Benefits of the Industrial Revolution

In class we looked at all of the critical aspects of the industrial revolution. We examined how transportation, resources, technology, innovations in textiles, and people all effected the revolution. The industrial revolution helped to change the way that things work in England, and we are still benefitting from its affects today. Two aspects that I believe are especially important are the people and transportation.

Without the people, the revolution would not have occurred. For centuries, the majority of people made their living by being farmers. The industrial revolution brought improved farming, which was less labor intensive, and required less people to farm more land. Since farming was now less difficult, and more land could be farmed by less people, wealthy land owners began to fence off their land so that peasant who used it to farm could not anymore. This process is called enclosure. It caused the farmers to move to cities to find jobs, creating a large labor force that would work on machines,  furthering the  revolution. The improved farming also meant that people could eat better food, and be healthy, live longer, and have healthier children. Having people live longer was an amazing and revolutionary thing that occurred because of the revolution. Because of enclosure, people began to work on machines, speeding up the revolution, and allowing more things to occur.

The industrial revolution was when a lot of technology was first created. Abraham Darby greatly improved iron, which benefited the economy. He created a way to remove impunity from coal, and separate iron from its ore. This made the iron better quality, and it was used to build railroads. This iron was also much less expensive, which helped the economy. Something else created was the steam engine. Even though it was invented so long ago, it is still used today. The steam engine powered boats trains, and locomotives, helping to greatly increase and improve the transportation. It was also used to pump water out of mines.  These technological advances may seem minor in todays world, but without them, we could not have have the advances in technology we know today. Hundreds of years later the steam engine is still used, and a crucial part of our lives. With these advances of the revolution, the world we know today would be completely different.

Steam Engine

http://www.antiquefarming.com/steamengine.html