Our website uses cookies to understand content and feature usage to drive site improvements over time. To learn more, review our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Unit 3 Overview
Unit 3 Overview
The Industrial Revolution began when people learned to harness new fossil fuels and to use machines for work. It transformed multiple aspects of our everyday lives, from the socioeconomic and political to the cultural.
As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
Think about the following questions as you watch the video
What argument does this video make about production of goods immediately prior to the Industrial Revolution?
What big change does this video argue was the foundation of industrialization?
How does this video suggest industrialization changed human networks?
According to the video, how did industrialization change our sense of community?
According to the data presented in the video, what happened to exports, labor, and Co2 emissions when states industrialized?
According to the video, what brought about the industrialization of Nagasaki?
: - So, Colby... - Yes?
: - You ever wonder why we both grew up speaking English?
: - Even though we're from countries
: in different hemispheres?
: - That are nowhere near England.
: It's a mystery we may never...
: - Oh, it's totally covered in another unit.
: - Oh.
: Hi, I'm Colby Burnett, and along with Kim Lochner,
: we're introducing Unit 3: Industrialization.
: Political transformations shook the world
: in the late 18th century.
: The slave regime was overthrown in Haiti.
: The Wars of Independence occurred
: in the American colonies.
: Europe experienced the French Revolution.
: Together, these transformations ushered in new ideas
: about sovereignty, the rights of citizens,
: and our modern, global system of nation-states.
: But another dramatic, if more gradual, transformation
: was taking place at the same time.
: The story of this unit is about that transformation,
: the birth of the industrialized world.
: Political revolutions changed
: who was allowed to participate in government.
: But the Industrial Revolution changed everything
: about how humans lived and worked.
: This was due to a transformation in production and distribution
: only equaled by our turn to farming
: thousands of years earlier.
: Most people living before industrialization
: did many things just like their ancestors had for generations.
: The majority were farmers or herders.
: What they produced was for themselves
: and for local consumption.
: And it was made in the home or in small workshops.
: Most of the energy to do all this work
: came from their own muscles, animals,
: or, in some cases, water or wind.
: The ways that people worked and the things they made
: had in some cases changed over the preceding centuries.
: But these innovations were mostly small, or gradual,
: or geographically limited.
: The Industrial Revolution changed all of this--
: quickly in some places, and more slowly in others.
: It began with the discovery of how to use fossil fuels
: like coal, and later oil, to power machines to do work.
: The result was the development
: of so many aspects of modern life.
: This included big machines, factories, electricity,
: and mass transportation.
: All of these changes also allowed humans
: to build bigger and richer networks.
: Fossil fuels led to steamships and railroads,
: and later cars and airplanes,
: to move people and goods.
: Electricity facilitated the development
: of new long-distance communication systems--
: the telegraph and, later, the telephone and the internet.
: These changes also transformed human communities.
: People moved from rural
: in search of factory work.
: The model of an extended family
: in a large village broke down,
: and was replaced by a nuclear family
: in a small apartment.
: While parents worked all day,
: schools emerged to train children to become workers.
: Both religion and government had to evolve
: to accommodate these kinds of changes.
: Some historians argue that the Industrial Revolution
: was the most important transformation
: in creating the world in which we now live.
: In this unit, we consider this argument
: by breaking it down and looking at the evidence.
: We ask: What was the cumulative impact
: of the Industrial Revolution,
: and how was it experienced?
: Was the experience the same for everyone,
: or did it differ based on class,
: gender, racial identity, and geographic location?
: One way to begin to answer questions
: about the differing impacts
: of the Industrial Revolution is with data.
: Of course, we don't have
: complete sets of numerical data for this era.
: But we can combine the pieces we do have
: to get a picture of change.
: For example, industrialized countries
: could quickly create cheaper products.
: This meant they had more goods
: to export to other countries.
: And they could sell those goods much cheaper
: than local merchants and producers could.
: In this chart of exported goods,
: we see how exports from Britain
: rose dramatically as it industrialized.
: Before about 1750,
: exports from all parts of Britain--
: including the regions of England and Wales--
: weren't that high,
: although they were slowly growing.
: Then, in 1750, as Britain industrialized,
: exports suddenly skyrocketed.
