Welcome to Lesson 2! Today, we will be looking at the good and bad impacts of the IR.
Economic ($$$)
Although the economic growth during the IR is one of the greatest benefits, but it also came with a cost.
Machines could work a lot faster and better than humans. Using them meant more goods can be produced in the same amount of time.
An example of a machine used would be the Spinning Jenny. These machines replaced the luddites (textile workers).
This meant more goods can sold for money. This brought more wealth to the people as their average income increased.
More wealth meant that economic growth was possible. During the IR, economic growth was great in Britain and the IR marked the start of the rise of the British economy.
HOWEVER
Many people lost their jobs as they were replaced by machines. This led to poverty and unhappiness.
The unhappiness then led to protests, such as the Luddites protests, which led to violence and death.
A little more about Luddites protests:
Who? Highly skilled textile workers.
Where? Britain.
Why? The luddites were angry at losing their jobs to these machines.
How? Tried to destroy the machines used to weave cloth (frames). This ended up in many bloody conflicts between the mill owners and the luddites.
Social
The lives of many were affected but in very different ways.
Certain groups of people, such as the investors, became richer and lived better lives.
HOWEVER
Many children and women had to work in factories and mines in terrible working conditions. They were favoured as they were much cheaper than men.
These labourers were put to extreme hours of very hard work and were not given enough of simple things like food and water. They often died in industrial accidents and were forgotten.
Also, the shift from farming (agriculture) to working in factories (industrialisation) meant more people moving to the cities for work. This resulted in a population explosion and worsened the living conditions and lives of many people.
Lastly, the environment was also badly affected. With more factories, there was an increased in pollution in the water bodies and the air. This resulted in more people falling ill from drinking water with toxic chemicals or breathing in unhealthy fumes from nearby factories.
Damage to the environment is a long-term impact. Not only were the people living in the IR period affected, their future generations will also be affected!
Let's link this back to our question: Is the IR really a revolution?
From this lesson, we can conclude that it did
affect many people - past and present and had
both good and bad impacts! (:
