This activity will introduce you to the concept of urbanization, both as a shift in demographics and as a shift in the physical environment resulting from the rise of industrialization. By providing a narrative glimpse of how one fictional village transformed over 150 years into a city, you’ll be drawn into the chaos of rapid urban growth. This will help you begin to see how the Industrial Revolution created significant changes in human communities, how humans produced and distributed goods, and how networks began to expand. In addition, you’ll see the impacts of industrialization on the environment. Finally, this activity serves as an introduction to the Industrial Revolution, which is the central theme of this lesson.

Causation, CCOT
By drawing the development of cities, you’ll be creating what is in many ways a causal map of the urbanization process. In particular, you’ll show the social and environmental effects of industrialization. In addition, you’ll identify both significant changes and continuities over that period, which will help prepare you for content and activities that develop these ideas later in the course.

This is a multipart activity that first asks you to analyze a passage from Thomas Carlyle’s “Signs of the Times,” an essay that appeared in The Edinburgh Review in 1829. Then, you’ll listen to portions of a narrative about how life changed in an English village from 1700 to 1850. As you listen to passages from different years, you’ll draw how the effects of industrialization significantly altered life in England. Finally, you’ll answer a series of follow-up questions as you examine the drawings that your group and others created. This will help you visualize how the Industrial Revolution changed almost all aspects of life for those living in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England and beyond.

Part 1

Your teacher will project the following excerpt from “Signs of the Times,” an essay by the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), published in The Edinburgh Review in 1829. Follow along as your teacher reads it.

“Were we required to characterise this age of ours by any single epithet [description], we should be tempted to call it, not an Heroical, Devotional, Philosophical, or Moral Age, but, above all others, the Mechanical Age. It is the Age of Machinery, in every outward and inward sense of that word; the age which, with its whole undivided might, forwards, teaches and practises the great art of adapting means to ends. Nothing is now done directly or by hand; all is by rule and calculated contrivance [plan]. For the simplest operation, some helps and accompaniments, some cunning abbreviating process is in readiness. On every hand, the living artisan is driven from his workshop, to make room for a speedier, inanimate one. The shuttle drops from the fingers of the weaver, and falls into iron fingers that ply it faster. The sailor furls his sail, and lays down his oar; and bids a strong, unwearied servant, on vaporous wings, bear him through the waters.”

Then, have a discussion about how Carlyle describes the changes that took place during his lifetime by answering the following questions.

• What was Thomas Carlyle’s point of view regarding life in Europe in the early part of the nineteenth century? What evidence did you use to arrive at that answer?
• Using the excerpt by Carlyle, how do you think life in Europe changed over time (politically, socially, and/or economically speaking) by the mid-nineteenth century?

Part 2

Your teacher will organize the class into pairs and pass out paper, markers, and a template to each pair. First, your teacher will read short narratives about life in a small English village from 1700 to 1850. After each narrative is read, you’ll draw various elements of the village, following your teacher’s directions and using the template to determine the size and shape of the icons used. These include dwellings, canals, roads, railroads, and schools, among others. Note that the template should be used for reference and you won’t be graded on your artistic abilities, we promise!

After your teacher has read all of the narratives and you’ve finished drawing, you’ll post your work on the board for everyone to see. Take note of any similarities that you see between your drawing and those of the rest of the class.

Part 3

To wrap up this activity, you’ll examine the board full of drawings and the lesson experience to define the term urbanization. Then, answer the following questions and be prepared to discuss them with the class.

• Define the term urbanization based on what you now know about industrialization in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
• Write three questions this activity raises about urbanization in England from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century.
• What can you now add to your list from before the activity about how life in Europe changed over time (politically, socially, and/or economically) by the mid-nineteenth century?
• What do you think the central themes of this unit will be?
• Why do you think the Industrial Revolution is considered a major turning point in world history? Explain your reasoning.

This article asks where the Industrial Revolution started. But what do we mean by “where”? First, it examines the problem of scale—do we look for industrialization at the local, national, global, or some other scale? Most historians agree that the Industrial Revolution started in Britain. But a lot of them disagree on why it started there. Some argue local conditions caused it, while others think it was a result of larger, global processes. This article introduces both perspectives.

