Contextualization: How Was Industrialization Possible? Event Cards
WORLDHISTORYPROJECT1750/LESSON3.3ACTIVITYCONTEXTUALIZATION: HOW WAS INDUSTRIALIZATION POSSIBLE? EVENTCARDSThe British cut down a large proportionoftheirtreestobuild structuresandtoburnforheat.GreatBritainisarelatively flat island with numerous navigable rivers.In Great Britain, the enclosure of agricultural land (merchants andlargelandownersbuyingup land) left many farmers out of work, which in turn meant that factories had a large pool of potential employees.Steam engines were used to power a variety of different machines including trains, used to haul coal to factories, and the power loom, which made textile production in Great Britain faster and cheaper.British coal mines often filled with water, which madeextractingcoalfrom these mines difficult and dangerous.Coal and other fossil fuels like oil and gas are unevenly depositedacrossEarth,with some regions having an abundanceofoneormoreof these fuels.Great Britain, an island nation situated in the Atlantic Ocean, wasreasonablyeasytodefend.For centuries, China was considered the wealthiest nation with a favorable balance of trade. From the fifteenth century to the eighteenth century,Europeansdesperately wanted Asian goods while the only thing China wanted from Europe was silver.In eighteenth-century Great Britain, wages were high, which gave business owners (industrial capitalists) an incentivetobuynewmachines that could do the work of multiple people in order to maximize their profits.Britain’s government and lawsfavoredprivateproperty, middle-class merchants,and business owners, which allowed people to safely invest inindustrialization(forexample, factories and railroads).JamesWattinventedthesteam engine to pump water out of coal mines.In contrast to Great Britain, nations like China and Japan hadcoaldepositsbuttheywere often harder to mine, locatedin areas where factories were unlikely to be built, and the terrainwasmoremountainous.In the Carboniferous period (345 to 280 million years ago),largetreesfellandwere covered with water. Over millions of years, these trees were compressed into coal.For most of the eighteenth century,GreatBritaincontrolled the northeastern seaboard of North America. The American colonies supplied Britain with raw materials and markets for its goods.