Unit 5: Industrialization

1750 – 1914 CE

The Industrial Revolution has been the most important transformation in the last 12,000 years. Within a few short decades of its beginnings in eighteenth-century Britain, it reshaped economic, political, and social structures around the world.

Lesson 5.1

Industrialization

Industrialization completely reshaped society, from how people made things to how they understood themselves. Let’s begin by defining industrialization and looking at some of its key characteristics.

The Industrial Revolution

Lesson 5.2

Origins of Industrialization

For millions of years, immense coal deposits slept underground, holding the secret to one of the great technological revolutions in human history. In eighteenth-century Britain, that secret was brought to light.

Lesson 5.3

The Industrial Revolution Spreads

The Industrial Revolution didn’t remain only in Britain for long. As industrial production techniques spread across Europe and beyond, the revolution reshaped entire economies and wiped out traditional ways of life.

Lesson 5.4

Industrialization in Egypt and Japan

What happens when industrialization goes global? We’ll look at how Japan confronted this reality, and compare that country’s experience to Egypt’s. Why was Japan able to industrialize so quickly while Egypt’s Industrial Revolution was cut short?

Lesson 5.5

Economic Systems and the Working Class

Industrialization created dramatic divisions between rich and poor. Those forced to sell their labor for wages became known as the working class. New class relationships created new political and economic ideologies, such as socialism.

Reform Movements

Lesson 5.6

Abolitionists

Slavery had always had its critics, but it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that strong abolitionist movements began to threaten the slave trade and plantation system.

Lesson 5.7

Child Labor

The battle for workers’ rights is a never-ending struggle, but many of the first significant wins by activists were in defence of the most vulnerable workers of all: the children who toiled under appalling conditions in mines and factories.

Lesson 5.8

Women’s Rights

Industrialization pulled millions of women into the workforce. Paid less than men and excluded from public life, many women workers began demanding a voice in politics and control over the products of their labor.

Teaching This Unit

Unit 5 Guide

Everything you need to know about Unit 5.

Skills Clinic: Teaching with Primary Sources

A teacher-driven session on incorporating primary sources into your instruction.

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