A Piece of Cake

In History we are learning about the Industrial Revolution. Our essential question is: What was 'revolutionary' about industrialization? This post will answer this question.

For people, industrialization was very revolutionary. Before the Industrial Revolution, crops were scattered around the land and were not creating a lot of usable crops. During the Industrial Revolution, people started to farm domestic animals, created more efficient ways to plant seeds, started to rotate crops, and use their land to its full potential. Now they are able to produce more crops that are larger than before and could feed more people. Along with having better crops, they needed to protect their land. In order to do this they enclosed their land. This means that they fenced off their land. However, all of the land was previously shared between peasant farmers so this caused some problems. These peasants were kicked off of the land, and had to move to the city to find work. They were the labor force of the Industrial Revolution. If the Industrial Revolution hadn't come around, then the output of crops would have been lower and fewer people would have been working in the city.

Farm Fence. Digital image. Fenceworks. Fenceworks Co., n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2014. <http://www.fenceworks.net/farm-fence-sales-installation.html>.

Along with the people, the technology was also revolutionary. John Kay invented the flying shuttle which increased the speed of weavers. After that, the Spinning Jenny was invented in order to spin many threads at the same time. The water frame was the next big step in the textile and used water to further increase the speed of spinning. In the cities, there were large power mills that were used to spin threads. These sheds led to factories that ran on the steam engine. These factories needed workers and increased the amount of available jobs. With their new work team, and increase of goods, the factories were making a lot of money and the workers had enough. With enough money the workers were able to survive and live a more comfortable life.