World History, Culture, and Geography: The Modern World—Semester A

Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 3.01: Oh, to Industrialize in England

They say eyes are the windows to the soul, but when it comes to this guy on the left, we think eyebrows are the windows to the soul. And his eyebrows say, "industrialization is the worst."
(Source)

England is not just the home of James Bond and Harry Styles; it was also the birthplace of industrialization. Everything has to start somewhere, and England lucked out in being the starting place of the Industrial Revolution, leading the worldwide shift from farming and domestic production to manufacturing. (Why make one hat at home when you can go to a sweaty, dark factory to make dozens!?) But it wasn't simply dumb luck that earned England this distinction. A perfect storm of circumstances made England ripe for societal changin'.

The country's military protection, convenient geography, and favorable political climate for entrepreneurs all aided in the growth of industrialism and capitalism. The newfound political stability after the Glorious Revolution, the nation's attitude of religious tolerance, and a powerful position in overseas trade also contributed to England's ability to lead the way. Finally, the nation had access to coal and iron, natural resources that were essential to industrial development.

Since England is an island, it had the luxury of fighting on other people's land and keeping its own country relatively peaceful, while the rest of Europe was constantly getting all torn up in war after war. England did, however, spend much of the 1600s and 1700s exploring/conquering other countries with lots of tasty resources like sugar and cotton (okay, cotton's not tasty but it makes a lot of money), and that boosted its economy and gave it ready-made markets for new goods. Plus, its population was booming with laborers ready to work in the growing cities. Add to this new discoveries of coal and iron and plenty of rivers and harbors for trade and next thing you know, there's a revolution. People wanted stuff and England was ready to make that stuff and collect tons of money for it. Enter capitalism.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 3.3.01: Pre-Industrial England

When we say "The Industrial Revolution" we're not talking about a metal band on a rotating platform. The Industrial Revolution was a period in history when lots of inventions caused a huge qualitative change in the lives of many people. Wow, stop! You're revolving too fast!

Okay, let's start at the beginning. Since the Greeks and Romans, there had been relatively little mechanical invention for centuries. Most manual labor was done by animals or people. Occasionally, people would use a water mill or windmill, but wind isn't easy to predict and water isn't all that easy to store or move. Luckily, (for the aristocracy) it was easy to enslave most of the peasants (not so lucky) in order to farm and build big buildings.

It was around the 18th century that some smart dudes in England (and later America) started asking some questions. What if animals and people (who get tired and break easily) didn't do all the work? Second, what if it were possible to mass-produce goods, a.k.a. produce a ton of them really quickly? How could we do these things?

In the Beginning, Columbus Invented Mercantilism

First, let's talk about how the Industrial Revolution got started. During the Age of Exploration, European countries encountered new places to trade with (like America) and/or exploit for natural resources. This expansion of their territories also expanded their economies. An expansion of economy is a really important part of changing how a country works.

For the thousand years prior to the Age of Exploration (think Columbus) all the countries in Europe were kingdoms. The king or queen of a country was in charge, and under them there were a bunch of aristocrats who owned the land and peasants. Things pretty much stayed that way for a long time. A nation's economy was run by the aristocracy. Trade and production of goods were limited to guilds and what people could make by hand (a guild was an organized group of artisans or laborers who excelled at one skill like painting or weaving). Most peasants farmed the land of their aristocrat/feudal owner, and the centuries rolled by without much interruption except for the occasional war/famine/plague.

So when Europeans started colonizing the rest of the world and finding enormous amounts of natural resources and manpower, they also found their economic systems unable to deal with the influx of money and resources. The solution they came up with was mercantilism. Mercantilism is an economic system based on one simple theory: export more than you import, and you'll be good. Belief in the supreme awesomeness of this theory led many colonizing powers to adopt protectionist policies designed to keep their own producers in a safe little bubble far away from competitors in other countries. Take England as an example—it basically wanted everyone all over the world to drink English tea and wear English clothes, but it didn't want to drink anyone else's tea or wear anyone else's clothes. To accomplish this goal, the government made sure to put its grubby little hands in every. single. thing. that happened in the economy, including in the economies of its colonies.

You may recall that this was one of the things that really ticked off colonists in America, leading them to pull a very crafty prank involving some tea and Boston Harbor….

To Mother England, its colonies represented yet another place that it could force its products onto and take raw materials out of for an extremely good price. Because when you're the boss you can do stuff like that.