This article will introduce you to a historical debate: Why did the Industrial Revolution begin first in Great Britain? Understanding Britain’s early experience with industrialization is an important part of the Unit Problem, which asks how different regions and people experienced this era of revolutionary transformations. The article will ask you to think about this important event at different scales of analysis. As you read, pay close attention to how the author’s use of scale changes the analysis.

Think about the following question as you read the article: To what extent does this article explain the development of economic systems, ideologies, and institutions and how they contributed to change in the period from 1750 to 1900? Write this question at the top of the Three Close Reads worksheet. You will be asked to respond to this question again after the third read in the Evaluating and Corroborating section of the worksheet.

Read 1—Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Read 2—Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What geographic factors helped Britain industrialize first?
2. What factors held back early industrialization in China and Japan?
3. What social factors helped Britain industrialize first?
4. How might the institution of slavery have helped cause industrialization?
5. Other than plantations, what global advantages did Britain have?

Read 3—Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. To what extent does this article explain the development of economic systems, ideologies, and institutions and how they contributed to change in the period from 1750 to 1900?
2. The author concludes that the reasons for Britain’s industrialization were both local and global. But if you had to choose one scale as the explanation for Britain’s early industrialization, which would you choose? Which AP theme provides the best evidence to support your argument?

The Industrial Revolution transformed life on Earth more than any event since the Agricultural Revolution. In this video, Nick Dennis explores how industrialization changed our lives and why it started in Britain. There are many reasons that industrialization took off in Britain, including its abundance of coal, its geography and environment, and its economy. Still, many believe British industrialization would have been impossible without resources extracted from its colonies.

The Industrial Revolution was probably the most revolutionary event in human history during the last 10,000 years. It reshaped global trade and power, but it also produced change in societies on the national and local scales. This video provides you with evidence to respond to the Unit Problem, which asks you to examine how different parts of the world experienced the revolutionary transformations that took place from c. 1700 to 1900 CE. It explores the various reasons for Britain’s early industrialization and how those factors changed life in industrial Britain and in its global empire.

Think about the following question as you watch the video: To what extent does this video explain how environmental factors contributed to industrialization from 1750 to 1900? You will be asked to respond to this question again at the end of the video.

Preview—Skimming for Gist

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.

Key Ideas—Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. How did coal and other environmental factors help Britain industrialize first?
2. How did coal mining change over the course of the Industrial Revolution?
3. How did England’s pre-industrial wool industry help it industrialize?
4. How did Britain’s financial system help launch new industrial ventures?
5. How might high wages in Britain have contributed to industrialization there?
6. According to the video, what global factors may have fed Britain’s industrialization?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. To what extent does this video explain how environmental factors contributed to industrialization from 1750 to 1900?
2. This video provides a look at some of the possible causes of Britain’s early industrialization. Which factor do you think was the most important? Why?
3. Using evidence from this video, provide one impact of industrialization on the environment, economic systems, and governance.

During the Industrial Revolution, humans started using fossil fuels like coal and oil in new ways. These new energy sources transformed life on Earth. The machines that kickstarted industrialization were steam engines used to pump water from England’s soggy coal mines. That innovation sparked many more inventions, as people used the steam engine for new purposes, like powering factories, steamships, and trains. This article specifically asks why the Industrial Revolution started in Britain and not in China. The article then explores how, why, and where industrialization spread. It concludes by considering some of the many impacts of industrialization.

This article provides evidence to respond to several parts of the Unit Problem. It will allow you to evaluate why the Industrial Revolution started in Britain using the humans and the environment theme. It provides a summary of some long-term impacts of industrialization, and helps you answer the question of why some regions of the world managed to industrialize sooner than others. Be sure to keep track of the reasons that the author thinks industrialization started in Britain and not China. Which reasons do you find most convincing?

