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In 1750 - 1900, Britain had an industrial revolution. An industrial revolution is the name given to a rapid development of industries. The Industrial Revolution was due to a series of events that led to mass-produced goods. As Britain switched from a domestic way of life goods were cheaper to buy therefore more people had material goods in their homes. The Industrial Revolution was basically the move from an agricultural way of living to machinery. Technology had massively advanced.
In my opinion, the most important factor that led to the Industrial Revolution was that Britain had many colonies overseas; this meant that raw materials were easily provided. It made it easier for the mass production of goods as there was never a shortage of materials. The demand for goods was partly due to a growth in population. The increase in population was also a major factor ion the Industrial Revolution. The population of England has risen at a great rate since 1825; however Scotland and Wales rose at a slower rate.
In 1750, the population of England was 7 million. By 1900, there was about 37 million inhabitants in the UK. The population increase contributed to the high demand in goods, which led to Britain requiring more raw materials, therefore contributing to the Industrial Revolution. Evidence shows that technology had massively improved due to the growth of young entrepreneurs such a Richard Arkwright. Richard Arkwright and many others decided to take huge risks and invest in upcoming projects. They were not certain that the project would be successful and many probably werent.
These entrepreneurs borrowed money from the banks and often went into great debt. If they were lucky, their project would be successful and they would be able to pay the banks back. On the other hand, Arkwright was a successful entrepreneur. He perfected his own spinning machine. Unlike the usual spinning machine, it used horse power and was too heavy for human hands to work. As historians have proved, there are many other cases similar to this, in which helped the progress of the Industrial Revolution, as more people were willing to invest their money, technology advanced and more machinery was invented to make the processing of materials easier.
This meant that the high demand of goods was easily managed. I think that is also an important issue towards helping the Revolution take place. Furthermore, transport in Britain around 1750, was a very slow process, most people could only travel in and around their villages. The journey from London to Edinburgh took a week by boat and by road it took 10 - 12 days.
Transport matured and around 1820 here were roughly 20, 000 miles of well surfaced roads. The journey from London to Edinburgh took 3 - 5 days by boat and 46 hours by road. By the 1900 s, transport had completely progressed. Railways served all parts of Britain. Bicycles were a common sight and cars had also been invented/. The journey from London to Edinburgh took 30 hours by road and 9 hours by train.
As transport advanced, the transportation of goods was easier, faster and cheaper. This again, helped the progression off the Industrial Revolution. Moreover, health and medicine flourished over the many years. In the 1700 s people knew next to nothing about what caused diseases like smallpox, which resulted in numerous deaths.
People didnt know germs caused diseases. Operations where not performed unless they were straightforward. Anaesthetics and blood transfusions were not available as they had not been discovered yet and patients often died from infections. Later on, a vaccination had been developed for smallpox. However people did not know that germs caused illnesses so no other drugs or vaccinations were known. Many people were crowded into towns such as Leeds and Glasgow, which meant that fatal diseases like tuberculosis and typhoid spread swiftly due to infected water, grimy living conditions and malnutrition.
By the 1900 s, a man name Louis Pasteur had finally uncovered that the culprit of diseases was germs. This led to several vaccinations being developed for diphtheria and other illnesses. Anaesthetics and antiseptics were used, which meant that complicated operations were able to take place. Water supplies also improved and that helped improve the help of people in towns. This contributed to the growth population in Britain, more people lived and more babies survived.
This helped the Industrial Revolution progress by there being more people meaning more labour can be done. In conclusion to my essay, the Industrial Revolution was due to many different reasons. I have explained the factors that I feel are most important, but there are other reasons such as the improvement of agriculture and government said that people should be given the right to have their own minds and do what they want to do. In conclusion, the main reason of which the industrial revolution took place was the rise in population, more people meant more things had to be produced such as clothes, housing, coal and industry grew.
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Research essay sample on Industrial Revolution Raw Materials
