The Industrial Revolution Begins
Teacher Resources
Driving Question: What factors drove the expansion of industrial production and ultimately led to the Industrial Revolution?
The Industrial Revolution led to rapid change in the world. This lesson focuses on the origins of the Industrial Revolution, the global transformations that occurred as a result, and the long-term impacts of the rise of industrialization.
Learning Objectives
- Analyze the scale of the Industrial Revolution and its impact on various regions of the world.
- Evaluate how the Industrial Revolution changed states and societies in the long nineteenth century.
- Describe how innovations made possible by the Industrial Revolution developed and changed over time.
- Explain how environmental factors contributed to industrialization from 1750 to 1900.
You’ve learned a lot about revolutions. Before you learn about the Industrial Revolution, reflect on what the ingredients of revolution are.
How did the global economy shift from Asia to Europe in the nineteenth century? The answer may lie with Lord Macartney and his expedition to China in 1793.
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Guiding Questions
Did you know: The world’s first traffic light was installed in London in 1868. It included gas lamps and was operated manually by a police officer. It was removed after it exploded and killed the operator. So, the next time your students are stuck at a red light, remind them to be thankful that at least they don’t explode.
Have you ever thought about exactly when certain historical events first started? Can it always be narrowed down to one date or one event?
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Guiding Questions
Check out these before and after images to draw conclusions about the impacts of the Industrial Revolution on Manchester, England.
This is a good place to push past the oversimple “Britain had coal” explanation for industrialization. You may want to keep a running list of factors (coal, wages, labor pool, wool, finance, empire, geography, for example) so students see industrialization as a convergence of conditions. Truly the right place at the right time.
What factors allow one to be first in something? Is it luck? Is it skill? In the case of Britain, it was a combination of many factors: environmental, economic, and even its global reach.
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Guiding Questions
Help students with their reading comprehension by dividing the reading into paragraph- or section-long chunks. After they’ve read each chunk, have students write a one-sentence summary of what they read. For even more support, incorporate guiding questions into the article so that students know where to look for the answers.
Natural resources led to a massive expansion of industry and trade in the nineteenth century. But why did it happen in some places and not others?
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Guiding Questions
You’ve heard the expression a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Well, we don’t expect you to write thousands of words, but you will explore pre- and post-industrialization images to identify change over time!
Images of the Industrial Revolution
Earlier in the lesson, you reviewed what you knew about the ingredients needed for a revolution. Now that you know about the Industrial Revolution, has your shopping list changed?
