Discuss the economic, social, and political significance of the Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution impacted not only Great Britain and Western Europe, but eventually the entire world. There were two basic waves of the Industrial Revolution. The first one focuses on the improvements in agriculture that lead to greater food production, factories, and machines that decreased the amount of manual labor that had to be done. However, the second wave of the Revolution focuses more on the emergence of mass society and social changes in the world, and the need for civil liberties and women's suffrage movements. The entire Industrial Revolution from the 1780's to the 1870's has dramatically affected the world that we live in today.
The economic significance of the first Industrial Revolution is explained with the new emergence of factories and machines. The financial freedom of all families, from these job opportunities allowed them to purchase more manufactured goods, and the increase in population in the middle 18th century equaled a surplus of labor forces to man the machines and factories. With machines such as the flying shuttle that doubled the output of weaving, James Hargraeave's spinning jenny in 1798, and Edmund Cartwright's loom in 1787, the manufacturing of yarn, and weaving to became easier and more efficient. In 1782, James Watt invented the first steam powered engine, that could help run the factories, and allowed the factories to be built anywhere not just by a river or a body of water. With this invention, the production of cotton clothing was greatly increased.
Not only did the cotton industry benefit from the Industrial Revolution, but also Britain's iron industry was formed and perfected. Henry Cort developed the process paddling in 1780. This process involved coke, a derivative coal that burned away the impurities off of the iron, producing a better quality of iron.