: We can contrast that with Spain, the Netherlands, and France,
: which by 1800 hadn't really industrialized.
: These countries didn't see a big growth in exports.
: We can also look at the dramatic decrease
: in the percentage of people working as farmers around 1800.
: This drop occurred in several European countries,
: including Britain and others that industrialized after it.
: This chart shows the percentage of people employed as farmers
: dropping quickly in Britain around 1750,
: when their Industrial Revolution began.
: We can see the same change happening a little later
: in the Netherlands, Italy, and France
: as they industrialized.
: The change happened even later in Poland,
: which industrialized last among these countries.
: About 12% of Poland's people still work as farmers today.
: Finally, we can also see industrialization
: by looking at the growth of C02 emissions
: from 1750 forward.
: These emissions came mostly from factories
: and other industrial sources.
: As we can see, emissions rose first
: in western and central Europe, especially in Britain.
: But it started slowly.
: Even in Britain, industrialization was still
: quite limited between 1750 and 1800.
: Then, it began to rise more rapidly,
: and other parts of Europe
: and the United States began to industrialize.
: Other regions followed more gradually.
: Another way to understand the impact of industrialization
: is to zoom in a bit closer and look at change
: in specific regions.
: In this unit, we will examine many places in that way,
: including Britain, the United States,
: Japan, India, and Egypt.
: The transformations brought by industrialization
: looked different in each of these regions.
: In Japan, for example,
: industrialization started late,
: but when it started in the 1860s,
: it advanced rapidly.
: Before this period,
: Japan's government tried to limit the influence
: of foreign trade and ideas.
: Nagasaki was the only trading port
: legally open to foreign merchants.
: While Japan walled itself off,
: the Industrial Revolution was rapidly transforming
: other societies, like Britain.
: Beginning in the late 18th century,
: British industry had introduced steam-powered machines
: that produced cloth, textiles at an enormous rate.
: This gave it a big trade advantage.
: New railroads and steam-powered ships
: allowed British goods to move a lot faster.
: Other advances followed,
: and a second wave of industrialization
: began in new regions of the world.
: Countries on the European continent,
: as well as the United States
: soon industrialized to compete with Britain.
: These countries not only adopted British innovations,
: but added their own in areas like
: industrial chemistry and electricity.
: So Japan missed out on the first wave of industrialization.
: It was also a latecomer to the second wave.
: The visit of a squadron of American steam-powered warships
: in 1853 changed this.
: The Japanese government was alarmed
: at the growing military superiority
: of industrializing states
: as evidenced by the American fleet.
: Soon, the Japanese government began to embrace change.
: They sponsored the study of science and industry
: with rapid results in some areas.
: Japan's first iron factory was built in Nagasaki in 1861.
: Five local men traveled to London
: to study British machinery
: and kick off the industrial transformation of Japan.
: Upon their return,
: they sparked an industrial revolution of their own.
: The pace of change was still quite slow in Japan.
: Some of the government resisted industrialization.
: Then, in 1868, a political upheaval
: led to new leadership and a system
: that favored rapid modernization.
: This was the Meiji Restoration.
: Hirobumi Ito, one of the men who had traveled to London,
: became the first prime minister of the new Meiji government.
: Factories went up quickly,
: including naval yards and coal mines
: in and around Nagasaki.
: Peasants and fishermen were pulled in
: to these factories as workers.
: The city had permanently transformed
: into an industrial center.
: Change was not rapid everywhere in the world,
: nor for everyone.
: And it didn't only go in one direction.
: As you'll see in this unit,
: Egyptian industrialization took off and then stalled.
: Some regions, like India, saw a decline in production
: during the Industrial Revolution.
: Imperialism, which we'll discuss in a later unit,
: played a big role in these regional differences.
: People living in the same place also experienced
: the Industrial Revolution differently.
: The wealthy generally benefited from it,
: but workers often paid the costs.
: Many workers lived in crowded conditions
: and labored in filthy, dangerous jobs.
: Women's experiences were different from men's,
: and rural people different from those living in cities.
: But while these differences existed,
: nobody can deny that the global impact
: of the Industrial Revolution was vast.
: It was truly revolutionary.
: - So much change.
: - And in such a short time, my head is spinning.
: - But when you head spins,
: does it go in the opposite direction?