You Make Us Feel Like a Natural Resource

Thanks to mercantilism, England experienced an enormous increase in wealth and natural resources brought from its colonies in the New World, Asia, and India. This new money encouraged people to figure out new ways to make even more money and extract even more natural resources. British merchants invested their money into newer ways of making more money. England also had a national bank (The Bank of England) that encouraged investment and trade. The Bank of England was founded in 1694 to help the King (and others) borrow money at low interest rates. When a nation's bank makes borrowing easy in order to invest and create, a country's economy tends to thrive. The Bank of England made it really easy for entrepreneurs to get the money they needed to get started. A central bank like this can act by itself without any political interference. This autonomy often encourages new investments that bring more money into a country.

England also had many navigable waterways and harbors (it is an island after all),  so trade with Europe and the New World was easy peasy. These new investments fostered innovation and invention in order to make more money faster and cheaper. Faster ships, new power sources, more efficiency. That's what we're talkin' about!

But Wait—There's More!

England had some other edges on the competition. First and foremost, England's last major revolution took place in 1688 and it was peaceful! How many revolutions do you hear of like that? It was so peaceful it's actually referred to as the Glorious Revolution—as you'll remember from Unit 2. In this same peaceful vein, because England is an island and although it liked to get involved in wars, the wars rarely involved battles fought on English soil. This means that infrastructure was never destroyed and resources were never allocated away from inventors tinkering in their basements.

England was already rich in natural resources like coal and iron, and it found more in the New World. Guess which natural resources are most important for using steam power. Yep, coal and iron. In the early 1700's, English inventors were already experimenting with steam power and iron production. Thomas Newcomen invented the first practical steam engine in 1712, thrusting England into the Industrial Revolution about 150 years before countries like Japan and Russia. Thus the English were already ahead of the rest of the world in changing how manual labor was done. That's what Industrializing means—changing from a place where people and animals do the work to a place where machines do more of it and do it faster. This is also called mechanization.

As new machines (don't worry, we're going to talk about those a little later) helped people work faster, more work could be done by fewer people. If in 1600 it took 100 people to harvest a field, then in 1800 it took only a fraction of that number. Those extra people who couldn't find work in agriculture anymore moved to the cities and began to work in the new industrial factories that were sprouting up. More people in bigger cities meant faster population growth. Luckily, new farming techniques allowed for more food to be grown to feed the higher population. England was great at making a lot of goods on a little land and spreading those goods around the world quickly while still making oodles of cash.

England's investments, abundant natural resources, access to trade, and innovating individuals enabled it to build the first railroads, steam ships, machinery, and textile factories, decades before its rivals in Europe and America could catch up. God Save the Queen of Industrialism!

Check out the following website and read the passage entitled Why Did the Industrial Revolution Start in England?

Make sure to take notes on what inventions, investments, and events helped make England the first country to industrialize. Was it money, resources, location, or inventors that were most important and catalyzed England into industrialization?

Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 3.01: London Calling

Great resources, willing and able citizens, and the right circumstances—put that all in a blender with some frozen blueberries and yogurt and you get a delicious smoothie plus an Industrial Revolution! The Industrial Revolution started in England because it had all the necessary ingredients to jumpstart a revolution. So here we'll make sure you can identify the most significant of those reasons and explain their importance. You'll also need to analyze how and why those reasons came together when they did in England. We're starting out our unit with some big-time analyzing to be sure we understand the foundation of the changes that swept through Europe (don't worry, those come later), but start strong finish strong! Right??

Step One

Choose your Top Five Revolutionary Ingredients. Is "money, money, money" number one? Was it all the farmers moving on out to the city? Decide what five factors were most essential to the growth of the revolution.

Step Two

Open up a Word doc, or similar thingy, and list out your five "ingredients." Next to each one, write at least one reason for the importance of that ingredient.

For example, if this assignment required you to pick the top five foods, and you selected pizza (and rightfully so), you would also need to include the reason that pizza combines salty gooey cheese and crispy crunchy dough to satisfy all your dairy and carb needs.

Each reason only needs to be about one sentence.

Step Three

Once you've created your list, include underneath it (on the same document) a two-paragraph analysis of the reasons why England was the first country to industrialize.

Your analysis doesn't have to address every single reason. But it does need to analyze the types of factors that were present and contributed to the changes in England. Be sure to reference your "Top Five" list. And, as always, be sure to provide specific references to the readings to support your points.