The Industrial Revo.. what?

A few days ago we started learning about a new topic. Yay! My class has started studying a time period called the Industrial Revolution. We began our learning by splitting into groups. Our teacher then assigned each group a different aspect of this time period to research. My group learned about how the Industrial revolution affected the people. Our findings helped our class answer the essential question for that day which was, “what was ‘revolutionary’ about industrialization?” This question is asking us about the Industrial Revolution and the new things that it brought about with it. If you haven’t guessed already, the essential question is the question that we aim to be able to answer at the end of the class.

                The people benefited greatly from the advances during this time period. Many new methods of farming were discovered. The Dutch led the way in using fertilizer on their crops, small fields were combined into large ones, different varieties of soil were mixed to create a better harvest, and turnips were planted between seasons in order to renew the soil. Lots of land that was previously owned by peasants was taken over by wealthy farmers who fenced off the land and were able to cultivate crops quicker. This fencing off of land during this period is called enclosure. As profits continued to rise among the farmers an increasing number of peasants were unemployed. These poor former farmers became the people who ran the machines during this time period. The death rate declined and a population boom occurred because the agricultural revolution led to less famine. The women started eating better and had healthier babies who were stronger and added to the population. Sanitation also became important and health care improved.

                Transportation was greatly improved with the invention of the steam boat and the steam locomotive. The newly invented steam engine powered these new forms of travel. Steam boats couldn’t carry much because of the large amount of coal that had to also be carried in order to get around. Eventually people started towing the cargo in a separate hull instead of in the same steam boat. The steam locomotive helped both people and goods get between places quicker. Turnpikes were built to transfer goods quickly, but the use of a turnpike required a small fee. Many railroads were built for fast transport. Both of these modes of transport and travel were very quick in relation to the machines before them, and they allowed goods from far away to reach new places.

Fig. 80.-The Clermont, 1807. http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/facultypages/pammack/lec122/clerm.gif