Industry and Urbanisation

The Industrial Revolution

Here are eight important facts about the Industrial Revolution, which took place during the 18th and 19th centuries:

• Before the 18th century, agriculture and small-scale industries, such as cloth-making, were the main sources of employment in Britain.
• Both agriculture and the manufacturing of goods became mechanised, a major shift in working practices.
• The development of water power and, later, steam power drove the Industrial Revolution. The shift led people to move to towns and cities for factory work.
• Major infrastructure developments took place, including the building of canals and railways.
• Richard Arkwright played a central role in the revolution, inventing textile machinery and introducing efficient, profitable ways of running factories.
• The invention of the Bessemer process (named after its inventor, Sir Henry Bessemer) allowed high-quality steel to be produced, which transformed shipbuilding and railway construction.
• Manufacturing became the main source of employment, replacing agriculture and traditional small industries.
• Canals were constructed to connect industrial areas to towns, particularly across the Midlands and the north of England.
• During this period, both adults and children often worked in poor conditions and for long hours.

Britain’s colonies in Australia, Canada, southern Africa, and parts of India expanded during the Industrial Revolution. Growth in Britain’s trade, imports, and overseas settlements brought conflicts with France.

Life in Britain was influenced by contact with these colonies. Sake Dean Mahomet, for example, opened the first Indian restaurant in Britain, known as a curry house, and, with his wife, introduced the Indian art of head massage, known as ‘shampooing’.

Trade of Enslaved People

Enslaved people were transported to America to work on tobacco and sugar plantations, where they lived and worked in harsh conditions.

The Quakers, a religious group founded in the 1600s, established the first formal anti-slavery groups in the late 1700s and petitioned Parliament to ban slavery.

William Wilberforce, a Christian Member of Parliament, led the campaign to abolish the slave trade. Trading in enslaved people became illegal on British ships and from British ports in 1807. The Emancipation Act of 1833 then abolished slavery throughout the British Empire. After abolition, two million Indian and Chinese workers were employed to replace the formerly enslaved people.