmen and agriculturalists. They worked manually and worked as a family. Farming was the occupation of more than three quarters of the total population of Britain at that time. The new enclosure laws proved very unlucky for the poor farmers. They required the owners of all grazing fields to fence them using their own expenses. A lot of farmers became unemployed and bankrupted consequentially. Small hand weavers became redundant as the machines were used to do the work. A lot of people were obliged to seek work in the factories because they had lost their conventional jobs. This motivated them to move to the cities. They had to face many challenges as a result of this. Urbanization meant higher living expenses accompanied with increased working hours and lesser pay. Employers’ strategy in those times laid the basis for the discrimination among workers on the basis of gender. A vast majority of the employers preferred hiring female workers upon the male workers because female workers’ pay was much lesser than that of the male workers. The British industrial revolution increased the burden upon women. Women were not only expected to take care of the household works like they had been doing for centuries, but were also required to help their husbands in earning. So women had to take care of both the work and the home. The British industrial revolution also spread the culture of child labor. Along with women, children were also expected to bear the financial burden. Employers also happily offered jobs to children because they would be paid the least despite the fact that they would be required to work just as much as their parents did. Having realized that their rights were being subdued by the employers and that they were being done injustice to, workers revolted against the employers a couple of times. Every time, their protest was put down by the forced intervention of the British government. When machines replaced manual work, many skilled workers protested against it by smashing the machines. The British industrial revolution gave rise to Methodism, according to which, the working people started to underestimate their present lifestyle and hoped to achieve a better lifestyle. The British industrial revolution generated a completely new ideology wherein people adopted a different approach to perceive the way government functioned and the socioeconomic issues of the country. This was again widening the gap between the rich and the poor. Critics of the British industrial revolution fundamentally based their claims on their opinion that there should be equality in the society and everybody should have equal rights. Most of the critics were referred to as Utopians because their proposals, wishes and ideas sounded just too impossible to be put into practice. Slowly and gradually, the British industrial revolution gave rise to socialism. This resulted in such a social system wherein workers belonged to a prestigious class. Their profitability increased as compared to the non-working class and their children enjoyed a better lifestyle than the children of the non-working class. Positive Effects Although in the British industrial revolution, women were underpaid as compared to men, yet their skills were not underestimated. Before the British industrial revolution, women were considered household objects. They were supposed to be wives, mothers, daughters and sisters. Women before the British industrial revolution were not appreciated as workers or professionals. This kept women from exploring their hidden capabilities and a vast majority of women spent all their life taking care of their house and doing nothing else. Underrepresentation of women in the social setup and increased dominance of men in the time before the British industrial revolution also generated many unfavorable results for the women. They could not choose their life-partners on their own. They had to abide by the wish of their parents and marry whoever was considered eligible by the parents. Women in the time before the British industrial revolution did not raise their opinions in important matters concerning their life. Thus, the society could not benefit from the feministic perspective over the social and political matters. History has shown that women have played a very important role in the politics of countries all over the world. Some of the events in which women’s effect was profound were the American Revolution and the Black Movement. With the onset of the British industrial revolution, women started to go out of their homes to work. This provided them with more opportunities of interacting and socializing with men and women and they could explore their hidden capabilities like never before. Although the British industrial revolution was the fundamental cause of spread of pollution and global warming, yet most of the industrial development that we benefit from today is an outcome of the British industrial revolution of that time. Britain has ruled a lot of countries in the world. Accordingly, when the industrial revolution started in Britain, it did not remain confined to Britain but spread far and wide. The British industrial revolution changed the Western society for the better. It caused the development of electricity. A lot of inventions were made following the British industrial revolution. The railroads constructed thereafter are still being used. The modern cloth industry, food industry and sports industry all are outcomes of the British industrial revolution of the 19th century. In this way, the British industrial revolution laid the basis for a complete industrial and technological revolution all over the world, opening the gates to more research, studies and development. There occurred a lot of advancement in the field of medicine following the British industrial revolution. Cures to a lot of diseases was discovered which had proved fatal in the past. In the long run, the British industrial revolution not only improved the health and safety of the workplace, but also improved the socioeconomic setup and the standard of living of the people all over the world in general. “Great Britain grew to become the most powerful manufacturing nation, and the strongest economically, in all of Europe. As Britain’s incoming finances grew and increased, citizens were able to move up the rungs of the social class ladder in British society, thus improving their financial and educational statuses” (The Midthuns, 1998). Had the British industrial revolution not taken place, the world would have been a much different place to live in today, and life would not have been as easier as it is today! Conclusion Analysis of the positive and negative effects of the 19th century British industrial revolution suggests that the immediate effects were negative for the people of Britain but the long term effects were beneficial not only for the people of Britain but also for the whole world. Immediately following the revolution, the living conditions of the British famers became terrible and the gap between the rich and the poor widened, yet the sacrifices of the poor people given then are now benefiting everybody in the world. References: The Midthuns. (1998, Nov. 18). The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain. Retrieved from http://www.midthun.net/the.htm. Read More