Think about the following question as you read the article: To what extent does this article explain how different modes and locations of production have developed and changed over time? Write this question at the top of the Three Close Reads worksheet. You will be asked to respond to this question again after the third read in the Evaluating and Corroborating section of the worksheet.

Read 1—Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Read 2—Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What was the initial reason that people in Britain started mining coal?
2. How did the fact that wet conditions made British coal hard to get to turn into an advantage for Britain?
3. Why did the Industrial Revolution spread out of Britain?
4. What were some consequences of the Industrial Revolution?

Read 3—Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. To what extent does this article explain how different modes and locations of production have developed and changed over time?
2. The article about scale and the Industrial Revolution listed British population increases as a reason for early British industrialization. In this article, however, the author says that China’s large, rapidly growing population was a reason that China did not industrialize early. Do you think the authors disagree? If so, whom do you agree with?

This activity asks you to practice your claim- and counterclaim-making skills. This will help you evaluate your ability to make strong, evidence-backed claims, and give you an idea of how well you understand industrialization.

In this activity, you’ll write two claims and one counterclaim about industrialization.

Take out the Making Claims – Industrialization worksheet. Working individually or in pairs, make two claims and one counterclaim about the global success of industrialization.

For each claim, use course materials—and, if your teacher asks you to, the Internet—to find two pieces of supporting evidence. Once you’ve written your two claims and provided supporting evidence, write one counterclaim that relates to one of them. You should also provide two pieces of evidence to back up your counterclaim.

Be prepared to share your claims at the end of the class.

Railroads changed the world, and understanding how can really help you understand the Industrial Revolution as a whole. The thing is, before there were steam-powered trains, transportation needed muscle or wind power. Railroads made it possible to move across long distances quickly and easily. They made the world shrink—not literally, of course! But they truly revolutionized people’s habits and how they saw the world. For many people, it was their first experience with the big machines that characterized the Industrial Revolution.

The Unit Problem asks you to think about how revolutions such as the Industrial Revolution led to change in this era. This video will help you think about the Unit Problem, since trains were literally engines of change that created our “modern” world.

Think about the following question as you watch the video: To what extent does this article explain how technology shaped economic production over time? You will be asked to respond to this question again at the end of the video.

Preview—Skimming for Gist

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.

Key Ideas—Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. How did railroads lead people to experience the Industrial Revolution? How was this different across different classes?
2. How did railroads change the physical environment? How did they change how people experienced time and space?
3. In what ways was travel by horse seen as superior to railroad travel, by some people?
4. What are some ways in which railroad travel impacted human interaction?
5. How did people’s attitudes toward railroads change over time?
6. In what ways is the Internet similar to the railroad?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. To what extent does this article explain how technology shaped economic production over time?
2. John Green argues that railroads were a technological revolution that changed everything from economic systems to governance to social and cultural organization and interactions. Could something similar be said about other elements of the Industrial Revolution, like factories or industrial cities? Make an argument for one of these, or another element.
3. How can evidence from this video help you to respond to a question that asks what changes resulted from the Industrial Revolution?

In this activity, you’ll spend some time thinking about the AP themes of technology and innovation: how they’re defined and how they relate to one another. As you organize more of your learning around the themes, it can be helpful to revisit and clarify your definitions.

In this activity, you’re going to dig into what technology and innovation mean and how they’re related. The words technology and innovation are often used interchangeably, and although they’re certainly related to each other, they are conceptually different. Since this course asks you to organize what you learn around the AP themes, it’s important to have a solid grasp on the differences between these two.

First, you’ll work with your class to try to come up with as many synonyms as you can for the words technology and innovation.

Second, working in small groups you’ll use the lists of synonyms to write two definitions: one for technology and one for innovation. Third, your group will collaborate to draw a visual representation of how the words relate to one another. Your visual could be a causal map, a life-cycle drawing, or any other illustration that expresses the relationship between the two words.

Once everyone is done, you’ll do a gallery walk to see how different groups thought about technology and innovation. Be prepared to discuss what you’ve learned with your class. Also, consider how other AP themes relate to technology and innovation. What other themes might be impacted by technology and innovation? Or might impact technology itself?